2010 Season West Virginia Mapler [Archive]

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

02-21-2010, 02:23 PM

I got off work a couple of hours early on Friday and managed to put in about 200 taps before dark. Sap was running fairly good and on the ground until it froze just after dark due to not having any tanks set. My dad volunteered to plow out the roads to each of the 3 bushes on Sat and I came over Saturday afternoon and finished tapping the 60 taps in the biggest south bush that I didn't get finished Friday evening and got the tanks in place for the bush. Got to about 40 on Saturday and was a nice day to be in the woods Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.

Later Saturday evening, I got the tanks in place at my other south bush that has 145 taps and got those trees tapped also. So far, about 405 tapped and about 220 left to tap in my north bush in the next 7 to 10 days. Temps got up to close to 50 today and lots of sun, so hopefully we can get a pretty good run before this is over with. I have about 700+ gallons in capacity to hold the sap from the 400 taps, so it will be interesting to see if we get much sap from this run with all the snow still around the trees and on the ground. Supposed to be in 30's next 3 days, but not good sap weather. Hopefully will be enough for a good boil.

3rdgen.maple

02-21-2010, 10:19 PM

Brandon how much snow is around the base of your trees? I get all excited about weather reports but always get the big old dissapointment because the snow in the woods keeps the temps down. You think I would learn by now. What I can tell you here is that until there is a melt ring started at the base of the trees we just do not get much sap. But it is nice to be tapped in. Good luck this year.

Russell Lampron

02-22-2010, 05:23 AM

Brandon it's good to see that you are finally tapping. I got all of my taps on vacuum tapped this weekend too. It was too cold for it to run very long yesterday but I do have about 300 gallons in the tank so far. Your season will be shorter for sure but if the weather cooperates you should have a good one just the same. Good luck this year.

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

02-22-2010, 06:37 AM

Yes, I still have snow around the trees. It got to 50 yesterday and is the 3rd day in a row with lots of sun, so it is melting down pretty good but the snow is so heavy and thick, it will take it a while to leave as it is getting cold again by tonight and stay that way into next week. Hopefully we will have 300 to 500 gallon of sap by the time it gets cold tonight, but will wait and see. I didn't expect much of a run due to what I have heard you guys say about the snow being around the base of the trees. I would guess the south side is probably down to about 10 to 12 inches by the end of today, but at least 2' or more still on the north side. No hurry to tap the north side, but would like to have them ready by the first of next week. Way the weather is going, might be able to stretch this season up towards the last of the month. Don't know if we can make it to the 31st of March, that would be a first but if the weather stays the way it has the last 3 months, it would go into April. LOL. I like to tap when the sun is shining and it is a little above freezing, so a good weekend to tap regardless of how much sap I got. 2 weeks later than when I started tapping last year.

I am sure if I had vacuum like you did Russ, I would have probably gotten a big run but hard to run vacuum from 30 miles away.

220 maple

02-22-2010, 06:30 PM

Brandon,
I got caught behind the snowball this season, A **** shame to say the least, I heard D. Stemple at Aurora, West Virginia got everything tapped before the Feb. snowstorm, His first run was tremendous per Henry. If they got somewhere near the same amount of snow as my syrup making friend at Mt. Storm , He got 44 inches that weekend. And has recieved two different snows of 12 inches since then. He told me that Oakland, Maryland has recieved 220 inchs so far and he knows they have more than that at Mt. Storm. Back to Stemple I believe he is the largest producer in the the state I heard he has a 16000 tap operation. Again per Henry. I made syrup yesterday . I laughed out loud because it is the lightest syrup that has ever come off our evaporator ( WV Fancy or Double WV Lite) . Lol.

