november journal

[ejmaple]

can't beleive no one has started the new month's journal. i had a good test boil yesterday, things are starting to shape up for the upcomming season. can't wait!! tempted to try some fall tapping

[PARKER MAPLE]

Wow!!! November is already here. There was 1in of fresh snow this am, just a reminder to get to work on the pipe lines and get the arch fire bricked up. Ive been bissy this summer rebuilding the 3x8 grimm and its really coming along good, very happy with the end results. working on the blower now then bricking and insulation. Got to hurry now 4mths to go..
maple rookie

[Revi]

I looked at the woodpile, then at the shotgun and decided that yesterday was too nice a day to split wood. I didn't get a deer, but I think I made the right decision anyway. The last few leaves were falling, the birds were flying around and the sun was shining. All in all a great afternoon to go hunting in the woodlot.

We harvest more than maple syrup up there.

[maplecrest]

90 days till tapping

[red maples]

Putting addition onto the chicken coupe!!! with more chickens they are gonna need more space come the winter months!!!! worked on it 3 hours yesterday and should be done by early afternoon!!!

Now that all the trees and brush have no leaves I have to get rid of the downed trees in my neighbors woods that I have been putting off doing all summer!! hopefully late this afternoon.


Don't forget to get out and vote today!!!! I did mine already!!!

[3rdgen.maple]

I looked at the woodpile, then at the shotgun and decided that yesterday was too nice a day to split wood. I didn't get a deer, but I think I made the right decision anyway. The last few leaves were falling, the birds were flying around and the sun was shining. All in all a great afternoon to go hunting in the woodlot.

We harvest more than maple syrup up there.

Thats funny. I get done work early yesterday and it was one of very few days it hasnt rained here. Im driving home in the truck beating myself up decided to get the rifle and hunt or split some wood. I get a text from my daughter and it said "dad I think we left your deer scents in the woods saturday night". Well decision was made right there lol. Well like you Revi I didnt see a thing. When I got home after dark I felt guilty so changed my clothes fired up the tractor and drove into the woods to the pile of blocks and started splitting under the use of the spotlights on the tractor. Next thing I know here comes the neighbor and kid and we got the wagon loaded with 2 face cords of split wood in a record time. Worked out good. By the way this is my worst deer season ever. 2 real nice bucks with bow last year and a doe and this year nadda. Deer hunting this year is reminding me of maple season this past spring lol.

[Parker]

Well the R.O. room is comming along nicely,,Got everything but the roof figured out :) I dont think it will be pretty but it will work just fine,,should be plenty of room,,,,makeing the back wall so we can unscrew it and slide the r.o. in and out,,(its 4 feet by 40 inches by 97 inches,,,made the room so we can get inside the machine to take the vessells out,,,Been in the woods at sanborns,,changing one lateral mainline that we used over from a previous set up there,,the line was full of chew holes and splices when we put it in service,,tried to patch it with hockey stick tape (what we had with us),,but that tape does not hold vacuum...I took 78 hose clamps off that line when I took it down,,,repaired all the damage I could see there,,got a bear in there chewing on the lateral line,,they make a big mess! Also alot of squirl chews there,,,SO,,rte.11 is set to tap,,sanborns needs another day,,then off to hill for a real maple makeover,,,gonna need alot more sap than I have had in the past..(4000 taps would be nice but kinda dout Ill get there this year)..and I got a couple more cords stacked in the shed,,,,hopeing to make serious progress on the r.o. room tommrow and get the rig planted by the weekend!!!!

[PATheron]

Par(water blowing out the back of the sugarhouse like a firehydrent)ker- Your going to love that ro. Now youve got to get that sap! Im working on my lines every night down here buddy. Had a lot of substandard stuff last year. Gonna try to do a bunch better. Were going to have to WANNNN IT!!!! Theron

[whalems]

split and stacked almost 3 cord of wood in the last 2 days. got a bunch more to do and not enough hours in the day:( But I am making progress on the "TO DO" list:) not much longer untill the snow flies! Calling for fluries on thursday in these parts.

[Sugarmaker]

Great afternoon to be deer hunting especially for the deer:) I saw fox squirrels, the insides of my eyelids several times:), chipmunks and a beautiful golden glow in the maples as the sun set.
Glad the neighbor lets me hunt right out the back door. Would be nice to see some deer. This is my first archery season. I might have more action switching over to squirrel hunting with the old .22?


Chris

[waysidemaple]

Hard for me to beleive that the fall semester is almost over. Decide to make the hour and a half drive home from school to hunt tonight. Saw a few deer, only one buck which was a little four point...owell it was a good night to hunt very calm in the woods. So far I have around 4 cords split a stacked and im starting to get the itch, cant wait for tapping time to get here and to try out the new evap.

[Paddymountain]

I bought a stainless steel countertop 7' long with a 16" sink in it for $30.00
yesterday. It even has a backsplash on the ends. I was going to get an 8' piece of formica countertop, but this will be a better way to go.

[Amber Gold]

Parker, with the new RO what flow rates are you going to get and what levels are you going to concentrate to? Also, now that you have the RO, how much wood are you going to put up? Did you say there's 7 membranes...4" or 8"?

Josh

[Parker]

The machine has 7-4" vessels with 2 membranes a peice,,,was told not to try to run more than 8 new 4" membranes by someone that had the same model in the past..I guess the way the pump-feed lines are set up it wont matter how many you have after 8 membranes,,,all new to me,,,,,,I really dont know what to expect,,Think it will one pass the sap at around 800 gal. an hour? and I think I will just not pinch the pressure and recirc. back into my holding tanks while we gather-check for leaks,,try to make enough concentrate so we will be able to boil for 3 hours....if we dont have much sap Ill run it with the evaporator? or just run raw sap? (been told I wont do that after I boil concentrate) I am still gonna finish filling the woodshed just in case there is some unforseen problem...looking at my boiling records I can see that having enough sap could be a problem,,,,so I am going to add as many as I can befor the season..........
Got the walls up and the roof screwed down today,(kinda unique roof),still a ways to go but my goal is to have the room tight and heat on by friday...time will tell!

[PATheron]

Parker- If you recirculate while your gathering that will work real good for you probly. When you do that you just run it open flow with the concentrate and the machine wont be so prone to clogging. Just dump water. My seprotech that I ran last year right out of the hole with two new nf270s did 10 gallons per minute of water running that way. My machine would be considered a 900 gallon per hour deal with the extra vessel and just the 5 horse high pressure pump. Thats twice the pace of mighty marvin right there. Maybe that unit of yours would be just as good. Theron

[Parker]

TTTHHH(closeinginonqubecfast)RROONN- was that with 4" or 8" membranes,,and how long are your membranes?

[maplwrks]

Parker---I think the theory behind using only 8 membranes is this---Many folks feel that if you add more membranes you acheive more out put. This is not true. You could put more membranes in your rig, but it will only put out what the pressure pump has capacity for. An expanded 600 gph machine will not put out 1200 gph, it will only put out 870 gph which is what the pump is rated for. The more membranes you put on the machine however, the lower pressures you will see. I think that the person that told you that, probably didn't feel it was worth putting more membrane to the machine without a significant return for his investment.

[Gary R]

I got my stubbies and check valves yesterday. Last night my wife and I made up the drops. Today we're going to install the drops. The next day or so I'm going to test out a high vacuum pump with my homemade releaser.

I've been off all week to archery hunt. It has been terrible. The season started great with a lot of deer sightings. this past week I'm lucky to see a deer a day. The past three mornings were in the mid 20's while hunting. Pretty cold while sitting in the tree stand.

[Parker]

Hmm,,,I am pretty sure I can get membranes for $175 each.(1400 for 8)..But then agine with the limited ammount of sap I am going to get,,,,,mabey 4000 gal. on a good day,,,how fast do I really need to concentrate when marvin is going to still be doing 250-300 gph?
Now,,if I am just running the sap thru the machine and not building the pressure(recirculating back into my holding tanks) will I be doubleing the concentration (going from 1.5% to 3) of the sap? And say I am doing like 700? gallons an hour,,I will turn 4000 gallons os sap into what % of how many gallons in 6 hours?
If I have mountian dew looking sap how much can I run thru the machine befor I have to do a wash-rinse?
Thanks...trying to get some basic understanding....

