October Journal

[ennismaple]

Looks like we're asleep at the switch - it's been October for 19 hours and nobody started the new thread!!!

I've got 25 tons of 3/4" clear stone coming tomorrow afternoon. Saturday we tear apart the rest of the old building, prepare the base to the right elevation and put down a foot of stone. We also plan to get 4 hydro poles planted as the supports for our new evaporator feed tank. Sunday my cousin will help us with the forms so we can pour concrete in a couple weeks.

Also on the to-do list this weekend is to get the steam stack for the Force 5 installed, Frankenstein and install a sleeve with ceramic insulation blanket around the smokestack to protect the rafters, tighten up all the fittings on the Force 5 and give the Force 5 a wash. If there's spare time I might go duck and/or deer hunting!

In Ther-Inevercrywolf-on's words there's a BIIIIG SAAAAAAAAAAAP warning in the forecast and only 5 months until I need to be ready to tap!

Marty

[red maples]

Oh yeah!!!! hey happy October to all!!!

[KenWP]

I just got in from outside. With school and work at home sometimes takes awhile to check out things. It's been wet here lately and it's a good thing I got wood hauled in already as who knows if it will dry out again before it get's cold out.
October is that time of the year when you wish summer would not end and for fall to get it over with a freeze us up and we can go on with winter.

[3rdgen.maple]

Ummmm where the heck did september go? Man I gotta get my but in gear. So much left to do before snow flies and so much hunting to get in the way. This rain is hurting me bad. I guess I either sit in the house and sing the rain rain go away song or clean the sugarhouse the next few days of rain in the forecast. Quarter end and Im on call 24 7 for the next 10 days and that does not help the cause when it comes to maple stuff getting done and finishing up the firewood for the house. Did I mention hunting. Man I love the fall but it puts me in panick mode every year.

Frankenstein Ennis. I like it seems to fit that monster evaporator nicely. Good luck with it the thing looks mean in a good way.:evil:

[Fred Henderson]

My work is done except for just a few things. Nothing but nothing stands in the way of my hunting. When hunting starts everything else stops around here. I just got a few more hours of brush clearing to pickup another 30 taps or so. There is always lots to do but a man has to hunt sometime. I killed 9 deer last year(brag,brag). Some of the guys I hunt with are not very good shots.

[red maples]

I need to get a deer this year. I haven't got a deer in..uh..uh..well since my daughter was born some 7 years ago. I used to be good 2-5 deer a year. But I haven't been able to spend enough time in the woods. I passed up a few little ones, (yes a hunter with a heart) but this year I am gettin' one.

But I haven't been with venison!!!

2 years ago I was coming home from work and I passed a guy stand by a hit deer but it was still alive so he called the police they came and put it down and I took it. I have a chevy Tahoe and cop said you want to put it in there your gonna get blood in it. I said oh I have a bag I could put over its head....he said,"oh is that your date truck!!!" :lol: anyway he said we have another dead one just an hour ago about 1 mile away, said sure what the heck. not to much lost meat they were in good shape. Thats my redneck story for the day!!!

[mountainvan]

I started mapping out my new sugarbush, but I'm still to busy with the farmers markets to give it all my attention. I'm itching to get out and string some tubing.

[Revi]

I went up to the woodlot yesterday and got a surprise. The leaves were amazing. This is the second harvest of the year for us maple sugarers.

Foliage must be near peak here this weekend.

Here's the foliage webcam from Proctor Maple Research Center in Vermont:

http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/PMRCCAM.html

[peacemaker]

few pics of the new sugarhouse

[red maples]

The colors are eally starting to pop here too. still alot of green oaks around but alot of the maples are gold and red.

[3rdgen.maple]

Colors on the trees? I got color on the ground been raining 5 days straight with no end in sight. Rain and wind is knocking the leaves off faster than they are turning color. We have not reached peak yet so hope to get some nice days to enjoy it myself. Deer hunting has literly been a wash 5 days into the bow season. Have managed to sneak out between rain storms which is brief and it has proved to be a good time as the deer are moving as well. Seen 13 deer in about 3 times out.

[KenWP]

My school today took all the foreign students out to a apple orchard to pick apples. Was sort of fun and the trees are just getting into the color mode. that and fresh apples are good for the colon also.
I am actually starting to get some work at home done. Changed my medication and am not so tired when I get home from school now and can do a few hours work instead of sitting down reading a book. Will see what I can make out of my evaporator now.

[Fred Henderson]

Colors on the trees? I got color on the ground been raining 5 days straight with no end in sight. Rain and wind is knocking the leaves off faster than they are turning color. We have not reached peak yet so hope to get some nice days to enjoy it myself. Deer hunting has literly been a wash 5 days into the bow season. Have managed to sneak out between rain storms which is brief and it has proved to be a good time as the deer are moving as well. Seen 13 deer in about 3 times out.

You better be out there hunting in the rain because the deer have learn that when it rains the white man goes inside. I use to use tree stands but now I use ground blinds,waterproof also. Get them out early so the deer get use to seeing them.Good luck.

[Parker]

got another 3 split into the woodshed yesterday

[maplecrest]

just got back from waterloo QC. went to see my new 5 by14 thunderbolt and get some idea's has to how it is going to fit in my sugar house. glad i did not get a bigger rig. would not fit!!

[Fred Henderson]

just got back from waterloo QC. went to see my new 5 by14 thunderbolt and get some idea's has to how it is going to fit in my sugar house. glad i did not get a bigger rig. would not fit!!

When you get this big of an operation is it fun anymore or is it just an income thing.

[KenWP]

You better be out there hunting in the rain because the deer have learn that when it rains the white man goes inside. I use to use tree stands but now I use ground blinds,waterproof also. Get them out early so the deer get use to seeing them.Good luck.

Around here everybody hunts in little house's on legs. They even have easy chairs and couch's set up in them. I could sit there all day with a book and watch for deer and be happy. They also spread apples and carrots and who knows what else out for bait. They sell carrots in 700 lb bags even for bait.

[maplecrest]

fred it is still fun as long as all the moving parts work.and i have too many pumps and moving parts with 4 releasers. and the r/o better work. almost over ran the r/o last year one night.the move for the new rig is for easier pan change and the pan washer.and welded pans.for faster and easier pan cleaning. more moving parts. as for income do not quit your day job.

[Revi]

The rain got here this weekend. It's pouring. It looks like fall mud season has arrived. I'm glad I did some wood gathering and cutting when it was drier. It would be a lot less fun in the rain. Everything I have now is green, so I'll cut it and stack it in the shack next year.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

Just got off the phone with WF MASON, my new 2x6 raised flue pans are done. Leaving sunday 7 a.m. to pick them up. Going to stop in VT. to see my friends vv, the gov,peace, FOAMY, and tapme.

RICH

[Fred Henderson]

I just finished fine tuneing my Trigger finger. Every year just before big game season I shoot some sporting clays. I shoot and the wife loads and trips the thrower. However she is being to catch onto how that thrower works. She has now learned how to make them go right or left,high or low. But I would not want to go thru life without her, what a great asset to our sugaring operation she is.

[3% Solution]

Ogdon's Sugar Bush,
If you stop at Kevins house, he's just down the road from me, have him bring you up.
I'd like to check out your new toys.

Dave

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

3%
Give the GOV a call and hook up with him to meet everyone for breakfast friday morning and a board meeting at vv,s place in vt

RICH

[brookledge]

It seems like more and more of us are getting back into the swing of sugaring making those needed changes and additions etc. Since fall is hear it won't be long before frost begins to go into the ground. I need to pour some concrete fpr the legs on my 1500 gal milk tank I bought and get some other things done before winter.
Keith

[3rdgen.maple]

You better be out there hunting in the rain because the deer have learn that when it rains the white man goes inside. I use to use tree stands but now I use ground blinds,waterproof also. Get them out early so the deer get use to seeing them.Good luck.
Fred you better believe I have been hunting in the rain. I just HATE to bowhunt in the rain cause of tracking a shot deer. The chances of losing a blood trail increases way beyond the comfort factor. I have seen more deer in the woods hunting this year than I did all last bow season. I pheasant and grouse hunted today with the dog since it was almost 70 and sunny. She kept looking at me all week with sad eyes so I felt guilty and took her out not to mention I felt like a little bird hunting myself. Towards the end of the hunt she was not acting right but was hunting hard when I would tell her to find the birds but she would come back to quick. Brought her home and within the hour she was not walking on all 4's. Her paw is swollen pretty bad and after examining it she must have gotten stabbed in the foot pretty good. There is a nice hole clear from the bottom to just underside of the skin on top of her foot that is big enough to put a pencil in. I got the foot doctor kit for hunting dogs out and patched her up. Off to the vets on monday if things don't look better then. What a way to ruin her day. Gonna get some maple stuff done tomarrow weather forecast is looking good again.

[super sappy]

- are you going to have your evaporator at the meeting? I need something to cook sweet corn in. See you there -SS

[peacemaker]

as i was taking nice big chunks of oak yesterday and turning them into wrist size pieces i relized this for every cord us sugarmakers split its like 3 cords of house wood for a normal chunk we wack it in to 3 ..so if yesterday i split and stacked 1/2 a cord the amount or the number of pieces if all where stove size would have made cord and a half lol



which then brought on this discussion with my old friend Joe
he sates that a stack of sugar wood split all to wrist size is less wood then a woodstove size split stack for in my stack theres more air space
i say bull a cords a cord but if anything i get more wood per cord cause i can stack it tighter

this comes from the guy who has to cut his house wood to beer can size to fit his stove and states 3 rows of wood for my stove is the same as a cord and i say cords a cord man

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Peace,
If you were weighing it, a ton is a ton, but if you are splitting cord wood, a cord is not necessarily a cord. The smaller you split it, the bigger pile it will make. You may be able to pack it tight but not as tight as it was when it was a single piece. I didn't believe my Grandpa 50 years ago but he showed me....

