what would you do?

[PATheron]

I had a lady call me the other night and to my surprise asked me If Id be willing to come tap her property so it would qualify as a tree farm or such matter. She has 65 acres of maple, and it sounds like nice maple, she doesnt want it logged, she wants it to be in maple production. This is the kicker. She doesnt care how you do it the only stipulation is the tubing has to be removed every year. What do you do with that? Its 18 miles from my house and their could likely be 6000 taps there. What the heck? Any ideas? I think I know what Im going to do. Probly nothing. Ill try to help the lady out anyway I can but I cant see the feasability. Theron

[brookledge]

did she say what her reasons are? Does she want to be able to walk it freely? Drive atvs? There must be a reason. Then once you know what reason is then you can try to satisfy that reason. May be you can put up mainline and only take down sections or raise them in the off season. Another thing is if you could leave the main line up you could just remove or coil the 5/16 back to the mainline.
If she wants to save some money by being able to classify it differently for tax purpase then she might work with you and meet you halfway on some of her initial concerns. Also once you look at the potential and figure out how much it is worth to you and you offer some $$ she might come around.
So work it and see what you can get.
Keith

[ennismaple]

Stretching 6000 taps every year is a PITA. It'd be nice but probably more work than even you can bite off!

[PATheron]

Keith- Im going to keep an open mind and I dont mind being creative. She has a great attitude and is a very nice person. I told her Id go walk it and tell her what she has at least and kind of do a scene assessment. She leases the land for hunting and she has leaf watchers and stuff like that. Shes kind of a back to nature lady. Im not sure she understands the feasability of picking all that up and such. I may even try to hook her up with someone more local to her that would like the opertunity and then maybe buy the sap off of them. Sure goes against my grain though not to tap something like that when its available. Just sounds like SO MUCH WORK.

[PATheron]

I think your right Marty. Holy crap that sounds tiring. Ill have to look at it and maybe she and I could work out some compromise. Only other thing is if I did something high production and thats the only way Id do it thats a lot of trucking too. Figure with my ton truck and a real good trailer maybe haul 1500 gallons per trip? Even if you put 3000 top notch runners in there thats a bit of trucking.

[ehafkey]

If you could tap her along with the 6000 maple then maybe. If not way to much work. Actually either way it's to much work.:lol:

[Thad Blaisdell]

She may just not want to look at the tubing. They sell different color tubing that she may be able to live with. And if you do get it I would put an RO on site. Instead of 6000 gallons you can haul 600. The savings alone would pay for one.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Theron,
Saw your posting last evening and thought I'd better sleep on it. Didn't come up with much and, unlike some things, it doesn't look much better in the morning. I think you have thought of the angles and going and walking it with her is probably the best you can do to help her out. I don't know how much quicker and easier CDL's no wire system is but just trying to keep track of a system that big to know where various portions are to be erected would be next to impossible. Can you find someone with a dozen kids and 6000 buckets to tap it for you? If it were next door, it would help or maybe the tanker needs to be replaced as storage and be put back on the road???? Good luck. Looking is going to be fun anyway. Just don't get hooked seeing that much potential in one place.
Doug

[PATheron]

Last night I told my wife I wouldnt be doing anything over there and she said good. She thought it was nuts. It would take so much time every which way I dont think its worth it to me. Ill try to help her out and hook her up with someone local. Theres a lot of trees much closer to me. The attraction is a large bush in one spot. Here I have 500-2000 tap woodlots all over. Ill just keep hitting them close to the house. Plus if I can get big results per tap I dont need to many of them to make a lot of syrup. With her attitude and what she wants to do Id do it if everyhting could stay in the air. Thing is with her she wants it to be a very long term thing. If it could be installed properly Id do it 100% and buy a milktruck. Ill tell her that and maybe down the road she might change her mind about things. Whatever she wants to do is fine, she owns it. Ill go see if I can help her out. Picking up that line though, I could never do all that. Theron

[Maplewalnut]

Theron-

I think you made the right decison, that would be alot of work and time and certainly more than you just saved in going to oil. In my mind its a nice compliment that she is comfortable with what she has heard about you as a sugarmaker and would be willing to let you tap her property. you must be doing things the right way!

Mike

[maplecrest]

treeeon, sounds all well and good. you bust your self, wallet, and eat up all this time for her tax right off. if she really saw what went into to what you do. and wanted her trees tapped. she would give alittle about tubing staying up! pump ,tank and r/o house. power supply.ect not to say the price per tap

[lew]

You mentioned that she leased the land out for hunting. I am assuming that this might be the reason for wanting the tubing out of the woods. If I were leasing hunting land, I sure wouldn't want to have climb all over that tubing. It sounds like she is trying to get the land to pay as much as possible to make it less of a burden for her. Perhaps, if the woods look good enough, you could make a lease that would compensate her enough so that the loss of the hunting lease (or reduction of price for the hunting lease because of all the tbing in the way) would make her happy.