[Thad Blaisdell]

The machine has 7-4" vessels with 2 membranes a peice,,,was told not to try to run more than 8 new 4" membranes by someone that had the same model in the past..I guess the way the pump-feed lines are set up it wont matter how many you have after 8 membranes,,,all new to me,,,,,,I really dont know what to expect,,Think it will one pass the sap at around 800 gal. an hour? and I think I will just not pinch the pressure and recirc. back into my holding tanks while we gather-check for leaks,,try to make enough concentrate so we will be able to boil for 3 hours....if we dont have much sap Ill run it with the evaporator? or just run raw sap? (been told I wont do that after I boil concentrate) I am still gonna finish filling the woodshed just in case there is some unforseen problem...looking at my boiling records I can see that having enough sap could be a problem,,,,so I am going to add as many as I can befor the season..........
Got the walls up and the roof screwed down today,(kinda unique roof),still a ways to go but my goal is to have the room tight and heat on by friday...time will tell!

I can tell you that last year using a 6x14 with 4900 taps, concentrating to 8.5% I boiled every 36 hours. I would only have to boil for about 3 hours each time. I also have a steamaway which increased my sap to roughly 11.5% entering the flue pan. So if you concentrate to 12% to start with the amount of taps you have you wont be boiling long. And no you wont boil raw sap after you use the osmosis. It just wont happen.

[maplwrks]

Parker--I would think if you concentrated to 8%---4000 gallons would be turned into 1000 gallons of concentrate. It would leave you 3-4 hrs of boiling. There are a couple of positives here

1. More time for the woods
2. less wood consumption
3. more sleep

Negatives:

1. Beer to syrup ratio goes down

[WMF]

That old Osmonics machine does not have much recirc flow so the fewer membranes you can get by with the better.

As you add membranes the recirc flow you do have is lessened for all the membranes in the machine. If you ever try to make very high concentrate your permeate flow will be very low and the membranes will foul quick and without good recirc flow will be hard to even get clean again.

I would suggest you single pass and at most remove about half of the water. 3% or 4% concentrate will cut your boiling in half and still keep Marvin happy.

The best money you will ever spend will be on some good multi stage (sand, 5 micron, 1 micron) filtering equipment ahead of that RO. If grungy slimy sap gets in that RO it will all but ruin the membranes and your flow.

[PATheron]

Parker- I was using two 40 by 8" membranes in the seprotech. That guy probly knows what hes talking about single passing. The seprotech is older too but it has a seperate recirculation pump that is plumbed into the system. That passes for what the modern ro's use on the bottom of each tower. They are recirculation pumps. As I understand it on a 4" membrane the high pressure pump provides the recirculation for the membrane. You can do like he said and single pass it and try not to get greedy. That will still make you do way more with the evaperator. So say you take 2% and single pass it to 6% thats still way better than raw. I would still think that if you ran it open flow with your concentrate and recirced it it would be pretty easy on the membranes and you could do that while your gathering but maybe once it gets a bit high it would plug it up faster Im not sure. I know that that is not the case with either one of my machines. Its easier on mine to recirc it open flow to 18% and will plug it less than trying to single pass it anything over 8%. I think it may be easier on it than even single passing it to 8% but Im not sure becouse Ive had to recirc it to high concentrate as long as Ive been doing it becouse of my small evaperator. You have to filter it good. You need to at the very least have some of the small filters on the front of the machine and you can buy socks to put over them too. Thats a minimum. Thats all Ive ever done before but this year Im plumbing in a lapierre two foot filter in front of each ro. Im doing it becouse every year we get a lot of crappy sap down here and it does slow the ro down a lot. What sucks it they are 500$ apiece. Ive decided this year it has to be done. You need a big tank to capture permeate water. If its a thousand gallon unit you should keep a thousand gallons of perm. You run the unit concentrating a max of 4 hours do a rinse, conc four more hours do a rinse, four more hours complete wash and then rinse the unit with all the perm. If you want I have some real good books that came with the seprotech. Ill make a copy and send you one. It explains in real good detail how your supposed to wash that unit and probly would be a pretty good guideline for yours. One other thing Im doing this year to mine is Im incorperating a hot water rinse. Roughly 90 degree rinse water Im going to rinse the units with every four hours or if they decline very much in output. Ive put a seperate tank in the shed just for that. Ive never gone to that kind of trouble in the past but the book it pretty big on that and Im going to try it. Anyway hope some of that helps. 802 maple really knows a lot about ro's and the other guys on here do to so shoot the questions out as your going and everybody will chip in and youll be all set. Theron

[WMF]

Patheron, The warm rinse works real well even on the old machines like I have.
Its surprising to see how murky the water gets when you do a daily warm rinse even on a machine that is flowing well. We go to 115 F degrees, the pumps will heat the water for you as it runs.

Parker, don't get discouraged thinking you will spend all the time the RO saves you --- fiddling with the RO. When you see that stream of water going down the drain and you can go to the woods instead of boil it will be worth it.

[caseyssugarshack93]

been bricking up my 3x10 arch. coming good. ill take a few pics and post them in the next few days. Sugarhouse is looking great. just waiting on barndoor rails for our big door we put in the front. hope everyone is doing well. i been cutting wood out of the new sugarbush everyday after school. we got a 50 foot wide path 900ft cleared. were getting there. have to go about 500 feet wide though and about 1500ft long alot more to do



NATE

P.S ITS TIME TO GET INTO MAPLE SUGARING GEAR GUYS!:D

[twobears1224]

all it,s done here is rain and it sure has put the damper on everything.i was hoping to have my little sugarhouse inclosed by now..but!! i think tonight after work i,ll go out in the garage and work on my arch.i,am also building my own syrup strainer..it,ll be the flat filter type.
yesterday,i got my corny type keg and i,ve been looking that over..i,am going to try and make a releaser out of it.

delbert

[Killington Maple]

My fabricator came today and installed my new replacement door that the oil burner will go into. He did a beautiful job, and it fit perfectly! Just need to install the oil burner and insulation around it. Will post pictures soon.

[Dennis H.]

I got to meet Daryl form NW PA Weds. He brought down my new filter press!!
That is one cool little filter press! Very nicely made. Honestly I didn't know what to expect I just wanted to get a look at it. Once I took a look at it I had to have it, almost couldn't right the check fast enough!!:D That thing is very well made and the machining work is awesome!:cool:

It was nice to chat with Daryl for awhile I just wish I didn't have to goto work that evening.

My part for my mig welder finally came in I will have to pick it up in the morning. Now I get a few welding projects done.

It is amazing how fast time is flying now! Just under 3 months to go and with holidays and maple seminars that I wish to go to, there is just not much time left!

[Russell Lampron]

Jim Brown and his wife Darlene were out this way this past week and My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting up with them Thursday evening. We had a couple of boiling sodas and a nice meal at the local Olive Garden and were able to talk maple for a while.

Jim was surprised at how many maple producers there are in and around Loudon. Where he comes from in NW PA he is one of only 3 producers in the whole county. I can think of almost 20 producers within 10 miles of my house.

Sometime in the future when my wife and I have a chance to go on tour we plan to visit Jim and Darlene. We had a good time although the time we spent together was much too short.

[whalems]

Got 2" of snow yesterday, First of the year. I am not ready for it to really start pileing up. I need about 6 more months to get all my projects done for this season.:o

[Sugarmaker]

Going to pick up another older used and abused lawn tractor today and joined the Yellow tractor forum!

Maple related!
I did order some stainless for the secret maple project.

Deer hunting has been a bust out the back door. Spent several hours this week in the woods.

House projects still not done!

Based on the above four actions: Does any one have a extra room for a tractor nut, mapleholic, deer hunting, project slacker?

I let you know how this all works out. If you don't hear from me for a while .....well you get the idea:)

Hey the wood fire in the house feels really good to take the chill off. It was snowing a little.

Regards,
Chris

[Parker]

Ray came over yesterday afternoon and we finished the boarding and battening the R.O. room,,,still need to insulate it ,,but that wont take long..gonna be tied up with hockey games with the girls tommrow (gotta set priorites),,,,did get 100 more stubbies in,,,,went to Goodriches and got a bunch of mainline and fittings fri. in the rain...(one 1000' roll tied on the roof cause there was no more room in the blazer)...need to start compleating some of these projects I have started!!!!

