Am I alone or what?

[Buckeye mapler]

I am ready to quit! February stayed cold forcing me to retap the taps I had put in early. Then a misguidance from a landowner forced me to move my taps that I had just retapped. I get all the taps out (90) at the new place and retapped the other 40 and was set for this big run. I collected 90 gallons yesturday and 30 the day before so things seemed to be worth while. Then a careless mistake by my father in law cost me all I had collected yesturday. He went to get on top of the sugar shack to fix the steam stack. When he did he used my sap feeder tank to step up to the roof and it pushed the tank away from the wall of the sugar shack disconnecting the feed pipe from the tank. I just don't know how he did not hear it splashing on the ground. Needless to say all that I collected spilled to the ground. I found it today when I went to pump sap that I collected today into the feedtank. I am very ill right now. My toes just thawed from yesturdays collection!:mad: Who has had big mishaps like this. PLease share I need some reassurance. If you haven't, well make one up!!!!:lol:

[Doc]

Oh dude....Sorry!!!
But look at it this way, your father-in-law now owes you a favor big time!!!!
Looks like it's time to upgrade to a larger evaporator, need the truck washed, house painted, etc!!!
Sorry dude....

[maplekid]

i had my gathering tank fall off the tractor and break the fitting off of the back. mind you it was a two inch fitting on a 55 gallon drum. i noticed it laying about 50 ft behind me in the driveway at the sugarwoods. needless to say i was pi$$ed. full tank of sap all on the ground :cry:

[maplehound]

Welcome to sugaring, these mishaps occure all the time. My neighbor who makes spent thousands of dollars getting his setup the first year for him. He hauls his sap quit a distance, the first time he had a tank (1000 galons) load he headed for home, when he arrrived the tank was near empty because he forgot to close the valve.:(.
I myself have on many occasion pumped sap down a pump line to a hauling tank just to find when I was done that the line was broken in the middle. I guess we never learn.
Today my dad and I finally started tapping. Yeasterday we rinse the pump line and had trouble with the deep well pump that lays in the bottom of our tank, it was frozen solid. Then when we got that thawed out and were ready to start pumping the water our genrator started to give us trouble. (repair man isn't sure it will be worth fixing :( )
OHHH the joy of Syrup Making

[Fred Henderson]

So far and counting, Backed the collection rig into the garage door driving it out of the track. Started boiling and had an off flavor after an hour, shut down, drained ( 100 gallons lost and 2 hours time) disassemble rinsed and started again. The best run so far helper took day off to go ice fishing. I may be getting to old for all the stress. Been up at 3AM the last 2 days. Seems like I have been behind the eight ball since startup. Tonight its dropping down to 19 Deg so I will have to go to the SH at 10 PM and start a small fire. With all that has happened to me I keep tell myself that God is just offering me some new challenges. Life would be boreing without new challenges. Either is will get better or worse.

[Sugarmaker]

WRU is leaking like a sieve, Looks like it wont be ready for this season. 325 gallon tank frame wouldn't fit into the new truck without a torch modification and some welding. Rear dumping station frame had to be fixed ( finally) due to poor fab work several years ago. All 30 totes near the road had to be dug out and re-set. Dump tank valve is froze. Cordless drills ran out of juice 50 taps from the end of the line.
I dumped 100 gallons of sap on the ground two years ago cause I was tired of gathering it.
I have invited another sugarmaker to bring their sap to me and proceeded to run it on the ground due to a tank valve being open:(
Sounds like sugaring life to me:) Don't you just love it!

Regards,
Chris

[kinalfarm]

got the polaris ranger stck today in the snow and dug like a dog with my hands for half hour to get it out and then went and collevted only 20 gal of sap totally not worth while!!!! and it will all freeze tonight in my truck tank and that will suck!!! plus i havent boiled yet this season no good runs yet tough start to a season.

[Buckeye mapler]

:cool: OK. OK. So I am not floating in this boat alone. I was just getting so fed up with always running into more and more problems. I guess the last rounds were kind of bringing me to a full boil! Now the weather is looking to stay warm at night so the end may be near. Well I can say this: It might be mother natures way of putting me out of my misery for this season. I am well aware of what I need to do to improve and to aleviate some of the road blocks. I know too that this stuff is common and I am not just some person not meant to do this. I remember standing on that sap tower today asking myself if I really had any business even trying to do this.:confused: It was that bad.

[jdj]

The bigger the sugaring operation, the bigger the problems!! I think alot of us make syrup because it is such a challenge.

[Russell Lampron]

Last season I started RO and was recycling sap. I had my 600 gallon tank nutted. I forgot to change one of the valves from drain to concentrate and pumped 600 gallons of sap onto the ground. The season before that i forgot to switch a valve when washing the RO and pumped the contents of my wash tank into the feed tank. I had to dump the contents of the evaporator and start over again.

