Hop Kiln Road 2010

[Hop Kiln Road]

Hop Kiln Road 2010

[Russell Lampron]

You haven't tapped yet Bruce!!! With the weather that you get down there the sap should be pouring out of the trees. I have to get my RO and evaporator ready tonight. Already have 300 gallons of sap in the woods tank and it looks like it will be a good day for a run today.

[michelle32]

Bruce you missed valentines day 7 days. We,ve been taped since then and had pretty good flow . I'm about fifteen minutes south of Russ. Helped him finish taping what was ready and it was a pretty good flow over there yesterday. Keith

[Russell Lampron]

I had about 700 gallons of sap total as of last night at 9:30. Going to sweeten it up today and sweeten the pans tonight. Better get going Bruce.

[michelle32]

Hi Bruce, My wife is from St J. Said ask your neighbor if he remembers the Carreau farm up there. Thats where she got her addiction from. Keith

[Russell Lampron]

Bruce find that charger cord! I don't think that you have too much to worry about. The only people that are getting sap now are the ones with vacuum.

**** Miss Onyx, all of the other girls are having fun here. They think it is funny to see me running around here trying to fix everything so that we can keep the sap coming in and get it processed afterward.

[KenWP]

You store sushi in the cellar. Hmmmmmmmm had to have been tender.

[Russell Lampron]

It hasn't been a good year for gravity so far. We need temps in the lower 20's at night to get a good run. This 29 crap is just a tease. Looks good for the weekend though. Good luck keeping the girls in check.

[Russell Lampron]

I have done the same thing with my blower. I damped it down so that I can open the doors to fire without turning it off. I get a nice boil all of the to the back of the flue pan too. I made 7.5 gallons of syrup in less than 2 hours tonight.

[Russell Lampron]

It was down to 26 here this morning. Hoping for a better run today than yesterday. Can't complain too much about yesterdays run though. Ambrosia may not stick around too long down there. She had too much fun on the doodlebug. I let her drive! She isn't too good with the clutch but the doodlebug can take it.

[Russell Lampron]

Bruce it's good to see that our vacuum is getting that far away fROm here. That means that we are getting all of the sap that we possibly can. I thought that I could smell grapes when I was boiling last night!

[Russell Lampron]

Yes I am wondering about next week also. This week turned out much better then predicted. I hope that it isn't as stormy at the end of next week as they are predicting.

Miss Ruby came down because I took the night off last night. I don't know why she didn't want to go out for green "Boiling Sodas". Felicity was there though and made sure she was the center of attention.

[Parker]

dont worry,,,its gonna run,,Jeraldeen told me,,the ORACAL has spoken

[Parker]

yyyeeessss

[Russell Lampron]

Bruce it sounds like you are starting to think about using some new technology down there. Suck and squeeze is the way to go. Your evaporator will love those Tall Boys!

[PerryW]

like instead of getting one gallon of 2.4% sap you bought this vacuum rigging and got four gallons of 1.2% but all the trees would fight with you and try to suck it back at night so they got this Doctor to make a special rigging to cork up the trees overnight.

Not only that, but one of the guys from southern NH had the vacuum running so hard it he was getting sap with a negative 2% sap. And fish were actually getting sucked up into the sap tank from some of his river trees.

[Parker]

On your next trip to Cabot Vermont go to Mack Mountian road,,go up it,,you drive into Glenn Goodriches sugarwoods,,those woods have been on high vacuum for going on 30? years... one of the best looking maple woods I know of,,,,Dr. Perkins says there is no diffrance between sugar content between trees on vacuum or not on vacuum,,,the diffrance is with vacuum you get sap (lower sugarcontent) when it will not runn at all on grabity..,,,,,,,,,if you use check valve adapters every year the plastic your putting in the tree is pretty darn clean compared to reuseing a spile that is FILLED with the spacific bacteria that makes the tree stop running....we are always going to have bacteria to deal with BUT we can lessen the ammounts greatly by useing clean plastic.......if you want to please the goddess this is the path and the way......the choice is yours....I like having lots of sap...and having the goddes smile on me...

