tapping in Littleton

[woodsmith]

put in my 47 taps on Sunday, ran nice and steady all afternoon with little sun and no wind to speak of. Lucky for me Littleton was spared the worst of last week's weather and I only lost one tree top on my new bush, it seems a little early but my test bucket started to run so I just went for it! I did get some nice clear sap from Sunday's run, away we go......

[PerryW]

I also tapped in Littleton on Sunday on Skinny Ridge road. I have about 700 on pipeline.

[hurdmaple]

I had another good run on Monday here in Lyman, all I can boil on my 2x4 in the time I have. All of the hard work seems to be paying off.

[woodsmith]

running really nice in Littleton all weekend and Monday, looks like this will be a good week. I am wondering if the sugar content is low cause I seem to be boiling a long time, I don't have anything to test for sugar content

[hurdmaple]

My sugar content is low here in lyman 1.5%. Must be I can"t have everything at least I have all the sap that I can boil so far this year.

[PerryW]

I've never checked my sugar content. Sometimes I think it's better not knowing. I'm up to 41 gallons of syrup now, all light amber except the first 5 gals. Though it looks like no freeze tonight.

[hurdmaple]

I am in the sugar house boiling now another good run today will be a late night again.

[PerryW]

Looks like BIGSAP here in the north country today. Froze into the teens and a high of 47 this afternoon.

I have 300 gallons of sap I collected yesterday to boil right now which should bring me to around 47 gallons so far.

[PerryW]

Got 20 degrees on the sugarhouse thermometer, so hopefully the trees remembered how to run. Getting the sugarhouse ready to boil, lay the fire and go on leak patrol this morning. Hopefully come back around 1-2 PM with a 1/2 load of sap and boil it up this afternoon. Plan on gathering late (around dark) and boiling again tonite. Don't want to leave much sap around because after tonite, looks like deep freeze for a couple days. We'll see if we can bring the grade back up from low-B to at least Adark. With any luck, I can hit triple digits by tonite. SItting at 90.5 gallons now.

[PerryW]

Well the sap is still sluggishly dripping on day number 4 without a freeze. Probably have 100-150 gallons of sap to boil up this afternoon. Supposed to be in the 60's tomorrow and hotter on friday so I'll probably pick up my last sap on Friday Morning and call it quits. Should get close to 110 gallons for the season with 65 gallons of fancy.

Overall, not a bad season for me. Ending 2-3 weeks early will allow be to get a jump on my summer work. The holes never even had a chance to start drying up and only had to wash my tanks twice.

Once again my scraggly trees, 20 year old used tubing and hundred+ year old technology have conspired to give me almost a full crop. No vacuum, No RO, no Pumps, no preheater, no blower, no filter press, just one old truck with a bad starter.


22 year tally - Lyman NH
2010 - probably around 110
2009 - 119
2008 - 95
2007 - 113
2006 --- 130
2005 -- 89
2004 -- 116
2003 -- 126
2002 -- 122
2001 -- 99
2000 -- 155
1999 -- 81
1998 - 72
1997 - 100
1996 - 201
1995 - 121
1994 - 113
1993 - 90
1992 - 136
1991 - 101
1990 - 105
1989 - 60

[Amber Gold]

Perry,

That may be a full crop, but that's only ~0.14 gal per tap...not a great number. Vacuum would get to about 0.25 gpt on an average year...that's a lot more syrup.

A friend in the next town over will make about 30 gal this season on 280 taps on gravity and most of his trees look much better mine...field type trees. Mine are 400 woods trees on gravity and I'll make about 80 gal.

To each his own, but I'll stick with vac.

With this warm weather, how on earth did you make over half your crop in Fancy?

[PerryW]

yeah, I know 0.14 gal per tap is not great but 120 gallons it's about the right amount of syrup for my one-man operation. I basically just kept adding taps till it felt right. I can retail it all; my typical boils are 4-5 hours long; and my sawmill puts out about 10 cords of wood will easily make 120 gals.

Suppose I had 400 taps. How much would it cost to double my production by adding vacuum using an off-the-shelf vacuum pump (no power at the site)?

How much would it cost me to double my production by tapping 400 extra trees using used tubing, tees and spouts?

For me it always seems cheaper to add some more taps; especially those roadside buckets that are impractical for vacuum.

I may still go vacuum someday on my 600 tap littleton bush (steep), it's just the thought of having to repipe the whole bush with rigid tubing & bigger mainlines. I get tired just thinking about it.

Josh, most of my production came in the first 10 days of march when the temp hovered either side of 32 degrees for a week. I'm usually not even plugged in by march 10. I usually only make 20-25% of my crop light amber.

[michelle32]

Josh, You need to edit your post. Your 400 are on vac not gravity. Are you done over there? We doubled what we made last year. Very happy with that. New pump will be here friday.

[Amber Gold]

Perry, you can always add vac. to your existing system, you just wouldn't see the full benefits until it is re-tubed. When the existing tubing needs replacement, run it for the vac. At least with the vac. sap will still be had on all those crummy days we had this season.

Also, talk to Parker about gas powered pumps. I think he has vac. everywhere and they're all gas powered.

Like I said, to each his own.

Keith, I foolishly turned the pump off Sunday afternoon and missed the majority of the biggest run of the season. Next year, the pump stays on until I see flowers. I'll boil off 80 gal of what I did get tonight and will run the syrup pan through the flue pan tomorrow night and call it a season. Hoping to get another 80 gal of sap so I can flood my pans and leave it for a month. Come back, nice clean pans.

[PerryW]

Day 4 without a freeze and still got 200 gallons of sap. Took off another 3 gallons of A Dark Amber for a total of 109 gallons.

[farmall h]

Does McClures in Littleton still buy bulk syrup?