Another thought I was having is that how long has she owned the land? I have tapped woods in the past, some for over ten years, and a new land owner bought the place. they thought they were going to make lots of money from hunting leases, tapping leases, field leases, renting out the barn, etc. Long story short, they ended up cutting off the woods to try and keep the farm. 2 years later they sold the palce and have a brush lot in place of beautiful sugarbush. My concern is that if she just bought the place or is just beginning the stewardship of this land, you would be well advised to get a lawyer involved to protect your investment if the project goes through.

[ennismaple]

We've got a local producer that has 2 x 5000 tap bushes about that distance apart. His solution was to have 2 sugar camps, 2 evaporators and 2 RO's. I think you're right - go all out or thanks, but no thanks.

[jason grossman]

Theron, i have installed for customers that did the tubing removal and reinstall every year and i can tell you this, they all said it was ok for the first year and it got progressively worse each following year. many to the point where they gave up on tubing and went back to buckets. when that got old they would call me for one last ditch effort on tubing before they would quit sugarin. i have had about 6 clients like that so far. moral of the story once it goes up it stays up!! unless like doug said youve got a crew of kids.

[Thad Blaisdell]

I am just having a problem visualizing this process....... lets see, When are you supposed to put up this tubing???? I would think now would be a good time to start for 5000 taps. And at that it will take oh boy how long to do by yourself. Then in April you are supposed to take it down. Holy Crap. My woods has 4900 taps and I used 180 rolls of 30p, now that alone will take up a considerable amount of space, think how much space it will take up unrolled and looped from single laterals, Then what do you do number every tree and the lateral that goes with it.... Now I am picturing rolling up the 1.5, 1.25, 1, and3/4 inch lines..... not to mention the wire. You are going to need a big barn to store this stuff in. And the amount of connectors you will need to buy next year. Not to mention how many saddles you will break. You should have it all down by the end of July. Now the second year you had better start putting it up in August because it is going to be a nightmare unraveling everything. All and All I think you should go for it. What else do you have to do on your time off:evil:

[Homestead Maple]

I had a lady call me the other night and to my surprise asked me If Id be willing to come tap her property so it would qualify as a tree farm or such matter. She has 65 acres of maple, and it sounds like nice maple, she doesnt want it logged, she wants it to be in maple production. This is the kicker. She doesnt care how you do it the only stipulation is the tubing has to be removed every year. What do you do with that? Its 18 miles from my house and their could likely be 6000 taps there. What the heck? Any ideas? I think I know what Im going to do. Probly nothing. Ill try to help the lady out anyway I can but I cant see the feasability. Theron
If your real serious about tapping more, be honest with her and explain to her that it is just not economical for you to have to put up tubing and have to take it down every year. Maybe she would let you tap a section of the land that would be off limits to other use. If the color of tubing is a problem, try suggesting using gray tubing and main line. if she serious about letting you tap, she may accommodate you.

[Acer]

maybe she could let you tap half and leave it up.

that's still 36 miles once or twice a day in season tho......

d

[Thad Blaisdell]

Half ....... would that be every other tree:lol: or just the sycamore's maybe.

[PATheron]

Im going to look it over and tell her what she has and explain to her that its not feasable to have a serious sugaring operation without leaving everything intact. Its too far to. Ive come up with around 5700 taps within a mile of the house and theres tons of trees all around here Ill just keep doing what Im doing. Id love a big bush like that though. I need to just get my taps to be the best producers ever and Ive probly already got enough. Always want MORE!!!

[gmcooper]

Theron if her sugarbush looks good enough to keep you interested bring her over to see your setup and tubing. Maybe that will help with her decision.

[Thad Blaisdell]

Maybe it could be bought.... not today but in the future. I would plant that bug as well.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Find someone small or someone looking to get started in mapling and put them onto her. They may only need to put in a few hundred taps for it to qualify for her.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

I know you probably won't tap her bush this year, but in the future if she wanted her tax status changed and you needed the sap you could probably work out a compromise. Does she need the whole bush in maple production for the tax thing, or only part of it? You could possibly start out with 500-1000 taps like the other bushes you tap and then increase if the need arises. Also, the trees you tap could be in a out of the way location where the lines wouldn't be as visible, possibly allowing you to leave them up throughout the year. This is just my point of view and I agree that it would be too much work to remove and put up the lines every year and if you don't have a market for the sap why bother. It's always tempting to tap more, but you wouldn't want your hobby spiraling out of control, although most maple producers are far past that point!