[Parker]

They know better! The consiquenses would be too horriffic....They just plain run the sweet sap.the goddse makes their production terrific...they dont want to see the faller buncher land in their hood-turn them all into cordwood (for the Sharkys mabey).....Plus, they are my babies,,They are my garden that I thin,,I am their servant,,I preserve them as sugarwoods,,that way their land dosent get turned into new neighberhoods...gotta look at the big picture..

[Parker]

Can You Dig It?

[Russell Lampron]

Same here, it didn't start running until late in the afternoon and stopped just after sunset. It wasn't as cold last night and is supposed to warm up faster today. I am hoping for one last good run.

[PerryW]

yup, looks like temps in the 60's later this week. Unless the weathermen are way off, looks like I will be pulling taps later in the week. I was hoping for a few freeze-thaw cycles from this cold snap, but it looks like only one big thaw.

Should be a good run today& tonite though. I tapped exactly four weeks ago, so nothing should be dried up yet.

[Parker]

Cant ever tell till it happens!!! Get out there and do the BIGSAP DANCE,,,leave the godess an offering (I tried ribs-chicken and beans+ an 18 pack of bud cans-Ill get back to you on how that works-you can try something diffrent?? Mabey she is wacthing her figure??) Crank the pumps up!

[Parker]

While my eyes have never seen the goddess, I have seen her work,,full tanks of sap to boil,,ahh she loves to see steam rise and sugarmakers toil,,From my experiance she favores those with vacuum, and yes, while this season was not what we had expected,,because we were pulling sooooo hard our tanks were not neglected,,if you wish to be tested,,your boiling endurance measured,,get a pump and releaser,,hook them to your lines,,the goddess may be pleasured,,mabey even bless you with a mighty run like the old timers tell about and your evaporator you will have to no-stop scurrie about, a marthon boil your reward,,next year you will have no time to be board!

[Hop Kiln Road]

Huh. Picked up .33gal/tap last night. Slightly cloudy but 2.2% - lowest it’s been all season, but what the heck; I ain’t afraid of a little steam. Tastes okay and puts me over 7 gal/tap and bumping .19 gal/tap syrup. Course Onyx shows up, dang. Got to be careful after that how low will you go game she whispered Carroll into last April. She’s not to be trusted. But I want a bite of the apple. So I ask what’s all the hoopla with this Sap Goddess. She looks at me funny and demands, “WHERE did you hear about HER?” Wood cutter north of here, I stuttered and grab for the defoamer. Don’t really know him. “Oh, him,” she waved her hand. “Ambrosia’s real sweet on him. Says he’s got a big rig and likes to party, and domesticated too, you know, cooks and runs a good vacuum.” And what about the Sap Goddess? I press. “Oh, yes, she’s actually a faerie. Mother has always been fond of the pagans, even though they’re so impractical. And Mother, if you haven’t noticed, just has her way,” and she suddenly stood straight and recited:

WHERE dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we’ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.

Onyx said she had to memorize the whole thing while she was at the Underhill Academy.

[Parker]

OUTSTANDING!
THe Godess rode in on the worm moon to dance one last time this season with Marvin,,for she knew for her sweet sap he was starving..
She filled the tanks of all her faithful minions still trying,,bypassing those who have givin up and have been crying..
Our last chance to make mighty steam,,mabey catch a glimps of our goddess other than in our dreams..
One last time we light our great fires,,crack a cold one,,making the boil roll higher and higher,,,
One last time to fill some barrels,,throw a coulple cords of wood into Marvin,,sing the sweet goddes carrols
So I say thanks for another wild wonderful ride, a season not soon forgotten,,in which all those still in the fight can take great pride...realizing that for punisment the sugarmaker is a glutten
Marvin and I will wait for your return ,sweet godess,,our woodshed will be stuffed with a fresh 50 cord to burn,,and all summer we will toil in our orchards, scheeming how to make 1000gallons will be our main concern...........counting the days till our next boil

[Russell Lampron]

Poetry smoetry! The purr of the vacuum pump, the sap dancing in the ladders, the releaser dumping, the hum of the RO machine and the roar of the evaporator full of sap at a full boil are what it is all about. All of these sights and sounds will be a sweet memory all too soon.

