Bigsap Warning 2010

[PATheron]

This is a test of the emergency BIGSAP system. This is only a test. If this had been a real event there would be information immediately following pertaining to regional temperatures, projected saprun duration, and other pertainant information regarding the BIGSAP event. We are getting ever closer to sugaring season and just as we need to prepare for other emergencies we also need to prepare for the possability of an early winter saprun. Make sure all holding tanks are clean! Really stinks trying to wash tanks in the winter, Make sure all vac pumps are ready to rock and roll, String every piece of sapline that you can afford without waking up divorced, get all your adapters bought. Drag in all the wood you can beg, borrow or steal. This years going to be the big one. I can feel it. Theron

[Russell Lampron]

The BIGSAP emergency alert system still works here. The tanks are clean, the woodshed is almost full and the vacuum pump got a test fire last Sunday. Rolls of tubing and new taps and fittings are in stock and ready for installation in November. Holy crap November is almost here!

[PATheron]

Nice job Russ! Last year I tried to clean my tanks in January. Real pain. This year I told myself Im going to be ready ahead of time. How many new taps Russ? Theron

[Russell Lampron]

I,m going to reroute some lats and mains in my old section and replace all of the drops. After that I want to add up to 300 more new taps. It's a money and time thing. If I can afford the supplies it will happen. I will find the time even if I have to do it during the season.

[maplecrest]

went thru all woods yeterday. all tubing up and tight. new evap on truck headed this way as i write this.

[michelle32]

Got the new ( to us ) vacuum pump up and running. Seems to have about 17 hgs at the pump. Changing regulater to see if we can get up to high vac. Is there a way to check if the releaser works. Cleaning out the under grouth in theold and new woods. Tanks are clean. Mapping out path for new sap lines. Russ if you need a hand let me know. I now if you have time I could us yours if you get a minute or hour or two. Would like your thoughts on how to pipe this out. I don't beleive sap ladder is going to work.
Keith

[ennismaple]

Nice job Russ! Last year I tried to clean my tanks in January. Real pain. This year I told myself Im going to be ready ahead of time. How many new taps Russ? Theron

Theron - That's what kids are for! My 8-year old daughter will be washing tanks next spring. She can get into places that I'd need a sawzall to get out of! There's still lots of time left but many miles to go until I sleep, many miles...

[michelle32]

Thereon with record braking big sap coming this year should. We all be investing in tankers like yours or do you think we can get away with smaller ones. jk
Keith

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Theron,

Sounds like you need to give those good helpers a barrel of syrup next year for all their hard work and then watch the smiles on their face when they get a check for it.

[Dennis H.]

Yeah the BIG SAP WARNING is working down here.

[Russell Lampron]

Kieth you can test the releaser by hooking the vacuum pump up to it and running a pipe from where the mainlines will connect to it into a tub of water. If there is nothing wrong with the releaser it should suck the water out of the tub and change sides and dump when the first chamber is full. If there is more than one port for the mainlines to connect to, plug off the ones that aren't being used. I would like to go over and see what you have to work with as far as the woods are concerned. We can do a labor swap thing so that we both get things done in our woods. We'll figure where to set up your tank and releaser, then figure out how to get the sap to the sugarhouse.

[PATheron]

32- What kind of a pump do you have? If its a dairy maybe it doesnt really want to go much higher or if its a liquid ring maybe something going on? Im not sure everyone should buy tanker trailers but lots of tank is definitely good. Mine is not my own, its another fellas that lets me use it. Probly cost a fortune. Brandon- Thats what Ive told the kids, if they work hard and help me put it in Id give them some of the syrup. I dont see any better way of teaching kids to work. Most of the kids my age growing up were farm kids and they were always good workers. We used to have to help them do their chores before we could go play. My kids are fortunate to have a lot and I want them to grow up understanding what kind of effort it really does take to earn a living or have anything substantial. Im really looking foreward to season this year. Fun to see how Marty and Dave Y and Jeff all make out with their new rigs. Got the checkvalve spout thing going on. Lots of guys on here doing more every year. Be an exciting year. Theron

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Theron,

Sounds like you are doing a great job and teaching them right. I grew up on a farm and miss it now, but fun getting back over there every chance I get to work around the sugarhouse which is on the corner of the farm I grew up on. Have fun with the boys, but don't burn them out. The way you are going, you might be doing this for a living in a few years and when you are old, the boys would be around to take over.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Theron will never get old!

[PATheron]

Brandon- That is partly why Im doing it. Having my own business is a way for my family to make money that isnt depent on some company or the outside world. The way the economy is that makes me feel pretty good, if I was out of work or something Id still have the syrup plus when the kids get older its a good source of income for them to pay on college or even if they were out of work. Cant hurt anyway. Plus it just plain fun. Theron

[PATheron]

Almost have all of the tubing done on the Booy bush as of yesterday. Ive just got to pull some one inch up tighter and its pretty well good. Then its drops and tank, releaser, etc. Next Im heading up above the house on a 500 tap run. Thats a neat run with nice trees and it will run into the shed releaser although its quite a long run too. That should give me 4500 taps. Once thats done Im going to go through my whole system and make everything complete and ready to go which will be quite a bit of work. If that pans out I got a good deal on a bunch of used mainline from my pal Richard and I and I think its enough to go up to another spot I can tap and maybe get 800 taps if I buy line to go with it and I can put them on a dairy pump but Ill have to see if time allows, I think it will. TAP COUNT IS GOING UP BOYS, WANT TO SEE THE BIGSAP!!!! Theron

[KenWP]

Wonder if I should put up a Small Sap warning just to cover the butts of those of us that don't count our poulet before they hatch.

[PATheron]

Guys- Dont want to be a broken record but just a little reminder that season is coming up pretty soon and we really need to be ready. I know you guys like to hunt and spend time with your family and things like that but I just want to say one little thing, "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GO!!!! ITS ALMOST SEASON!! TAP EVERY TREE YOU CAN GET PERMISSION TOO, DONT WASTE VALUABLE TIME. BIGSAPS COMING! Gotta keep you guys psyched up. I decided this year that my big goal is 2000 gallons of syrup but Ive changed my mind becouse I dont think thats realistic. Ive decided a more realistic number is 2500 baby. Im going for the BIGSYRUP! Theron

[maplwrks]

Theron- You're a whack job!!! I think it's time your wife brought home some Ritalin from the hospital and started feeding it to you. Hows' your dad doing? Is he on board with you still, or is he shaking his head like the rest of us????

For those of you that haven't been to Therons' yet, it would be hard for me not to go bonkers like he is. Every hillside and hedgerow are loaded with maple...Too much potential!!!

[Jim Schumacher]

Theeeron. I'm trying to get into your photobucket to see your tanker...it's not working.

[caseyssugarshack93]

Go to this http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/patheron theron has a :) at the end and it messed up the link lol,

[maplecrest]

theron go for every tree you can drill a hole in before someone else gets the bug and beats you too it.

[PATheron]

Mike- Dads on board. He just thinks Im nuts tapping all these trees. I really have to get a new bunch of pics for you guys. I dont have any of the tanker. Ill do a whole bunch of them this fall. Ive got a ton of different stuff I can get pics of. You guys would laugh. Every night another section of black mainline goes in the air heading away from the house. My neighbors dont know what to think. Ive got it going up the road, up the hedgerows and right behind the house it just insane, theres mainline going everywhere. Its great. Im going to get dad a ten inch filter press and everything will be fine. Theron

[Gary R]

I stopped at Theron's this summer. I think the tanker is now about 100ft from his house (where you sleep). Right near the swimming pool (over flow catch basin). He must have the best wife in the world:)

[Dennis H.]

You Gary I ever thought about him using the pool as an overflow, What do you think that holds 8-10000 gals??

Maybe he will use the pool as the sap tank and the tanker for his concentrated sap holding tank to feed the evap.

Theron I don't care what anyone thinks you are an inspiration for all of use here on the Trader.

[KenWP]

I wonder if maple has some kind of drug in it. Maple guys keep doing weird things and thinking it's normal. What normal person would work 30 hours a day with trees and say it made sense.

[PATheron]

MAYDAY! WARNING!! BIGSAP ALLERT!!! BIGSAP ALERT!!! This is not a test. This is first BIGSAP ALERT for the 1010 season. Accuweather (feel good weather) is calling for 40s and 20s four days straight starting on January 21st week after next for northeastern Pa. This could be serious and Im not even ready. Dont drop the ball like I have. Clean the tanks, ready the pumps, get ready for BIGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!! SAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Theron

[KenWP]

I really think you need to take your Lithium more regular. It's only January and your tapping already. Owell hopefully you get a few cupfulls of sap and then you will calm down untill march.

[farmall h]

NOW THAT'S A THOUGHT. Assemble the Intek pool over at the sugar house. 12000 gallons of holding tank...pump and filter included!

[Dennis H.]

Ken down here we do tap this early well not Mid Jan but buy the end of Jan it will be go time. Last year I tapped in the 1st few days of Feb.

With the freeze up we have had it will take longer than normal for the trees to get going. It has been the longest cold spell that we have had in a long time.

[caseyssugarshack93]

Pa weathers differnt from us up north ken, Its going to take theron a week or so to tap all them trees anyway, Usally febuary is when pa usally gets some big gulps of sap ? right theron or no?

[PATheron]

You guys watch how you pick on me. Last year I made 150 gallons of syrup on a January run. 6600$ smackers in the drum baby. The taps ran till April too. Wish I was more ready. Im such a LOOSER! Maybe I need to start taking this stuff more seriously. Theron

[farmall h]

Theron, I'm serious about the swimming pool for storage. Man...that's some major storage!

