Otsego County 2010

[Brian Ryther]

Began tapping today. First 200 are in. Only one broken CV.

[Brian Ryther]

The next 200 are in and only one more broken CV.

[Brian Ryther]

350 more for today. As expected one broken cv per day. Had a few southern facing show some trunk sap. Gave up installing the new ro in "factory condition." Found the pre filter installed backwards from the factory. That gave me licence to start tearing it all apart and put it back together the way the works best for me. Fun.

[maplwrks]

Tear it up Brian!!

[Brian Ryther]

No broken spouts today! O yea didn't tap today.

[danno]

Go gettum Brian. Keep us guys just north of you up to date on sap flow. Thanks!!!

[Brian Ryther]

Another 250 in today. No broken CV's!

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Almost halfway there Bryan. Go get them:)

[maplwrks]

Brian---Did you get that RO torn apart yet??

[Brian Ryther]

Mike,
I took the feed pump off and turned it around so that it faces the feed tank. I figure that if I keep it mounted to the frame it won't vibrate like you said yours does. I took the 5 micron filter and mounted it above the wash tank. I am considering buying another so I can change filters on the fly. I have yet to remove the MCC/FC panel and mount in the wall, but I bet I will do it before next season. FWWebb was the best price for the 20" filters. $4.00 ea when you buy a case vs $5.00 from the maple suplyers. I will post some pics when it is all done.

[Brian Ryther]

280 in today. Three releasers set. Vac goes on tomorrow. Time to start walking lines to begin finding leaks. Waiting for new tapping bits before I resume taping.

[Brian Ryther]

300 for today. Two short 30 tap to barrel road side runs. Then started the 600 bush that was gravity for the past two years that as of 5pm will be a vac bush. Just bought a new (to me) piston pump. It just made sense. vac plus releaser = $1500. Additional syrup +- 100 gal = $3000. I will make 1000 gal this year!

[Brian Ryther]

220 for today. Pricker bush hell!!! My legs are torn up from the black berry bushes.

[Brian Ryther]

Picked up my new (to me) sp-11 this morning. Then off to the woods to fix all of the leaks that I might have let go if it were under gravity. It was be a good start but I have a feeling that This woods will be the death of me before I find all of the leaks. After lunch I turned on the LR pump and started chasing leaks in my main woods. 3 taps not taped, one open valve, 4 saddles leaking, 3 rodent leaks and I have all three releasers 20"+. The sap is running. If I have 2000 gal tomorrow night I will be happy. Enough to sweeten the ro and the evap.

[Brian Ryther]

Typical. I went to gather my first sap of the year. I get it back to the barn and the new tank bulk head fitting is broken. Good thing I saw it before I dumped my whole load in the tank. Every year it is something. so.. 600 gal from 1200 taps. Enough to wet the ro and begin to sweeten the pans. Good trial run before the big sap hits.

[Mark Wengert]

Just came in from boiling the first sap of the year for me. Got 32 gallons tuesday and 42 gallons today. i figured i should boil in what i can with this great weather coming. i never know if i will be home from plowing roads or not to gather. hoping for little snow, getting slippery walking with buckets. sure did smell good in there. tested a little over 2%. not a bad start. last year i averaged 2.6%.
good luck guys and keep going!

[Brian Ryther]

From 1200 taps I was able to gather 1200 gal yesterday. The first 150 went down the drain to wash the ro out. The rest got turned into 300 gal of concentrate. Not enough to boil yet. It takes 200 to flood my pans. After a huge scramble to get the ro plumbed and test boil water, clean the pans, clean the sugar house, collect... I was able to try the ro for the first time. I can tell that it is going to be great. I am still trying to decide how much to concentrate the sap. My evap boils +-300 gph to match the ro to that I would only be concentrating to 4-5%. Time will tell. I can see that it is going to take a full day of plowing to be able to get to the tanks. New releaser comes tomorrow.
Mark I saw you buckets out. I have tree envy with those roadside monsters. Have a great season.

[danno]

Brian - 1 gallon per tap yesterday? Not too shabby! How warm did you get? We only hit 35 for an hour outside of syracuse.

[Mark Wengert]

those monster trees are hard to get to now. after plowing for the last 2 days straight i am now scratching my head and looking for a bigger tractor to plow up behind them. should be one great gather whenever i get to them. could care less tonight after this storm. oh well. happy shoveling!