[Parker]

Russ- you are lucky and will probably never get this rare afflection,,this is a direct result of a insaitieabel suggaring addiction,rhyming was never my intent,it is just what happens when you spend inumerabel hours boiling with Marvin getting littel syrup,,darn poor sugar content,,
No Russ,my friend, you should be spared,,you have an R.O.,, you can crank your concentration higher-get tremndous draws-do you even have to stoke your fire? Marvin and I have time between draws,,boiling .9% sap,, time to throw another cord of wood to be burned, (Marvin is HUNGREY dont forget that)
But in the wee hours of a new morn. with steam rolling to the heavens, my mind wanders off and I thank the sweet goddess for the sap she has givin,,
,,,See when you boil concentrat you never get this chance,,your mind is occupied with the presant-no time to dance the sweet dance............

[Russell Lampron]

Parker-I do have to stoke my fire and anybody that is crazy enough to want to make maple syrup in the first has the affliction.

I take great pride in being able to turn large amounts of sap into many gallons of syrup in a short time. The goddess smiles on me too. She sees that I am no quitter. If I had listened to others my season would have ended 2 weeks ago but alas the goddess has graced me with tanks full of sap to run through my RO and turn it into syrup yet again. Shes smiles on guys like us that keep going until the trees give their last drop of sap.

My evaporator doesn't eat the wood like Marvin but it does get hungry. It probably took me most of the season to use the wood that Marvin uses in an hour.

Oh and did I mention; the sound of sap dripping into a freshly emptied bucket is pretty sweet too!

[PerryW]

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y235/perryW/?action=view&current=MapleSapDripBucket.flv

[Parker]

Russ-your gonna have to be carful or you will be ryhming too,,,hope the goddess continues to bless her faithful (even in the off season),,,,

[Russell Lampron]

Perry that's 6 seconds of beautiful music!

[Parker]

Come on Bruce-give me some of that sweet verse I have been cravin, what is your season boing in Bow, Or have you packed your buckets in?
Did our sweet goddes pay you a visit? Give you prodigious flows of maple necter,,or is your seasone over and if so were you pleased with it?

[Parker]

BRRUUCCEE- What is the message? I need a sugaring update from Bow,,something that just might rhym, mabey,a passage..
You had to go and get the sugaring verse started..
Bad news bro,,our godess has left us for Swanton,,DEPARTED!!
Thats the way she is,visiting the big boys up north I supposed,,,High vaccum ,R.Os,, a 6x16's just a rollin,,pulling off 80 gallons of syrup an hour ,,,hanging with the sugarmakers that are all biz,(I feel like our season was cut short-our oppertinity stolen),,
Personally I am thankful for what sap we had,,we boiled every drop, 512 gallons so far,,shoot, thats not bad,,for 3 New Hampshire loggers-sugarmaker want to be's,, we will keep tapping-our futcher is those percious trees,,,,,5000 taps for next year and an RO, thats our dream,,,and how to acomplish this feat, we have all summer to scheam,,,
Come next year,,when the sweet goddess sings,,we will be ready to dance, putting off all of lifes other things,,our shed will be stuffed with a fresh dry 50,,Barrels lined up- I can see it in my minds eye-man that looks pretty niffty-until then we can just dream of our sweet godess return,,I think Ill start filling the woodshed tommrow, no time to burn,,,
When that worm moon comes next year we will be ready,,but for now its make plans,,work in the orchards on expanding,,bust hump filling the shed,,get all sweaty ,,,
You ready Bruce?