[caseyssugarshack93]

Theron, you tapping next week or the week after, looks like you will get a good run if all goes well with the weather by the end of january? hope its all going well


NATE

[PATheron]

Bob- Thats a darn good idea but I think I have that much storage. I had a dream the other night that I dug a pond to put my sap in. A regular pond with no liner or anything. I had my pump running and the sap started running and it filled up the pond and I fired up the ro and it clogged up and broke becouse of the pond scum. Then my sap was running an 1.5" pipe right over. I was still mad when I woke up till I remembered I had all these tanks. I guess Ive got it pretty bad. Theron

[PATheron]

Casey- Im not sure what Im going to do. I wasnt going to tap till january 30th just becouse it will take me that long to finish things up. I still will probly do that but I am toying with the idea of tapping in the cull tree stand. Those little trees will go right to running. That would be pretty neat to have that 1000 tap bush on the 130. Ought to have some big vacuum. Theron

[KenWP]

L I T H I U M. Wish I had to figure out how to store sap that bad. I only had 3 days were sap was a problem and that was because I got 140 gallons all in one day from out back and thats 3 dasy boiling for me.

[farmall h]

Theron..I have one of those Intek pools tht can be assembled in an hour. If you have done it before. It is not inflatable..24 ft and 54" deep. Could use the Hayward pump to transfer sap. Oh what a plan! The heck with those poisonous galvaized tanks. Gotta get a patent on this idea...hhmmmm..maybe make them 500 gal-1000 gal.-3000 gallon..kaching$

[PATheron]

Ken- I remember last year your trees just wouldnt run for the longest time. It was just becouse your up there where its so cold right? They ran pretty good once it warmed up? Whats lithium do? Theron

[PATheron]

Would you have to get some kind of food grade plastic sheeting or something or would the plastic liner be safe enough? That might be a pretty good idea if you could get some kind of plastic liner that you could dare use. Theron

[farmall h]

The Intek pool is made in Japan. I guess it should be good 'nough. Clorinated. There must be something out there on the market. I'm not that creative otherwise I wouldn't have to play the Powerball every chance I get.

[jrthe3]

water tower

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Theron,

Not to burst your bubble but if it has been anywhere near as cold up there as it has been here and I imagine as you are north of me, it will take several days in the 40's to get the trees to even think about unthawing. They have to be frozen completely solid.

As accuweather that far out should be unaccuweather from my experience watching it. Hard to predict 48 hours, much less 11 to 15 days out.

[PATheron]

Your right about that Brandon. I just dug out my calandar and I was wrong about last year. I tapped a lot in in January and got sap but never started really making syrup untill into February it looks like. I didnt keep real good records last year I was so overwhelmed. This year Im going to try to stay on top of that better if I can. When are you figuring on tapping Brandon? Theron

[KenWP]

Lithium is for manic depressives. Calms them down. Yes my stupid trees never ran worth a darn until the thursday before Good Friday. I made all my syrup basically in just over a week. Took 3 weeks to make the first two gallons.
I can see it being about the same here this year unless March actually warms up some.

[Russell Lampron]

Theron you made your first drums of syrup when Matt and I were down around the 9th of February. It was so nice down there that I thought that I was missing something up here. I came back home to a deep freeze for 2 more weeks and didn't miss a thing.

[PATheron]

Your right Russ- I was thinking I made syrup in January but what happened was I tapped in and got sap but it was so cold I kept it and it just kept adding up and then we started to boil a couple weeks later must be. Theron

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Theron,

Last couple years, I started tapping around the first of Feb but I tap in 3 stages and space out tapping in 1 to 2 week intervals. As cold as it has been and as much snow as we have on the ground, it looks like it may be 10th of Feb before we make any syrup this year. I am not in any hurry to tap with as hard as everything is frozen and as much snow is around the trees.

Get everything done and take a few days off and spend with the family so you get the batteries super-recharged so you will be chomping at the bit to start.

[Dennis H.]

It amazes me what a few miles will do with weather.

Right now we only have maybe 1" of snow on the ground and temps have been in the 20's but by end of the week it is to be in the low 40's.

I figure that without out the snow to help insulate the ground that the ground might be frozen harder than I think.
I am aiming for the beginning of Feb just like last year but will have to decide once the time comes.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Dennis,

It is crazy as you are way north of me and we have 2' on the ground in a lot of places and we haven't seen any ground in a month. Imagine the deer and other game will have a lot die this year as this was the worst mast crop in the state in 40 years and deep snow for a month is going to take its toll on them.

[220 maple]

Brandon,
For the start of this season I will have snow on the ground or should have unless it all melts next week. I hope to have something open by Feb. 1 this year. If I was ready I would open next week. Should have 1000 check valve taps ready by then. Unless I misunderstood the info on the check valves they should allow for a earlier opening time. Even though I open early are big runs the past two seasons have been around the first week of March. I suspect that will hold true again this season. However the snow cover has me excited. I personally hope the snow melts in slowly over a six week period. Then maybe I can post a Big Sap warning on Therons Big Sap warning system.

Mark 220 Maple

[PATheron]

Brandon- Weve always been told tap in early and your holes will dry up and when I was younger I did and they did. Problem here is sometimes in years past you get a real great January thaw and then it goes cold and warms up and stays warm. Those years its a real bad season. Last year I did a lot of soul searching and read and reread proctors research on early tapping. Im looking at my calandar right now and I started tapping the cull tree stand on January 10th. That weekend I tapped in 1150 taps. Then next weekend I tapped in 500 more on that hill of the bigger trees The 17th and 18th. Tapped int 1300 more taps on January 24th and 25th. Tapped in everything else January 31st and sunday February 1st. The taps I put in on January tenth as I remember, becouse after I tapped in I didnt really keep things wrote down anymore becouse I was so swamped with sap, ran untill end of March first of April and finally fizzled out. At that point I was getting rougthly 700 gallons on 2500 taps. At the same time I was still getting over a gallon per tap across the road on the ones that were installed the first weekend of february. When I quit I was still getting over a gallon per tap over there but I had to quit becouse I could not boil anymore becouse it would foam right out of the evaperator. Plus, honestly, I was just sick of it. Now everything had new spouts in the trees and the pump was always on if it was over 32 degrees. That was my experiance last year for what its worth. Avg across the board was roughly .375 but my sugar content last year was very low. Struggled to even keep 2%. I didnt really do a good job though for averages, I got behind, got mad one day and opened up the valve on my 1500 gallon tank and ran it on the ground. Dumped a head tank full of concentrate once and was going to go down and open the valve on my 6200 gallon tanker trailer when it was full and run that on the ground but I was too exausted to walk down there and thought better of it the next morning. I did my best though with the equipment I had. Theron

[Dave Y]

Theron,
If you where dumping sap last lear because you where frustrated, what do you think is going to happen this year. You need a bigger rig!!!

[PATheron]

Im hoping Ive made enough improvements to make it easier Dave. I am envious of you guys though. Theron

[Dave Y]

Ther will come a time when that 3x10 will reach its limit and you will be boiling like i was last year. Then you will say I have to do some thing different.

[maplwrks]

All Theron will need to do is sell his Seprotech and CDL ROs and buy a big 1800 gph RO!

[maplecrest]

my point last year

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Or get him an intensofire II arch, it wold probably get him up to 100+ gph which would close to double his output and would be firing it every 45 minutes. Throw a set of Max pans on it and crank out 150 to 160 gph. At 22%, that is 40 gallon of syrup per hour or processing 1500 to 1800 gallon of sap per hour.

[PATheron]

Brandon- I think I get right around 120 gallons per hour right now with my rig. Im just going by when I run my ro and I put out 2 gallons per minute the headtank seems to stay about the same. These are my new tricks for this year guys. Tanker trailer is at the shed now so no pumping associated with that, second 600 gph ro with recirculation and a high flow membrane for helping with recirculation, taps across the road on autopilot with an electric pump and light bulb warming the releaser, double bank filterpress, auto draw, dad now retired and able to fire up the ro as soon as the sap starts running, and hopefully Ive gained a little more experiance from the last two seasons. Thats the best I could come up with with the money I dared to spend. BRING IT ON BABY!!! IM READY!!!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

That is a great gph rate. I thought in the past you said you were getting around 55 to 60 gph which seemed kinda low. 120 gph on 22% sap is 1300 to 1400 gallon of sap per hour basing it on 2% sap. Don't think you will have too much problem keeping up.

[PATheron]

Brandon- First year it wasnt as fast becouse when we bricked it we got the brick too far back and it impeded the draft quite a bit must be. Last year when Jerry and Mike came down it wasnt working good at all so we raised the flue pan up and cleaned the flues out good and removed some bricks and it made a huge difference. Im pretty sure that must be about what its doing becouse like I said at two gallons a minute it seems to match the ro. Im pretty sure if Im putting around 20 Percent stuff in there Im getting around 20 gallons of syrup an hour give or take. Honestly Ive never really watched the clock to see exactly becouse were usually scrambling with everything going on. This year it should be much more relaxed with the big press and the autodraw. I was changing papers left and right just to keep up before. Theron

[Acer]

Terrion,
Tap count is looking a little low in your signature....
D

[KenWP]

I have a guy hired to turn off Therons vacuum pumps once a day so I can get a bit of sap. Just don't tell him about it. He will just figure he had a break down everyday all season.
We just have to watch for the post's in a few weeks of what all happens.

[Dennis H.]

Posts??

Heck last year once the season started we didn't hear from him but maybe once a week or everyother week!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Soon he won't rub elbows with us at all when he makes his first million and has about every tree in his county tapped!

[Dennis H.]

He doesn't have every tree tap?

What the heck has he been up to then?

[PATheron]

Probly never see that first million Brandon. Id still rub elbows with you guys though. My only concern about money is that I have enough. Was going to sleep in this morning but 0330 up and couldnt get back to sleep. Hoping to hook up my vac pump tonight. Once thats done things are going to start coming on line. Been helping my buddy with his setup. He has 260 taps and I have a sp11 fixed up for him and a glass bowl releaser. We tried the releaser and it works like a charm. Im pretty impressed with that thing. Ive also got a sp22 that was junk that Ive been trying to fix up just to see If I could and I think were going to have that finished this week too so I may have him use that. I think Im going to start tapping things in in stages starting with the taps that the sun hits first. I want the my pump operable so I can find leaks as Im tapping. I know its going to freeze right back up but thats fine becouse thatll give me time to get things finetuned. Id like to get a little sap to test things in the shed and have things turn key in there. Thats my biggest goal is to get a real efficient proceedure in there. I know I can get sap my biggest problem is always to process it. If money was no object it would be much easier I know but it is to me so I have to do things as I feel I can afford to. Id love to have a new evap and a new 1800 gallon ro but thats a lot of money at once. When I do buy new equipment its going to be big. Id like to have two 1800 gallon ro's and an oil fired evap that would keep up with them. Theron

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Theron will tap a million long before it profits him a million:)

[KenWP]

I wonder does Theron have a beard. Just seems like he should have a beard.