[Brian Ryther]

I spent too much time plowing! Stupid snow wrecked my tubing. Down branches broke 3 mainlines, 3 C/V adaptors and pulled two 5/16 line apart. Vac was at 5" this morning. Took until 2pm before I had it back to 25"+. Sap was running good. I will be boiling tomorrow!

[Brian Ryther]

First boil today. Within two hours had the pans sweetened and five gallons of light amber. I have not made light amber in two years. Go RO...
Sap is running good. Forecast looks good for the next week.

[Mark Wengert]

Finally got some help and gathered today. Was bad but life was easier with 4 instead of 1 gathering. got a nice hot fire rolling and now i have come down with the stomach bug. to many trips running in the house so i have to call it a day. about 140 gallons behind but better safe than burnt! hopefully back on the boiling train tomarrow. was running good so might have to pull a late night this week to catch up.

[Brian Ryther]

25 gal of light amber today. Sap is running steady.

[maplwrks]

Hey Brian---How's that RO working??

[Brian Ryther]

Mike the ro is great. So far I have processed 3000 gal of sap and have only boiled for 4 hours. I have been taking it slow so far. Only concentrating to 5%. I am going to go up to 8% today and see how the evap handles it. I am sure that nature has a lot to do with it but I contribute the light amber (fancy for you vermonters) to the ro. The sap spends less time in the evap, I am not firing as hard for fear of burning, I am running the syrup pan Deep for fear of burning, the sap is super filtered so less junk. Once the season breaks loose I look forward to being able to draw 30+ gph. I now am a fan of the three way valves (once I figured out that they labled them wrong) instead of the header idea. With the three way you avoid the option of forgetting to opening a destination valve.

[Brian Ryther]

1000 gal of sap today. Not bad for 33 degrees. Boil day 3. 40gal tyd. All Light Amber. Getting lighter every day. New releaser came in today. 2000 on vac for tomo.

[Cuseman1000]

I tapped 7 trees sunday, another 12 by friday. Saturday is looking promising.

[Brian Ryther]

Spent all day setting up new vac pump and chasing leaks. I sent 1000 gal through the ro while I was working. I will collect again in the am then boil.

[Brian Ryther]

Good Boil today. 40gal of light amber. RO'ed to 6% this time I think I will go for 8% tonight. Four trips up the hill chasing leaks in two days has paid off. I have the BB2 pulling 22" @ the releaser on 600 taps. The sap is running pretty good today.

[Brian Ryther]

Boiled yesterdays sap today. 30 gal of light. Lit the fire at 9:30AM. Walked out the door at 11:30 AM. I am liking this RO thing. Looks like it ran good again today. Time to go collect.

[Brian Ryther]

Boil Day #6. 30+ of Light for the day. Lots of help today. Finally got the buckets put up. Almost finished tapping. Tired.

[Brian Ryther]

Great Day! Sun, Sap and Syrup. Gal / tap today. 33 gal for boil. Lit the fire at 6pm cleaned up by 8pm. I Love RO. Helped Myer8000 chase leaks for a few hours today. I think we put a big dent in his low vac problem.

[Brian Ryther]

Chased releaser hang ups all day. Collected 1200 gal at 2pm and sent it through the ro. Sap is still running strong. I will collect again in the morning, including buckets, Then boil in the afternoon. Maybe I will boil longer then 2 hours. I still have no idea what I am getting for evaporation rates / draw off rates. I have not boiled long enough to get a good mid boil average.

[Brian Ryther]

2,900 gal boiled in 3 hours today for 66 gal. Tested sugar content today. Buckets 2.8% for the high and one tank from a cold woods with several reds 1.7% for the low. 225gal for the season so far. I need a bigger RO. I need to run it 5 hours before I can begin to boil. Then I can only boil for another 2 hours before I run out of concentrate.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Bryan,
Get a second one and more trees:)
Doug

[Brian Ryther]

Great sap run yesterday. 1.5 gpt. I havn't been out yet but it should have run all night. High pressure pump on ro is walking a thin line. I think it is a bearing. Should have a tec. hear today or a new pump. I could hear the grinding in the motor when I started it up. Once I got it running I did not shut it down until I was completly out of sap. Made 40 gal last night.

[maplwrks]

Don't feel like the lone ranger Brian---I had to change my high pressure pump out yesterday...

[Brian Ryther]

I know I am not alone. I have been reading everybody's posts. I keep trying to explain this to my wife but she shakes her head and says "you paid how much for that and it broke already." New pump is on its way, UPS. Where do you think I should mount the new pump? I was thinking down at the house so I could monitor it. I am thinking that Jeff has the right idea, when the warrenty is up trade it in.