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

02-22-2010, 09:39 PM

Wasn't any sap to be had here at all since middle of Jan. Picked up 250 gallons of sap this evening that ran since Saturday evening. Still running a little, but still way too much snow on the ground and around the trees for it to run much. Supposed to turn cold again for about 7 or 8 days. Sooner or later we may get some sap weather and get rid of all the snow. One of my tanks didn't have the line in it correctly and only had a couple of gallons of sap and should have had around 50, but guess that's what happens when you are tapping in a hurry and after dark. LOL.

hhbf

02-23-2010, 03:55 PM

Third season tapping - 2 sugar bushes -Tapped First one around my home about 100 taps - 2 weeks ago - no sap until this week - pulled off 130 gallons on Monday and 30 more early Tuesday morning. Boiled it down on my 2x6 foot flat pan last night and finished it and into jugs and maple leaf glass this afternoon. Almost 3 gallons Near Vermont grade fancy and pretty. I will tap the second sugar bush next time weather looks promising. Brandon - are you going to boil anytime soon your 250 gallons. I would love to see your filter press in action. I am looking at changing from flannel/paper and wool filtering. Bruce

220 maple

02-23-2010, 08:31 PM

Brandon,
I only tapped the woods I have leased as of now and don't know if I will Tap anything else due to the snow. I have put many miles on the snow shoes I got from Cabela's Wendesday two weeks ago. I have them on high vacuum, with check valves. They have ran everyday since Thursday, on Sat. when the temps jumped into the mid 40's the releaser was dumping 5 gallon every 6 minutes. The best news was the Sugar content was 2.5%. Usually high vacuum reduces the sugar content, however these are virgins and have never been tapped before. Maybe they have stored sugar from previous years???

Mark 220 Maple

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

02-23-2010, 09:41 PM

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

02-25-2010, 10:44 AM

Picked up another 210 gallon of sap yesterday and most of it ran yesterday. Got a small freeze Tues night and only warmed up to 34 or 35 yesterday with no sun and with this big storm coming in, apparently the pressure was dropping enough to get the sap flowing some. So far, 450 gallons of sap and boiled it off yesterday afternoon and evening.

No more warm weather in site for next 7 to 10 days.

Tomahawk

03-02-2010, 07:33 PM

Hey Brandon -- good luck this year bud.

Even if I'm not posting, I'll be following along, so keep us updated. And get some more new pics up on your site too! LOL!

Hope you have a great season, talk soon.

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-02-2010, 08:46 PM

Tomahawk,

Great to hear from you and will get some new pics soon. Nothing going on down here to speak of. It is supposed to hit 30's on Sat, 40's on Sunday and 50's on Monday and then cool back down. Hope to get the 220 on the North side in this week and that will be all of the 625 taps and hopefully I can get a good run. Still about 16" on the south side and about 24+ inches on the north side, so not sure the trees will run very good. At least, maybe we can get some of this snow melted. Today makes 7 straight days of snow and supposed to get some snow the next 3 days. I would guess in the last 75 days, it has snowed at least 60 and probably closer to 65. Hope I never repeat this winter in my lifetime, it has been unbelievable. Probably around 160 inches of snow at the sugarhouse since Dec 18th.

Good news is that the ground is as soft as it can be even on the North side, so no worry about the ground thawing. It never had a chance to get frozen.

Parker

03-03-2010, 05:30 AM

Sounds like you are having a real winter,,,and I am skampering around on bare ground to mabey 8" of snow,,,a real treat not to be wearing snowshoes and walking on 3 feet of snow tapping,,,,digging everything out,,,WOW,,,mabey Ill be tapped in befor you this year Brandon,,That would certinaly be a first,,,,,Good luck with your season

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-03-2010, 09:13 PM

Parker,

It is amazing for sure that all the guys in NE are making syrup and getting sap and I can't hardly remember what an evaporator sounds like. Hope to have the other 220 in by Saturday and get ready for hopefully a good run. Sounds like you are on the ball and it is "go time".

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-04-2010, 09:30 PM

Put in another 90 or so taps this evening on the north side. Spent most of the 3 hours there plowing snow and trying to get the roads opened up on the north side. Hope to get the remaining 130 taps in on the north side tomorrow or Saturday and spend Saturday afternoon on leak patrol as it should be running some.