[Thad Blaisdell]

I tried to get to Goodrich's on Friday, just couldnt make it happen. If you went, you were within a few minutes of me.

[brookledge]

I hate turning the clocks back. Everyone says it is great since you get an extra hour of sleep but all I do is get up an hour earlier. It takes me a few days to get use to it. I still have many maple things to do but I'm trying to finish up a outside wood fired pizza oven. Today I have a order to can up about 45 gal between grade A and B so that will keep me busy for a few hours
Keith

[Daryl]

Dennis,
Was nice to meet you last Wednesday evening.You have a very nice setup. I like that shiney SS. Thanks for the good word on the 5 X 5 press. I try to make a good press at a decent price.
Daryl

[Amber Gold]

Keith, I agree, you just get up earlier and can't work as late in the afternoon. I don't see the benefit of daylight savings.

I had to work yesterday so I didn't get much done. Today I was able to finish grading mainlines. I borrowed a site level with the grade marks on it and I wish I had one sooner. I probably would have done a couple things differently. I also got a few rolls of tubing out. It's still looking like these woods will yield about 500 taps.

[stoweski]

Managed to get my wood in and under cover today. Down to three things on my to-do list before sugaring season...
- get a base stack
- remortar arch
- setup sap tank & piping

Nice to knock the wood off of the list! What a time consuming job!

Headed to Bascom's sometime in the next two weeks. Need to stock up and do some Christmas shopping. :)

Keith

[tuckermtn]

got a chance to walk in the sugarbush at Stetson's Maple in Lempster NH today. beautiful sugar woods as a result of 30+ years of good stewardship...nice tubing set-up. they don't use spout extensions- but they do re-do their entire tubing in sections on a 10 year rotation. RO, Thunderbolt evap and a nice steam fired finishing pan that they made. about as good as it gets in my book...

[Maplewalnut]

Well almost done with the RO plumbing. Had to move one of my bulk tanks so I can build a platform to set it back on. This will raise it about 3 feet which will get it above the RO feed pump. Finally got my strainer and a couple gate valves instead of using ball valves. Finished putting in drops to new section of woods and put in a sap ladder to get the juice to the mainline.

Added on more job to the list...a couple squirrel hunters peppered a section of mainline with two shotgun blasts. Good thing I know where to find them to have them help with repairs. (bedroom down the hall and to the right!) At least they got the line chewer.

[twobears1224]

over the weekend i skidded out more firewood trees and put more siding on the sugarhouse.i also drew up a plan for my syrup filter.

delbert

[red maples]

My CV's and stubbies came today. :D So I can start making new drops at night since there is less day light!!! I wanna make a little measuring jig so the will be easier to measure and cut.

still got a lot of little tubing rearraging to do to get things as close to perfect as I can get out in the sugar bush!!!!

I emailed bascom's sometime and asked about the temp grading sets, when the 2011 ones would be in. They said to oder it in nov. that's when they usually come in. So I ordered it and got the 2010 one.:mad: Gotta call 'em up see whats going on. When I took the trip out there a few months ago I did notice a pretty big pile of the 2010 kits on the shelf.

[Thad Blaisdell]

What I do for drops is, my arms stretched out is 6', cut it there, then cut them in half, that gives me 36" drops almost perfectly.

[Russell Lampron]

Finished with the wood for the outdoor furnace the weekend before last. I've got close to 20 cords on hand. I've got all but about a 1/2 cord of sugar wood in too. Going to finish that up next weekend. Then it will be time to sell my commercial syrup and buy some mainline and other supplies and hit the woods. I'm glad that I am only fine tuning the tubing this year and not adding any more new taps until next year. Next year starts January 1st though.

[PATheron]

Ive been working pretty steady through the woods down here as of late. Got up at 0300 this morning and drank my coffee and got a couple hours in before work and then hit it till dark after work. Havent got as many new taps in as I had hoped but am getting to where Im pretty happy with my existing stuff. I do have another woods I was goiing to get 800 taps in this year pretty well setup for 400 and may have to just go with that. Takes a long time to really get things right working nights and weekends and plus the other stuff you have to do. Never seems to be an end to the improvements that could be done. Looks like my buddy is going to get around 1200 taps in this year and thats another thing that Im kind of involved in but Im getting all the sap so thats like more taps without me putting them in so Im pretty happy about that. Gonna keep on keeping on. Im kind of hoping January is froze up hard this year so Im not tempted to tap and will have an extra month to get ready. Weve had I believe seven freezes as of tonight so far this fall. Im becoming very tempted to fall tap down here. As weak as the sap was last spring I dont know how I could do any worse here in the fall and it seems like we get way more freeze thaws. I know it wont freeze up here till darn near January. I thought about tapping in November next year with the whole shooting match on quarter inch spiles tapped shallow and throw them away in January and tap them with new 5/16 but they would probly slow way down. Not sure what to think. I need a year that Im all cought up and not expanding and tap some in and see what happens. Be a great experiment. Ive all ready cought crap down here about tapping in January, wonder what people would say about tapping in the previous year? Theron

[Parker]

Finished up 500 new drops with stubbies....Gonna get back out in the woods tommrow,,add a bunch of reds to existing set ups..
On the way home from delivering a load of wood today I saw a hillside of what looked like maples,,,close to home,,what the heck take a walk!!! Well it was a LONG way UP to where to wood changed from hemlock to what I thought might be maple,,,,,nope,,,,acres and acers of beech,,,,mabey next time...nice walk though...

[Randy Brutkoski]

Well tomorow is the big day. My Force 5 is being delivered to my place. I wish my wife was excited as me today when i heard the good news. She will come into it when she sees all of that shiny stuff being unloaded off of the truck. I hope....

[twobears1224]

i did alittle bit of everything today.i,am putting a garage door on the woodshed end of my sugarhouse and between bus runs i put up one track and worked on the corny keg i bought to try to build a releaser out of then,after supper i worked on my arch again.
tomorrow,is my last day this week to drive bus so i,am hoping thursday thur sunday is good weatherwise (knock on wood) i really need to button up the outside of the sugarhouse and get serious about firewood.

delbert

[Sugarmaker]

Deer hunting with Eric tonight near I-90, Very noisy. Any deer near there must be deaf or have earplugs in.
The 025C Sthil chainsaw took another dump tonight. I put in a new oil pump drive gear today since it got cooked over the weekend. May have destroyed the crank seal on the clutch side again? Its been a good one but It may be time to go shopping for another pallet saw!

Hope things are good in maple land.

(sorry this is off topic.) I did add another Cub Cadet to the fleet, here's a shot of it on the trailer, a Model 73. Thanks Sdurf!

Regards,
Chris

[maplwrks]

Sorry Randy--She won't be impressed until you start showing her the big syrup checks. All she sees right now is lots of stainless to polish.

[ennismaple]

Well tomorow is the big day. My Force 5 is being delivered to my place. I wish my wife was excited as me today when i heard the good news. She will come into it when she sees all of that shiny stuff being unloaded off of the truck. I hope....

Congrats on the new Force 5. Lapierre has been busy - my cousins got theirs last Thursday. Hopefully all goes smoothly. Enjoy!

[red maples]

Well tomorow is the big day. My Force 5 is being delivered to my place. I wish my wife was excited as me today when i heard the good news. She will come into it when she sees all of that shiny stuff being unloaded off of the truck. I hope....

Funny... I get all excited even when I have a little order of maple stuff coming. but the wife just doesn't get it. :)

[Randy Brutkoski]

Well with alot of help, we got the new rig in the sugarhouse. Wow that thing is hugh. Every thing came on the truck except for the R.O. and the 2, 3200 gallon tanks. Ran out of room on the truck. It all went pretty good today. Nobody got hurt and most of all, no scratches on my new baby.Mike you will have to come over sometime this week.

[Dennis H.]

The wife didn't have to much problems when the evap showed up, it has been everything else that I had to get to go along with it.
I think the one thing that took the cake was when I got the filterpress. At that point she thought I was done for the year. I just couldn't pass up on that deal!:D
But I know she will get over it.