[steamvalleyFarms]

Theron let me know before you get frustrated and dump sap this year, I would probably buy some.:)

Rob

[farmall h]

Therron, why do they all raz you so?

[PATheron]

Bob- Theyre mean spirited. They know Im unstable and they still pick on me. It isnt right. IF I get my pump working tomarrow morning Im tapping in. Im done goofing around. Im plugging in the battery chargers tonight and Im going for the BIGSAP! Im not even going to work. Theyll have to make due on their own. This year Im keeping track of the bags of spouts I use then well actually find out how many taps I have. That first tap ought to have good vac on it with it being the only one on the 130. Ill post the tap count as I go. Theee(I cant help myself Im drillin holes I might miss a run)roon.

[farmall h]

Well we are all alittle unstable. We won't be getting wacked out until mid march. Weather permitting of course.

[caseyssugarshack93]

Go for it theron, might even get a run next week, suppto be above freezing up here in the mtns for this week and going into next week, but ya never know, im sure in pa its going to be even warmer, but hey tap em and see what happens,

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Been 24 hours since Theron has been on here. He must be drilling holes:)

[KenWP]

I noticed my trees looking dried out he's probbably already sucking them out now.

[gator330]

He has someone luanching flares over his bush as he runs from tree to tree drill, set tap, listen, move, move, move!!!! All day and night till there is'nt maple in PA with out a hole in it.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Theron,

All I can say if you are tapping now, you had better have everything done and be ready to boil. I would guess if you weather is anything like mine, you will have a few thousand gallon of sap before next weekend.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I bet Theron is swimming in sap already. Hasn't been on here for a couple of days and he started tapping. Hope he was ready to boil as he had a lot to do to get ready a few days ago.

[Dennis H.]

Hello Theron, where are you? we are missing our Big Sap Warnings!

What kind of service is this without updates?:cry:

I sure hope he put on his swimmies. I can see him now on a little inflatable raft in the tank having a cold drink watching everything run automaticly, oh yeah and his dad running the evap.

[3rdgen.maple]

Okay where is PATheron? If he is this busy already to be updating us I think he might have over done it with the tap count. Either that or he had a little time to rethink his layout and started tweeking it all over in a last minute panick.

[PATheron]

BIGSAP!!! BIGSAP!!!! Sorry guys, I let you down with the warnings. I started tapping in and came down real sick. Had a bad toothache the other day and by that night it was so bad I had to call my dad and have him take me to the emergency room in the middle of the night. Turned out it was absessed and got into the dentist yesterday and they actually removed it. Put me in a lot of pain and couldnt do anything so sick like that. Before I got sick though I was right at it and got right around 950 taps in. I havent got my big pump hooked up yet so I stuck a couple of old dairy pumps on it. I had one little piston pump Doug gave me and an sp11 and l didnt even have time to go fix leaks so I just turned them on and had around 12 inches of vac and it actually ran pretty darn good that way. Id say maybe 500 gallons. I think its going to be tomarrow before Im going to be well enough to be back at it. The weather looks on and off but I think I feel pretty good about it. It takes me a long time to get all my taps in and last year they ran till April so Im going to just do what I did last year. Ill keep you posted once things start moving foreward again. Pretty wiped out even today. Hard to sleep with all the pain and that runs you down too. Theee(temporarily incapacitated)rooooon

[Dave Y]

Theron,
If you have sap,have you checked the sugar content? I would be interested to know.

[PATheron]

Dave- Its 1.2%. Ive found in the past that the first stuff is like that. Plus this is the stand with the small trees in it. For some reason the first stuff is low and then it gets better as it goes. I hope its not a sign of whats to come. I really dont think that it is. Ill keep you guys posted as it comes. Theron

[Dave Y]

That is what I tought it would be. Keep testing it when it gets to 2.0 its go time. keep us posted.

[Jim Brown]

Gentleman not to be the one with bad news but it's going to get COLD again!!
We will wait until our normal time to tap Valentines day!
Top inch of the ground is muddy but it is frozen below that!

Jim

[Dennis H.]

Theron hope things get better for you quickly. I got the flu real bad last year right when the big run came for me, that sucks.

I am also going to wait a little longer.
On 2 trees that I wasn't going to tap this year I drilled a small 1/8" hole to see and there is nothing. I wanted to check sugar content.
I will keep an eye on them and when they start to run then I will think about tapping in.

I agree with you Jim walking around here it gets muddy quick but just below that it is still quit frozen. that really cold Dec and the 1st week in Jan really froze things up.

[PATheron]

You guys are probly better off tapping in usuall time like you said. Ill keep you posted on the sugar. Theron

[PATheron]

I think I will have my big pump hooked up this week and Ill try to have a couple thousand taps in by the weekend and we'll see how it runs. Theron

[mapleack]

Theron, too bad about your tooth! I was tempted to look you up on Sunday, I was at Patterson's picking up a new syrup pan that had been dropped off there. The weather was questionable though so we hit the road for home. Richard says you're "enthusiastic". No kidding!

[PATheron]

Andy- Your welcome anytime. I do get excited about sugaring. Its a lot of fun. Theron

[Dave Y]

I will say I have no plans to tap before normal, which is Presidents day weekend. I may tap my tubing the week before if it looks like it will be cold and I have the vacuum hooked up. I always hang buckets Presidents day as that is when I have help.

[Maplewalnut]

Dave, me too. I get a day off from work that Monday and need a couple days to get everything ironed out before the big sap comes. Presidents weekend it is!

[3rdgen.maple]

PATheron welcome back. Sorry to hear about your pain. It is amazing how a tooth can create so much pain. I have been keeping an eye on the 5 test taps I put out late fall and they have ran everyday this week. Sugar content has been at best 1.2 here as well. Never checked this early in years past so I hope that is the norm and if it isn't I will have to put out alot more taps to fill orders and plan on some long days and nights. Ground never freezes here by the way. We get too much lake effect snow before the temps drop enough too freeze up the ground.

[PATheron]

3rdgen- I dont think the ground is froze here either. Last two years I tapped early and the sugar was like that. I think its kind of normal. Once it starts warming up it should come up to normal. I think if the ground isnt froze itll run pretty good. Might find out this weekend. I want some sap mainly to start up equipment and get it working good before the big runs. Ive got a new ro to finish hooking up and get accustomed to and a newer press and auto draw and Id like to have them all working good so when it starts running good Ill be ready. Be next month before I get a lot of my taps in anyway. I think my trees shut down more on their exposure than when I tap them. Last year my earliest tapped bush shut down about the same time as my buddies over the hill that faces the same way and he tapped a long time after I did. My north bush was still running when I quit and that one was still tapped in end of January. Only thing I wonder is if at the end I start having trouble sooner just boiling it and keeping the sap in the pan or if it would be that way anyway that time of year. Does anyone have any insight on that part of it? Theron

[Dave Y]

Theron,
Any time you try to boil buddy sap or late season sap I think you will have problems. This year when you start boiling late season sap and you cant keep it in the pans, try not concentrating as much and see what happens.

[PATheron]

Dave- I did that last year like you said and I ran it deeper in the pans and I got 4 more 55 gallon drums filled and then it just became totally impossable. As soon as you applied any heat at all it would foam out. Other thing I had was problems keeping the tanks clean enough at the end and I think this year I can do better on that so Im hoping that will help. Theron

[caseyssugarshack93]

I know up here in the north country, the sap was running 2 days ago, from the holes i drilled this fall, Ground cant be froze, Seems like were having a mild winter, but we just got 4 inches of lite pluffy snow, but hasnt been nearly as cold as its been in the past, been wicked warm,
theron, hope everything is running smooth, TAP AWAY,


NATE

[PATheron]

Casey- Just got the big pump runnin buddy. Now its full bore operation tapoff. Not stoppin till Ive hit every tree within two miles of the pump. Theron

[ennismaple]

Theron - Late season everyone has problems. We decided to make one last drum on Easter Monday last year and had a heck of a time getting the sap to filter through the bag filter, getting it through the pre-filter in the RO with enough pressure to keep the pump running and getting the syrup to filter at all!

[PATheron]

MAYDAY!!! MAYDAY!!! BIGSAP!!!BIGSAP!!! Warm weather here in northeastern Pa sunday and monday. Could be a potential BIGSAP event. Could possably be a 48 hour run. Conventional wisdom has it its too early to tap, and it probly is, but the weather sure looks like it might run here in Northeast Pa. Were trying to prepare here for it accordingly at Pierce and Sons maple by trying to get a few taps in on our earlier running trees. May have to go nocturnal to try to get ourselves ready. Only sleeping enough to sustain life. Our mission statement here at Pierce and sons is to PROVIDE PURE DELICIOUS MAPLE SYRUP TO OUR CUSTOMERS, "for a fair return on our investment", and we intend to do it. Updates will follow, gotta go drill more holes. Theee(not going to miss any sap this year dangit)roon.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I think he is over the toothache:lol:

[Dennis H.]

Heeeee's BAAAACK!!!

[Maple Restoration]

Glad to see every one getting back into the swing of thing. Sap has been running on and off for the last two week we should get rain by Sunday night, we should have good sap run’s for a few days, too bad my pans are in the shop... On the bright side the temp are going to drop for us by the end of next week. Till mid Feb. This will buy me some time to get things done. All the Best to you all this year right to the last drop!

[jmbinventions]

I thought I would share my funny but horribly dissapointing story, I live in the suburbs and behind my house are about 10 trees I tap and today I look out my back windows and there is a kid with a hocky mask and a machette chopping at things. When I go to check my taps later that day all of my buckets are pulled out of the trees with slashes through them and the sap was all dumped on the ground, the buckets were trashed and the same kid broke a glass bottle into my ducks pen! Not funny, for his sake he better not come back if he does bad things will happen. Have any of you guys had the disregarding, destructive individual like this?

