Tapped in Elliottsburg

[Dennis H.]

Well I pulled the trigger today and tapped my maples.

Right now they are running fairly good under 20" of vac.

I had 3 trees that I drilled small hole in them a few days ago to see when things started flowing. They started to run yesterday so once I sen that they were running a lot better than yesterday I decided it was go time.

Tomorrow looks like even better weather than today. They are calling for a slight cool down next week but I am ot worried.

[tuckermtn]

Dennis- good luck with the season- go man go...

[tuckermtn]

anyone heard from Dennis? got your swimmies on?

[Dennis H.]

Yeah I am still here. Don't need my swimmies just my hip wadders for now.

I boiled down all the sap I had yesterday, somewhere around 30gals.

I just got home from work and fired up the vac again. The temps are 56 and it looks like I might get a fair amount of sap so I will let it run while I sleep today and fire the evap up this afternoon.

If this is any indication what I can expect I am in trouble. Last year on these same trees with buckets I was lucky to get 20 gals on a really really good running day. just the one day with the vac on I got somewhere between 15-20gals and that was the vac running for only 4 hrs and this is still very early in the season!!

[Dennis H.]

Just wraped up boiling for the day. I started at 3:30 this afternoon and still didn't get at all boiled down. I will finish it up tomorrow.

I am kind of worried now!!;) What is it going to like in a week or 2 when the real season goes into full swing for me.
When I woke up this afternoon I emtied the one tank which was 30 gals and I had maybe 10 in the other tank I knew right there that I am going to need my swimmies.

I am having a little trouble getting as much evap rate out of the rig this year compared to last. The only difference is the firebrick grates that I am using this year. I might have to scrap that idea an put the steel grates back in. we'll see.

[Maplewalnut]

Dennis-

congrats isn't it great when you have to worry about too much sap. You'll love that sp-22. It is a work horse. From another trader.... keep it cool and change the oil every week or two and she'll go go go

Mike

[Dennis H.]

I got a fan right now that comes on whenever the pump is running It is hanging so that it blows right onto the top of the pump head.

So far it hasn't used much if any oil. I see a drop on the exhaust port but that is it.

Thanks for the tip with the sp-22


We got back down to freezing temps last night so I fired the vac back up this morning while I am sleeping. It is to get up in the low 40's today so I should get more sap.

It looks like by Thursday it will be back to freezing temps so that will give me a chance to finish up things that I found that I must address before the big one.

[Dennis H.]

I did another 4 hrs worth of boiling last night before heading off to work.

The temps are down in the low 20's this morning and they say it is only to get up into the mid 30's so I think I won't turn the vac on today and use tonight to finish up the rest of the sap that I have. It looks like about 2 1/2-3 hrs worth of sap.

Once this sap is in the pan and boiling I can finish it to syrup and have some nice light early season maplesyrup!!!! It looks like I will end up with about 2gals.

The sugar content in the sap is quite low right now it seems to be running right around 1.5% or just below that. At least it is higher than 1%. COuld you imagine that 1% sap that's 86 gals of sap for 1 gal of syrup!!!

Well I need to head off to get some ZZZZZZ's

[Dennis H.]

winter is back. Never got out of the teen's today.

It looks like about atleast a week before thing thaw out again. I am glad I have a bunch of things to work on and fine tune. I also have to finish my 1st batch of syrup that is still siting in the pan.

[Dennis H.]

Holy cow it has been a long time since we had weather for sap run'in.

Turned on the vac this afternoon and the trees were running nicely. I should have enough to boil Fri.
The next 7 day looks prime for getting sap all but 1 day will be right at 40. I am excited and I am ready.

The mod's that I did to the Bender milk releaser seem to be what I needed. I will have to pick up a few SS nuts for weight though. I will do that in the morning.