[Fred Henderson]

It was said to me years ago by and old timer that you gain on wood per cord when you split it. Well of course he was right.

[Revi]

I hardly split my sugarhouse wood at all. It's all small enough to put right in the evaporator. We had a lot of pre-commercial thinnings we used the last couple of years, then when they cut our woodlot they brought "sticks" down on the skidder plow so we're using that small stuff. I also pick up a lot of wood at the town brush pile when I go with the trash and recycling.

I don't believe in burning really good hardwood in the evap. It would get spoiled. We burn anything except no nails, no paint and no pressure treated.

A couple of years ago my friend brought over a chair that he thought was great. It had a big split in the seat which pinched my butt, so the next time he came over he asked about the chair as I was feeding the last piece of it into the evaporator.

[TapME]

Peace, not only does it get bigger when split, but watch it as it dries the pile will shrink down. Putting all the sugar wood in the wood shed here and hope to have 2 cords stacked outside for the large BIG SAP FLOWS that we are going to have here. Still looking to make the century mark. See you Thursday.

[ennismaple]

We got a bunch of work done on the weekend. Saturday we planted 4 old hydro poles as the supports for our new tank platform to feed the Force 5. We can finish that construction in about a day some time over the winter. In the afternoon we demolished the rest of the old building, sub excavated over a foot of soil to get to grade and placed about 12 tons of clear stone as the base for the concrete slab.

Sunday we formed up the 8'x25' slab for the new building. It'll hopefully get poured this week. After that we need to form and pour the knee wall that makes up the grade difference on 2 sides of the building. We also got the roof jack installed for the steam stack and finished tightening all the fittings on the Force 5. It should be ready for the training session on Oct 17 that Lapierre is holding at our camp for about 13 producers who have also bought the Force 5. I can't wait to spark it up!

[Parker]

Got another 5 cords split into the woodshed yesterday

[Mark-NH]

Adding an 8x10 addition to my 12 x 16 sugar house. It got pretty tight in there last year with the upgraded 3 x 8 evaporator. The feed tank, bottling counter and filter tank will all be in the addition along with shelves for finished product. It sure will be nice to get the bottles out of the evaporator room where the labels all get steamed off.

Floor and walls are up. Plan is to put the rafters and decking up Saturday. I should have it all done within the next couple weekends. I love working on barns and sugarhouses so much more than the house. I'm no carpenter so it is a lot more fun calling it close enough rather than trying to make it perfect.

[3rdgen.maple]

I'm no carpenter so it is a lot more fun calling it close enough rather than trying to make it perfect.

My grandfather had a few favorite sayings when it came to being a carpenter.
1. Measure twice and cut in the middle
2. A good carpenter knows how to hide his mistakes
3. Good enough for who it's for
4. If you don't like it you should have built it yourself

Man I miss that man. Well it stopped raining today until I arrowed a buck tonight. I was pleased with my shot but the arrow hit the opposite shoulder and did not get a pass through. Watched the buck turn with just the fletchings sticking out it's side right were I wanted it to hit. Took my gear back to the house got the 4 wheeler and starting tracking and down came the stupid rain. Not a little rain but a whole lot of rain. Got dark quick and all I could do was walk grids with a flashlight. After about an hour I see headlights coming up the logging trail on my land. I thought maybe it was a 4 wheeler but it was the state troopers in a 4x4 with the neighbor in the passenger seat. In all my life I would never had expected that one. Neighbor was worried there was a poacher in the woods as he seen a light shining throught the woods. They insited on talking and talking and Im like I gotta find this deer and Im getting awfully wet so either get out and help or let me get back at it. Trooper said sure I ll help and drove through the woods with his spot light and then out to a field and spotlighted that. Well I yet to find the deer. Back at it in the morning. I hate rain and hate not finding a deer that I know is fatally hit. I have only had this happen once before and Im not happy. Sleepless night for me. I just should have cut wood. Did I mention I HATE RAIN.

[Farmboy]

This weekend I'm planing on going up to Dufuses Sugar House and geting myself one of those nice 275 gallon totes. It took him forever to call me back like 2 months but he is the cheapest around. It is a long weekend so hopefully I can get more wood split and stacked.

[KenWP]

My saying is Close enough for the girl's I go with.
I can feel your pain 3rgen when it comes to hunting deer. Shot a deer once at about 50 feet while standing on a bank of dirt and I had to step down off of it to get to the deer and when I got there no deer. Only took my eyes off of it for 5 seconds and it disappeared.
Really have to get finished with other work pretty soon and get working on a evaporator pretty soon. This school is really driving me nuts and cutting into my time.

[Dennis H.]

Well I will be the proud owner of a 200gal milk tank come Friday evening.
I ended up paying $1/gal so it sounds like I paid the average price for it.

He had a few larger ones but he wanted a lot more for them because the cooling works on them.

[3rdgen.maple]

Did I ever tell you guys I hate rain. Well walked a grid this morning at first light in search of the deer. Found it about 80 stuffed in the thickest bunch of crap. Venison in the freezer. Now I gotta get working on more maple, well atleast until the 17 when southern tier bow opens.

[dano2840]

well i sat bow hunted all weekend with my buddies but monday morning i got in my own stand, saw 7 squirells and chippys shot one with the bow 10 min later a doe came in and i was all ready to put her in the freezer when a spotted fawn came up beside her uhhhhhhhh no no no i said, so i turned my head the other way and pretended i didnt see them and let them go
When you use a buck grunt do you do one 2 sec. long grunt followed by 2-3 short ones or just one long grunt????

[3rdgen.maple]

Danno I would have passed on a doe with a fawn still sticking with her as well. They will survive at this point in time on it's own but still I don't feel right about it myself. As far as grunting goes short grunts this time of year. Long grunts can represent different emotions, like aggression, doe tending, etc. My opinion in early season is that I am still see bucks together and feel no threats from them so I think short social grunts are the way to go right now.

[red maples]

Yeah danno did the same thing yesterday...Except for the squirrel thing. watched a nice big doe for about 1/2 hour was just a little too far. SOOOO many acorns WOW just when she was about 30 yards from my stand getting ready to pull back I heard something and saw a little brown flicker through the hemlock tree said to myself oohh maybe a buck. nope 2 fawns same ones I been watching in my yard all summer passed her up!!!! ****... well watch them eat acorns for another 45 minutes until they finally left.

I called in a six point last year with a grunt call I do long grunts wait a few minutes 1 or 2 short ones then wait about 5 minutes and try again I don't grnut too much this time of year though more so durring rut. he didn't come close enough to shoot at. I have also called them in with a bleat too. years ago I was in a stand bleating and heard one answer me thought a doe was coming through the woods and it was a monster 10 point or 5x5 for those who call them that...biggest buck I have ever seen in the woods it was down in MA it was a legend at the time, well over 200lbs. just skirted the egde of the woods about 60- 70 yards away. was bleating the whole time height of the rut acting kinda stupid too. women 'll do that to ya.

started to tighten up main line but ran out of daylight and didn't feel like tredging through the swamp. And rain again today. just about all tied on. just have to secure to a few more trees so there are no sags then I can put in the second branch off it, then when thats done start laterals. and install a main line across the street in my neighbor's woods. But the list is getting smaller I love that my "Stuff needed for sugaring" list is finally down to like 3 things. now still trying to check some more things off of the "stuff I need to do for sugaring" list thos are things seem to take a little longer longer. to do.

My wife's saying " Part of the destination is the journey"!!!!!

My saying "don't play poker with a guy named after a city" (Teen Wolf) and "don't believe everything you think!"

[Tweegs]

Wayyyy behind the 8 ball….again. So many summer projects kept taking priority. Didn’t even start on the sugar house, had to push it back until next year, so I’ll be on the block arch again this coming season.

The sugar house is in the budget and mama is quarterbacking the show telling me how she wants it built, I’m just flat out of time this year and still have too many things out front of it. >sigh<

I did manage to get a cider mill on board to sell the stuff once I get licensed. Got the wood lot to a manageable level, but still have some work to do there. ¾ of the woodlot is now marked and have a pretty good idea how I’m going to run the tubing, I’ll know more when the leaves come down.

Still cutting wood, don’t have enough yet for the house or syrup season. Been taking down the dead and still standing trees, using the trunks and bigger branches for the house, the lighter stuff from the crowns for sugaring, that’s working out fairly well, but still need another two cord for the house. By the time I get that cut up I should have enough for the evap.

Got some good ideas from reading here on how to tweak my arch. Hopefully I can best the 7 GPH from last year because…well…that just sucked. :lol: Live and learn.

Didn’t get my bow restrung so I’ll be sitting out the archery season again this year. Got a couple of ground blinds up along with a stand come firearm season. Still wondering if I’m going to make it up bird hunting this year, too much yet to do.:-|

[red maples]

oh man!!! have to pospone the trip up to the north country VT, my son has an ear infection and my sister's got 2 very little ones and we don't wanna give them his cold. maybe we could do the kankamangus Highway (sorry don't know how to spell that one) or something may be apple picking if he feels ok we'll see!!! gave him some anitbiotics today hopefully they start to kick in by tomoorow sometime!!!!!