[maplwrks]

This is the 2nd time I've replaced mine. Are they doing an exchange for you? They brought a new one to me and mine goes back to the factory for repair and I pay the repair cost for the new pump.

[Brian Ryther]

I think they are going to repair yours and send it to me. I hope not. Right now things are not clear as to what the fine details are. I was told that they are sending me a "whole new pump" and we will work out what to do with the bad one later. They offered to pay me to come a pick up the new one or I could wait for a day and they would ship it. I just started the bad pump a few minuites ago and after holding my finger on the start button for 30 seconds it pushed it's way through the crunching bearing and started up. The sap is slowing down but it is running all day and night so I still am getting at least gal per tap per day. I need to keep processing as long as I can before the new pump shows up.

[Brian Ryther]

Time to plug great service. Chris aka "The Maple Guys" came through for me. I have my new high pressure pump for my ro. Not the motor but the whole pump. Plug and play. I do not think I would have it any sooner if I had a dealer in my back yard (which I do but I don't think they know what a high pressure pump is.)

As far as syrup production goes. 50 gal of delicious Dark Amber for today. 300gal ytd. Vac pumps keep the sap running all day and nigh long. Finding it hard to find time to clean tanks and equiptment. Filter press plugs after 10 gallons. RO high pressure pump finally completly died this morning. It tripped the service light after failing to start. After resetting it 4 times I got it to work and processed the last 1200gal of sap from last nights run/trickle.

[Brian Ryther]

Another day and more sap. Buckets are dry. Vac = .8 gal sap per tap during the past 24 hours. Today makes the 17th day in a row of collecting sap. Going to wait until tomorrow to boil after gathering in the morning. I hope that this low pressure system pushes a serious sap out of the trees. Replaced the high pressure pump on the RO this morning. It appears to be working perfect. Washed tanks as they were collected. They were looking pretty bad after this extended warm spell.

[Brian Ryther]

2500 gal of sap to make 40 gal of "B". Sugar is way down. Testing around 1.5. Sap is running very good on vac today. Buckets are still dry. Change filter press 4 times to make 40 gal. Lost of junk coming out of sap when it is being boiled.

[PATheron]

Brian- Im having the same results. Im customarily getting somewhere around 3000 gallons of sap a day. Sugar is down to around one and a half too. If it wasnt for the vac I wouldnt really have much of anything yet. We havent had a freeze in a week so its pretty amazing what the vac is doing. Theron

[sapman]

I'm in total agreement about the vac. Sugar same for me, but so far I've only made down to lo medium. Will see what tonight brings.

[Brian Ryther]

Tanks were overflowing this morning. I was not expecting to see that. I brought in 1300 and will send that through the ro this morning. Sugar is getting lower. 1.4 Going to wait to boil until tomorrow. 2nd grade is coming to the sugar house tomorrow.

[danno]

Brian - did you get below freezing last night? We only got down to 37 in CNY.

[Brian Ryther]

I have not had temps below freezing in a week.

[Brian Ryther]

I went out and collected again this afternoon to avoid overflowing tanks again in the morning. 2000 for the day. Looked at #'s today. Bottom line = 11 gal/tap so far this season. Well on my way to 20+ gal per tap. 30 would be great.

[Brian Ryther]

Once again Tanks were over flowing. I need bigger tanks. 1 gal per tap is not enough. 3200 gal boiled in 3 hours today for another 50 gal of "B". Cloudy sap = dark syrup. Great flavor. Froze up last night made for a great run where the vac was high. Had one releaser down to 15" tonight when I collected. I know what I will be doing tomorrow morning. It was amazing the difference in sap yield from the tank with 15" to the tank with 25". I might even need to collect buckets tomorrow.

[Brian Ryther]

2000 collected so far today. Best run so far. Need to collect again tonight. Boil Tomorrow in the AM. Pre school coming in the morning.

[danno]

[QUOTE= Had one releaser down to 15" tonight when I collected. I know what I will be doing tomorrow morning. It was amazing the difference in sap yield from the tank with 15" to the tank with 25". I might even need to collect buckets tomorrow.[/QUOTE]

Brian - give us numbers. How many taps in each area and what was the difference in sap collected. Similar trees/set up/exposure? I've got a neighbor whose pulling 2 to 3 times the sap I'm pulling with a similar number of taps. He's running 26", I'm running 18.5". I'm maybe 1/2 to 3/4 gallon of sap per tap, he's at 2 gallons/tap. Each year he makes about twice the syrup I make.