90 gallons of sap is a lot for a small guy but it isn't the end of the world.

[heus]

Had my pans sweetened from the night before. Took off my floats. Forgot to close the valve from the feed tank to the pans. Pumped a tank full of sap into the evaporator, overflowing it and obviously messing up the gradient that had been established. This was 2 weeks ago.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Buckeye Your not alone with the mishaps. I dont remember ever making a mistake when I made syrup in the kettle in the driveway. BUT then I started expanding.

1) melted the solder on my 2x8 pans and it took days to get it fixed
2) made a finisher that had the draw off valve pipe go thru the flame and made 10 gallons of the first BBQ flavord syrup that ants walked away from.
3)After moving my head tank out side I turned on the switch and went back to MULTI TASKING and pumped 350 gallons on the ground.
4) was cleaning the shack up because the local paper was coming out to do a story and was again multi tasking when a buddy pulled up and I went out side to talk......forgot I was drawing off had a bucket full of sweet sap and a floor full of syrup.
5) Started up the evap on a perfect day and was cleaning tanks for all the sap that was running and forgot to open the flue to finish pans and set fire to both syrup pans. Flames 24" high. Sandblasted the 1" of charcoal out.
6) Bumped the syrup finisher valve walking past it and found a 30" puddle on the floor with the dog licking it up.
7) Decided to test the filter press to see if it was STILL CLOGGED and sprayed hot syrup all over the room the dog and me.
8) Used really cool looking plastic tubing for the oil lines on my vacuum pump system that was all new and shinny looking Lasted about 45 min before it started screaming to a hault.

The list goes on and on and on so dont feel like your alone
DO I REALLY NEED TO GO ON

[Buckeye mapler]

Wow, Hayne's, not only do my problems seem small, you have made me realize I need to keep a journal of mishaps right next to my sap logs!:lol:
I have to say reading these mishaps that you all have had has definitely eased the stress of mine. You know one of the things most of us have had to do is convince our wives we are not crazy doing this. And with the problems mounting and me spending "more time than I anticipated" out in the bush or shack and her head shaking more and more, it had me doubting myself. The I posted this and you all have shared your misfortunes with sugaring. I showed her what you all have had to say and she even said, "well then things aren't going all that bad for you then are they?" I could only think to myself, this is only my first real season though!!!!!!!:rolleyes:

[Haynes Forest Products]

It all becomes a good topic of conversation over a cold beer and you will soon forget the sick feeling you have from the dumb things you and others have and will have done. I found out a long time ago that its only a matter of time before someone else will do the same stupid mistake that you did. I can only try and explain the sick want to quit I hate this sport what did that just cost me feeling of burning up $1500.00 worth of pans in less then 2 min with $300.00 worth of syrup and 1/2 day to fix it heart ache you get.

In all honesty I own the land the sugar shack and all the equipment BUT I also own most of the blunders. I put the fear of god into everyone else and they run the rig better than I do. Im best if I stick to running sap cleaning tanks and fixing the small stuff and stay out of the evap room.

[Buckeye mapler]

I have put alot of time and effort into planning things and getting this all going. I have said it a hundred times. Initially, decisions and events can make or break you when you start up. It is alot of money and it can be hard to recover from big mistakes. I lost some syrup for sure and maybe a couple hundred bucks. At this point, everything made was to be recycled into the operation anyway. It means less money to put back in and inevitably more out of my pocket. Because lets face it, I am still going to buy what I need to expand next year whether it is syrup money or work money!!:o

[Haynes Forest Products]

Thats the spirit Buckeye Ill be ****ed if I going to stop having fun regardless of how much money I spend. I did do some math and if I had the auto draw off with the burner shut down mode I could have paid for it last year with the little pan fire.

I wont be going back this year to do Syrup because of timing of the season and work so Im saving money RIGHT:mad:

[Buckeye mapler]

So no boiling for you this year Haynes? I only got 30 gallons out of 90 taps today. The other 40 taps did not look to be producing much either. I think our season is over after this weekend. We are on a 5 day no freeze forecast. The trees have pretty plum buds as it is. I think this may do it. As I said, mother nature is giving me the chance to recoup. I think she wants another piece of me next year! :lol: The weather was odd for us this year. February stayed frozen solid with the exception of a few days that I gathered 200 gallons. We had snow on the ground 90 percent of the month, which is our bread and butter in southwest Ohio.

[maple sapper]

I cant say Im up the the Haynes level of OOP's but I have put sap on the sugar house floor on several occasions due to the float being pinned open to drain the line the night before, while pumping or forgetting to shut a valve etc. You make syrup for the love of doing it and possibly the ability of watching your engineering at work. Other then that, I have learned not to quit my day job.