220 maple

03-04-2010, 10:27 PM

Brandon,
You believe it will run some this weekend?, I have been getting plenty of sap, this weekend It will most likely be in BIG SAP WARNING. That is if the weatherman is right, 18 at night mid 40s to lower 50s. I'm going to break the camp record at the pace I'm on. 3200 gallons of 2.5% water in Feb. Only open ten days, 800 plus taps, on high vacuum. I love my Indiana Liquid Ring Vacuum Pump. I will check back in Sunday Night or Monday if I survive the Flood of 2010. Lol

Mark 220 Maple

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-07-2010, 07:03 AM

Finished tapping the north side yesterday and have everything tapped but 7 taps, so should be at about 620. Too much snow to get to the 7 taps and will tap them in a few days or leave them until next year. Got around 40 Friday will all sun, in low 40's yesterday with all sun, 48 today will all sun, 48 tomorrow with all sun and in 50's on Tues. Supposed to freeze tonight and tomorrow night and then no freezing until end of week. Looks like an awesome week for sugaring. There was about 200 gallon in the tanks when I left yesterday evening at dark, and will start collecting tomorrow afternoon and hoping for a huge run. Snow is leaving fast and starting to see a bare patch on two on the steep hillsides on the south side. Still about 12" on the south side and 16 to 18 on the north side but all the south side will probably be about gone by Tues and the north side should be about gone by end of week. Hoping for 2,000+ gallons of sap this week, but we'll see what happens. Last time I got weather like this, I got 2300+ gallons in 5 days from 100 less taps, but I didn't have all this snow on the ground either which has to be hurting things.

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-08-2010, 09:02 PM

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.

220 maple

03-09-2010, 09:04 AM

Brandon,
Well I survived the flood of Sugarwater, 2440 gallons friday thru sunday. I don't believe the trees ever ran the freeze out. They would thaw around 10 am then freeze back up by 7 pm. They basically only ran 27 hrs in a 72 hrs spand. I have had them run for three days before off of a good freeze. I only have 870 holes open all on new trees, I am running high vac. on them with check valve taps. I hope we get a freeze next week I am curious how the the CV taps respond. We have not made one drop of dark amber. Questionable whether if it's Med. Amber. The lightest and best tasting syrup I have ever made. Last count we was in the 140 gal range and three milk can setting full Sunday evening that should yield another 24 gallons that will be lite also. I'm sure the trees ran Monday and Today since it has been freezing here in Harrisonburg, we are usually colder back at the camp?
I'll post later about that!!!

Mark 220 Maple

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-11-2010, 09:27 PM

Guys,

Looks like it may be all over here and the season lasted a whole 5 days. I got 2 days a couple of weeks ago when I had about 60% of my taps in and I got 3 days of sap this week. Had about 500 gallon by Sunday evening and got another 600 gallon on Monday and got down to 24 Monday night but the temps hit 60 with all sun on Tues and it was all she wrote and appears the fat lady is singing as I am writing this. Unless the weather changes and it gets worse every time I look at it, no freezing for the next 10 days which would put us to March 21st and I have only made syrup twice past March 21st which is normal end of season. Usually, I have made at least 90% crop by March 15th and we are at about a 40% crop of the majority of it came in 3 days.

Season normally starts here around Feb 10th and this year it didn't start until March 6th, so it didn't bode well for us. We had 1 day above 40 degrees from Jan 1st until March 6th and then it went hot.

KenWP

03-12-2010, 05:50 AM

I am worried that may happen here also. We are ahead of schedule here also compared to last year. But one never knows. So far the fat ladys have stayed away. Sunday the forecast is for no freezeing at nights for a few days. Time will tell.

220 maple

03-12-2010, 10:40 PM

Brandon,
It maybe over for 2010. Sort of sad for it to quit with the tap holes still fresh.
We have nothing to complain about. We have boiled 13 straight days tonight.
Helpers are getting tired and almost out of wood. Only 870 taps open and over 9000 gallons of water that has avg. 2.3 to 2.5. I hoping for a freeze next Monday or Tuesday, I want to see if these checkvalve spouts are worth the money. One good freeze and I'll know.