[caseyssugarshack93]

havnet been doing much with sugaring this past week, been moving wood for the house and sugarhouse, plan for the weekend is go into new woods and run the 1000ft of 3/4 pipe i have sitting in my garage and get that in the air, and then probably next wekk run laterals,

[peacemaker]

what a day yesterday was went to bascoms sold some syrup then rolled up to valleyviews sugarhouse ...for the gathering of the greats ... i will start this way sugarmakers our some of the niciest people u will ever meet ... the amount of food we had was crazy ... the crew ... supper sappy ...maplecrest... tapme ...of course vv and the guest of honor a set of wfmasons pans ...oops i mean ogs .... and future sugarmakers running and playing and wives oh and garlic steve...buy time i left the story telling was up and running and well i puked in vvs float box and i saw ogs peing in the bulk tank tap was chasing the gogo dancers foams and vv had the junk yard band going foams on jugs and i mean syrup jugs ... vv on the skimmer and garlic steve was drumming and some 55 gal drums ...and vv who was the drunk chic in the r/o room?

[maplecrest]

was a great time peace. had a good time talking to you all. then today i spent with parker walking maple stands and talking vac set ups.

[TapME]

Peace; you forgot the part about my honey chasing me with the skimmer when I was after the gogos. Hard to say what was the best part of the day but the food comes close. I'm putting it on all the great company and all the sugar talk and stories (sugar tom in particular) or was it the supper sappy. It was all great. Big thanks to the family that hosted the event, just wonderful people. Thanks to all that came from the TapME and we should do this again.

PS. The trip there and back had some nice colors too. Ogs the colors waited for you to come, I can't remember them being this late in a long time.

[MapleChaser]

Spent the day clearing brush for the last stretch of main line. Foggy at first with a light mist, then sun came out and very nice. Sat down for lunch and had a nice doe walk within 30 yards. This is the best time of year to be in the woods. Tomorrow will start stringing wire

[Amber Gold]

I walked a sugarbush this morning and it's not going to work. It's about 2000 feet in the woods and the 200+ trees are fairly well spread out. It wouldn't be worth it to tube it and would need vac. just to get it out of the woods.

I spent some time last weekend walking my lines and cutting down some dead stuff. My shephard managed to find an underground yellow jacket next and she wasn't too happy about that. They're nasty little buggers.

[Parker]

Feeling the Walk jeff and I took yesterday! Steep ground-long conductor line, 1.5 miles to the end of it? Rupert has some NICE maples,,,,got another 3 cords in today,,,mabey 10 left to go...............

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Worked in the woods on Thurs and Friday and got about 1300' of 1/2" mainline up. First experience with the 30p manline and definitely glad I paid the extra for it as it is easy to work with and should definitely improve sap quality over the dreaded black stuff. Weather was great both days and the woods are so beautiful and the temps just perfect this time of year.

Went to a different entrance into the mainlines this time with the lateral lines. I almost always bring a lateral into the mainline at a tree and I use the "Y" forks which are awesome for keeping the laterals nice and tight. I drilled a 5/16" hole into the top of the mainline and took a 5/16" connector inside of the lateral line and forced it down into the hole in the mainline. I sealed it up with high grade silicon caulk which was completely unnecessary, as there was a tight seal in the mainline with the fitting. There is no tension at all on the line going into the mainline, and if the lateral line has something to fall on it, all of the strain would be on the other side of the "Y" fork. I think the caulk would be completely unnecessary for gravity which is what I run, but would be necessary for vacuum. Most of the mainline I put up is attached to overhead electrical lines that were taken out of service. I would guess they are aprox 3/8" in diameter as I got aprox 3000'+ of it that was taken out of service and I side tied it off with 14 gauge wire which should break fairly easily if it is stressed.

Be interested to see how it works as I added another 85+ taps this fall and most of my lateral line mainlines were getting over capacity.

[3rdgen.maple]

LIFE WAS GOOD TODAY!!!!!! No rain and there was this funny looking ball of flame in the sky that I have not seen in quite awhile. Colors are really showing now unfortunetly though alot of leaves got prematurely blown off the trees from the high winds and rain over the past few days. Got some deer cut up and made some venison breakfast sausage to pour some syrup on. Got some more yet to do on it and make some Italian sausage yet. Unloaded 1.5 cords off the wagon and stacked, got the wagon filled with another 1.5 cords. Sold the last 13 quarts of syrup I had to the bed and breakfast next door. They provide a complimentary pancake breakfast for the fisherman with my syrup. One couple liked it so much they took 4 quarts home with them and put in an order for next year as well. I gotta tell you guys, living here my whole life and have tasted everybodys smoked salmon nothing taste even close to as good as theres. They glaze the salmon with the syrup I sold them. I did have one of those, man Im *@#$#% mad:evil: but happy :D at he same time moments today. The story goes something like this. When we bought the John Deere tractor (slightly used at the time) from our local now out of business JD dealer I had them do a tune up on it. Hydraulic fluid change, Hydraulic filter, oil filter etc..... Well soon after we started using it which was years ago we had to frequently change the hydraulic filter as the hydraulics would get slow from the filter clogging. I would go to the dealer and get a few of them at a time. I would change them every couple months and when doing annual maintenance I would change the hydraulic fluid as well. Well 2 months ago I used up my supply of filters. Now mind you I have been splitting wood by hand mostly cause I got tired of how slow the splitter would work. So I ran down to napa with the filter number in hand and asked if they had or could get any. Guy says we do not carry that brand but he could look the number up and get a different brand. He played with the computer a little bit and looked at me and said...... how many miles you got on that 67' ford truck. Huh ford truck no it is a john deere tractor and I need a hydraulic filter. Guy laughed and said this was a special filter for a ford truck and it was not even a hydraulic filter. Well he had the correct one in stock so I got 2. Put it on and wow look out that bucket goes up faster than you can blink and the splitter is like a rocket now. It never worked that well from day one. The thing is twice as fast with the right filter compared to the other one. I cannot believe I never burned up the pump. AHHHHHHHH yes life was good today.

[PATheron]

Working on maple now finally with work slowing down. Putting in the Booy bush for the boys right now. Got about 3000 ft of mainline up yesterday. Its all hedgerows and fun to put in. Awefull distances though. Not sure if its going to be gravity or vac when its all said and done. 4000 ft to the releaser with one inch line. Then another 3000 to the end. Only 300 taps though so have to see what happens. Worst case scenerio I put a dairy pump on it but Im going to try to run it off the house first. Kids are helping build it. Found a way to keep them out of trouble and off the streets with the wire ties. That keeps them busy. Even had to bust out my heavy hitter, pretty little mommy, yesterday to help us man the spinning jenny pulling out mainline. Looks like quite a stroke going on with the pickup, fourwheeler, ton truck, all for 300 taps. Makes the neighbors wonder. Anyway having fun. Always makes me happy to see more tube in the air. Got an awefull lot to do. Got to get everything hooked up in the shed, trying to put a thousand taps in, and need at least seven more cords of wood. Thats coming to a halt next year. NO MORE WOOD!!!!!! Gonna hit the switch baby and TAP ALL OF RUTLAND TOWNSHIP, OH YEAH!!!!! Gotta get going, almost daylight out there. Theron:)

[Russell Lampron]

I've been busy with my latest toy. I bought a 28' travel trailer that I found on craigslist for $300 last Saturday and have been making the needed plumbing repairs so that I can properly winterize it. Now that I have that figured out it is back to sugaring stuff and I am going to start filling the wood shed today. I used 2.25 cords of wood to make 162 gals of syrup last year. With the planned repairs and expansion I am going to put in more this year. I think that I can get 3 cords into the woodshed and I want to have an emergency cord piled near the sugarhouse.

[Parker]

Russell- someday Ill have an RO,,,,,,,,,2.25 cords for 162 gallons!!!!!!!!!!72 gallons per cord!!!!!!!!

[Dennis H.]

Theron great to hear from you, it has been awhile. Not sure if you got caught under a load of tubing and couldn't get back up!!

Anyway, it is now time to get my but in gear and get going. I picked up my 200gal dairy tank on Fri, awesome!!:cool:
I have to go to the local Feed mill to pick up the wire and start hanging tubing. Just not sure what size to run 3/4" or 1". Not much difference in $$$. I am leaning toward 3/4", easier to work with.

I tested my 2 bender dairy receivers and they work great. I picked up a few clear flapper style check valves for them, Now I can watch the sap come in and also dump, cool!

[maplecrest]

parker, here i am sucking wind behind you and your hurting!!! was a get day!!!

[tuckermtn]

finished as much of the woodshed addition as I was hoping to yesterday- then relocated the wood shed door to accommodate the wood cart track - making cart and track are next on the list. Think we will try to build the track in sections so that we can add track as we work our way back into the wood shed. off to the sandwich fair this afternoon- best fair in NH in my opinion...

[KenWP]

The thing is twice as fast with the right filter compared to the other one. I cannot believe I never burned up the pump. AHHHHHHHH yes life was good today.

3rdgen welcome to the new world. me and Ford have this agreement now. I don't pay them $19 bucks for filters plus what ever the oil is and they stop sending me letters once a month telling me I am due for a oil change. One of the last times they changed oil and then I did they left the ring for the old filter on the flange for the filter and screwed a new one back on. I can buy a Fram filter for 4 bucks.
We had a International dealer here that people had trouble with their work on tractors and one day a mentaly handicaped fellow they had cleaning the shop asked if he should throw what he found in the garbage away or not. Turns out the shop mec. would draw parts out of stock and just throw them away and say the work was done and send the tractor back.

[super sappy]

Maple Crest and Parker- Come on guys that hike wasnt that bad . I am fat and out of shape and have done that hike dozens of times . -SS

[PATheron]

Question for you guys. Ive got 4000 foot of one inch to my Booy releaser. I hooked the line up to where I am now which is 1500 feet further from that so 5500 total so far. I put a gage on it and put my pump on that line only. 27 inches at the pump how many inches you guys think Ive got at the 5500 foot mark? Theron

[KenWP]

66000 inches maybe. But will settle for 22 inch's.