[Randy Brutkoski]

You were right Mike...she was not into the shiny stainless that she would have to polish. Aparently she would be more excited if our bank account went up and not down because of the shiny stainless. Her tone will change after she gets that big maple check.

[Sugarmaker]

Need pictures of these new rigs and equipment so we can drool:)

Chris

[waysidemaple]

Yes!!!! I second that motion!!

[Tmeeeh]

Test fired our new evaporator today. Brad and Jim came from Leader to fine tune things like the blowers,stack draw and measure firebox temperature. Half an hour after startup 134 GPH half an hour later 171 GPH. Boils evenly over all the pans. The craftsmanship is really good, a major step up since the last time I bought pans from Leader. I'm sure other manufacturers are good too. Virtually no smoke. one 15 minute interval worked out to 216 GPH. Optimum efficiency seems to be firing every 10-15 minutes and around 160GPH. You really can run it really fast or slow it down a bit.

Thanks to everyone who pays taxes for the USDA support for this project. I wouldn't have made this move without it.

[Dennis H.]

So that there is one of those fancy Vortex thingy's right?

Very nice!:cool:

[3% Solution]

Ewwww, nice Timmer!!!!
With steam-away!!!

[red maples]

need ...sun...glass..es tooo....shinnnnny...awesome!!!:lol:

[mapleack]

Got the call this morning that my new RO is at the dealer. The only problem is that I don't have the room ready for it yet!

[twobears1224]

MAPLE:you can store that ro in my ro room if you need too.. ;-) i,ll take great care of it for ya.

delbert

ps:i,am doing the firewood thing today.

[Randy Brutkoski]

I will have pictures tomorow night. Too busy around the sugarhouse. Getting ready to pour a pad for the holding tanks. Too much to do in too little time.

[Sugarmaker]

Very nice new rig, and Andy with the new R.O. Wow things are happening in maple land!

Chris

[Paddymountain]

Just finished bricking up my evaporater tonight. It turned out rather well,
looking forward to see how it's gonna do with the insulation board and completely bricked up. This past spring I had just stacked the bricks along the sides and put sand in the bottom ,because I knew I was going to move
it after I built the new sugarshack.

[White Barn Farm]

Andy
Good luck with the ro. Hoping to have one here soon so I can add more taps.

[Parker]

I have been adding taps at rte.11 (mostly reds) now up to 926 there,,,cant decide if I am going to set up the 400 more easy to get taps there...land owner says I only have 3 years left there,,,,,thinking about it,,,,,went up to hill and got 300 more spiles changed over to stubbies,,,waiting on the welder to finish my mainline tubing spinner and I am going to be adding-changing lines up in Hill...need to redo about 300 taps on a hillside,,,bisect the very long lateral lines with some mainline,,,mabey pick up another 200?,,,

[3% Solution]

Mornin' all,
Haven't posted here much since the end of the season last spring.
So, I figured I should do an update.
The wood shed is full and the boiling appuratus is all together ready for sap!!!
We are gong to try the CV's and the stubbies this coming season.
Some folks say they won't do any good with gravity, but I have seen my drops full of sap and just sitting there for a couple of days and that can't be good.
If nothing more the taps will be new every year and that should help. I think!!
Got the yard work all done, now bring on the snow!!!!!!
Guess that's all for now.
Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Dave

[twobears1224]

friday,i hauled firewood and today is the same.after dark i might go to home depot and get some dip edge is i can finish putting on my sugarhouse roof.

delbert

[nas]

Can't wait for spring!!! Just bought a new to me 3x12 raised flue. Planning to use the new pans on my old arch for this spring, and put the new arch in the new sugarhouse I plan to build next year. Going to try for 400 taps. Did I mention I can't wait for spring??:) :)

Nick

[stoweski]

Helped my neighbor clear the fenceline to his fields today cleared one section of 200 acres of fields. We were cutting pretty good size branches that I get to use for the evaporator.

While working with him he took me out to his back field with some woods. Only 2-3 acres of woods but had some nice sugar maples. Said I could tap them if I wanted to. I didn't get a good count but I'd say easily 50 decent trees... some over 2' dia! My only problem is getting out there every day to empty buckets. Though he did say I could run lines if I wanted to. Gave him a quart last year for his help on my property... he still hasn't finished it! Guess he gets a year supply of syrup for letting me tap his woods.

Guess I have some exploring to do tomorrow!

[Dennis H.]

Things are getting done now.
Took a few hours off work the other day to get things done while it is still light out. Got the evap now ready to go. The feed tank is hung and plumbed into the evap. The milk tank is cleaned and my releaser is cleaned and put back on the wall at the milk tank. I fired up the vac and had it running at 23" of vac no problem.

So right now I could fire up the evap and boil if I wanted to. I will have to do that anyway soon to get the floats set correctly and to cure the fire bricks.

[Sugarmaker]

Several hours of deer hunting in the morning and afternoon. With time in between to help Eric process his nice 8 point that he got in West Springfield this morning. I had a small buck and three baldies go by this morning. So we will be having venison in the near future.
Maple:
I have to pick up some stainless next week for another maple related project.
Almost out of syrup I think I have about 1.5 gallons left of the "good" stuff!
Hope things are good out there in all of maple land:)

Regards,
Chris

[Parker]

Was up in Hill most of the day..got "Proqupine hollow" in much better shape..got to lug 2 more rolls of lateral line up in there and deploy them,,Many improvements and additions happening there soon..Cut a maple that was slowly taking my conductor lines down up there and the sap wa gushing,,,yes gushing out of if,,,,did not taste too sweet though...

[Revi]

I had to cut some small reds that were bent over by a fallen tree and they were gushing sap today as well. It froze last night, so I guess this is what makes fall tapping possible. I'm not doing it.

I was hunting maple today and found some new ones that have grown into the ten inch class. I ran out of marking tape. We'll have to connect them into the system, when we get the money for more tubing. It was a gorgeous day here. Almost 60 degrees and sunny. At one point I had to take my sweatshirt off because I was sweating.

[twobears1224]

i worked on firewood today.i would of had everything picked up in that area but,i backed the tractor up on a brushpile and THUMP!! i was sitting on a tree stump highcentered.luckly,a friend of mine drove by and i stopped him..he has a small farm right by where i,am cutting wood and he brought his 4x4 tractor over.
i,am not sure what i,ll do tomorrow.i,de like to finish that bunch of wood and i,de also like to get my drip edge and get my roof done.ii guess we,ll see what tomorrow brings.

delbert

ps:it,s fun seeing what you guys are doing and seeing the excitment build.

[Gary R]

Bought another vacuum pump. It's a Gast 2567. Can't have too many pumps:) Without vacuum I won't get sap because of the ladders.

Archery season has ended here. I spent about 70 hours in tree stands this season. My only close encounter during shooting hours was last night. I got him. An eight point. Not too big, but a deer with the bow.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Congrats Gary! I am the same way on pumps, I need an extra just to run the ladders.

I built a 2nd wood shed (8' x 10') to try to get more wood under roof this year. I need to prepare for a great year to help make up for 2010!

I also completed a metal roof over my releaser and tanks yesterday. Looks a little less cheesy than that tarp (that was in the photo).

[Amber Gold]

Yesterday I spent the day in the woods and got more laterals up finishing up that section of the woods. Today I got up the last mainline. Progress was pretty slow as I was hoping to get all the laterals up on it as well, but it didn't happen...next weekend.

I'm also going to run short on tubing. I bought 13 or 14 rolls when I was estimating 500 taps. Either I'm finding more trees than I estimate or I'm not getting as many taps in per roll...hopefully it's the former.

[Parker]

My daughters and I were in the woods this afternoon,,Emma found the lost one hander!!! Man that makes me happy!!! Hate loosing tools.....Got the wire pulled to replace the bad mainline @ sanborns,,just got to get the 3/4 out there tie it up and drill saddels,,,think I can get another 100 over there if I put in a ladder,,,

[Thad Blaisdell]

Yesterday I spent the day in the woods and got more laterals up finishing up that section of the woods. Today I got up the last mainline. Progress was pretty slow as I was hoping to get all the laterals up on it as well, but it didn't happen...next weekend.

I'm also going to run short on tubing. I bought 13 or 14 rolls when I was estimating 500 taps. Either I'm finding more trees than I estimate or I'm not getting as many taps in per roll...hopefully it's the former.