[Jeff E]

Yikes
Does he go by the name of Jason?

It is still dead of winter here in NW Wisconsin, so just like last year, you guys are getting me fired up way to early.

I have another month before I tap, so....I will grab hold of the side of my chair, and do the finishing touches in the sugarhouse, and 'watch' the show unfold out east.

Have super season you guys, you have got to WAAAAANNNTT IT! Remember that on those all nighters!

[Dennis H.]

THE SAP IS FLOWING!!

It is go time for me down here in south central PA.

I tapped in all my maples that I will have on vac.

[PATheron]

Dennis- Whats the weather down there the next couple weeks? Make sure you keep the vac on as long as the lines are thawed out and they will go forever especially with everything new. Today it was freezing here. It was supposed to get half way warm but felt very cold. What I cant get over is how quick the trees seem to want to run. The sun came out and when I was drilling even the big trees they were wet and spatting me in the glasses when I drove the spiles in. I dont think there really is any frost in the ground must be here becouse last week when it warmed up a little it ran pretty good even with that small amount of dairy vac on them. With 12 inches youd have to basically consider it to be running gravity. Looks like maybe a pretty good run starting sunday and Im hoping right through monday then its going to freeze right up again. That will be great for me I can capitalize on getting all this work done and go back to plugging along. I told dad I dont think I can do much more volume than this as a side gig. This might be about as much as I can handle and work in town unless I get some very expensive equipment some day or can afford to quit my day job. Im hoping for BIG!!!!!!!SAP!!!! sunday and monday! Keep you posted on sugar if I get any. Theron

[KenWP]

That's 12 inchs over the barometric pressure. If gravity had suction you could put a gauge on a empty roll of hose and it would read something just sitting there.

[Dennis H.]

Today we were in right at 40 degrees. This morning was really cloudy and alittle spitting sleet but by lunch the sun was out and it went right up to 40.

Tomorrow it is to be in the mid 40's and lots of sun!! So I think it will be a good running day. We are to be right around 40 for the next several days then it is to be in the high 30's for a few days, not sure beyond next week though.

I just went out and turned the vac off. I was starting to get some ice in the one receiver and they were not dumping as often either. I will go back out in the morning to fire it back up when it gets back above freezing.

[jrthe3]

we in north west pa still have 2 to 3 feet of snow in the woods this warm weather is just here to thaw out the lake and fire up the lake efect snow machine and dump on us again and i say bring it on i need the over time

[Brian Ryther]

Should I tap Today? Sunday High of 44, overnight of 36, Monday 44, then it is cold of for the rest of the week. The thing that concerns me most is the south - south east winds. East is least, South will shut you down. It may be warm enough but will it even run.

[Gary R]

Ahhh...that darn wind. A few people to the south have tapped small operations. The temps have been low but should have sap flowing. But, the wind has been out of the southeast.They have not gotten much sap. Can anyone explain why wind direction effects sap flow? Please help us out:)

[PATheron]

Brian- Im not sure what to tell you. It really is early to tap but if you can keep your pump on all the time that its thawed out from here on out and you have new plastic in the trees you might be ok. Thats kind of my strategy. Other thing is with me working alone I have to start early. I think the wind bothers it but at 20" plus I kind of figure you just need things thawed out. Im hoping tomarrow and monday it runs HARRRRRRD down here. Theron

[Brian Ryther]

I've got it!!! Big fans on the sugar bush to trick the trees that there is a West wind.
I just looked at my sugar journal from last season. I taped on Feb 7th. By the end of Feb I had made about 2% of my total crop. I think it might be too early for me. I am going to spend my energy on putting up more lines, more taps, general improvments.

[Dennis H.]

We had a nice cold night and the sn is out and shining bright we are to get to the low 40's today.
I am waiting for the temps to get to above freezing and the vac will be switched on for the day.

For the few hrs that I had it on yesterday, 3 hours, I got about 20gals out of my 70 trees. That is excellant for my scrawny woods Red's.

I am loving this vac already.

[3rdgen.maple]

Brian If you were gonna do it you should have about a week ago. If you did not take advantage of that warmup it is to late now. After tuesday we go into a deep freeze here in NY again with alot of single digit nights in the month. I just read and article by some weather scientific guru and he is claiming that Feb. is gonna be the coldest one we have had in 50 years. Hope he is wrong as they mostly are but know NY luck he wont be.

[KenWP]

Forecast calls for cold in Feb here also. Was tres cold last night here but the sun warms things up good in the daytime. Supposed to rain Tuesday and then get cold again probbably until tapping time end of Feb first part of March. I just follow Ennis Maple and Tectuar when they tap and keep watch of the french man down the road. I have a feeling this year is going to be different then last by a long shot.

[PerryW]

Brian,

I would check with other producers in your area. Not sure where in NY you are, but I'm guessing even the warmest part of NY state don't usually get tapped till feb.

You can hang a bucket or two to see how much it's running. It usually takes several days of real warm weather to get the trees running after being cold all winter.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Sap's not flowing in my area even with above freezing temps. Larry Harris who is a member on here and his sugarhouse is about 3 miles from mine way bird flies put in 150 taps around last Wed or Thurs and only got 200 gallon of sap in a week. Trees are not ready to run yet, it is Jan. Tapping this early is going to cause trees to slow down or shut down when the sap should be running best in about 6 weeks from now unless you are sucking all the bacteria out of the holes running high vacuum.

[PATheron]

Dave Y- 2% even. I think ( got a feelin) tomarrow it is going to run HARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dave Y]

It,s getting better but the wind is out of the south, no sap

[PATheron]

Dave- All I want is one tanker trailer full and Ill be happy. Thats not to much to ask. 2 % would be nice. I think you guys are going to have good sugar this year seeing that reading that quick. Im pretty sure that came from trees I just bored and thats a good sign. Theron

[maplecrest]

the way we test the weather here to see when sap will run is to fill a 5 gallon plastic pail with water and let it freeze . leave outside on southeast. if that pail does not thaw the trees will not run. if thawing the trees will run. try it it works.for those of you wondering if the sap will run

[caseyssugarshack93]

Theron how many taps you have in, must have atleast 3500 in by now? SUPPPTO BE 50 tomorrow, but will be like 40 up here in the mnts, hope you get some BIG BIG SAPPP


NATE

[PATheron]

Nate- Better part of 3000 I think and its running HARRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 24HOURS TILL FREEZE UP. Theron

[caseyssugarshack93]

How Much Sap So Far!!!! Looks Like Big Sap In Pa

[PATheron]

Im not sure Nate. Its going to one end of the tanker trailer and thats 3000 gallons so its hard to say becouse its a big tank. The 5000 gallon releaser is dumping every ten minutes or a little quicker. Im going to bed, Ill check it in the night and make sure it doesnt get full. Theron

[caseyssugarshack93]

Whats the vac gauge reading, BIG NUMBERS!!!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Ok, Theron has really lost his mind. Don't know what he has been dreaming, but he has a 5,000 gallon releaser dumping every few minutes. Bet Lappiere himself couldn't dream that big. How many taps to make it dump that fast, about 1.5 million!!!!

[caseyssugarshack93]

haha i didnt even catch that, Im thinking he ment 5000 tap releaser

[sapman]

haha i didnt even catch that, Im thinking he ment 5000 tap releaser

that's probably his horizontal one, I'm guessing, which I was told is 22 gal./dump. Not sure if that's accurate.

Tim

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I know, just had to raz him a little as poor guy hasn't done anything for last 10 days! He's probably so tired from all the work he's lucky if he can even remember how to type.

[Dennis H.]

Holy cow! Did the trees ever run today. The temps here got up to 58 degrees.
I got close to 40gals when I emtied the tanks this afternoon right before firing up the evap and went and checked the tanks before coming in for the evening and I have maybe 10 more gals waiting for tomorrow.
I couldn't finish all the sap that I have, I'll have to finish that tomorrow. Right now I believe I might have 20-25 more gals to boil this is not including what I may get tomorrow! I should be making my 1st batch of syrup in another day!!:cool:

Hey Theron how are you making out up there.

[3rdgen.maple]

PATheron How close are you to interstate 81??? I got done working in DC about 2 days earlier than expected and will be heading home tomarrow morning? Was looking to kill a little time if you are close to 81 and want a visitor let me know. I am wondering about the Pa trees. Driving through the thick rainy fog sunday I noticed alot of the hills the trees grew funny. Instead of growing towards the sky they seemed to be growing perpendicular with the hill. Looks like they should fall over. Im talking all of the trees on some of the hills just not a few of them. Never noticed that before or was the fog playing tricks on me?

[PATheron]

3rdgen- Ill send you a pm. BIGSAP!!! BIGSAPP!!! It did end up running pretty good. Looks like Ive got over 4000 gallons in the tanker. Never started running till around 3pm sunday and then ran till yesterday evening. Gotta put the tap count at upwards of 3000 taps. Was able to run 22 to 23 inches of vac. Everything was just tapped in and we had to try to find leaks in the pouring rain. Fixed 4 bullet holes in the mainlines. A 22 a deer round and two shotgun pellets. Tons of squirrell leaks. Had to finish setting up my new pump. In the sugarshed the releaser dumps into a small tank and then pumps to the trailer. Went out in the night and the pump was hungup and the releaser was dumping every 7 minutes on the floor of the sugarhouse kitchen. Thats 15 or 20 gallons at a time too. Anyway everything is reliable now and Im happy. Got sap to get equipment running. Should make probly 100 gallons of syrup out of the deal and Im way further ahead than I was a week ago. Looks like all the sap was 2% and thats a real good sign this early in the season. Slept 11 hours last night. Gonna clean up and sort all my tools and spend a couple days finetuning the woods Im working on and then heading for the next ones. I gotta say. I think buckets would have run good on this run even becouse when I was in the woods Id pull a drop line on even a big tree and drip, drip, drip. Looks like freeze up for a week or so and thats good Ill get a lot done while its froze up and then we'll have BIGGER SAP!!! Theron

[Parker]

TTTHHEERRROONNN- You are my hero!