[KenWP]

Sitting here actually boiling turnips. Trying to get this harvest stuff done so I can do something else but a guy has to eat for the winter. We have had only one frost here so far and the trees look pretty good with all the colours.
Trying for the last while to find a greenlees punch to finish off my evaporator poject but I have tried pawnshops and such and so far not much luck. really hate to rent one becasue I have to use it right away and then take it back and can't work at my lesuire.

[Fred Henderson]

Sitting here actually boiling turnips. Trying to get this harvest stuff done so I can do something else but a guy has to eat for the winter. We have had only one frost here so far and the trees look pretty good with all the colours.
Trying for the last while to find a greenlees punch to finish off my evaporator poject but I have tried pawnshops and such and so far not much luck. really hate to rent one becasue I have to use it right away and then take it back and can't work at my lesuire.

What size punch are you looking for? Now lets have that measurement in inches.

[Bradenfish]

KenWP., you need to learn how to spell colors correctly!:lol:

[Rhino]

The re-bricking, and over the fire air system is just about done. I used two pieces of 3" irrigation pipe that I cut at 44" long. drilled fifteen holes in each pipe with a 1/2" bit. These irrigation pipes are mounted about 5 inches from the top of the arch. The 15 "feeder pipes" in each manifold are about 8 inches long and flush with the inside fire brick with a slight 10 degree downward angle. Had to use that long of feeder pipes because I double fire bricked the inside of the fire box. (probably will be able to put my tongue on the side of the arch now but why would i want to?) Now I have to fabricate the behind the fire manifold and feeder holes. I will inject air into the system with a electric leaf blower. I will just cut a slot in the main feed pipe and regulate the air with a piece of metal that can slide up and down. My buddy came the other day and took meaurements to make us a preheater above our piggy-back so hopefully we dont have any cold chambers to start out with. Once I learn how to post pictures I will post some. The state inspector came on Oct. 5th for the preliminary walk through. Don't have to change a thing witch is a good thing. Have to put more line in this fall so I don't have alot of time to make improvements to the syrup shack. Cold start to Oct. Had snow yesterday morning. 23 degrees in Northern WI. this morning. Fall sap might be running????

[HHM-07]

i have just been reading some of the post and thinking !!! how lucky we are that deer season doesn't come in march or april-------------- just a thought

good luck wit your hunting and stay safe Dick

[maplecrest]

foams, that was the warm up.to all the rest of the up and down looking for blown out manifolds.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Theron,

7,000' of 1" mainline for 300 taps, you really need help bad! I could run all my 600+ taps on vacuum that are in 3 different locations if I ran 7,000' of maline and cut threw several different properties. You are really getting bored and need to sell and buy you a couple hundred acres with 50k taps on it so you won't get bored quite so easy!

LOL! I think it great, just couldn't resist, but please tell the real truth of how much stock you own in the pipe company!

[3rdgen.maple]

Question for you guys. Ive got 4000 foot of one inch to my Booy releaser. I hooked the line up to where I am now which is 1500 feet further from that so 5500 total so far. I put a gage on it and put my pump on that line only. 27 inches at the pump how many inches you guys think Ive got at the 5500 foot mark? Theron

Well If you have not penetrated that mainline yet and the end is capped Im guessing 27 inches:) If you got 300 holes in it I bet your hoping 27 inches.

Been watching the temps ever so closely. Fall tapping is getting close.

[220 maple]

Time To Get A Little Mud On The Tires, Yes that is a line from one of WV native Brad Pasiley's hit in reference to the bank finally coming thru with the loan. Well Farm Credit finally came thru and I'm ready to tube the woods I leased for next season. Should have 1600 extra taps on line for next season. All on high Vacuum, hoping for 20 gallons of sap per tap hole. If that were to happen I could pay off the loan next spring, well as long as the bubble does burst in the syrup market.


Mark 220 Maple

[KenWP]

What size punch are you looking for? Now lets have that measurement in inches.

I need a 1 1/4 inches. That would be 31.75 mm but of course that's metric. That is the size of hole I hope to cut. It can be a tiney bit bigger and a tiney bit smaller.
It's getting close to frost here also tonight. Have had the fire going a bit to keep me warm. She who has to be obeyed dosn't seem to ever get cold but suffers once in a while just for me.
The people at school have touques on already and winter coats. Can't wait when it's 25 or 30 below they will need a pint of booze to keep warm.

[PATheron]

Brandon- I know, pretty terreble huh? I put the pump on it and had 24" at the 5500' mark. Now Ive got about 1500 more to go Id guess. Like Parker says youve got to WANNNNNT IT!!! Looks like there is gong to be about 350 taps on the line. Real nice ones though, had to do it. Ill have that done this week. Then I have another run to do above the shed thats Probly 4 or 5000 feet Id say that has 500 real nice ones on it. Gonna take more pump to get it done. Im going to buy a 100 cfm pump to run with the 60 Ive got and I think that should do it. I was kind of worried about having stuff done on time but Im getting pretty clever at running tubing and its going faster than I thought. Fun to experiment. Boy this weekend was beautifull to work in the woods. Gotta love fall. Theron

[Jim Schumacher]

3rdgen, Did you tap yet?

[dano2840]

well my buddy missed his alarm on sat and picked me up at 630 gues we werent going to get in our tree stands early enough so we decided road hunting (yes with our bows- i know it sounds smart) was our best option and we did see deer but they were on a posted field. FML our other buddy shot a doe that evening but we hunted till about 11 then we hitched up my buddies trailer to his jeep and went after a load of slab wood. since im the only one in our tight group of friends who owns a saw i cut wood for every one else, me and austin cut a cord of slabs and piled it 5feet above the rails of his trailer. brought it home split it and stacked it. he had to work at 4 so i went home and jumped in my tree stand. nothing i was walking out got out of the woods and into the field and was about 10feet away from the brook when a monster 8 point jumped out of the ravine infront of me and just about ran me over. i was awstruck for about 5 seconds then i reallized omg im supposed to shoot at that so i launched one at it about 80 yards missed by a mile, sunday was a repeat of sat just w out the monster 8 point we did shoot at some turkeys though it was fun

[dschultz]

Been snowing here all day

[caseyssugarshack93]

snow tonight, above 1500 ft there calling for snow, well guess who that is ME! yesterday and today me and my girlfriend went up to my new sugarbush and ran 1000 ft of 3/4 inch pipe and got it all twist tied up and half one line all side tied, should be running 5/16 next weekend, still got to get out to my tree stand and blast one, maybe a bear,


hope everyone is doing good, Winter is coming fast!

[Jim Schumacher]

Mostly rain in the Green Bay area...

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

got home late sunday nite with my new pans from WF MASON, they look good. also would like to thank him again for the good hospitality he gave me and my wife.

also a good word for for ANDY in BRADFORD VT. for hosting a BBQ, where i got to meet vv,peace,supersappy, tapme, gov, maplecrest, and " garlic jerry"

RICH

[3rdgen.maple]

Jim test tap goes in tomarrow then I go from there. If I went by the weatherman he says temps are golden but when I get up in the morning I see no signs of it dipping below 32 and My temperature guage reads the high and lows for the day and 39 has been the lowest. I will keep you posted.

[sapman]

Darrick, I can't believe we were colder than you. I had 31.5 this morning, but didn't really see any signs of frost. Actually, we've had a few nights dip to the mid to high 30s.

Tim


Jim test tap goes in tomarrow then I go from there. If I went by the weatherman he says temps are golden but when I get up in the morning I see no signs of it dipping below 32 and My temperature guage reads the high and lows for the day and 39 has been the lowest. I will keep you posted.

[3rdgen.maple]

Well not that abnormal actually Tim, You gotta remember I am 10 miles due east of Lake Ontario so we get the warmth off the lake if winds are right. Same reason why we get 5 foot snowstorms.

Danno2840 don't be taking sling shots at deer especially with a bow. All it will get you is a suffering dead deer that you will never get another chance at. Know your comfort zone and don't shoot past that. I know it gets fustrating seeing a big buck and having to let it walk but if it walks there is always tomarrow. I missed alot of deer when I first started bowhunting when I was 16. I found that a little patience will get you alot farther and you will start harvesting deer with a bow more often. Good luck

[caseyssugarshack93]

woke up to 2 inches of heavy wet snow this morrning yippie winters coming early!!! now heading off to school

[red maples]

I have shot more deer with the bow while walking(still hunting ) than sitting in the tree stand. I love to wlk in light misting or drizzling rain. you can be really quiet walked up on many that way. hopefulyy the rain will die out a little so I can walk around later. nothing worse then crotch soaking cold rain!!!!

[3rdgen.maple]

Red I hear ya, this rain is so friggin old. Atleast we had one day last week without it. I bet you are pretty patient when you are still hunting with a bow also. Nice quiet easy steps:) I was referring to being patient when it comes to the shot. A hurried up shot gets bad results in my book.
Man this weatherhas got me on the fence. Gotta cut wood, want to get some taps in, a little pheasant hunting would be nice and heading to camp friday for bow in southern tier. Guess what is in the 5 day yep rain.

[caseyssugarshack93]

Me and my girlfriend ran a other 1000 ft of pipe today should probably twist tie up the 1000 tomorrow and try and get some of it sidetied, snow didnt last to long was pretty much all gone by noon, still some snow in the woods though,

[Parker]

Got a call from a landowner today,,the fellow that was going to take care of the 1000 or so nice rock maple taps 5 miles down the road backed out,,,looks like I have my work cut out for me this fall-get 1000 set up and do more wood, Better call about that steamaway,,see if its still availabel...
Went walking around out there this afternoon,,there is tubing there now from the last fellow,,1 mainline about 1500 feet long (3/4") at the bottom of the hill and 30p lateral lines up to 300 feet long,,some with up to 50 taps per lateral running up the hill,,,,,bunch of roadside trees go along with it too.....