[Brian Ryther]

Dano,
I run four releasers with two Vac pumps for a total of 1900 with vac. For comparison sake I have two releasers with 600 taps. One bush has 600 CV's the other has 200 new drop lines and 400 with health spout adptrs. The only major difference is the cv bush faces west and the other faces east. I spent 4 hours chasing lines yesterday and have both areas at 22"+. With good vac yesterday they both brought in 700 gal of sap. Two days ago the bush that was at 15" only produced 460 gal while the other one that was at 23" gave me 700 gal. I have seen this relationship between sap and vac several times this season. My vac pumps are small so any little leaks kill vac levels. As of yesterday I am at 15 gal of sap per tap on my vac systems this year. My buckets and misc gravity lines are around 2 gal per tap so far.

[Brian Ryther]

Pre-K day. It was fun to watch 25 four year olds take a shot of syrup. They had to run in the yard for an hour before they could get back on the buss. 45 gal of 'B" this morning. 26 degrees last night is making for another big sap day. Time to begin collecting.

[Brian Ryther]

Another great day. 35 gal of "C", I like to think of it as dark "B". The best maple flavor. Already collected 1200 for tomorrow. Should have been 1400. Two tanks were over flowing by the time I was able to get to them. Looks like it will run all night. Day 23 of sap. Day 14 of boiling. 550 gal so far.

[Brian Ryther]

Sap did not run all night due to the below freezing temps. Another day another barrel of syrup. The syrup is dark but the smell and taste is to die for. Next week is looking good for sap with temps in the 20 at night and 40 during the day. Check valves are producing gal per tap still, and the sap is still clear. Buckets are doing well finally. Gravity lines are slowing down. Vac with regular adptrs. are slowing down fast. Starting to get calls from local producers for syrup to fill pre orders. Looks like it might be a sellers market in NY this season.

[Brian Ryther]

1300 collected for the day. Still going strong.

[Brian Ryther]

25 gallons of Mersh this morning. Sap might be slowing down. Day 26 in a row. Might have to take a break for one day before the freeze on Wednesday. That will provide a great chance to clean everything. From main lines to tanks to the evap. I would love to make a few more barrels of Grade A.

[nymapleguy607]

Brian
What exactly is mersh? Never heard of this before
Thanks
Jeff

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

mersh...A term developed in the fine state of Maine to describe a product produced at the end of maple season when everyone else is throwing in the towel. It is marketed as commercial syrup, thus the name "mersh".

[Brian Ryther]

Total Taps 2228
CV's 1271
Adptrs 590
Buckets / misc tubing 328
Sap collected 35,270
Syrup 530
66.5 gal sap / gal syrup
CV sap per tap average 19.22
Adptr sap per tap average 14.38
Bucket sap per tap average 7.1

Conclusion, Low sugar, CV's work, Vac = sap, need another 4 weeks of sap weather.

[Brian Ryther]

Only 600 gal of sap today. I was glad to have it so I could boil for the 2nd grade. So no ro + 600 gal of cloudy sap = little fun. Lots of foam, DARK syrup. Only 10 gal for today. Cleaned a few tanks. Got the snot sucked out of them. Had a releaser yesterday only @ 15". Went on the hunt for leaks and found only tiny tiny leaks. Change the oil in the BB2 and bam! Back to 23". I had been changing the oil every week but I let it slide for the past two. Lesson learned. Forecast is looking like the best of the year for the next 5 days!

[Brian Ryther]

Sap day 28. 1070 for the day. RO pre filters plug every 300 gal. RO only sucking up 420 gph at 400 psi at 1gph of concentrate to make 6%. If I had a 2x6 that might be ok. Just a little slow for my 6x16. Going to have to wait for tomorrows sap to boil.

[Brian Ryther]

I eat my words. With the low quality sap 6.5% sap at 1.5 gpm matches my evap sap consumption rate. Dirty pans, dirty sap = slow sap consumption. Early season I could boil 300+ GPH. I bet i am closer to 150gph now. I am afraid to clean the syrup pan. Burnt it a few days ago and sprung a few small leaks that have plugged them selves with sugar. 20 gallons of the Brown Frown today from 2000 gal of sap. Sap tested 1%.