[PATheron]

PARRRR( SO MUCH WOOD I CAN STAND ON THE TANKER TRAILER AND SEE THE WOODPILE)KEEER- You said Ive got to WANNNNNNNNNNNN IT!!!! Theeeeron

[Maplewalnut]

I can confirm Theron's observations. It ran like heck yesterday. I got over 3 gallons of sap per hole yesterday. Only had a portion of my taps in but I am ready to boil tonight after work. Happy days. Just what I wanted, a big quick run followed by another freeze up. Perfect for getting all the bugs worked out and now I'll be ready for the season to start. This run is like batting practice!

Mike

[PATheron]

BIGSAP!!! BIGSAP!!! Just kidding, going to be real cold here now. Heading after the big trees next. Gotta clean a plastic tank and run a line from the releaser to it. This will be the first sap Ive ever had to go after with the pickup. Hoping for a lot of sugar in it though with the trees being so large. Took yesterday off and didnt do anything syrup. Kind of in recuperation mode from last week. Getting ready to go back to the races though. Looks like next warmup is weekend after this. Hope to get those big trees tapped by then. Mountain Van- Your an early tapper, how you making out? Still building new or starting to tap? Dennis- How many taps and how much sap per tap so far with the pump? You guys need to give me some BIGSAP stories to keep me psyched up so I can get all this work done. Theron

[Russell Lampron]

Yeah Dennis we need some feed back. Is that SP-22 sucking for you or what. The sap totals so far seem kind of small but I never had only 70 taps on vacuum before.

[Dennis H.]

I am Still working out small things here and there.
The other day it ran while I was sleeping only to find that when I got up that the rubber seal on my dump valve cam loose and was sucking air. I checked the vac gauge and it was down to 10"!!!!
I have a fix for that but it must wait till this weekend when I have all the sap boiled down and we get the freeze up that they are calling.
I also have to relocate my manifold/resovour thing a little higher on my releaser. The releaser never dumps until the manifold thing is almost filled to so when the releaser finaly dumps it starts to suck sap back up the mainline out of the manifold. I figure about 1' higher will do the trick.

AS for the amount of sap I am getting? I can tell you I am already getting more sap on these OK days compared to what I was getting on the BEST days last year on buckets. So I have faith that I haven't even started to see what I can expect. I am just glad I tapped early so I could find these little things and have time to fix them.

[Russell Lampron]

Dennis get things fixed up so that you can keep the vacuum on anytime that it is above freezing. You will get sap. There were some days last season when I was getting sap and it was only 27 degrees out.

[Edward Howell]

Sap's not flowing in my area even with above freezing temps. Larry Harris who is a member on here and his sugarhouse is about 3 miles from mine way bird flies put in 150 taps around last Wed or Thurs and only got 200 gallon of sap in a week. Trees are not ready to run yet, it is Jan. Tapping this early is going to cause trees to slow down or shut down when the sap should be running best in about 6 weeks from now unless you are sucking all the bacteria out of the holes running high vacuum.

Bradon ,

Very relieved to see that you are seeing the conditions with the trees. I put a few test taps out but the production is almost nothing.:cry:

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Ed,

Give it about 2 more weeks and it is go time. I am hoping to hold off until at least Feb 10th to tap. Like to start tapping Feb 13th and tap 260 in my biggest south bush, tap 145 in other south bush on 20th and tap 220 in my north bush from 25th to 27 and hopefully the season will go to around March 21st.

Imagine you would be pretty close to same schedule.

[PATheron]

BIGSAP!!!! BIGSAP!! Just kidding, only 9 degrees here right now. Dont think its going to run. Did some fixing on the sugarhouse releaser last night. Got all the valves moved inside the shed and fixed some leaks on it. Tonight is going to be the start of my "NO MAPLE LEFT BEHIND POLICY." Im charging up all my drill batteries and every maple tree with in a two mile radius is getting a hole. Even trees I dont have tube to but might before spring are getting holes. Going to drill 2000 next two days and then get them hooked up for the next run. Think yesterday I may have had a devine experiance. Things were slow at work and I think I heard him say, " TAP MORE TREES, YOU CAN DO IT." So Ive got a bunch more tube and I do have permission up the road so ???? I might have to do it, you cant argue with God's will in your life. Hope everyone is getting ready fo the big runs. Gotta keep hammering out the work, want to fill 50 bigboy drums BADDDD!!!! Theron

[Russell Lampron]

THEEEE(where are you going to put all of that syrup)ROOOON,

I have 2 big boy drums that I will trade with you for 2 30's. It's been hard to resist the temptation to tap here the past couple of weeks. This mornings 7 degrees and no above freezing temps in the 10 day tell me I did the right thing by not tapping. The repairs in my woods are almost done and it is time to expand. I should be able to get 2 or 300 more in this year.

[michelle32]

Russ whens the expanion happening. Would like to stop by and give you a hand. This weekend out of the question. But free the fallowing weekend three days. Do you now if sunnyside is open yet? Keith

[Dill]

Sunnyside was not open wensday when I drove up there. No sign in the door as to when they where going to open either.
Josh and I are taking my truck to Bascom's tomorrow morning what do ya need?

[michelle32]

Dill, Thanks for the offer. Just found out my sons coming home this weekend from college. He lives at Clarks sugar house just down the road from Bascom's. So he's picking up the stuff for me. Did you ask Josh how he liked burning the pallets last year? Keith

[caseyssugarshack93]

Russ, What was the tap count last year, should be like what 800 this year, should work pretty good with the 150, and 2x6, hope everone has a good season, looks ill have 2000 on vac this season, but all depends if i can get some more mainline, I have to do one more run and it should pick up between100-250 taps i figure but all depedns if i can some mainline, The 2x6 is going to really pour some serious syrup of that this year,

[Dill]

He said they burn hot. I have the same plan he used last year, mix pallet wood in with so/so slab wood. Usually I get pallets from the hardware store, but there a limited supply and I still have to cut them up. I'm going to check your place out next week. Thanks for the hookup.

[PATheron]

4000 today

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

gallons of sap or taps in the tree?? Can't imagine you got 4000 gallons of sap as it was 14 degrees all day here today and I am way south of you and single digits tonight along with about 8" of snow since last night.

[PATheron]

Brandon- Taps in trees. Its freezing cold here too. 2 degrees right now. Theron

[Russell Lampron]

Nate I had 538 taps total last season. 77 of those were buckets and the rest were on vacuum. Just going through and replacing the drops in my old section of woods I have picked up about 25 more for this season. I will be adding as many as possible between now and sugaring season and hope to be up to 800 total. At last count I had 3 400' rolls of 3/4" mainline and 6 rolls of 5/16" in stock. I'm stocked up on clamps and fittings too. With 3 weeks to tapping time I will be hitting the woods hard next weekend.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Theron,

Your photobucket link still doesn't work??

[caseyssugarshack93]

try this brandon= http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/patheron/

theron still had the : ) at the end of his link

[PATheron]

Brandon- Im going to try to get a whole bunch of new pics this next weekend. Im pretty much a computer idiot. 4850 taps as of today near as I can tell. Looks like its going to be 5000. Ive got a week of hooking up and Im cought up. Then Im going to walk around my buddies woods up the road and throw around some ideas in my head. Could be more holes. Hate to stop now that Im just getting good at drilling them. Theron

[caseyssugarshack93]

Theron at this rate you will be at 10000 by next season, gunna have to upgrade some equip for that many, KEEP DRILLING, DONT STOP NOW!!!!!!, it looks like ill ONLY have 2000 taps this season or close to it, unlike the 5000 like you, then hope for 3000 next season? but who knows, might havea bite on a 40 acre peice of land, suppto be loaded with taps, might be going all out if all goes well!!!!!! FROZE HARD HERE!, when does it look like your going to get a other run theron?.did you boil that sap yet,?

[PATheron]

Havent boiled it yet. Its not going to make real good syrup anyway so Im going to hit it this weekend. That would be great if you got 40 acres of nice maple. Thats a lot of taps. If you have 2000 taps and the way you keep up on your vac youll probly make a lot of syrup. I dont want to spend anymore money next year so Im going to try not to keep tapping but somehow I always end up putting more in. Now Im trying to crunch numbers that dont say that Im going to be up all night boiling this year and Im having trouble coming up with them. Theron

[caseyssugarshack93]

well im at 1610 taps right now that are tubing and going to be all vac, hope to get to add 200 more and get to atleast 1800 anyway but my plan was 2000 on vac but im leaning towrd 1800 on vac and maybe 100 buckets, hopfuly i can add that 200 though, i dont have long and i have alot to do, so i might not even beable to do that, but once i get some more pump, hopfuly this week start adding more taps!!!!


how many gallons of syrup are you shooting for theron? 2500?

[PATheron]

Casey- When I was 16 I had like a 100 buckets so I think your doing pretty darn good. 1800 taps on vac will make a lot of syrup. Especially you basically work alone and I have my Dad helping me a lot. Id like to make 2500 gallons but Im not going to say its going to happen for sure. I have a lot more to go wrong now than I did before. Im also going after sap now with the truck and have a lot more lines to keep tight so I doubt my vac will be as high. Im in real good shape though for where we are in the season. Im just going to do my best and whatever we make Im going to be proud of it. Theron

[caseyssugarshack93]

Whats The Update Now..how Many Holes, When You Figure The Next Sap Flows Gunna Be !!!!!!!:d

[PATheron]

BIGSAPP!!!! BIGSAPP!!!! Casey- Im down with the sickness again. Been having bad luck getting sick this winter. Got a stomach bug. I think Im at 4900 right now. Got a weekends worth of work hooking things up. The 3000 into the shed are good. The 1000 across the road are in but I have to run wire down there and hook up a pump and light bulb so they will automatically come to the shed. The 650 tap bush with the big trees are in but need a drain line to the road and the 1500 gallon tank put in place. The booy bush needs a two pipe ladder made, run some one inch across the driveway and a 100 taps tapped in and thats done. Im going to try to get all that done this weekend. Then Im going to TRY to go up to my buddys and put another 1000 taps in if I can. Im really ready for season this year so I might be able to. Its going to be down and dirty and fast. It wont be done right either. Its going to have a dairy pump on it and whatever I get I get its all bonus. I think I can make them run pretty decent though. That, if it happens, will give me maybe 6000( not all done right though) plus my buddy is bringing me sap from 1500 gravity taps. Hey, you got to start somewhere! Im not freaking out though becouse I think Ive got a good plan. Im going to process 3000 gallons at a time and I think I can do that in 4 hours. Ill do that and if its 2% Ive made 75 gallons by 8 pm starting boiling at 4pm. Then I should have another 3000 ro'd by 8 and Ill boil till midnight and Ill have 150 gals. If I have 9000 gallons. Ill take the next day off and boil till 4 am and Ill have 225. Im going 12 hours on membranes and shutting down. If tanks run over, oh well, I just want to always have sap to keep capping drums. THATS THE PLAN! If at the end of the season my averages suck but I have 2500 gallons of syrup or better drummed. Ill have lots of money to go buy beer and comfort myself. Theee( gonna keep drillin holes, I JUST DONT CARE!!@!@!!rooon) :) :)

[Dave Y]

Theron, sorry to hear you are not feeling well. But glad to hear it is not keeping you down. I have to ask, what is "not done right" ? I cant comprehend that statement. For me if it isn't done right, it isn't done. Just curious.