[Revi]

We had rain that turned to ice some time early this morning. Winter is coming. They had over 5 inches of the white stuff up in the mountains.

[3rdgen.maple]

Well another good day in the books. Sunny a little chilly but no complaints here. I got my german shorthair out for a little woodcock hunting this morning and we limited out. She is progressing very well. Spent the afternoon cutting another cord for the sugarhouse. All split and stacked as well. Woodshed is finally full there. Then I cut split and loaded another cord and a half for the house. Just gotta get it unloaded and stacked. I think 7 more loads and I am golden. Nice supper tonight some fresh bird with a maple bbq glaze with veggies. We got snow in the forcast. Oh yeah put a test tap in yesterday and it is bone dry, might be on one of those jack maples. I will have to get a couple more out tomarrow and play the wait and see game. Yes sir life was good again today.

[Revi]

There were a couple of inches of snow on the ground and on the trees up north today. Sugarloaf and Bigelow mountains were white, even though there are still a lot of orange leaves on the maples. Winter is coming.

[C.Wilcox]

Well another good day in the books. Sunny a little chilly but no complaints here. I got my german shorthair out for a little woodcock hunting this morning and we limited out. She is progressing very well. Spent the afternoon cutting another cord for the sugarhouse.

3rdgen- How old's your gsp? I'm am a vizsla person myself, but I've never been able to walk past a gsp without stopping to watch. They are a great looking breed, no doubt about it. I am a terrible disappointment to my dogs whenever we go hunting. I only hit about 25% of the birds they find. Luckily they're always happy to keep looking for more.

[KenWP]

Just how many woodcock is a limit. From what I gather they are the size of hummingbirds. Bought quail a few times and ate 8 of them at one time.

Froze here last night and had a bit of snow this morining and a bit tonight. Still melting as it hits the ground. Better smarten up as there is a lot of crops in the feild still to harvest.

[3rdgen.maple]

C.Wilcox she is 27 months. I went with the female cause they tend to be a liitle bit easier to train and a little calmer. Neighbor bought a male and he has a hard time controlling him when not hunting him. Dog breeder gets pick of the litter when she gets bred. Don't know if you ever heard of the gsp Snakefoot. He appears on alot of gundog magazines and there has been alot of articles written about him. Well this is his grandaughter. I was very happy when the litter came up for sale. I pheasant hunted with a guy I met on a piece of stateland a week ago who had a vizsla. He was a good looking breed as well. First time I had seen one in person. We never put up a bird so I did not get to see him at his best. Get a clay target thrower and spend some time shooting at clays it helps alot. I read once a good bird hunter only connects 25% of the time on wild birds. So you might be up there with the big guns. I disapoint my dog alot too so don't feel bad.
KenW a woodcock is a little bigger than a hummingbird. They are definatley smaller than a grouse. Pretty fast zigzag flying birds. Best to hunt them when it is colder and windy as they tend to fly a litte straighter. Limit is 3 a day with 6 in possesion at one time. Well a quick drop off at home and came back for 3 more. Yeah I know but we were having fun.

[PATheron]

Got a lot to do down here in Pa. Going to have the Booy bush all done but the drops this weekend hopefully. Need to run the rest of the mainline for that. Set a tank in place, mount the releaser, and build a box for it. Then Im going the other direction up the hill from the sugarhouse to try to get another 500 taps in. Still need to run all the plumbing, and wiring to get the second R.O. hooked up. Got another vac pump coming that needs to be all hooked up. Going to set up another coolant tank and line and cool it in with my pond. Plus need to get at least onother 7 cords of wood worked up. Going to have to really get going. Seasons not to far away now. Theron:)

[Mark-NH]

Hey Parker,

Sounds like you just won the maple lottery with those 1,000 taps just down the road. We don't come across a bush like that every day around here. Now what to do about it. Do you add 1,000 to what you already have or do you cull some of the weaker taps you already have? Do go in ripping and tearing out the half *** tubing set up or do you work with it and replace over time?

I think figuring this all out and planning your strategy is another fun part of sugarin.

[Amber Gold]

Parker, I wish I was in your shoes. Over here on the coast there isn't much to choose from. It's either been cut down or developed. I'll be hard pressed to find another sugar bush of decent size. A 1,600 tap producer in the next town over just went out of business this year. His main bushes got hit by a tornado and the other was developed. He doesn't have enough trees now to make it worth it to stay open. We'll see what next year brings.

On a positive note, holiday syrup sales are picking up.

[Dave Y]

Well boys its be a rough couple of weeks here. The weather has been lousy and I have been sick. I just spent8 days in the hospital with bi-lateral pneumonia. I am sure glad to be home. It will be a couple of weeks yet before I am at full strength again. The good news is my new rig is ready for delivery. The bad news is My building is not ready I think a couple of more days and it will be done. I have a couple of fellas tyring to finish it for me. Hope fully things will get better

[Fred Henderson]

You take care that you don't have a relasp.

[Sugarmaker]

Dave Y,
Hope you get well soon and can get the building and rig set up.
Regards,
Chris

[Parker]

Well,,,I am thinking of pulling out of 3 smaller bushes,,either selling the set ups that are there now,,or taking the tubing and setting them up at the new bush,,,not really sure at the moment,,alot depends on the rte.11 bush,,,sadly, Bill, the owner there has passed away and now the family is selling that property,,so not sure what will happen,,,,THE MAPLE GODS HAVE PROVIDED ME WITH MANY POSSIBILITEIS MY FRIENDS!!!!!!
I have split another 3 cords,,would like to get another 10 done real soon,,,I want to fill the woodshed and put another 10 in my barn,,,,I might just tap them all this spring! ,,,,,Lets see,,If I got out all the buckets I have premission to do+all the tubing that would be right around 3000 taps,,,I kinda like the sounds of that!

[PATheron]

Parr(so much wood if it catches on fire Ill be able to see what Im doing tonight down here)keeer- Slow steady growth my friend, dont tie off more than you can chew, be sensable. Just kidding, GO!!!!!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TAP THEM ALLL, NO MAPLE LEFT BEHIND, FIGURE OUT WHAT YOUR GOING TO DO WITH IT LATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[red maples]

I am with theron on that one!!!!

No maples left behind..I like that one!!!

Snow flurries here this morning but only 36F. and quite chilly that last few mornings.
29 F yesterday morning. that should be end of the mosquitos I hope!!!! and only maybe 1 more lawn mowing. :) just leaves to contend with. Haven't really done much with maple lately. still have to get that fire cheif over to make sure I am safe.....what ever....then I can finish the bricks. and still have to run another 400 ft of mainline and put in laterals. thats really it although not really small projects.

and have to drill and tap my arch doors so I can put up a little insulation!!!

I hope there is some time with no rain here this weekend still need to go pick some apples with the wife and kids and get pumpkins and apple cider doughnuts and stuff!!!

Played around and made some map[le candy first time man timing is everything .need a little more practice!!!!

[3rdgen.maple]

Well still no sap in the test buckets. Weather is ideal if it was the spring I would have hit the mother load today. I begining to think fall tapping is a joke. Well gents and ladies Im off to camp for opening bow in southern tier. Chat with you when I get home.

[Sugarmaker]

Could fall tapping be kind of like snipe hunting?:) Lots of folks try it but you never hear of any great results!

Regards,
Chris

And I hope they run over for you!

[Parker]

My poor neighbors,,,wrapping up a session with the yard crane and the tractor-splitter,,,lights this time of year are critacal,,,,another 4 cords stuffed under the roof,,,think I have 3-4? outside,,,,need another 4 to fill the shed then its just going for the bragging rights filling the barn,,,All I need to do now is figure out how to clone myself so we can burn all this wood this spring and MAKE SOME SYRUP!!!!!!

[White Barn Farm]

3rdgen
I fall tapped just for fun a few years back. I put some out this time of year and didn't have any luck. So I put out a few more (five taps)the weekend before Thanksgiving and had some decent runs. I have mentioned it before somewhere on the Trader but can't remember where. Those taps ran until late March.
I would like to try it again some year but that is Christmas tree season and I am too busy with that business to get too serious.
I drilled a huge sugar maple this morning where I am framing a house and no sap today. I will continue to monitor it and see what happens.
Good luck.
Ed

[MapleChaser]

Hopefully today I will get all the wire run and anchored for my wet and dry mainline. It is about 1500 feet so if that gets done I will be happy. Iam sure that it is not needed but have been installing 2 wires. Just seems to me that it is going to be easyer to tie in all the branch lines along with the manifolds when they are separated by a foot. Nice cool day in the forecast with lots of sun. Time to go have some FUN. :) MC

[Gary R]

3rd Gen. Do not the branch tips need to freeze for sap flow? Being that your close to lake ontario I'd think your a couple of weeks away from sap flow.

Archery hunting every day. Not much maple being done. I think about it EVERY day though!

[caseyssugarshack93]

Got 2000 ft of 3x4 pipe all twist tired up, finished it yesterday, today trying to get it all in the air with side ties them maybe 5/16 tomorrow?

[red maples]

not that I will ever do it full scale. but I want to put up a test bucket too. on a cull so don't over tap the biggun's. but not quite cold enough here yet some frosty mornings below freezing but in a few weeks or so. when all the leaves are down.

[dschultz]

Parker
All that wood your cutting is it dry or green?
I have 40 pulp cord to go yet myself

[Fred Henderson]

I filled my shed last spring right after I got done with the syrup. Then I laid up another 6 six cords for just in case.The extra I put on pallets so I can move them in with the forks on the tractor. Also I laid in 26 cords of mixed wood for the house outdoor boiler. So now its hunt till I drop.