Mark 220 Maple

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-13-2010, 08:50 AM

Mark,

Glad you are having a good year. At least northern part of state is doing better than we are. We are at about 3.5 gallons of sap per tap and no freezing in sight for next 10 days still to get the trees started. I was fairly sure with the season starting so late this year, it was going to be bad, just didn't expect it to be this bad. Unless something changes, it is by far the worst I have ever seen in 20 years.

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-13-2010, 09:10 AM

Picked up another 163 gallons yesterday morning that had trickled in from Tues evening until yesterday morning. We are at 2,080 gallons of sap from basically 5 to 6 days of sap running. Amazing as the sugar sand is almost nonexistent this year and sugar content seems good. The sap has been so crystal clear that I could read the newspaper laying on the bottom of a 625 gallon milk tank full of sap.

If there is no more sap, hope no one wants any darker syrup as most of the syrup this year is extremely light syrup with no dark except the 1.5 gallons of extra black from my dumb mistake on the first boil. Hope to can off nearly everything today but what's in the evaporator and the 1.5 gallons of extra dark and should have a good idea of seasons totals. Been praying hard for another freeze or two, but not looking promising at this point.

220 maple

03-14-2010, 10:35 PM

Brandon,
What going on at Grassy Meadows, no posts for a long time. I hope everybody is well at that camp. They usually make a effort to keep everyone informed on how there season is going?

Mark 220 Maple

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-17-2010, 08:36 PM

Larry Harris is in the same boat as me. He put in about 40% of his taps(150) around Jan 14th and 15th and made about 10 gallon of syrup then, but since then, he has gotten about 5 days of sap like I have and he is not getting nearly as much sap as I am when he normally gets more, go figure.

Got to 28 last night for a couple of hours first freeze in 8 days and probably got 100 to 150 gallons of sap in the tanks. Missed about 3 or 4 hours of sap run as all my lines were out of the tanks and buckets inverted on the trees before my helper was able to get them in place. Wasn't supposed to get that cold last night and calling for 28 tonight before it gets really warm thru the weekend. Supposed to hit 23 Monday night, so hoping the holes are still running next week and we may get a pretty good run.

Good thing with sap running on the ground this morning for a little while, it flushed out all the bad sap in the lines so the sap is all nice and clear.

220 maple

03-17-2010, 09:46 PM

Brandon,

I too had a freeze, 27 degrees and hopefully again tonight. If the sky stay clear we can survive another heatwave this weekend. I actually had trees still running yesterday. I couldn't believe my eyes. I guess it 's because of the vacuum??

Mark 220 Maple

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-20-2010, 02:26 PM

Boiled off 355 gallons today that ran from about noon on Wed thru yesterday evening. Sap was a little cloudy, but pretty good considering it has been 60 or above every day with lots of sun. No freezing in sight for next 10 days, so we are likely done. Too busy at work next week to worry about removing taps and flushing lines, so they will still be in place if we get a major change in weather. 220 taps on North side in 2 weeks today and we are at about 40 to 45 percent of a normal crop. Today is normal end of season, problem is we started about 3 + weeks later than normal and have only had 1 good day of sap flow and 6 other mediocre or poor days of flow. One of those years vacuum wouldn't made much of a different here, just went from cold to warm and basically no freezing at nights.

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-25-2010, 09:28 PM

Still hoping down here, haven't boiled since last Saturday and normally by now, all my taps are out of the trees and lines cleaned as season is usually over by March 21st. Supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow and hit 25 tomorrow night, so still hoping for more sap this weekend and maybe a little more next week.

Might stick in about 12 more taps tomorrow to catch the next run, this late in the year, might get 50 to 60 gallons from the 12 new taps in 2 or 3 days. Put about 5 gallon of storage per tap and see what happens.

