Sugar shack location and vacuum

[afretired]

Well I've devoted about every free minute in trying to get ready for this spring. I don't know if I'll make it though without a little help from the family. I went to a cousin the other day and he gave me a milk releaser he grew out of, and I think I can find a pump without too much trouble, just got to stay ahead of the scrappers. I've rounded up two mueler milk tanks. I've marked my trees, and I actually have three areas on my farms that will do good. I've got my plans together to start building a sugar house in the next month or so, but here is the question/problem. For all of you that are running vacuum, are your sugar bushes adjacent to or uphill from your sugar houses? Here in the middle of KY that is fairly hard to do with all the hills and hollows. The closest sugar bush I have marked is a hollow that has the maples going down through it for about a thousand feet, but the low end is the farthest away of where I need to build my sugar house (Up next to the road). It would probably be around 2000 ft away and under a hill of 50 ft. So in my mind either I go completely gravity and use a holding tank or I build my sugar shack back down a hollow where you have to pipe in sunlight, so I have current and a place to put the vacuum pump.

Dave

[Thad Blaisdell]

A small generator and a pump .... or a gas powered pump and a tank up top, and presto the sap can come up that 1000' with 50' of lift with no problem.

[danno]

I'll tell you my experience - unless the decision is obvious, don't build or do anything permanent until you've run the system for a season or two. All my taps are uphill from my sugarhouse and my SH is in my barn - but still seems like I'm making huge changes every year. Would just hate to see you build a SH (unless it's on skids), run the system for a year and say, shoot, I should have set this up differently. Just my 2 cents.

[Maplewalnut]

I agree with danno 100%. We cleared some room for a sugarhouse over a couple week period one year only to build it the next season 100 yards away from that spot after lloking at the layout once tubing was run. Be as close to electricity as you can whether your tubing runs that way or not. You can always pump sap!

[afretired]

Alright, bear with me. Can you put a vacuum pump on the uphill end? If I use gravity, it won't be any problem to drive down there and transfer the sap to another tank. But it would be difficult to put a vacuum pump on the lower end.

With the SH located out next to the highway it would also have a dual purpose to use to sell my honey in the summer.

Dave

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

You can put your pump wherever you want and transfer the vacuum to the lower end of your line via a vacuum line. Just be sure the line is large enough for adequate vacuum transfer. You will have the cost of your labor and the pipe but having the vacuum pump located in a convenient location may be worth it.

[Russell Lampron]

My sugarhouse is at the top of the hill and that is also where my vacuum pump is. I ran a pipe 900' down the hill to my releaser. I also ran a pipe back up the hill to pump the sap up to the SH. I have had no problems doing this. For this season I am locating the releaser another 600' away for a total distance of 1500'. I may have to get a bigger pump to get the sap up the hill but that is a minor problem. My elevation change is about 25' to 30' from the bottom to the top.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I agree that the placement of the shack is the main concern and your first choice wont be the best choice. As said spend the money to pump the sap to the shack and think about how many times you or others will be driving up to the shack with sap, supplies, parts, beer:) and all things nessasary. Plus if your going to sell honey to the public you want a nice duel porpose bldg with alot of power and retail conveniance. If they cant see ya they wont pull in and spend the big bucks.

[afretired]

Thanks for the information. It helped me sort things out. I guess I had better get the vacuum thought out of my mind for right now, and focus on getting my sugar house built. Using gravity, I'll probably get all the sap I need just starting off. Maybe look into the vacuum system for 2012,

Dave