[Parker]

The wood I am putting in is 2-4 year old pine,,some of it is pretty darn dry already,BUT,,some of the pieces sap comes out of when you pick them up with the yard crane,,,I am splitting it pretty small so I think it will be fine for the season,,no sides on the woodshed helps,,
Sined a 5 year deal on the 1000 today,,went out there and started to make a plan,,,get the mainline off the ground,,
Spent about an hour in the crane sorting all the remaining wood out in the sugarhouse yard-big blocks-slabs- hardwood that I will sell,,and stuff I can split my self,,,,,the real big blocks we load on the splitter with the crane so that requires help,,,
Stacked the wood up I split last night,,think I have the most wood ever in the shed,,hoe to have it FULL soon so I can concentrate on woods work...

[Fred Henderson]

I am not tryed to out do your story Parker, but I have not seen the back wall in the wood shed at my house in the last seven years. I don't think that we can ever have too much wood on hand. I put most hickoy and ash in the SH and very little cherry.

[Parker]

Fred-I just dont want to run out this season-making wood as I was boiling last year required alot of time and help,,,plus if I have more taps this year Ill need more wood,,,,,I burn green wood all winter in the house,,never have that done ahead of time,,,seems like this summer I would have done that,,but,,doing those other 585 cords....well.......mabey next year?

[KenWP]

I have a good supply of wood also. I ended up with a bunch left out in the woods. She who must be obeyed refused to help move anymore and had no place left to pile it so it can dry out there just as well as in the yard.
Went out today and checked out the trees. They haven't moved much so I should be able to find then again next spring. I will ride herd on them once a week or so in the winter so they don't stray to far. Hard enough hauling sap a half mile let alone futher.

[Revi]

I'm done with wood for this year, since there's no place to put it now. We have 3 cords in the sugarhouse woodshed and about 4 cords waiting to be put in the woodshed next April.

I just installed another security system, so maybe the two legged varmints will leave our shack alone this year. If they don't we'll get a pic so we can prosecute.

[HobbitMannor]

Parker-congrats on getting the 1000!
Well we are hoping that it won't be raining tomorrow so that we can get up in the woods and get some of the work that needs to get done at least started!! About all that has been accomplished is weeding out a couple of loads of dead stuff!! There is always so much to do!

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Goooooooo Paarrrkkkkeeeeerrrrrr!:)

[KenWP]

Let's see 1000 taps at 2 x 5 gallon pails at a time would take me all day to haul back to the house and 3 weeks to boil down so after 3 weeks of flow I would have a years worth of boiling to do. Wonder how I could store that much sap.
I am hopeing for 150 good taps this year if things work out right. If not will just go with a lesser number of good taps now that I know not to tap as early and what trees to tap and not tap around here.

[danno]

Pretty excited, just picked up a 32' wood conveyor/elevator for cheap. I don't mind cutting, bucking and spliting - but I sure hate moving wood by hand. Plan is to converyor the wood from the spliter right into the wood shed and then during season to conveyor from the wood shed to a wood box that will sit next to the arch doors.

[Fred Henderson]

Aghhhhhhhhhhhh more machinery to mantain!!!!!

[HobbitMannor]

Well it took the better part of the day to get all of the lines cleaned. We had a series of leaks once we put the pressure to the lines that had to be fixed so that we could get the water to do its job. Some things were just "band aided" for another day. I am curious about something....we had a few taps that are completely bitten off and missing...I would think that a chipmunk would not bite through to the point of taking the tap...maybe it was the moose or something...

[Farmboy]

Cut up more pallets today. Cutting wood will never end. It was too wet to go get another load or stack what I cut so I came on the trader.

[brookledge]

I was busy this weekend canning syrup. Put up over 90 gallons. It made a big dent in my supply.
Keith

[3rdgen.maple]

3rd Gen. Do not the branch tips need to freeze for sap flow? Being that your close to lake ontario I'd think your a couple of weeks away from sap flow.

Archery hunting every day. Not much maple being done. I think about it EVERY day though!

First time trying it so I have no idea what to expect or when to expect it. Been well below freezing at night here so I will wait and see and keep you guys posted.

[KenWP]

Well finally yesterday the large bottle of syrup I sent to Alberta thru a 3rd person arrived at my Moms place. It left here Sept. 1 but had a weird trip to get there. My Mom and sister thought it was several times as tasty as the syrup I had given them a couple years ago that I bought from one of the big producers around here. Her words were Rich and Fuller flavoured and since she teaches cooking for a living I will have to figure out how to use that for my product.
I have yet to find anybody that dosn't like my syrup but would love to have one of the old timers around here try it out just for fun. I have gone thru piles of cans looking for darker syrup and found one once that said medium and it didn't taste any better then the super light kinds.
3rdgen were are waiting the hear if you got a deer on your hunting trip or not. Lot's of deer around here right now. Fields are full of them every morning and evening.

[vermaple]

I am curious about something....we had a few taps that are completely bitten off and missing...I would think that a chipmunk would not bite through to the point of taking the tap...maybe it was the moose or something...


It's called the nut effect. If drops are left hanging down, squirrels will chew the spouts off and store them. I've lost some through the years. An aquaintance lost about 800 one year -- he found them years later in a hollow tree he cut for firewood.

vermaple

[3rdgen.maple]

Kenw sorry no deer on the trip this time around. Did see a couple small spikes and a doe with a fawn but let them walk. I tend to get a little fussy once I got one in the freezer. Got pictures of three really nice bucks (big high and wide) on a trail camera by one of my stands. Never got the right winds to hunt that stand. Work has slowed down quite alot so I will be going back down this week for a couple days.

[Parker]

Started building a new 500 tap system over at Bobs yeaterday,,gonna try a diffrent style booster (make it all out of pipe) than what we used behind his sugarhouse (PVC),,,see how the are to build-maintain,,,What a great time of year to be hanging tubing!

[PATheron]

Parrr( so much syrup going to flood the market)keeer- Thats how Ive been doing it too. I just run the lateral mainline into the wet and then jumper the lateral mainline up into the dry. Quick and easy and seems to work good. Guys- There was a ten inch filter press in our classifieds and I sent the guy a message but never heard back. Anyone know how I can get a hold of the person to see if its sold? Thanks Theron

[Brian Ryther]

After not spending any time in the woosd all summer I have been finaly able to get back at it. I have been able to put up another 75 new taps. I am relocating a pick up station. This will allow me to have only 150 on one sap ladder instead of 250 on two ladders. I am also splitting up laterials. I am going to do my best to strive for five per lat. I picked up a huge vac compensation tank. I was a used 50gall pvc tank form a milk system. I run three single releasers off my one pump. The compensation tank should help buffer the dump cycles. At the sugar house I am building a heat exchanger for the vac pump. I am using base board fin tube and a fan that came from one of my bulk tank coolers. I keep telling myself that all of these small impovements along with check valves It is going to be a huge year.
BR

[220 maple]

Tubing Seminar
Just recieved Info on a tubing seminar which will be held near Henry Brennemans Sugar Camp on Friday October the 30th starting at 9 am. The seminar is under the direction of a Leader Evaporator Rep. Bradley Gillian.
Henry's Camp is located at 572 Oak Dale Road near West Salisbury Pa.. Henry's Number is (814) 941-8974. Leave him a message he will call you back.

Mark 220 Maple

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Mark,

Wish I could make the seminar as it would be a lot of fun meeting some of you guys. I was up at Henrys about 2 weeks ago and picked up a load of stuff. It is close to a 4 hour drive for me each way and I will be on the road to Illinois that morning as my brother and I are heading out to bowhunt for 9 or 10 days if all goes as planned.

One thing is for sure, Brad Gillian sure knows his stuff and if anyone has questions or just getting started, he is the right person to help them get started correctly.

[PATheron]

BIGSAP UPDATE-from northeastern pa. A lot of maple stuff going on down here at Pierce and Sons. Booy bush is really starting to come together now. Should be done this weekend and looks like going to get around 400 taps on it which is a bit more than I thought. Really neat looking with a lot of hedgerows. Once thats done Im heading up the hill for another 4 or 500 Id say. Thats going to run into the shed releaser so that will be real nice. Tap counts going up pretty quick now that Im getting the boys trained. They dont look like they have much potential but theyre really starting to act like they might amount to something after all. Once thats done I think I may even do a dairy bush up the road have to see how the time goes. Still a ton of other stuff to do hooking up ro's, vac pumps, etc. Hopin for a big year. Want to fill lots of barrell. Going to be neat to see the releasers. Be the horizontal in the shed, the double across the road, the single down the road and a glass bowl with a sp-11 up the road. Ill get some pics once its all done. Theron

[Jim Brown]

Well we got a big enough pump($600 later) to pump sap up an 800ft 1 inch line with 95 feet of lift! Hooked it up yesterday and moved 250 gallon of water up the hill in less that 15 minutes. When we found that the pump was going to work we added another 75 taps only have 150 more to go and we will be at the number we wanted to be at for next season.About 900 will be the tap count in the main bush and 350 in the small bush for next season.Now we have 4 new vac pumps to get hooked up and we will be almost ready to go.(well not really) Sales have been strong reguardless of the economy.Beautiful weather for putting in taps!!

Jim

[Jim Schumacher]

Has anyone heard from Haynes lately? I'm becoming worried....:cry:

[KenWP]

He should show up soon. He might actually be doing something .
Nice weather here again. I have maples that haven't lot their leaves yet. Hard to rake them up when they won't fall. We have had several good freezes already.
Almost done with my pallets I drag home from the lumber yard. Would like more hard wood ones but they don't show up much. Need to find a place that get's heavy steel rolls in and those are allwasy a good hard wood.

[red maples]

Finally got all the bricks laid in the evaporator all ready to "glue " them in but the firechief needs to look at this thing first to inspect it so I can get my permit for it, but I filled out the paperwork paid my money $20 bucks for the permit called him and left a message to come out and check it out and still he hasn't called me back or contacted me about it:mad: I wanna get this thing done before it gets too cold!!!