All 615 taps still in the trees, but I imagine the south side taps are about fried, but maybe they will give a little. North side only been in 3 weeks this weekend.

Russell Lampron

03-26-2010, 04:31 AM

Brandon vacuum might have made a difference. The sap will flow for days without a freeze if there is plenty of moisture around. Hope you get more sap this weekend.

Maple Hobo

03-26-2010, 01:07 PM

Its been an interesing season in Mathias up here at Rock Haven Farm.
I rebuilt the entire system with the Wet/Dry vacume system and re-laid out the entire sugar grove.

We added a new vacume pump (still not happy with it though), new releaser and even an RO unit.

Started tapping late Feburary while I was putting out Blue lines still (well added some green now too..lol) because we couldn't get the pump and equipment we ordered in on time. Put up two new structures to house the new equipment and get it out of the evaporator and canning building.

Was working in the 2 foot snow for a good while. Still had some good runs though. When we had the 3 days of rain after the second big snow we had the vacume running and had water comming in from the trees day and night for the 3 days.

Been averaging about 28 gallon a syrup a run. Made around 6-7 runs so far this season.

Did one run without the RO and it was about 8-10 hours of cooking.
The same volume of RO concentrate would cook off in about 2-3 hours.

Sure made it interesting for Buck running the evaporator. He was used to a bucket (approx 3 gallons) every hour. With the concentrate it was dropping 2 buckets every time and had him running too much...lol

He had to run the pans a bit deeper to slow it down to 2-3 buckets every hour so the syrup had time and could pass through the filter into the finishing pan.

Hoping for another cold snap to reset the trees, had to pull the white Maples off because they were getting ready to bud... All the others have been dormant still.

The last few runs have been pretty interesting... Mike Puffenburger said to look for the "Sheep Snot" and that about fits the description. The clear tree water turned cloudy after the rain and has remained so for the balance of the season. Sure making the filter press earn its keep...lol.

I sure have enjoyed my first season as a Maple Guy...

Arron G.

220 maple

03-26-2010, 10:05 PM

RockHaven,
you and Buck should be at the camp record by Now? We finished 17 gallons last night that pushed us over our camp record by 1 gallon. We still have three milk cans to finish. Hoping it finishes at least another 20 to 25 gallons. I don't believe it's buddy yet thats the crazy part for sure!! I believe we are going to get another run off tonight's freeze. Low 20's possible. I don't care if it is buddy I need a barrel for my Amish friend in Pa.

Mark 220 Maple

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-27-2010, 06:42 AM

Russ,

Yes, vaccuum might have helped some, but it wouldn't have been much. Stayed way too cold until March 7th and then March 8th hit 60+ degrees and it was like you turned off the faucet and it has only gotten below 30 one time since then, and it was a balmy 28 degrees and many days in 50's and 60's. With close to 100 gallons I dumped earlier this week, I have gotten 2500+ gallons of sap which in and of itself is amazing if you saw the temps we got. We got the one run of 1680 when it went from cold to warm in 2 days and a couple other small runs and thats it. I have tweaked and redesigned my tubing system for the past 8 years and really happy with it and it did better than expected this year to just get the amount of sap I did. Got to below 25 last night and frozen for about 12 hours, so hoping for one more last run and a few hundred gallon of sap.

Besides, hard to run vacuum in 3 different bushes that are remote with no electricity and living 30 minutes away, that's why I have more taps than I should on a 2x8, they add what a good vacuum system would on 300 taps.

I would dare say I am probably about the most consistent producer on here for the past seven years up until this year. Here is my syrup to tap ratio for last 6 years. Most of my trees are woodland trees on steep hillsides, so they are going to run fabulous even with vacuum as they don't have much access to moisture.

2004 .178
2005 .212
2006 .172
2007 .176
2008 .186
2009 .180

And this year, .08 so far and doubt it is going to get much higher.

Russell Lampron

03-27-2010, 07:42 PM

Brandon I know that it would be tough and costly for you to run vacuum with your situation. I have been using it for 5 years up here and every year it has turned out to be a season saver. This year more than ever before.