[Parker]

Dissing the Mack Mountian stand? BRUCE ARE YOU TRIPPING?? Lets think about some factors befor we do any serious ripping!!!
Your original concern were the long term affects of high vacuum-a fine example I gave you to visit,,tapped with high suction for over30 years and I dont see it stopping anytime real soon ,are the trees not healthy and perfect-in every way exqusite?

An orchard like that must be tended with EXTREAM care-did you not notice the incredibal height those trees tower into the air!! To thin such an orchard to the "proper" basal area would be inviting disaster,,an ice storm-a rouge wind-even a hurricane,,the results would be sinister...
That stand is a huge sail in the middel of open fields-the wind howles thru there at incredibal speeds,,,to moist clay soils those mighty roots cling-thin it too much and you would accomplish just one thing.....
That butiful orchard once tended by Glenn forfathers would blow over flat!! When Glenn finally made it to heaven his grandfather would kick his ars and that would be that!!
I have seen the neat rows of a vinyard and the mass production of intel, its actually kinda tragic,,,,sterial,,,over organized,,, what the hell, Ill say it,, lacking some magic,,,
In the sugarwoods there are many way to measure progress,,sugar per tap,making happy the sweet goddess,,
I think Glenn is doing a fine job carring on family tradition,,,and that orchard my friend reflects it with its wonderful condition...

If you were to walk thru those woods you would see there is on going thinning-done with the gratest of care- starting a new crop of maple from the begenning.
Which tree to be felled? Which one to release,,,importent decisions to say the least.. for maples to thrive they do need some sun,,but dont forget the shade,,thats where so many mistakes have been made,(speakeing from my own experiance),,thin them to fast , thin them to hard,,they will be stunned-sunscalded, especially up high, their bark will fall off, the mighty sugar trees will eventualy die,,the orchard would need to be restarted,,,and that would take 2 lifetimes and madey more,with the results of your work the sweet godess would be broken hearted,,better to thin slowly,,tread lightly on the forest floor......If you were to thin that stand to a basal area of say 80 my guess in 2 years time you would diminish its production greatly,,,slow and steay my friend,,,thin with great care,,,the goddess loves thick stands,,,ones that tower in the air,,,,,,

[Amber Gold]

Who knew we had such a poet on the 'trader. This has been an interesting season reading posts on yours and Bruce's seasons. Keep it up.

[Parker]

gonna chew on that for a while

[Parker]

Bruce, I see your Ludite intenions, foresaking all these new fangeled inventions,
Production and markerting are key, I agree with you on that score, But technology now allows 1 man to do the work of 8, mabey even more...
When I was young we gatherd 2 thousand buckets in Faifield, we collected with horses and a sled all the sap that the trees did yeild,,
We were 8 souls strong,,2 would boil on that wood burning 5x16 all day, and sometimes all night if the sap had run long,,
But 5 of us would gather with 2 teams of horses,,1 person had to stay at the house and jst cook, sometimes 3 courses,,
While that time for me was certinaly life changing, when we went to visit other producers I could see the SWEET GODDESS was re-arranging the way syrup would be produced in the futcher,,,see she wants the industry to survive,,not fall into a forgotten stupper,,
For young folks (and thats the key) to devote their lives to the Sweet GODESSES pleasure,,to taps maples on acres well beyond measure,, to invest their love, and their gold,,they must have a hope for a return on their investment,,or so I have been told,,,see with the cost of help today to have that crew of 8,, can you imagine the expense?? It would be more than you would make on the syrup-far too great,,
As our friend Russ says, suck and squeeze,,1 person doing the work of 8 still having time for a sit down dinner with the family,,modern technology should be enbraced,,its great..
For the fallow orchards you speak of in Cabbott, now I have friends in that area and they all fight for every availabel tap,but,,Bruce remember its up to the owner of the land,,and for some people it does not matter how much money or syrup you offer to put in their hand!! drill trees??? some folks are just plain aginst it,,,they find the act downwright offensive!!!
With regardes to tapping and logging on New Hampshire state lands, I have first hand experiance and lets just say I dont quite understand, their goals and objectives seem somewhat asque,,from what I have seen they dont want you to tap a pallet log!!! What is a sugarmaker to do,,I can see not tapping a tree with veneer in the butt,,but lets drill a hole in it if the whole tree is junk!!!