Anyway tightened up my first mainline and all tied tight pulled tight good pitch. Wanted to run a gallon of water through it to make sure all was working good. went to the other end nothing was coming out!!!! So I did it again nothing!!! OK wenthough t check maybe I missed somthing???? sure enough I put in a "Y" where I am going to add in another 500' contection and forgot to plug it water was pouring out! Let it finish capped it off put in 1 gallon got back just about 1 gallon in th ebucket and it was still dripping out a little :)

Hopefully I can start that other 500' tomorrow!

[KenWP]

I see Hanyes is alive and well.
Another touch of snow tonight again with rain. I put some weight in the back of the truck just in case. I finally got working on my evaporator expansion tonight. Lot of work left to do and since there is only 4 months to get it done in I better get moving. A hour a day for a 500 hour job adds up pretty quick. I can see why people buy ready made evaporators once I start working on one.

[Randy Brutkoski]

Might sound like a dumb question but, is a sugar house tax exempt or will i have to pay taxes on it? It will have a cement slab. thanks

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Tax exempt all depends on your location.

[brookledge]

I got a call today notifying me that my RO I ordered is in. Now all I need to do is finish preparing for it
Keith

[3rdgen.maple]

KenW hunting update for you. Went back to camp wednesday morning for a couple days by myself and the dog. Brought back a doe for the freezer. Been a good bowhunting year so far. Buck and doe in the freezer:D . Did take the filter/bottler setup I have with me, with some aluminum 3/4 inch angle iron, a peice of stainless, aluminum bucket and a bunch of tools and remade the cover. Nothing any different just cleaner and shinier. Cut the bottom of the bucket bent tabs cut the hole in the top for the bucket to slide in and riveted it together and soldered the seams. Then cut the angle iron and riveted that to the edges to sit over the filter/bottler nice and snug. Looks and works very good I might say. The other one was galvanized and started to see better days.

[KenWP]

My teacher in french class was amazed to find that I had actually ate L'original (moose in english) let alone the fact I shot it first. Then he got really bug eyed when I mentioned Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep. I never had time to mention bears including grizzly an antelope. I do miss being able to hunt but she who must be obeyed has other ideas.

[Dennis H.]

I have been busy running mainline, today is the 1st day off from it all week. It is raining.
I have been only able to get out for an hr or 2 in the evening before getting ready for work. I think about 3 days is all I need to finish the mainlines then I and off to figuring out how many lat's I will have and then ordering saddles and other misc stuff.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Picked up 11 more taps today I had overlooked the past few years and most were nice big sugars with good tops. I increased the tap count about 20&#37; this year and also ran about 1300' of the 1/2" 30p mainline. If we can get some good weather down here next season, it might be off to the races with 625 taps on a 2x8. I have enough wood in the shed(8 cords) for about 125 to 130 gallons or more, depending on the sugar content. Last 2 years it has been 48.42 to 1 and 48.41 to 1, so I hope it is that good again this year.

Sugarhouse is cleaned up and organized and evaporator is about ready to roll also, so now just biding time until Feb 1st. Couple of small projects to finish up between now and then, but I have off every day but 3 from Oct 30th until Nov 22nd and hope to spend all day most of the days about 30' in the air waiting for a big one as I still kick myself most days for missing the big one last year at 7 yards when my bow cam hit the treestand.

[3rdgen.maple]

Sugarhouse is cleaned up and organized and evaporator is about ready to roll also, so now just biding time until Feb 1st. Couple of small projects to finish up between now and then, but I have off every day but 3 from Oct 30th until Nov 22nd and hope to spend all day most of the days about 30' in the air waiting for a big one as I still kick myself most days for missing the big one last year at 7 yards when my bow cam hit the treestand.

Brandon you must work for the state. My brother works for the sherriffs dept. and takes september 27 till december 5 to hunt. He still has something like 650 hours of sick time after all that time off. He has been doing it for as long as I can remember. Been a god season for me so far and I got 3 real dandy bucks on the trail camera. I do believe I am all set and ready for some sap to flow. I might get ahead on next years wood but who knows.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Nope, not fortunate enough to work for the government. I work in the private sector and I have worked more hours this year than ever before since I have been with this company. I was able to take off 4 vacation days and just concentrate on running tubing and working on sugaring stuff.

I managed to get all my wood in and stacked by the middle of May before I got extremely busy at work. I get 3 weeks vacation and 8 personal/sick days, so I take a week for family vacation and most of the rest gets used in November and wife is fine with it send I spend about all the rest of the year with family when not working and helping her with housework other than the days I hunt in Nov and when I am at sugarhouse in spring.

Forunately, no one else in my group of 6 hunts, so that works out great for my love for chasing the big ones with stick and string.

[Sugarmaker]

Brief update from NWPA to all our friends on the trader, I read of lots of good syrup related work being completed on here! WOW!

Cheryl has been in the hospital since Thursday, she needs to have her gallbladder out and they are taking their time trying to be able to do the less invasive laproscopic type surgery. She may be able to come home tomorrow. Then they will schedule the removal in the near future.

I have been working on a fabrication project that is somewhat sugar related.
I am building a 5 foot hand brake to attempt bending some nice clean corners in Stainless steel. I am using Big Eddy's design (Shown here on the trader). I have the base and end brackets attached and the pivot point with the front bending lip completed. I have to work on the hold down feature and its attachments today. If this works there are several trader folks that need hoods built and this tool may come in handy. I might even find some small project to work on too.:) Seems my rear pan is 5 foot long Hummmm, what could I build?????

Daughter Kelly and I will be taking granddaughter Marly to the local maple museum today to meet Marly from the book Miracles on Maple Hill. Also we will tour the museum to get 'siked' up for maple season.

Hope everyone is enjoying the great fall leaf colors.

Hunters: We have not had a deer hanging yet this season. Eric and Nic are looking for some horns.

Brandon good luck!

Regards,
Chris

[Fred Henderson]

Hi Chris,
It is good that you have time to stop by. Good luck with ths wife's surgery. I had it done a few ago and it is just a small walk in the park. I came home the same day but Doc would not let me lift anything for 6 weeks. However it may be a little different for your wife. Hope the bending project turns out OK for you.

[brookledge]

My wife just had the same operation six weeks ago and has just gone back to work. She is an ER nurse so she needs to be able to lift so that kept her out for 6 weeks.
She had it lapriscopicly and it still hurts once and a while
Chris hope it goes well for your familly
Keith

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Chris,

Thanks and good luck with you and your wife and a speedy recovery! Good luck with the brake, hope you can build you a awesome new max pan.

[MapleChaser]

Put up 1000 feet of 1 1/4 pipe today, wire tie it all on. It took me 6 hours to do. I bought 500 foot rolls. That is all one man can do to roll out in the woods. Iam going to build a reel to dispense the pipe from instead of rolling it out in the woods. Awesome day to be in the woods sunny and almost 60 degree's. MC

[maplecrest]

my new 5x14 thunderbolt was rolled into place this afternoon. now i have to figure out were all the parts and pieces that go with it go. thank you Tom, Matt and Reggie from Lapierre usa.

[Revi]

Might sound like a dumb question but, is a sugar house tax exempt or will i have to pay taxes on it? It will have a cement slab. thanks

You will have to pay taxes on it. It's probably not going to be much though.

[Gary R]

Chris,

Good luck with Cheryl's surgery.

Seeing how your rig is complete, I'm wondering, what are you going to make?;)

[3rdgen.maple]

Chris best of luck from here as well. I am picturing that brake mounted on the back of a trailer making stops from one trader to the next:) .
Life was good again this weekend for the family here. 15 year old nephew arrowed his very first deer saturday night. A nice 6 point. He suprised his dad and had it all gutted and dragged back to camp before his dad made it out of his stand. Rut is gonna be early this year guys. I have seen alot of scraping already which is about a week and a half early for camp. Buddy got a wallop of an eight point today and it's neck was swollen. He said it was chasing a doe around before he made the shot. This deer is big it has to be pushing close to 200 pounds. Hope everyone is doing well and ready for the up and coming maple season.

[KenWP]

Rub it in 3rgen for use guys that are whipped and can't hunt anymore. You will have a bit of meat now for the winter. Lots of deer here right now also. usually this time of year you see lots of deer when they cycle.
Slow but sure will get my evaporator made this winter. I am tired out from school and don't get a lot done when I do work on it. 3rgen you got any sap coming out of those trees yet. Havent had a lot of cold nights here lately to make sap run if I did want to tap. Hopefully winter brings on some cold.

[3rdgen.maple]

Ken not that I would try this but Duck tape has many uses. Maybe you could figure one out and get those guns polished off and put some meat in that freezer:lol: The lady of the house looked in the freezer today and said to me with a little smile " you better get busy there is alot more room in that freezer". Enough said I am getting after it hunny. As far as the sap, It is too warm yet. I could boil everthing I have gotten with one match. Heck I could probably even break that match in half and get it done. I think it will be a few weeks yet as there is still some 50's in the forecast with mid 30's at night.

[KenWP]

How big is your guest house 3rgen. I have maple trees that still have green leaves here. I wonder has anybody else found this problem. The trees with leaves still are maples that preformed poorly last spring. The tree that turned yellow fastest gave up sap the best also. Just a thought.
Man it's dark out there in the mornings already. But the sun comes up a bit faster next week for some reason. But it goes down faster at night also.

[mapleack]

Spent the weekend cutting down dead pines to finish clearing a path for new vacuum supply line. Some of these were 50' trees that had been dead for awhile, not fun to be cutting down. Had one big oak that was blown partially down and hung up. It took us close to two hours of cutting and pulling pieces with a tractor, cable and snatch blocks. We got 1,500' of 1.5" pipe unrolled at the end of yesterday, next up is stringing the wire and getting the pipe up on the wire.