[PATheron]

The bush Im doing next I dont have time to do for this year for sure so Im just going to hook a bunch of trees up with 5/16 and basically it'll be like its gravity and Ill stick a small dairy pump on it to move sap through the lines. Its just not going to be done right for vac is what I meant. Theron

[PATheron]

Dave- I never really thought about it untill you asked but in my mind If I have lines that arent setup up with decently pitched, properly sized mainline, with 20 Plus inches of vac hopefully at each tap I dont consider it done right. Not that there is a thing wrong with gravity mapling Im just a vac guy so thats how I think. Im always in the mode of trying to get the most vac I can get so if I have gravity stuff I dont really consider it done yet but its still extra sap and Ill try to get it. Theron

[Dave Y]

Theron,
That makes more sense. I was thinking if this guy can slap in 1000 taps that quick maybe I should have him come over and finish the other 4 or 5,000 taps left in my woods for me.

[PATheron]

:) :) :) BIGSAP ALERT!!!!! BIGSAP ALERT!!!- You genetic defects need to listen and you need to listen good. Ive held my tongue on the frost Poems and all that but playtime is OVER!! The maple Gods have been decent enough to freeze us up for the next two weeks at least. NO EXCUSES, Things better be FINETUNED with all this heads up time. CLEAN TANKS, PERFECT LINES, CLEAN EVAPERATORS, BUCKETS AT THE READY, CORDLESS DRILLS TUNED UP, NO TREES LEFT BEHIND. THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST SEASON EVER, I CAN FEEL IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Theron

[gmcooper]

Therooooon That's not a BIG SAP ALERT it's a big freaking snowstorm headed your way!!!!!!!LOL Keep on tappin!
Mark

[PATheron]

BIGSNOW!!! BIGSNOW!!!! Brandon!!!! Brandon!!! Come in, over!!! Am I going to have to come down there and put your power back on? Theron

[farmall h]

Therooon, how much snow?

[Dennis H.]

I can't even imagine what Brandon got down there! We got 18" of snow by the time I got out to clean off the drive this morning. It was to be worse the farther south you go.

[caseyssugarshack93]

Storm totaly missed us up north, Havent even got a good snow storm yet this year and it dont look like were gunna but i remeber 2 years ago in march we got 2 feet of wicked heavy wet snow

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

We only got 4 or 5 inches where I live, but it was almost all sleet and freezing rain, so it is almost like solid ice.

As far as the sugarhouse, it is about 25 miles away and they got around 18". Plan on buying my first set of snowshoes this weekend as there is probably 25 to 30 inches on the ground there now and another storm on the way in about 72 hours and possibly another one next weekend.

Season is already late starting and 10 day forecast shows no break past middle of Feb, so season is getting shorter by the day and we haven't even tapped.

[PATheron]

Brandon- Hope you have a good season even though it starts late. Tomarrow Im starting my own epesode of EXTREME SUGAR BUSH INTALLATION FASTFOREWARD VERSION. Heading up to my buddys with 8000' of mainline. Giving myself three days to put a 1000 taps in. Im done goofing around. Three days start to finish. I bought a 1100 gallon tank for it. Going to put my sp22 on it and a releaser and were in business. Sick of taking months to put bushes in. This ones going fast foreward. I think I can make it work pretty darn good too. That should give me 6000 by next weekend. Plus thats all the taps I have permission to put in pretty much for now so Ill have to quit. Unless were still froze up next month maybe Ill go try to find some more. :) :) Theron

[maplecrest]

theeron you nut. are you out of money yet??? got 2500 holes drilled 7500 to go

[Gary R]

Theron,

Word on the street is that King Richard is adding 20,000 this year. Any truth to that? You slacker:)

[markcasper]

Theron, YOU ARE NUTS!!!! You better hope you don't get sick and/or throw your back out on trhe first day of boiling!

[PATheron]

Richard just put in 12000 new last month I think and I believe he said he'll have 90,000. I drive by and just shake my head. Does make a guy feel kind of like a looser. Im trying though. Theron

[markcasper]

I would say so, only a 1000 in 3 days.

[caseyssugarshack93]

12,000 in a month, that guy must work fast or have a wicked crew of people, guy must be rich to either buy land or lease the land then tube it and then maple syrup must have alot of people to help, probably taps a hole mnt, i know around here theres tons of maples on mtns but cant get to them, State land.,

[Dave Y]

Casey,
That guy just happens to be the largest producer in the state. He had 70,000taps last year.

[PATheron]

Casey- Richard, as far as I know was a farmer that basically started with nothing. He liked to syrup way better than farming I think and he built that whole setup up with nothing more than hard work and guts. I think his original sugar shed was up in his pasture with a dirt floor. Theres no end to the respect I have for Richard. Give you the shirt off his back. Theron

[Russell Lampron]

You should see his RO machine. It has 10 towers and 3 main pumps. I think his main man Todd said that it will do 6000 gallons an hour. Makes my 150 look like a tinker toy.

[Gary R]

Theron you are no loser:) You are an inspiration to all of us. I'm sure my tap count will stay below triple digits.

When I met Richard over the summer it was hay season. He does custom baling in the summer. Don't quote me but I think he said they make 23,000 round bales for customers. That's some serious hay!

[PATheron]

I think this year he is running 13 or 15 posts or something like that Russ. This new bush really is neat. It has a real nice little building with two 4600 gallon tanks, I think, and two 150 cfm two stage pumps. Looked to me like he used 4 two inch lines coming off the hill. It even comes off the hill underground. Fun to watch it when its running. Looks like Ill have everything hooked to my house done this week. We finished tapping it today and I think its pretty much right around 5000. Started up to my friend Andy's house today. Looks like Im going to get a 1000 probly or a bit more I think. I think Ill have it all done next week Id say. Then I should be ready. We get what we get. Somthing ought to happen hopefully. Theres going to be 5 releasers running at the same time for sure and maybe six. That ought to be a recipe for disaster. Theron:)

[caseyssugarshack93]

thereon is that the operation in your photobucket? the guy with the 70,000-90,000 taps

[waysidemaple]

My dad use to insure Mr. Patterson when he was in insurance. Got the behind the scene tour when I was in 10th grade. They were switching out the pans when I was there it was insane. havn't been over there in 4 or 5 years but it was amazing. They had sap coming into stainless steel milk tankers. My grandpa and I were both drooling the whole time.

[PATheron]

Casey- That is Richards stuff on my photobucket. I thought the pics were neat so I put them on there. Im really hoping that this next weekend I will be able to do a whole new bunch of pics on my photobucket for you guys with all my improvements. Theres a lot of neat things to see. Wayside- Where is your setup in Troy? I thought I new everyone that was sugaring in my area. Do you have a tubing bush or run buckets? Im over near Roseville. Theron

[Russell Lampron]

Theron I hope you have your swimmies ready. You were having trouble keeping up last year and now you have almost twice as much. You need to update your signature and get rid of the smiley at the end of your photobucket address so we can see you pictures. Good luck with the BIG SAP. I would like to come down and help but I have too much to do to get more taps on line here.

[caseyssugarshack93]

russ=. http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/patheron/

[waysidemaple]

Theron, I had 400 on gravity tubing and 70 on buckets when I was in high school. Sold the sap to rollosons(not sure how to spell there name) on RT 6 near Sylvania. I took all that down when I started college last year and have just been tapping around the house. Im just east of troy on RT 6 past Procare physical therapy, big white house on the right. My plan is to have my whole set up read to go when I graduate (or sooner). Just bought the evap, have tubing and taps, collection tanks, have mostof the stuff just waiting to have the time to do it. My Uncle lives in Dagget so we have prolly drivin by your place a few times.

[PATheron]

Wayside- If you turn right there to the right are you the guy that tapped the big trees by the road up towards the cemetary? You are in a good spot. Between your house and the Little Red hen theres a LOT of nice maples both sides of the roads on the banks. I think about how Id tube them everytime I drive by. I bet you could come up with a thousand nice taps with both sides. Plus there on those banks, I wonder if someone would let you do it? Theron

[waysidemaple]

I wish I was tapping those trees. One of my buddies taps those,well his dad does, but I have already talked to the owner of the cemetary and when they stop I have dibs haha. All my taps were on my land, and I had barely scratched the surface with the 400 taps. I figure ill be able to get 2500 off my property, there was an old sugar shack up there when we bought the place, that has since fallen down, had an ald english tin flat pan in it. if i can get the neighbors permission I could easily add 1500 to 2000 on to that 2500.