I hope that you get that last big run so that you can finish the season with better numbers.

markcasper

03-28-2010, 11:37 AM

Without vacuum this year, it would be a 20% crop. I have only gathered my bags and non-vacuum tubing 2 times. Between 1 pm Friday and 3 pm Saturday, I got 900 gallons of sap from 280 taps on vacuum. (We had a good run on all taps Friday and into the night.)

These 280 were replaced with new drops and CV's, stubbys and at 19". I am definately convinced of the CV's. It has made a difference for me. We'll find out what happens this week with 70's.

sweetwoodmaple

03-28-2010, 02:37 PM

Hey Brandon - I am looking at a .11 this year even with vacuum.

My numbers are very similar to yours, with 2008 being the best at .2, but it was with vacuum.

If I would make commercial syrup, it would make this look a little better as well.

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-28-2010, 03:42 PM

Yesterday was a big bust, just typical off the entire season, guess I shouldn't have expected much difference. Not complaining, because I have done a lot better than a lot of other guys on here, but by far worst I have ever seen.

It got down in low 20's Friday night and froze for at least 12 hours. Not enough for a big reset of the taps, but enough for a decent run. Warmed up to 50 yesterday with all sun, but the xfactor was the big SE wind that suddenly showed up and is still blowing hard 36 hours later. The south taps that had been in for 5 weeks and 3 weeks of hot weather running nearly as good as north side taps that had only been in for 3 weeks. Put in 13 new taps on Friday and they weren't doing much better. Supposed to be in 60's and 70's after Wed for next 6 days, so we are done. Will boil what little bit of sap I get likely on Tues and boil out evaporator which is March 30th and the latest I have ever boiled.

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

03-30-2010, 09:27 PM

Gathered 175 gallons that ran from Saturday until this morning. Gathered most of it yesterday while picking up all my tanks and 15 buckets. Boiled it off today and boiled out the evaporator. While I had someone helping with the boiling, I pressure washed out all my 7 large woods tanks and stacked them up for storage until next year and washed out all the small tanks also. Everything is about cleaned up in the sugarhouse except the evaporator and a few other small things. All the different pump hoses are cleaned and air drying for next year.

2625 gallons of sap for the year, really good considering we have about 5 days of weather that was condusive for sap to run. Should be around 52 to 53 gallons of syrup once it is all finished! For reference, this is about 45% of a normal crop of what a normal crop has averaged out over the prior 6 years.

220 maple

03-31-2010, 10:25 PM

Brandon,
We finished everything we had setting around in milk cans, ended up with 271 and half gallons, from 11240 gallons of water. Only 870 taps this year. Hopefully next year we can get everything open. As soon as I get all the spiles pulled and the tubing and pipeline flushed I'm going to finish putting up the tubing and pipeline that I didn't get done on the leased woods because of the snow. I hope to get another 300 or more taps ready for next season. I need to redo my tubing and pipeline systems in my woods. I will end up with less taps after I rebuild, that should help If I can increase the vacuum levels.

Mark 220 Maple

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

04-11-2010, 03:24 PM

Last boil this year was 03/30 and finished off rest of syrup and bottled it on Friday. Season total was 52.5 gallons of good syrup and 1.5 gallons of scorched.

Of the good syrup, 36 gallons was light and 16.5 gallons dark and 2,625 gallons of sap. Sugar content ran 48.61 to 1 which is real consistent. 2008 it was 48.22 to 1 and 2009 it was 48.21. 54 gallons of syrup don't seem like much, but the way the weather was this year, I am shocked we made as much as we did. Normally make 40 to 50 percent of crop in Feb and this year we made less than 8% of crop in Feb and 39% of normal crop in March.

Real happy with the tubing system as it performed very well. I have been tweaking and changing it trying to maximize its performance since I am all gravity and was very happy with its performance this year. Hopefully next year will be normal and it will give me a better idea of performance.