The estimate I get is 27-28 taps per roll that would mean you needed 18-19 rolls.

Deer season opened here in Vermont yesterday, my older sister decided she wanted to hunt this year, so I took her to "my spot" and set her up on Saturday. I sat in the secondary spot. About an hour in a young buck made his appearance but did not allow her to tell if he was legal. He ran off. So we went back this morning. At a little after 9:00 I headed back to her spot to call it a morning, she was looking the other way pretty seriously so I stopped and waited. After a few minutes I took a few steps toward her and she jumped. She started giving me crazy hand signals. At first I thought little Jimmy had fallen in a well...lol. She gave me the hand on top of the head...meaning antlers. and then motioned around behind her. So I snuck back around and up. I heard the deer start to run so I ran straight ahead about 10 steps, stopped and listened. I thought he was going to run down through the open maple so I ran ahead to see if I could see him and he ran up the hill right to me.... 8 point 150lbs

[Brian Ryther]

Great week. 5000' of wire up. 1700' of 1" up. 1000' of 3/4 up. 1000' of 1-1/14 up. 3 rools of 5/16 up. So much more to do. I have decided that this new section will spare no expense. Main lines 50' apart. 3-5 tapes per lat. Two taps per tree max (many trees are 3'-4' on diameter.) It is not easy keeping ahead of dad. He does the main line wire tying. He ties the main line as fast as I can put up laterals without the drops.

[twobears1224]

i took a trip to lowes and got my drip edge and rolled roofing for the sugarhouse.monday will be a busy day but i hope to have that stuff on by weeks end..it,s tough to get anything done outside with it getting dark so soon..we,ll see.

delbert

[Sugarmaker]

Gary R,
Congratulations on the 8 point, nothing like waiting till the last minute:) I helped Eric and Nic process Eric's deer tonight. Jerky and venison Kielbasi is on the way.
Regards,
Chris

[3rdgen.maple]

My bow season was alot like my maple season. Been down to camp atleast 3 days every week and 5 days there this past week. Sat in numerous stands all day everyday about 11 hours each. Had a couple whoppers at full draw but none could commit to that last step lol. Logged a grand total of 154 hours in stand for just bow at camp and have no idea how many hours of bow and rifle in the northern teir. Deer have been far and few in between with an average of seeing one deer every 13 hours at camp with the bow. Sad sad sad. Sh!tgun opens saturday and cant wait to spend hours in the woods kicking city slickers off my posted land and listening to people unload their guns on running deer in hopes of just hitting them once. Just part of owning 100 acres surrounded on 3 sides by thousands of acres of state land. I cant remember when the last time I didnt fill a bow tag. Been a long time since that has happened. Thing that is aggrevating is all the pictures of big bucks on the trail cams are all at night. Either they are getting smarter or Im getting a little dumber lol.

[Paddymountain]

I came up short this year also, I spent 8 days in NY(southern tier) bowhunting. I saw 7 bucks from my treestand,and actually hit a small buck
and didn't get it, no blood trail. Saturday starts shotgun season and I'll take the week off and hunt through til at after thanksgiving. Last year I shot a nice 8 pt with bow ,and then topped it off wit a 12 pt on thanksgiving day.
I don't look to do that for a while, It's time to get something in the freezer,then worry about racks!

[Maplewalnut]

Good weekend. Got two trees cut off of mainline, converted about 250 taps to stubbies and new t's, set a 4x4 in concrete to use as mainline support coming over a swampy area and put in a new sap ladder. My list is getting shorter but as the list gets shorter you end up with the projects you didnt want to do 4 months ago and still don't!

Brian R- are you putting in more taps of reconfiguring an existing bush?

[Turtlecreek]

I think I have all of my wood at the house now. I got a builder to give me all of the cut offs from a house he is building right down the street. I have 4 bins (4'x4'x4') full and i still have some long stuff and plywood to cut to size, I figure I should have 5 bins total when I'm done. That should get me through the season using the half pint! The best part about this is most of it was already small enough to fit in the firebox, so no cutting and splitting, and it is kiln dried.

Now I just need to get out the evaporator and do some work on it and I'll be good to go, until a couple of weeks before the season!

[Brian Ryther]

MIke
New addition to existing area. To early for a number estimate. I replaced the main wet conduit with 2000' of while Lapierre and added 1-1/4 dry over it. New year round tank location and power. This will be my high production show piece. I have replaced the slogan "strive for five" with "4 is more (sap)."

[red maples]

ya know it figures. When you go hunting do you see deer NO!!! But your out in the middle of the day working on tubing what to see 3 does and a little 4 point 30 yrds away, they walked right up to me. as was working!!! geez!!! Running out to sit for a few minutes.

[PATheron]

Brian- Thats going to be your BIGSAP signature bush. Theron

[Maplewalnut]

Brian- sounds like a great set up...obviously more than a couple new taps :)

I'll have to take a look next time up

[Revi]

I went hunting for taps this weekend. I didn't see any deer, but we saw a couple of squirrels (the dog liked that) and I hunted down a bunch of maples that are now tappable and close to existing lines and bucket trails.

I found at least 6 new buckets and about 20 trees that will be added to the lines next year. They grew into the 10 inch class this year.

We did a cut about 5 years ago and the maples have been growing like mad.

So even though we didn't see any 10 pointers we did see some ten inchers!

[Sugarmaker]

New logo design developed for the maple and honey hobby business coming soon!:)

Just borrowed neighbors chop saw to do some serious stainless cutting!

Hope things are just dandy out there!

Priced a new Sthil 250 to replace the tired one, may it rest in piece in the big wood shed in the sky:(
Chris

[twobears1224]

a buddy has been after me to hunt with him over on the military base so,this morning i ran over and got my permit to go on it.after,that i desided to hit home depot and get one of those plastic enclosure's for a auto drawoff.i needed to kill time before i headed back to work and i figured that would do it.
after,work i had just enough time before dark to go get a load of firewood and toss it off by the sugarhouse.i think i have two more loads down there.

delbert

[nas]

Chris, go with a 260, you won't regret it. Or even better a Husky 346xp;)

Nick

[caseyssugarshack93]

Going to be test firing the ol 3x10 raised flue to see how she runs this week:D getting real itchy to sting some tube. been cutting alot of wood and brush. deffinly wont get it all done this fall. been working on getting two big 100ft wide paths to the top 1500ft. should be stringing tube in december hopfuly if everything goes well.

hope everyone is well


NATE

[ennismaple]

Got some more work done on our To Do list on the weekend.

Most importantly: I got out hunting with both my kids. Saturday morning my son came with me and we got to see 2 tails, which was pretty exciting for both of us. It's kinda hard to expect a 6-year old to be still and quiet but we had fun. In the afternoon my daughter came out for a few hours. She was great and stayed very still and quiet the entire time. Unfortunately we didn't see anything but we had a blast anyways. Only 3 more years until she can get her hunter's apprentice license and legally carry the gun when we're together.

Sunday I got out with a buddy and managed to shoot a big 8 pointer. I'd seen close to 25 does and fawns over the previous 2 weeks so it was nice to finally get a buck. He field dressed at 170lbs and we had to drag him over 1/4 mile and carry it across a beaver dam to get to a spot where the atv's could get to it. Definitely worth the effort!

My brother and I managed to get another 150' section of 3/4" mainline up to shorten some laterals. We also tied in the drylines and wetlines in one bush, cut up some limbs that had fallen and added wire ties to the last bit of the bush where the mainline was sagging in spots. Looks like we're in good shape heading into winter.

[Sugarmaker]

ennis,
Congrats on the deer! nice one!
nas,
I may look at the 260, but probably not the Husky:)
Regards,
Chris

[Rockwood]

Well finally the woods split and stacked, buckets, evaporater pan are all recleaned, spiles ready. Just in time the weather for the rest of the week is getting rainy and much colder, snow on Sunday.. Now come the hard part... Waiting until spring......

Is it here yet..;)

[Parker]

Gonna try to finish the r.o. room up today! Got insulation and some Mr. foamey :)

[mapleack]

Holy Mapletrader withdrawal yesterday! I almost didn't make it!

[Dennis H.]