[Parker]

Bruce my friend at the beggining of each year the dream is always the same,,fill more barrells than last year,,if you fail you have no one but yourself to blame,,,see sugaring depends on a few key components,,its fundamentals as Brother Bob says,,dry wood,tapped on time,,tight lines,,dont shut of the vacuum,,not for a moment!! But then there is also the weather,,and we all know (althought we love her dearly) the SWEET GODESS is sometimes clearly a littel fickel-even when to weather is perfect-sometimes she only gives us a trickel,,,sugaring is to some extent a roll of the dice,,a game of chance,,and in a season like this we pay a high price,,
I see your point about getting more for the gallon,,really being able to make a year round living from maple,,its always been a challange,,,I know there is always farmers markets and retail,,making fine sugars-barbaque sauces,,man that requires alot of attention to detail,,and I need to roll my crop out as I make it,so with packers I deal,,to pay help,,buy gas,,I am like a hampster running on a wheel,,I think one year Ill have a crop so big Ill have dollars ahead,BUT,mabey thats just a fantsy floating around in my head
AND
I think this is how many producers are,,,we do it more for the love of the dream,,to pleasure the goddess,,,more than to get rich,,if you can make a living sugaring then god bless,,I think like so many I am in it caus I love the fight,,hanging out with Marvin and the goddess in the sugarhouse till well past midnight,,,yes, one year I think I will make a full crop,,and mabey that year the price will stay high,,not drop,,and in my pocket i have a roll of bills that would choke an old wheezer,,,and that Bruce is how Ill buy my new shinney squezer

[Parker]

It might,,throw me a hanger right over the plate,,Ill read it tonight, mabey tommrow morning Ill have my mind wraped around it,,if I dont stay up too late,,
Tonight I have to bake some cookies-mabey a pumpkin pie for the hockey banquet on sunday,,BUT,,that shouldent take too long Ill do it with my daughters,,bakeing with them is alot of fun anyway
writeing this stuff is like my mind doing pushups,,once you get started it hard to give up...Plus,I think having to stop would make me a littel bitter
AND
I have never been a very good quiter

[Russell Lampron]

Well said guys! I have been fortunate to be able to take advantage of the latest technology in my sugaring operation. When it was time to decide which path to follow when the demand for my product and the time to produce it exceeded the capacity of the equipment that I had it turned out to be less expensive and more productive to take the path that I did.

I don't disrespect anybody that does it the old fashioned way. There is a lot of heritage and tradition in the making of maple syrup.

Suck machines and shiny squeezers aren't for everybody but should be considered when upgrades or expansion is necessary. Is spending $15000 for a bigger evaporator and sugar house addition wiser than spending $8000 for a shiny squeezer?

[PerryW]

Russell, If I was starting sugaring today, I would certainly consider doing it the high-tech way with RO & a smaller evaporator. Even though my sugarwood now comes from my sawmill as a waste product; it's still quite an effort to get enough wood stacked in the woodshed to make my 120 gallons.

When I bought my 3x10 in 1989, it was only $3500. My total investment in sugaring, including lumber for the sugarhouse, tubing, tanks, evaporator, filter canner, etc was about $8,000, and I was able to make it back in the first two years. It seems like equipment costs have tripled and the syrup prices have only increased 50% or so.

I am however, contemplating a vacuum system; though it goes against my Luddite nature. Right now, I have only one motor to worry about (my sap truck) and more mechanical things are just more things that can go wrong. If I can get the power company to give me a reasonable rate for service, I just might make the plunge.

[KenWP]

Come on Perry take the plunge. I went from a flat pan to flues. I even gave up a ax for a chain saw.