[PATheron]

Brian- Dont let up. That dang Jerry is trying to make a fool of us. Get the socks for the ro filters. Today dad had to change them out every 10 minutes just to get the sap through. Recirculate the stuff till it gets to at least 10 percent and boil late at night. Itll make good syrup out of crap sap. Just got to WANNNNNNNNNNNNN IT!!!!!!!!!! Theron DONT PINCH IT DOWN ITLL SLOW DOWN THE MEMBRANE!!! Tarrian

[Brian Ryther]

I could not help my self today. I had 20 buckets lying around so I found a home for them. Sap must have run late into the night. Found all tanks full this morning. All of the tank root valves were frozen. Not a lot of fun getting the sap out of the tanks today. 1000 gal of the first clear sap I have seen weeks. Going to squeeze it and save it for tomorrows big run. I am in it for the long haul.

[Brian Ryther]

It is running but has not broken loose as I had hoped. SSE winds. I will check tanks at sun down. Today might be the first day that I have not had to bring sap to the sugar house in 31 days. I could go and collect just to keep the streak going but a day without wrangling hoses and pumps is ok with me.

[Brian Ryther]

1500 gal of sap and another 20gal of Syrup. Sap is coming in good right now. Looks like it might run all night. I am going to have to do an insurance collection at sun down. Can't afford overflowing tanks at this point. 10am tomorrow the winds are going to change to the West North West. Then comes the big dump.

[Brian Ryther]

Game on. Just got back from collecting and tanks were almost full. It is running hard! Rain front must be pushing the sap out. It is going to be a big night.

[Brian Ryther]

I got up too late this morning. Two tanks were overflowing. 2300 gal of 1.2% sap through the ro and evap to make 25 gal of syrup. Checked tanks after boiling and they need to be emptied again soon. Buckets are running good. The 20 "Jerry" buckets gave me 25 gal of sap.

[Brian Ryther]

1500 gal of sap = 20 gal of syrup. Buckets might of had a pint of sap a piece. Vac lines are slowing to a screeching drip. I am not giving in. Vac pump is on and will stay on! Broke the 600 gal mark yesterday. 700 seams a long ways away at this point.

[PATheron]

Brian- Hill behind the house with the little trees seemed to slow down a lot today. Supposed to be 75 on thursday. Still trudging on to doing our best. Hope you hit 700. Theron

[Brian Ryther]

As far as I know I am the last man standing in these parts. Can't quit just because everybody else did.

[caseyssugarshack93]

brian, have you kept the vac pump on all season and not shut it off at all even during freezes? i wish i could keep my pumps on 24/7 but as of right now i cant but i plan to try and get 2 places on elec, sounds like your doing real good for 600 gallons, i have 200 , we usally dont make all our syrup till april but looks like this year its going to cut us short hopfully we can get though this weekend!!!

[Brian Ryther]

800 Gal of sap today. It seams to be picking up the pace this afternoon. I will wait to boil in the morning after I collect the night run. I need to have enough sap to make a full tank of wash water before I will start the RO. The BB2 pump is coming in to it's grove. After running at 23" all season It has decided to pull 25" today. It wants more sap.

[danno]

As far as I know I am the last man standing in these parts. Can't quit just because everybody else did.

Some of us guys in CNY are still going, just some are non-posters. And it sounds like Van to the East of you had his high bush start.

Expect to pull the plug tomorrow with the 70's-80's forecast through the weekend. Hope to run water through the lines Friday and be fishing for Browns on Lake Ontario Saturday!

[Oaknut]

I'm still plugging along over towards Cooperstown.Hoping for one more run tomorrow.

[Brian Ryther]

Oak Nut,
Where are you located? How was your season? Good to know I am not the only one who is not a quitter. Most of the operations that I have spoken with in my neck of the woods pulled the plug this weekend and missed one of the seasons better runs on Monday. I think I have made around 60 gallons this week so far with another boil scheduled for mid day tomorrow. My taps will stay in until the trees stop giving sap.

[Fred Henderson]

I finished off today and will start clean up and tear down tomorrow. I bought sap for the first time this year, but not much. The young man is very excited about getting more taps and selling me more next year. I am paying him fair market price according to % of sugar.

[Brian Ryther]

Fred,
That sounds like a win win situation with buying the sap. Let some body else put the money up and labor for the sap gathering. I would love to buy sap. How was your season? I assume ok If you are just getting finished up.