[Sugarmaster]

To everyone a Happy, Healthy, & Successful, sugar season!!
Gary R - Hi, hope you can make a visit in sugaring season too. We do do alot of hay in the summer. Almost as much hay as sap!
Russell - Hi, Our R.O. has spouted !!?? to 13 membranes now with 2 motars. We expect to do around 7500 gph. W will see.
Casey - Yes come for a visit and we promise you wont have to work, just bring the donuts!
Theron keep going!!! Youre not losing you are slowly catching up.!! We thank Theron for putting up some of our pics cause us old foggys dont know how to do it. Its a challage to type on this page. Linda Neal has to listening then type what I say, at least the spelling is better.
The update for this year from here is a 13 membrane RO, 83,000 taps. Last year we lost one of our bushes so we got 2 small to take the place and a new one added on. Linda keeps saying she is going to quit if I get any sugar bush but she is still here. We also dont have some of the boys here working this year because o the gas jobs, so we have hired some Amish and they seem to be working out well. We are aiming for Feb 22 to start tapping. Shpould take us about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks if all goes well. Everyone keep in touch.
Richard

[sapman]

Richard, good to hear from you! I've always enjoyed reading your posts over the years. Please do keep us updated on how things are in your world!

Tim

[Gary R]

Hello Richard! I think many of us have thought you've already been busy tapping. I was at Ed Grandzel's house a couple weeks ago. He has his new rig all set up and ready to go. He added forced air. Hope things go well for you guy's. Save some sap for the rest of us:)

[Russell Lampron]

Hi Richard,

Last year when I was down Todd and I were joking about how all of my sap from the whole season would fit into one of the 4500 gallon tanks that you have. We were wrong. I could have filled both of them and then some with the sap that I got last season.

I won't be able to come down this year to check out the new additions to the RO room. I wish I could though. Theron has got the jump on you again this year. He started tapping in January. I'm kind of surprised that you haven't followed his lead yet. Have a good season and keep us updated.

[PATheron]

BIGSAP UPDATE- Trying to catch up with my buddy Richard. Had to pull in professional help this weekend. Were honered here at Pierce and son's maple to have Dr. Mathew Roy, Chief operating officer and C.E.O of Royal Maple Incorperated of Buxton Maine here helping us this weekend hook up all the crap Ive bought this year for the sugar house. Were working on the used Seprotec R.O. right now. The ro is going to have two membranes and we hope it turns out to be an honest 900 gallon per hour machine. Were doing a lot of plumbing rigging things up so that we can recirculate either machine out of either compartment of the 6000 gallon tanker trailer. The plumbing is extensive. Had to buy 1000$ worth of misc. fittings at Lows yesterday. Lot of copper work and a considerable amount of plastic pvc to get everything right. Matt did a scene assessment of my sugarbush yesterday and determined we may have to change my forecast of BIGSAP to a different catagory after what he saw in the woods. We may have to rename it CATASTROPHE SAP. He also informed me that theres no way I am made of the right stuff to boil that much sap without tons of WHINING, bitching and complaining. To quote him his exact words were that I dont have to STONES to process that much sap. At least he must think I did a good job on my tubing work. Gonna try to have everything done today, both R.O.s and the new filter press and the autodraw. If everything goes good sometime today we should be making steam. Ill keep you posted. Hopefully tomarrow we can get a bunch of new pics for the photo bucket too. Theron

[vtjeeper]

PATheron, just a heads up, the link to your photos in your sig doesn't work. looks like the ":" is included in the page address at the end before your ")" when it should be separated, :). I figured it out and copy pasted but it doesn't work to just click on it. looks like a sick setup anyway

[caseyssugarshack93]

heres the link to his photobucket http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/patheron/

[Dennis H.]

How long has it been since it was pointed out to Theron about his Photobucket thing.

You will have to cut him some slack though, he hardly even has time to make any posts here on the trader anymore.

It looks like the middle of this week for me to fire up the vac. This will be the first above freezing temps for us in like 3 weeks!

[KenWP]

He's going to need 4 hands as it is. And some stones to get this all done. I say we have a side bet here as when the first post shows up that hes in trouble and needs to slow down.
I get confused just trying to figure out what all hes doing over there. I wouldn't be surprised hes got both ends of a mainline connected to two different pumps and is sucking from both ends also.

[Dennis H.]

Heck he's lost track of what he was working on last and had to bring Matt down from Maine to figure out what he hasn't finished!:D

Get ready Theron I think it may be starting for us in PA. It looks like middle of the week I may have to turn on the vac. I wish I had time to make it up your way for a visit.

[jrthe3]

theron you just give me a call when you can't handle it anymore and i will bobtail out and hook on to that full tanker and pull it back home

theron next years goal should be to fill that tanker with syrup that should get jerry 2 hummers

[Dennis H.]

Since Theron isn't on here lately I guess I will have to do it.

BIG SAP ALERT!! Everyone get ready to man all the tanks, buckets, bags, pots, pans, cups, bowls or whatever that will hold sap, it is going to be running this weekend.

The next 7 days look awesome for me down here had the pump running and will have enough to boil tomorrow morning after I get home from work!!

[802maple]

Careful, just make sure my wife doesn't know


theron next years goal should be to fill that tanker with syrup that should get jerry 2 hummers[/QUOTE]

[Farmboy]

Sap is running in southern MA. No BIGSAP yet. Mabey next week. my tanks are ready. I'm waiting for the bigsap. I had enough sap to start sweetening the pan on my half pint today. I still need to set up a block arch outside to help with the big sap.

[802maple]

Where oh Where has the BIGSAP king disappeared to. Did he get swallowed up by all that vacuum or get concentrated with his 2 RO's?

[Sugarmaker]

My guess is that he is tapping trees in the dark as fast as he can. Trying to get ready for the possible run this weekend.:)

Chris

[farmall h]

I BET HE SPENT ALL HIS $ ON SUGARING SUPPLIES AND HAS NO MONEY FOR INTERNET SERVICE:evil:

[heus]

Chris do you think its worth tapping tomorrow? After 2-3 warm days its supposed to get cold again. My test tap has run the past 2 days.

[3rdgen.maple]

I am betting his wife found out how much money he spent and grounded him from the computer.

[Paddymountain]

On Thursday my wife and I traveled to NY up rt 15 past Mansfield. When we looked off to the east from on top the mountains we saw a new wind turbine farm. As a loyal Mapletrader, and knowing that PaTheron lives over there to the east of Mansfield.I could only surmise that he is behind this. With all his expansions, there would definately be a need for more power on the grid to run alll his new vacuum pumps, releasers, fans, motors and such. At the least someone else caught wind(no pun) of his operation, and decided to capitalise
on it themselves!!!!

[Turtlecreek]

I don't think those are wind turbines, I think those are his wind driven vacum pumps, and all of those gas wells are for gas to fire his evaporator.

[PATheron]

BIGSAP!!!! BIGSAP!!!! Sorry Ive been gone guys. Been through the ringer down here. Trying to get everything working and its been much harder than I thought. Im not going to be able to get the 1000 more taps in. Started it and had to abandon the idea. Im having a heck of a time just getting my stuff working good here. At this point I have everything working but everything also needs improving. The woods right now are where Ive got the 3000 at the sugarhouse a little over 20 inches. The Beckel bush is at 15 to 18 inches. Thats one that was way out on a one inch feed line. The Heisey bush, the 1000 across the road is at roughtly 18 inches. The long runs of one inch didnt work out for me. I can get the vac there where its in the 20's but theres not enough poop to it. I do think I could do it if I got the leaks perfect but theres not the time to do it. What I did is run the one inch line from the Booy bush over to the Beckel one so theres two one inch lines and that fixed it over there so its operable. Now Im going to put a deleval 75 on the Booy bush gas. Thats the best I can come up with this year. So right now Ive got the pump running on 4600 taps roughly with everything 15 to 20 inches. I know that doesnt sound that great but it sure seemed to come hard to me. The seprotech ro worked great. We added another membrane to it and it runs continuously at 600 gallons of permeate and hour and 300 gallons of concentrate. So now with that and the cdl running I can get rid of 900 gallons of water an hour untill the sap gets pretty sweet. The nice thing is even with the sepro recircing itll step 2 percent sap right to 8 with one pass on recirc, thats pretty awesome as soon as the sap starts thickining up. I checked the perm like a hawk and can see no passage of sugar while recircing. Ro'd everything to real high concentrate and with the ice in the trailer and the amount of week sap I had all I basically did was sweeten my pans. I think my entire evaperator is basically syrup. Im going to have to take it really easy this next fire up and get it out of there. Boiled the whole thing over first boil, gallons of 20 percent down the drain. Doing our best and trying not to get frustrated. Lot to do and it looks like our weather is coming next week. You guys up north are getting the weather right now. Hope you have a humdinger season. Gonna keep doing our best. Theron

[HudsonHawk]

**** Theron....I'm exhausted just READING that!!!! Good luck and keep you chin up........so you don't swallow any sap!!!

[3rdgen.maple]

On Thursday my wife and I traveled to NY up rt 15 past Mansfield. When we looked off to the east from on top the mountains we saw a new wind turbine farm. As a loyal Mapletrader, and knowing that PaTheron lives over there to the east of Mansfield.I could only surmise that he is behind this. With all his expansions, there would definately be a need for more power on the grid to run alll his new vacuum pumps, releasers, fans, motors and such. At the least someone else caught wind(no pun) of his operation, and decided to capitalise
on it themselves!!!!

When did PaTheron move to NY. Those turbines you seen are on tug hill there are 100's and 100's of them. Just a hop skip and a small jump from my house.

[Paddymountain]

Rest assured they are in Pa ,but.... he may need power from NY also

[KenWP]

I wonder if we could get Gordon Ramsey to go over to Therons and help him out. That or that mission impossible cook. I am confused just trying to keep track of him. Anybody missing sap he's probbably hooked onto the back end of your lines someplace.

[3rdgen.maple]

I thought you were talking about the wind farms in NY. Had me thinking there for a minute lol.