You said it Mapleack, The wife was laughing yesterday because every time I get on the computer the 1st thing I do is check the Trader, Crap still down!!:(

But I am OK now Trader is back up!:)

[smitty76]

I was sufferring bad myself. Was happy to finally see it online this morning. Finally got my pm's working again to. feels good to be back.

[Farmboy]

Maple Trader is back!!!!!
Lapiree made some changes in the seasonal spout from last year. they made the part that goes into the tubing longer and added a barb to it. Thats going to be fun to take apart come spring. now I have everything to put up my tubing. I just need to make a tubing tool. I have all the parts for it but need to weld one up.

[tuckermtn]

great day to be in the woods...

in tubing mode today- adding taps and reconfiguring some mainline to pick up some more taps. Adding reds also. Basically converting a gravity feed set-up to a vac. system. Tried out the new lapierre super saddles and I like them so far. see how they do under vac.

also dropped off 6 kegs at welder to get 2" stainless collars put on. Hoping for big sap to make some big syrup...fill them kegs up with another type of amber gold...

back in the woods on Saturday to hopefully finish re-working Putney Rd.

getting ready....

[Fishgill]

Now that fishing season is done. I spent the day framing and getting a 12 x 12 slab poured. My goal is to have a sugar shack up before the snow falls.

[waysidemaple]

Archery is over and nothing but a doe.....The last day of the seaason my girlfriend was begging me to help her work with our 2 year old paint horse and I felt a little guilty about how much I had been hunting so I figured what the heck hadn't seen anything the past couple of nights so I helped with the $#@! horse and half way through the session I see a deer walking across the upper field I run inside the house, grab the spotting scope and sure enough it was the big 8 point I had on my trail cam( One of 4 shooter bucks I got on it)....I almost cried when I saw that. Owell I guess thats hunting. I did get to go turkey hunting with my best friend who is home on leave from Iraq.

Maple related, the slab for my 20 by 20 shack will be poured this saturday and with thanksgiving break starting this coming tuesday I am hoping to have a sugar house by the start of december. Lost a nice old maple this summer to a bad storm, atleast there will be lots of firewood. Can't wait to be in the new sugar shack with the new evap this spring, as an added bonus I'll be 21 in March finally!!!!!

[caseyssugarshack93]

test fired the rig. just a small fire in it didnt stoke it to much just wanted to cure the refracory cement. heres some pictures. this thing really boils. :)

[caseyssugarshack93]

forgot one.

[Sugarmaker]

Casey...,
Thanks for posting the trial boil pictures. You have a nice large sugarhouse. I like the rig too!

ALSO a big thanks needs to go out to Jim (mapleman3) and the other folks that are maintaining the trader and keeping the spammers at bay for us so we can talk maple!


Regards,
Chris

[PATheron]

Casey- Real nice looking setup! What are you running for RO this year? Your going to have to WANN IT pretty good with that many taps. You cant change the evap out till you go over 5000. Wayside- If you decide you cant get all your sap boiled bring it up to me and Ill buy it off you and treat you right. Theron

[peacemaker]

been having alot of steam problems in my sh i was wondering if u guys think if i set 50 dehumidifiers in the rafters with tubes running back down to pails would it be worth re boiling the condensate

[waysidemaple]

PATheron, Will do....I would really like to get over there and check out your setup sometime seeings how I am so close. My aunt and uncle live up the road from you I think. They are just of 549 before you get to Judson Hill Road.

Peacemaker- I don't think reboiling the condesate from the steam would do you any good because the steam is pure water, but I'm not totally sure on that.

Scott

[mapleman3]

Thanks Sugarmaker.... We are still Ironing out a few more things, The classifieds hopefully will get fixed. the company that the classified section was bought from may not be in business anymore, but so far it looks as though the spamming may be drastically cut down. Thanks to Ted our Webmaster working behind the scenes.

A few Members have emailed me with log in issues, I am checking those out and will get back to those of you asap.

[peacemaker]

there has to be some sugar left in it cause when i forget to open the flaps and fall asleep a hr into the boil when i wake up my eyelids are sugared shut

[PATheron]

Scott- Your welcome to come over anytime. Id like to see your setup too. Im in troy a lot send me a pm with your address sometime if you want and Ill stop by and check out your setup. Do you tap the huge trees by the cemetary? Theron

[caseyssugarshack93]

PaTheron. were shooting for 2500-3000 this season. more to come. the additon really is gong to be helpful this season. i hope to running a 600 this season if everything goes right. hoping to have electric hooked up at atleast one sugarbush this season.

[caseyssugarshack93]

Oh i wan it i wan it badddddddd

[waysidemaple]

Peacemaker- I could be wrong Im not totally sure but I think it would be safe to say that the amount of sugar in the steam (if any) would be very very minimal. Again just my thoughts on it.

PATheron- No I really wish I was tapping those trees, that sap goes to Roloson's place off of route 6. My buddies dad collects it and sells the sap to them. I'll send you a pm with my address, but I wont have much to show for until later in december. Right now ive got a new evaporator sitting in storage along with all my other sugaring stuff.

[PATheron]

Casey- You do a bigger operation than anyone Ive ever heard of your age. Thats great your going to have that many taps. Good thing your going to have that ro. Theron

[PATheron]

Wayside- Its always a work in progress. My stuff is always half torn apart. Theres some trees I always look at as your going into Troy from towanda. They're on the steep banks each side of rt 6. Bunch of nice trees and I always think how fun it would be to tube them. Some might be impossable becouse of it being so steep but theres quite a lot of them and the tube would go straight up and down. Theron

[jrthe3]

therron i helped i old timmer hang tubing last year the one hill side was so steep you had to lower your self down it but almost half his taps are on this "cliff " so he said if he didn't tap them he wouldn't have any sap to boil guess it all comes down to how bad you want it

[802maple]

But can you run them back to your house Theron. They might require a few lifters

[twobears1224]

over the last couple of days i finished hauling the firewood from down the road and i put some roofing on the sugarhouse.we had some rain so that slowed things down abit..yesterday,was a washout.
i plan on hunting deer on and off over the next couple of weeks but,i,ll also do as much sugaring stuff as i can if need be i,ll work in the garage or put up some lights to keep going.
i don,t have to work my regular job much next week..thats one big plus.i work monday/tuesday until about noon 30 then i,am done for the day and on tuesday for the rest of the week..iy,ll be hunting and sugaring. :D

delbert

[PATheron]

Jerry- I think theres probly a couple hundred feet of elevation difference from Troy to Roseville. Plus its like 20 miles. Can you do that with two pipe ladders and a big enough vac pump?

[802maple]

You throw enough money my way and I will make it work for you

[802maple]

Matter of fact I am calculating right now, but remember you don't need a big pump. LOL

[waysidemaple]

Hey now Troy is my neck of the woods...eventually I'll need all the sap I can get, so those trees are spoken for. Nice try though!

Scott

[Farmboy]

Wow Nate you have expanded a ton in the past few years. I don't think I'll ever have that many taps esecialy not at your age.
I just finished making a handle for my scoop. I made it out of spalted maple which is when it starts to rot and has cool patterns in it but it is still solid the piece of wood actully came from a pallet that was destined for the evaporator at my dads friends house.

[PATheron]

Were not going to take your sap Scott unless you sell it to me. I cant even keep my own stuff working. Theron

[Parker]

Last couple of nights were long ones finishing insulating the RO room,,but its pretty tight,,Going to get the RO today,,,then we will have to figure the wiring and plumbing...where to put permate tank ect....Really rather be in the woods,,,but better to get this done befor snow.....

[Maplewalnut]

Parker- that was my problem also...rather be in the woods than glueing PVC together and tightening hose clamps in the RO room. I thnk I finally have mine done, will post pics later for you guys to take a look at. I'm sure I did something wrong and would rather fix it now than in Feb when sap is flowing.

[Parker]

R.O is in its room with heater,,,quite a job getting it,,could not have done it without NH maple 48 and tom,,,THANKS,,,now the wireing and plumbing!! Moving forward!

[brookledge]

i'm sitting here waiting for syrup to heat up and then cool down for a batch of cream. The season is a upon me for making a ton of maple products for Christmas time. Most every night I have to make something for the next few weeks
I'm trying to catch up on the trader.
Keith

[twobears1224]

here a updated pic of my little sugarhouse and the wood i,ve been hauling in.