[barkeatr]

Fred,

did your trees bud or just run out of sap.

i had some sap tonight..but I think we are done to. I dont see buds yet however.

your neighbor over in bangor ny

barkeatr

[Oaknut]

Hey Brian, our saphouse is on Christian Hill between Toddsville and Hartwick. Most of our taps are at the Clark Scholarship Office though. Looks like we're gonna be around 40 to 45 percent of what we made last year. Hoping to have enough sap in the morning for one more boil. Matt.

[Bucket Head]

Oaknut,

I've seen your lines and tank behind that building! Thats a nice set-up there. How did you score that sugarbush? Those tree's look like they were planted in rows there. Was that area a sugaring operation years ago for the Clark family? Do you know any of the history of that area? How many taps do you have there?

Steve

[Fred Henderson]

Fred,

did your trees bud or just run out of sap.

i had some sap tonight..but I think we are done to. I dont see buds yet however.

your neighbor over in bangor ny

barkeatr



It is becoming cloudy and we don't make any barrel syrup. If its not saleable out the door we us it our self. We made some garde C and the wife will use that in her cooking. I have costumers knocking the door down for dark and grade B. I wish those two grades were all I could make. I wanted to buy a barrel of dark last year and the wife wouldn't hear of it. If it not made by us we don't sell it.

[Oaknut]

Steve, all I did was ask! I do have to lease it and insure it but it's well worth it. The Clarks used to have a large sugaring operation years ago and they planted this bush. The trees are all evenly spaced, in rows, and on a nice sidehill sloped tward the road. Works out very well. Oh, did I mention it is only 3-4 miles from my saphouse?! I've been told the trees are hybids with a higher sugar content. I've never tested the sap but it tastes noticably sweeter than the sap from any of my other locations. We have 330 taps down there, I wish there were more trees and we could get 1330 but beggers can't be choosers. Matt.

[Brian Ryther]

Oaknut,
That Clark sugar bush makes me drool when ever I drive by. It is a true Maple Orchard.

[Oaknut]

I consider myself very fortunate to be able to tap there.

[Brian Ryther]

The peepers came out today. I decided to shut the vac pump off after my morning collection. I have no interest in processing 80 degree sap. So another 1500 gal of sap processed today. Then I chased the evap with 400 gal of water to give me another 35 gallons of buddy syrup. Season total of 670 gallons from 2200 +- taps. So far it looks like Heath Spouts with adapters produced 17gpt of sap and the CV's gave 25gpt of sap. I will say it was a good season. I was able to influence the amount of sap I produced, but i can not influence the sugar content.

[PATheron]

Brian_ I thought we could trick mother nature with technology and we can to some extent but shes still in charge. Its a good thing. If we could totally rule the syrup production people would set up factory sugar bushes and syrup wouldnt be worth anything. Its a blessing we cant. Theron

[Bucket Head]

Matt,

That is a beautiful sugarbush! A couple years ago I visited a friend who was at Bassett and I happened to drive by and saw the tubing. Man, was I jealous! I thought to myself whoever is tapping them is a lucky guy.

Steve

[Oaknut]

Yeah, I'm very lucky to have that one. I thank my wife all the time for pestering me until I called and inquired about tapping there. One of the best phone calls I have ever made!

[Brian Ryther]

Took the weekend off and am back in the woods today to begin cleaning lines. Tried cleaning with vac today and must say that I like it. 5 gallons will clean about 200 taps. It is a pain in the butt carrying 5 gallons but the load does get lighter every tap. I did learn a lot about my tubing and lateral legenth and vac transfer. I would say that after 20 -30 feet vac levels begins to drop.

[Brian Ryther]

Out washing lines again this afternoon. Had the vac pump running and to my amazement the sap was running almost as good as mid season. It was a little chunky at first but began to clear up after an hour. Do I give credit to the CV's?

[lpakiz]

Brian, I rinsed my lines last weekend and used about 10 gallons. I took 2 ice cream pails (with hooks on the handles) and just kept refilling them from the 5gallon pails. I would hang one full one on a lateral near a tree and use the other one until empty, then switch.....

[Brian Ryther]

The results are in. Mill Hollow Maple (that's me) Took 1st place for Light Amber and Grade "B", 2nd place for Med. Amber, and 3rd for Dark Amber at the Otsego County Fair.

[DrTimPerkins]

The results are in. Mill Hollow Maple (that's me) Took 1st place for Light Amber and Grade "B", 2nd place for Med. Amber, and 3rd for Dark Amber at the Otsego County Fair.

Congratulations.

[brookledge]

That is because my syrup wasn't being judged.
Just kidding!!! Congrats.
Keith

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Brian :D Keep up the good work