[Fred Henderson]

I am just about done hunting. At least the pressure is off. I got two in the frezer now. If luck is with me maybe one more. Now I can start cutting wood for next year. But I will have a rifle in the RTV when in the woods. Talked with a tree cutter about having him directional fall some big pine for me when we get some snow. I am not real good at getting those trees to fall where they don't want to. I know I don't want any on my maples.

[Randy Brutkoski]

I agree Ken, The foiliage was a little strange this year. Every tree in my 4000tap bush only turned 1 color. Yellow. Not a single one had a slight bit of red or orange. Why is this? Does anyone know? The land owner said every other year there was good color. I am really curios why.

[3rdgen.maple]

My trees here were all yellow as well i just figured it was all the rain. Came home one day and all the black walnuts trees dropped their leaves all at once and were still green as ever. Funny in the morning they were completely green then when i got home everyone of them were bare. KenW my guest house is my sugarhouse:D so if you stay in there im putting you to work and you can bring your guns.

[Revi]

I'm putting lexan over the windows on the front of our sugarhouse. According to the guy at the glass place it will stop a bb, and won't shatter with something bigger. The window on the front door was shattered on Friday night by vandals. Probably a metal ball flung from a slingshot.

We don't want the place to be dark, but we need some kind of protection, so this might do the trick.

We may have caught something on camera too.

It is upsetting to have to have these kinds of security measures, but what choice do we have?

[3rdgen.maple]

revi it is a shame for sure. We had the same problem at camp. What we did was take 3/4 plywood and make some shutter that closed and got padlocked. Did this many years ago and have not had any problems since. It is a pain to open all the locks and shutters but it is better than changing a window in a snowstorm. I will never understand vandalism.

[mapleack]

Revi, my solution would be as follows : fix window, buy 12 gauge, sit around corner of suguar house friday night, use 12 gauge, fertilize sugar maples. No more broken windows.

[ennismaple]

I agree Ken, The foiliage was a little strange this year. Every tree in my 4000tap bush only turned 1 color. Yellow. Not a single one had a slight bit of red or orange. Why is this? Does anyone know? The land owner said every other year there was good color. I am really curios why.

We've had this 2 years in a row. I read a while back that maples go orange and red when they are stressed - either drought, rodent damage, infected by insects etc... Yellow leaves mean your maples are healthy. I thought the yellow was odd last fall but after we had a record year this spring I now want yellow leaves!

[Revi]

Revi, my solution would be as follows : fix window, buy 12 gauge, sit around corner of suguar house friday night, use 12 gauge, fertilize sugar maples. No more broken windows.

It would be nice. I'll be up there on Saturday morning with a 12 gauge, but I'm hunting 4 leggers then.

I don't know what can be done, but I hope the lexan helps some with the vandalism. I'm installing it tomorrow.

I am trying not to get too upset about all this.

[Russell Lampron]

Wow Marty I hope that the leave color thing is true. My trees all turned yellow this year as well. The leaves seem to be hanging on longer too. Alot of sugar maples that should be bare by now still have most of the leaves on them.

[Randy Brutkoski]

I Am banking on a huge year then. 4000 to 5000 taps in that bush. Everything new in that bush this year. Hasnt been tapped since the early 60's. Costing me an arm and a leg to set up but it will pay off. All taps will have check valves too. Thanks Enis

[Farmboy]

I spent this weekend spliting some pine for the evaporator and cutting up pallets. I found a 4X14 evaporator I want to look at this weekend. I need a lot more wood cut and split if I get that. I talked to one of my dads friends with 5 acres of woods and he said I can tap whatever I want. This is going to be a good season. Thearon keep up the biggsap updates there amusing and interesting.

[ennismaple]

My brother and I got a bunch more work done on the weekend. The woodshed is 100&#37; full and we Frankenstein'd some wood pallets together that needed to be fixed. We got a big limb over a mainline cut up, got the stacks down and in the camp, filled a bunch of syrup for a large order, placed the rest of the rebar for the knee wall in the new building and got the forms built and in place. The concrete should go in next week. We also moved some clear stone, put down patio stones and moved an 800 gallon Zero tank into place so we don't flood out the pump in one of our bushes again.

We just found out our RO membrane is passing sugar so there's an expense we hadn't counted on. Oh well, it pays for itself and the alternative is to boil raw sap, which I refuse to do anymore!

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Wet, dreary day here. Not much fun to be in the woods. Spent a couple hours building a spinner to unroll my tubing. (The bigger stuff). I think I have something that will work on 300 and 500 foot rolls of inch and inch and a quata' tube. Got the idea over the weekend from the BIG SAP BARON. I will be able to suspend the spinner from my front end loader of the tractor or from a tree limb. After it quits raining, I'll give it a trial run or spin.
Been picking away at things here slowly. Hoping to have about 3500 tapped here at home next Spring and another 1200-1500 that I'll purchase sap from. Still need about 5 cord of wood but that has been moving right along. I need to get a 1200 foot airline in place and a 4000 foot pump line. Got a neighbor that suggested I lease his bush for next year so it looks like I won't be able to stop the expansions My wife did suggest that I did not need to keep up with Theron:lol:

[PATheron]

Guys- Was wondering if one of you could help me. There was a guy on the classifieds with a 10 inch filter press for sale. Do any of you remember who it was or how I can reach him to see if its been sold? Thanks Theron

[Amber Gold]

Theron, It was in NH craigslist, but I don't see it there anymore. I think it was selling for <$2000.

I did find this 7" double bank for $2000 in VT though.

http://burlington.craigslist.org/grd/1440321314.html

Josh

[Thad Blaisdell]

I just priced a new double bank 10" from Goodrich's for $2600 and that was with an air driven pump. So the used double 7 is no real deal.

[sapman]

Hey 3rdgen, did you catch the article in Farming about fall tapping? Just thought it might be of interest to you (and others). It is also by Tim Wilmot, who wrote about the red maples last winter.

Tim

[3rdgen.maple]

Sapman not yet I have been checking the UVM website. Wilmots articles he writes in Farming is not linked there yet. Been waiting to read it though. If you got a link to it let me know. I still wondering if Im wasting my time or not, but I will try almost anything once. So far the weather is not cooperating but it is early yet I am hoping mid november it kicks in. I have been hunting my but off to fill the freezer and have done well so far. Hopefully by the time it starts to run it will be out of my system.

[3rdgen.maple]

Okay maple maniacs another auction who's going? http://www.auctionzip.com/cgi-bin/auctionview.cgi?lid=733304&kwd=maple&#37;20syrup%20&zip=13302&category=0 There is a picture of an old evaporator in there.

[3rdgen.maple]

Happy Halloween to all the maple kids.

Tough day today. I have been cuting wood along the river bottom and got the last load cut and loaded from that area and while heading out the wethole that I have driven through a thousand times decided to swallow me up. Tractor was in mud up to the X and so was the wood trailer. After alot of messing around and unloading the trailer to get the weight off it I got her home. I actually like the color of the tractor now. BROWN ha ha alot nicer than that green.

[KenWP]

Well just about the end of October and I finally got started big time on the new evaporator. Broke down and rented a greenlee punch since I had to be in the town where I could rent one yesterday and punched all the holes I needed in a couple of hours useing a electric impact wrench. Sort of looks funney to see a nice SS pan full of 1 1/4 inch holes. Now to either buy a welder or solder in the drop tubes. Should be a experience to solder that many holes.
Pretty good weather so far this fall. Deer season opens tomorrow so should hear a few bangs out back from the deer hunters. These guys take deer season pretty seriously they built a new little house to sit in to replace the old one the wind caught one day and tore the roof off of. Carrots and apples are piled up by the truck load also.

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
Man! new evaporators going in, new tubing systems being set up , new sugar bushes being evaluated, evaporators being improved. Deer being harvested, vandalism being resisted.
You guys are a busy bunch.
Great to live in this country where we can do all these things.

As I write this we have a wood fire going in the house to take off the chill of the raw, wet weather. We have 5 sticks of venison kielbasi cooking in the oven, (Eric arrowed an real nice 9 point {160 lb} on Monday morning) He will be making jerky tonight also. We still enjoy the work of processing our own deer and it allows us to work together on a project.

The 5 foot hand brake is back in the shop for redesign and rework. :)

Canned some goldenrod honey last night.

Cheryl is not real happy about the upcoming surgery.

Have a great Halloween,
Regards,
Chris

[KenWP]

Take me years to get used to the way you guys count points on a deer around here. Out west a 9 point whitetail would be a weird deer. Of course I am still getting used to haveing to use glass to even see the horns on the deer around here. Owell time will tell if I learn or not.

[Sugarmaker]

Ken,
NW PA white tail rules: must have 4 points on one side to be legal for us old hunters ( kids can shoot about anything). This buck had 5 points on one side and 4 on the other. Hang in there, we are still learning the rules as they change them too:)

The venison kielbasi was great on a Ritz cracker with some Colby cheese and a little maple BBQ! Yummm.

Chris

[tuckermtn]

sitting here making drops as my girls count their halloween loot. Finally got the rest of my sugar wood in today. Met with a landowner we have tapped in the past and talked to them about adding more tubing and tapping some of their reds- I would guess another 40-50 taps there. Picking up three of Parkers smaller bushes - so we should be close to 1000 taps by the time the season starts.

Spent most of this morning replacing all the braided poly line on the RO and trying to figure out how to get into the room in the barn- 2'6 door and a 40" wide machine...

Picked up a filter press on Thursday- getting geared up for BIGSAP here in Andover...four months left and still a tons to get done...

cheers-

eRic