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/sugarhouseupdate1110.jpg


delbert

[Sugarmaker]

delbert,
Nice wood pile looks like a lean to will be needed for all that wood!

I have been working on maple related projects today and sold some syrup to neighbor. More on that after syrup season.

Keith Talbot stopped by and visited this morning he has his evaporator all reassembled and ready and has about 5 cords of wood ready to make syrup. Hope I am doing that well at 79 years:)

Haynes that new R.O. will be a great addition. hope the set up is progressing well for you. I wouldn't have a clue as to how to set one up.

Theron,
You must be about ready to tap?:)
Regards,
Chris

[PATheron]

Chris- Im not!, Im working steady though. Yesterday dad and I were working on the shed closing in the new evaperator and I had to cut down a small maple out behind the tanks. It was gushing sap. Weve had freeze after freeze this fall. With a season like last spring having only had three freezes Im really considering fall tapping. Not this year but next year Im going to do something. Im either going to tap one bush in and process it on a small evaperator as a test or Im going to tap a certain amount of trees in and dump the sap as an experiment. I cant see how I couldnt make a lot of sap right now. I know all the studies say that the sap is weak in the fall but like last spring we were always a long way from a freeze night and that sap was weak becouse of that. Im wondering if climate change is making our area more favorable to fall tapping. Anyway Im going to do my own little study next fall. Im coming along pretty good getting ready anyway. Dad has the shed almost all closed in and its really looking nice. Im still tuning up the woods. I think I am going to have very few new taps. Maybe 450 but my big goal is getting the ones I have super good and I think Im going to accomplish that. I like hearing what everyone else is doing. Lot of big things happening this year with guys on the trader. Brian is putting new taps in, Parker is going to finally have an ro, Maple walnut is going to have an ro, Casey is going commercial and he isnt even out of school yet, be a fun spring. Theron

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

:o, Theron,
Were you late getting out of the woods or were you getting ready for an early start?

[Russell Lampron]

Finished getting the sugar wood in yesterday. The woodshed is stacked to the roof and I had to put some inside the sugar house too. It is all nice and dry and under cover. I used less than 2 cords last season and have almost 3.5 cords for this coming season. I hope that I have to start worrying about running out of wood this season. That will mean that I had the best season ever!

I started working in the woods last weekend and things are coming along nicely there. I am replacing the last 1/2" mainline with 3/4" and want to add a dry line to increase the efficiency of my oldest section of tubing. I have been getting close to 20 gallons of sap per tap out of my reds but WAAAAAANT to get more.

I collected over 12000 gallons of sap last season and could have made a lot more quality product if the sugar had been there. I would like to double last seasons total of 153 gallons.

Did I miss something here Chris? I know that Parker has an RO now but I didn't know that Haynes has one too.

[Parker]

Maplecrest stopped by yesterday morning with 30 barrells and 2, 2" pumps,,,that will make life a whole lot simpler next spring,,I have always used 3/4" pumps,,takes a while to empty a 1000 gallon tank,,should be a little faster with a 2"pump!!,Thanks!!! MOVING FORWARD,,,will be getting ready this week by finishing filling the shed and hopefully getting back into the woods!!! Off to hockey.....THINKMAPLE!!!!!!!!!

[waysidemaple]

My dad and I were going to pour the slab for the sugar house this weekend but friday night we spent the night in the ER because my grandfather was having trouble breathing. Turns out he has a resperatory infection, so now hes on oxygen and we had to cancel the load of cement for this week. Hes doing fine with the oxygen and meds now. Hopefully we can reschedule for later this week but will see. Just finished splitting the Tri-axel load of wood this morning. Headed back to school for the final two days till thanksgiving break.

[twobears1224]

SUGARMAKER:i plan on building a 8x14 woodshed..if ya look close you can see that the wood is piled back from the sugarhouse to give me room to build.
i took the weekend off to do some deer hunting (no luck) but i,ll be back at the maple tomorrow.

delbert

[PATheron]

Doug- Just getting up, gotta wann it. Had to go swap some tanks and pick up some filters. Just got home. Should have been a farmer. Got my new lapierre sap filters but cant figure out how to get the top off to look inside. Wonder if its just a real tight seal but not to sure about tunking on things as expensive as the things are. Theron

[Brokermike]

got 700 feet of mainline hung, and some chores done around the house. Making lots of progress now I just need to do all my lats before the snow falls

[Maplewalnut]

Here are some pictures of the completed RO piping. Anything grossly wrong that you can tell?

[Randy Brutkoski]

From sun up to sun down i did nothing but cut trees off of my mains and laterals. Big wind means big damage. For some reason most of the trees were ash. I thank my wife for letting me buy a 4 wheeler. Because it was so much easier getting around in the woods. Still so much work to do in too little time. The stress level is starting to rise.

[Amber Gold]

Yesterday, I put up about 170 taps worth of lats, 70 taps on one mainline, 100 on another. The one with 100 taps has a lot of trees which are 18-24" with some 3 footers thrown in. I think I'll get another 100 taps on this mainline...sweet. After this line's done, all the tubing will be up and I'll need to go back and put in drops and saddles.

[Sugarmaker]

Delbert,
I new there was a wood shed in the near future. Good planning. Keep that wood dry.
Nice looking sugar house!
Regards,
Chris


SUGARMAKER:i plan on building a 8x14 woodshed..if ya look close you can see that the wood is piled back from the sugarhouse to give me room to build.
i took the weekend off to do some deer hunting (no luck) but i,ll be back at the maple tomorrow.

delbert

[Sugarmaker]

Russ,
Sorry I guess I was brain dead for a moment. Yes Parker will love the new RO.
I cant keep up with you guys!
And Theron wears me out just reading his posts:)
Regards,
Chris

[Brian Ryther]

Maplewalnut,
Are you using the bottom most port for the drain on your wash tank?

[tuckermtn]

put up 1000 ft of mainline on thursday and saturday- then started running some lats this morning- hope to have over 200 taps in that bush...some nice field-side trees.

been trying out the new lapierre slide fittings- the ones I have do not have the big hook- you have to use the available strap. after some trial and error I think I have them figured out. like the no cut-removable idea but I think it was Thad that mentioned about the chewing- so might try something else.

will try a section of clear seasonal spouts in there also...

hoping for a visit from the sap goddess

[3rdgen.maple]

Okay this is off maple topic but I just want to share a little common sense with some fellow hunters. This weekend was opening gun season in southern tier NY. Like all the other years someone down there gets shot and worse yet killed. Well this year it happened on state land that borders my camp. Guy sets up a camo ground blind and sits in it opening morning, story is he was wearing all camo as well and was inside this think rattling and blowing on a grunt call. Low and behold some moron sees some movement and blast a round without being sure of his target. 2 problems I have with this are. 1 sitting in a camo ground blind during gun season without any sort of blaze orange and acting like a deer is trouble when you got a woods full of novice or uneducated hunters all around you. 2 the lack of identifying your target and surroundings from the guy who pulled the trigger. So after all this takes place the very next afternoon Im sitting on watch ( with blaze orange on) and I hear movement from behind me. Picture the thickest nastiest patch of woods you have seen and this is where the noise was coming from. Im getting all excited that a deer is coming my way though this thick crap. Im all ready to shoulder my gun and click the safety off as soon as this deer steps out. Well lucky for the deer in full dress camo walking on 2 legs carrying a gun didnt walk in front of the guy who shot the hunter the morning before cause there might have been 2 dead hunters. So my story ends with this WEAR BLAZE ORANGE AND IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET AND BEYOND BEFORE YOU PULL THE TRIGGER. Sorry to rant I just dont want to see any sugarmakers getting hurt or killed. Heck anyone for that matter. Be smart and be safe please.

[backyardsugarer]

Got the RO plumbed in an ran about 300 gallons of clean water through it as a test. Went smooth. Fired up the evap for about an hour and boiled some water while scrubbing down the inside of the pans. Now into the woods over the weekend to fix lines and add taps (sap ladder).

Chris

[Dennis H.]

The list is getting shorter!

I am working on routing the cable for the stack cover then I will be done with the evap.
I need to make a small sap hauling tank for the back of my kubota RTV.