[PATheron]

Guys- There is a wind farm now right by my house. He was seeing the turbines here by me. I think theres like 60 of them right now. Theron

[PATheron]

BIGSAPP!!!! BIGSAPP!!!- THIS IS NOT A TEST, REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A TEST. The northern part of the maple sugaring areas is now experiencing higher than normal temperatures for this time of year. Dr. Roy's sugar bush in southern Maine is running like CRAZY!! I look at the weather up there and 20-40, 20-40 as far as the eye can see. Our weather here looks like its going to do the same thing starting next week. Maybe this is going to be the HUMDINGER season. Maybe itll be 20-40 straight through till April. GET READY NOW!!! IT COULD HAPPEN!!! BARRELLS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:) :) :) :) Theron

[jrthe3]

theron you mite want to change you warning to a big snow warning

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Theron,

Not to put a damper on things but another big snow warning is on the way. Hate to hear all the problems you have been having but if your weather is anything like our weather, it might be a good year to have problems if any year is a good year. Too cold down here for next 9 days and way this weather is going, I am not sure any of us on the southern part of the maple belt will make over a 50% crop.

[Dill]

Yup I'm looking at a 10 day forecast that has highs of 32-35 but not a ray of sunshine in it.

[Parker]

Theron-how much syrup have you made?

[3rdgen.maple]

Big snow for you guys in the new egland area is no joke. I drove home today from maine to bascoms then home and man NH got walloped. Sure wish they had some snow plows:) You NH sure do have some frost problems heaving your roads. Bascoms report at 4:00 today there at 800 gallons of syrup made.

[Dill]

The frost heaves are some of the worst I remember. 2 things going into that. We had a 2 almost 3 weeks January thaw so they started eariler especially the big frost dips. And the state has been ignoring the 2 lane highways for 5 or 6 years min. Most much longer. They ground up 2 yr old top course on 101 for "stimulus work" but the road my parents are on hasn't been paved in 12 years.
One thing about NY is your taxes suck, but you have amazing state roads, upstate at least.

[Dennis H.]

The Sap is running down here!! Finally!

It is looking like this week is going to be a good one for me. After all the cold and nasty weather that we have had it is about time. I have only made 2 gal of syrup so far and I am already a little over 2 weeks later than I started last year.

[Dennis H.]

Holy Crap! BIG SAP ALERT! The flood gates opened today for me. I can say that the season is here and ready to roll like it or not.

Got most of it boiled down this evening, going to work sucks it makes me close up shop early. The rest of the week look awesome so I might have to take a few days off at the end of the week to catch up.

[PATheron]

BIGSAPP!!!!! BIGSAPPP!!!!!! Got my first confirmed syrup count. Got a bigboy drum made yesterday. PENNSYLVANIA FANCY!!! Really is fancy too, 80% on light transmission and better taste than anything I made last year. Hope everyone is ready. Looks like good weather starting here this weekend. Hope everyone makes BIG SYRUP!!!!! Theron

[Turtlecreek]

Here in the central part of the state we have had 2 good days of BIG SAP!! For a small producer that just doubled his taps and evaporator size it is a bit much getting adjusted. I even doubled my storage capacity and that is full.

[Dennis H.]

Theres Theron I was getting worried, I thought I was going to have to make a run north to be sure he didn't get sucked into one of his vac's

This week is looking better every day!! Almost 50 by the weekend!!

[PATheron]

Update from Bigsap Inc.- Not doing much for sap here so far. Dennis and his area are doing great and up north the guys are doing great but here we have a foot of snow and things just keep kind of drizzling. It looks like starting saturday its going to get good here for at least a week maybe. Ive taken next week off and hope to make a bunch of syrup. Ive got all 5000 on vac give or take a few lats that are down and need fixing. Ive gotten the deleval 75 working well on the Booy bush with a 5 horse gas engine. Im real impressed on how thats working. Ive got to put in the dump station here at the house tonight to offload sap and also rig up my sap pump and truck tank and were ready to start hauling sap. That should have me all ready then its just tighten everything up and get the vac higher and higher. The only sap weve made so far was really good quality and I hope thats the case this next week and Im thinking it will be. My neighbor buddy is tapping in his gravity stuff right now. He says thats all coming to my house. At least 1500 taps anyway. So hopefully there will be something to boil next week. 6500 holes ought to generate something! Hope everyone is having fun. Were definitely in BIGSAP ALERT here in this area for next week. Keep you guys posted if we make anything here. Theron

[Dennis H.]

Yes it is running down here. Just back in from boiling for 5 hours, I got the milk tank empty!!

We are loosing what little snow we still have and with the temps to be in the high 40's and low 50's for the next several days I might have to take a few more days off work next week to catch back up from this weekend!

[jrthe3]

still have about 40 inchs of snow on ground it is not melting as fast as i would like it to but it will come around

[Sugarmaster]

Update from Pattersons. We are finally tapped. Started on Feb 22 and are finishing up today. It has been quite the trial this year. Nothing seemed to go right. Had all our tanks here at the sugarhouse full and needed to start boiling which we are right now. Few new things added for this year. 5 more membranes added to the 8 we already had, an 20" filter press (it better do what it is suppose to), and 3 new sugar bushes put in. We were aiming for 90,000 taps but only had time to get to 83,000.thats enough anyway. Hope everyone else had an easier time getting started and a better year than last.good luck to all and keep in touch.
Richard

[PATheron]

Richard- My hats off to you. I dont know how you guys do it. Ive been working everyday on my stuff all year and I still dont have my act together. Ive got a 55 drum full of the nicest fancy syrup Ive probly ever made. Very good flavor and 80 on light transmission. I think by noon tomarrow Ill have another 80 gallons made Im hoping. Things thawed out enough here today to drizzle some sap in but theres a foot of snow up here and things arent really running. It did thaw enough for me to see I have a ton of vac leaks. Was down to 18 inches at the pump with 4600 taps on a 130 cfm pump. Lots of leaks to fix. Cant find them till things thaw out though. Tomarrow afternoon Im going on leak patrol and then again monday. Forecast sure looks good. Probly take a couple days to get going here I think. Dad said it was 8 degrees last night. Theron

[orange county maple]

Had about 500gal yesterday up to 35gals med amber from 600 taps. I just see a post from P.A. 40" of snow on the ground.:lol: Get out there and start digging for lines. If you get good maybe next year you can help me. This year was great tapped without snowshoes, normally 40" to 60" of snow here on the ground. Good Luck

[Russell Lampron]

Theron I am catching up to you. I have made 45 gallons of syrup from my 600 plus taps if I include the buckets which I have only collected 150 gallons from so far. The sap has been running every day up here since I started tapping on 2/20.

My hat is off to you and Richard, I still have a couple of pesky vacuum leaks that I can't find. I can't imagine how hard it must be to find leaks on 83,000 taps.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

OK, you guys are slacking with the big sap updates. I don't normally post here, but here goes.

I picked up 950 gallons this evening and left at least another 150+ in the woods. Down to about 25 tonight and 56 tomorrow with no wind and lots of sun, so looks like another big run tomorrow. No freezing in sight for at least a week after tonight, so it may be a one week wonder season for the most part. Hopefully we can get another run or two as the taps are fresh and no extremely warm temps. Supposed to start raining tomorrow night a little and some rain rest of week into next week. Normal end to season is around March 21st here, but praying we can stretch it to April 3rd, but that has never happened but this year has been anything but normal.

Hoping for 2500 gallon this week and would be awesome to see 3,000 or more this week.

Got two of my retired helpers boiling tomorrow and will work in shifts with one starting around 6 tomorrow morning. Looking to boil off aprox 1,000 gallon tomorrow. Sap is crystal clear and should all be light syrup.

[KenWP]

I don't have big sap but I have reasonable sap. I am still cold a bit here and even with no frast last night picked up a reasonable amount tonight. I need a frost at least every second night to do any good. Depending on the weather tonight I might have to boil tomorrow night and Wens. for sure. If I get a really good run I am in trouble maybe.

[Farmboy]

This whole week looks good in southern mass. I got about a gallon per tap on buckets today. This whole week is going to get down to the 20s at night and high 40s or 50s during the day. This should be a good week.

[5poorsaps]

Deerfield NH area the sap went great for a couple of days, we pulled in over 4000 gallons and then it warmed up too much. Into the 50's!!! Color has changed dramatically, pulling off dark amber and probably B before the next week. Yesteredays run only yeilded a little over a thousand gallons. Hope it picks up with last nights temps....it finally dropped down to the mid 20's....all the other nights this week were 28-32F. Been a rough start but we're hoping things will straighten up. First year, troubles with burnt out motors, tree damage, power outages, generator failures, warm temps, etc.....on a good note... we had the local television crew from WMUR come out and shoot a whole weeks worth of footage from our shack airing on the 22-27th of March. Hope everyone has an awesome year... we're sure having some fun even with the heat. Doug...Sap#1

[PATheron]

BIGSAP EVERYWHERE!!!!! BIGSAP EVERYWHERE!!! MAYDAY!!!! MAYDAY!!!!- Brandon- Sorry about not keeping up with the BIGSAP UPDATES. Here goes with how things have been going. Just started to run here a couple days ago. Ive got this week off and next week too. Looks like the whole season is going to come at once here. Sap is right at two percent now on most of my trees but I still have some big trees that arent quite that but they are just waking up. My equipment is working very good this year. The seprotech ro that I bought used is performing like crazy. Its a 600 that I added a membrane to. Im customarily getting rid of 600 gallons of water an hour with it and right after a wash that rate is even higher. Actually off the flow meter. My cdl is getting rid of 300 gallons of water an hour so Im gettiing rid of dang near a thousand gallons of water an hour till things get thick. Ive got the vacuum up after a lot of work. Twenty three inches at the sugar house but at the remote bushes still 18 with everything running. Gonna keep on working on that everyday. My evaperator is way easier now with the autodraw I bought and with the bigger filter press dad doesnt even need me around while he's boiling now. So I go make the sap. Bring it home and turn it into high concentrate and then dad boils it. Love it. I never did like sugarhouse work anyway. Looks like were going to cap barrell number four today which Im pretty happy with things just starting up like this. The flaver is very good this year, way better than last year. Real happy with things so far and having a great time although things a little stressfull. Were getting in our grove though now and its getting better. Everyone have fun and a great season! Theron

[3% Solution]

Hey PA,
I've got a problem with your sap sucking devices!!!!!
Think you can throttle it back a bit, we're not getting alot sap out of the trees, barely coming in!!!!!
Thanks for taking care of that!!!!!

Dave

[5poorsaps]

I think PA is sucking all the cold air out of New Hampshire! Not a good year, way too warm!