[Russell Lampron]

Those are some good numbers Bruce but the 150gph shiny squeezer with an NF 270 membrane can do much more than that. I recirculate my sap and get the concentration up to about 18% before I boil. I usually turn 800 gallons of sap into syrup in about 2 hours with my 2x6. I barely get the evaporator up to temp when it is time to shut down! The number of taps that I can handle is yet to be determined. I have suck on just under 650 taps now and I also put out 88 buckets and am able to handle it all with ease.

[Russell Lampron]

Bruce what your computer program doesn't know is that the pumps on my 150gph shiny squeezer are the same as on a 400gph shiny squeezer. With a conventional NF 90 membrane I can't get the flow rates that I can with the NF 270 high flow membrane. With the NF 270 membrane I am able to use every bit of flow that the pumps will produce which is just under 4gpm on the concentrate and permeate sides or close to 8gpm total or about 400gph. It will maintain those flows for about 2 hours before it starts to slow down as the concentrate gets into double digits.

[Parker]

Isent it fun writing those numbers down, a tidey mathimatical equation,But remember Bruce, a GODESS with a frown wont give you the sap you are craving,,and for that Jones and his rule of 86, for Marvin and I that fromula has left us in shear frustration! We never come close to making 1 gallon from forty,,, With 2% sap its more like 50 to 1,,I am not sure where the sugar goes,,but its not in the drum..
Your mechanical production numbers add up just fine,,they might, as Russ suggested be a littel low,
but,
your taps on grabity are going to give you 13 gallons each? I dont think so. I think that # is far to high and I have for you a suggestion. Post a query on the tubing fourm and ask fellow traders what say-just guessing the average will be around 9 gallons a tap..last year on grabity I got just that.
On Hoit road this year I got just 3, see that is what can happen-thats why big companies stick with crops with a littel more pradictability-you will never see INTEL or CARGIL sappin!
As for vacuum 20 gal. a tap is well within reason,,last year I got 22 but that was a heck of a season,,,this years I averaged just 15.8,,I think I know why, I tapped too late,,but-I thought if I drilled too early I would just get a littel sap in my tanks then it would turn freezing-break all my plumbing, then I would be
........more later I gotta get the kids going........

[Russell Lampron]

Ah the numbers of which the mighty Parker speaks. I got 12.1 gal per tap on buckets in 2009 so 13 gal per tap is certainly obtainable. I only got 7.7 this year from the same trees but this was a bad year for buckets.

Last year from the tubing with suck on it I got 19.2 gal per tap and this season only 17.3 gal per tap. The sap goddess and the weather gods were in control. I was without power from around 11pm Thursday night until 11:30am Sunday morning the weekend of the wind storm. I could have made my averages if I had power those three days.

[Parker]

Bruce -I know the baby evaporator and R.O. are certinaly the way to go,,Marvin and I are a dying breed,,I only know of one other outfit in the maple world that for wood has as big a need, and that is the Rodgers right over in Warner, a wood eating5x14 boiling from 3000, heck, right around the corner.....
I dont run Marvin caus I think its an ideal situation,,I have him caus I paid $1000 for an entire opperation,,a 20x80 sugarhouse stuffed to the rafters, Marvin-tanks-stainless benches- everything I was after,,
I know what you mean with small trees and low sugar content-but with and R.O. you can turn .8% into 12% and you havent even started boiling yet!
So as many of my sugaring brothers and sisters convay, even if they are babies(or reds) tap them anyways-put them on vacuum, get that sap into a releaser-run that sweet necter thru the big old squeezer, boil it down and fill the drum,,,dont forget Bruce those littel trees grow fast (when you thin around them) so give that littel fella some room and some sun..the goddess will do the rest-you will be amazed-downright impressed- that littel maple that used to be just 12 inches will turn into a 3 foot monster, who would have guessed? If the Native Americans had seen such a trophy thru the thick spring fog...they would surly tap it-they would know they would not need too many hot rocks for their hollow log!!!
----
Bruce I was sorry to hear you once had a 135,,must have been frustrating. With logging (as so many things) the fantasy is the curse..