[Sugarmaker]

Dennis,
Glad your list is getting shorter. Mine seems to grow:)

Weather was very warm today. I took a vacation day and after the rain stopped around 3:00 I took the '06 for a walk in the woods.
Rest of the day was spent monkeying with maple stuff. Hope to have my evaporator put back together by spring! Not sure what year:)

Regards,
Chris

[parkerfamilymaple]

Does anybody know where the classifieds went?

[chipa]

Does anybody know where the classifieds went?

Out of service for now I guess

[Parker]

I have to say I love those end of line hook connectors (I call them thumbs up),,was at sanborns and all kinds of new limbs on the lines and me without a saw...simply uphook the end of the line and pull the whole mess under the limbs,,,try that with an end ring!!!
Got that old mainline replaced finally,,littel longer that I thought it was,,wound up being 1100',(thought it was around 750'),,really wishing I had used 1" instead of 3/4's now,,,but its fairly steep...might put a booster in it 1/2 way,,Someone peppered a 1000' roll of 1 inch I had out there with birdshot...(BUMMER),,want to get that woods done and ready to tap (like rte11) then concentrate in Hill,,,if I get hill done I can add more in all 3 orchards later...just want to get ready to drill...dont want to loose barrels and barrels of syrup at the start of the season like I did last year!!! I work in the RO room (heated and well lit) when it gets cold out.....

[Revi]

I got the walkin' pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu, so I haven't been out much lately, but I am going to try to get some stuff done next weekend, after the holiday. I got a .22, so I may try to get a few of those little grey squirrely beasts who have been chewing on the lines before the hunting season ends.

Meawhile there is a lot to do before the season starts. I think I'll finish up all the carpentry in the shack, with the woodstove to warm me and keep the chill at bay.

[smitty76]

Does anybody know where the classifieds went?

If you go to the mapletrader.com page it is the fith one down on the list. open it and all it will let you do is search. Type in (for sale) or (wanted) in the search box and hit enter. that should get you there.

[Sugarmaker]

Revi,
Hope you get to feeling better very soon!
Regards,
Chris

[Dennis H.]

Beautiful day today. Temps were in the low 60's for us.
So I got out and finished up a few outside things.
I now have the cable for the stack cover done.

[jrthe3]

just in from sugar house got 1000 feet of main line wire srong got my two ladders all most ready for tubing after it got to dark outside went into sugar house and built manifolds for sap ladders and vacuum manifold/boster build hope to string my wet and dry lines tomorrow and install ladders and test hope weather holds out

[maplecrest]

high wind again today, need to take chainsaw for a walk, but this invasion of my sugar woods/ privacy continues another 5 days.

[PATheron]

Guys- Ive been talking to guys up in vermont about fall tapping and the they told me in the fall they found the sap to be .75 to 1%. The other day I tapped a decent one tap tree and checked it today and guess what it was? 2.1 % Thats better than I ever saw last spring. Does that mean if I make BIGSAP with my BIG VACUUM Im going to fill MANY barrells this spring? Theron

[3rdgen.maple]

Patheron last fall I ran some test taps in hopes of a fall taping on a bunch of trees I dont tap currently. Sap percent was high 1. and low 2. That same spring I averaged 2.1 for the season. Not sure if that means anything or not but I didnt personally see any difference in sugar content between fall and spring.

[PATheron]

3rdgen- Im not posative either way either. The guys that did it in vermont were getting low sugar. About half normal and the studies show that too. I would say that my fall 2% is a real good sign that there is good sugar in the tree the only thing is is if we have a warm spring the further you get from an honest freeze thaw even with vac the sugar goes down. So even if the trees are sweet and I make sap with vac alone it will be low in sugar so we need the freezes if we can get them. I think its a good sign though. Im saying the sugar is high this year. Theron

[Sugarmaker]

Boyd,
Keep up the good work on the tubing and vacuum systems!
Yes I am also thinking about getting some more taps for 2011. Need to get on the road and find some big maples!

Regards,
Chris

[3rdgen.maple]

Patheron, I personally cannot rely on any findings I had here at all last year anyways. Was definately a weird season for me. But I'm with you and am going into this season with a positive attitude and if you are getting 2% now I would think its going to be atleast as good and even better sugar content come spring. The only thing scaring me is that the summer and fall for my area is darn near identical to last. I have to check sugar content soon and see what happens this spring. If anything a couple years of comparison between fall and spring sugar content might just lead to some good data going into the season and what to expect.

[PATheron]

3rdgen- You know most of this stuff isnt an exact science really. All you can do is kind of look for trends and watch what other people do and find and kind of try things. Im going to tap a few more here and there and see what I find. Im an optimist anyway so its more fun to think were going to have lots of sugar than to think were going to get skunked. I really do think this is a pretty good sign though. Theron

[twobears1224]

for me the weather and deer hunting has put the damper on doing sugaring stuff.i planned on taking today off from deer hunting to work on the roof.the day started out with pouring down rain and high winds then turned to snow.the ground is now covered.

delbert

[Sugarmaker]

Rode around on Eric's new Honda four wheeler, adjusted tree stands, took down tree stands, sighted in deer rifles, ate turkey left overs, got to meet and play with Erics new pup Sadie, visited with Keith Talbot and saw his new Polaris side by side, and his evaporator all set and ready for the spring. Keith is going to put up a little tubing at the back of his place maybe 50 taps on gravity. He has about 5 or six cord of wood split small and stacked in the sugar house ready to go.
Did some final MIG welding on the AOF TRS and air tested it. Seems like it will work. No holes except where intended.
Good day but cold, the wood fire in the house felt real good too.
Good luck to the hunters, on Monday, opening day of rifle season in PA.
Regards,
Chris

[wglenmapler]

Well the frame and shell are all up on the new facility. Been a long time coming, and to think four weeks ago this was cow pasture!

Hope to get alot more done this coming week!

[DrTimPerkins]

Guys- Ive been talking to guys up in vermont about fall tapping and the they told me in the fall they found the sap to be .75 to 1%.

Research on fall tapping....link below. Every now and then this is tried....it never seems to work out well. I believe that a sizeable producer in northern Vermont did a fairly good-sized trial last year. From what I understand, they aren't going to be doing it again.

http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/newtown_square/publications/research_papers/pdfs/scanned/rp115.pdf

[waysidemaple]

Cold one today...spent the morning finishing up framing out the last two sides of the shack. Got two windows in before the wind picked up. Last dinner today at 4. Hopefully we will have all the windows in before the day is out.

[chipa]

Well the frame and shell are all up on the new facility. Been a long time coming, and to think four weeks ago this was cow pasture!

Hope to get alot more done this coming week!

Big place!
Looks like you put down a lot of gravel.No getting stuck in the mud.

[PATheron]

Wglen- Looks great. Keep the pics coming especially when you start getting stuff inside. Theron

[3rdgen.maple]

Well after getting a little nervous about this being the hardest deer season I have ever had and the first year I was about to go deerless in atleast 10 years my stepson wakes up and looks out the window and says when this whiteout quits were going hunting. Well I really was at the point of giving up on the season and decided what the heck lets go. We get on a set of fresh track and follow this dang deer for 4 hours jump him 3 times when he makes a mistake and heads down into the river valley. Hes got no where to go without us seeing him on top of the ridge. We get on top of the ridge and see him about 150 yds away. Put the binos on him since this is our first good look at him and I say to my stepson hes to small just a 7pt and needs a year before I will consider it. He whispers to me you havent been deerless since I have known you and this would be our first deer together you got to take him. So I put the scope on him and pulled the trigger on the 30.06. The smile on his face holding that buck was better than any big buck I have ever shot. I guess sometimes its not all about the headgear and just the memories in the field with family.

[Farmboy]

Split and stacked another half cord of pine. Now I have around 5 cords done and ready to go. That should last me 2 years. Tommorrow Im going to go pick up a bulk tank. I thinks its 250-300 gallons. Hopefully I will run a mainline in my neibors woods tommorow or after school this week.

[nas]

Picked up my new to me evaporator today. A 3x12 grim arch with a 10' raised flue pan and a 2' syrup pan for $2500. It also has a hood and pre-heater. Also got a 250gal stainless insulated tank for $300, and a 13gal water jacket bottler for $100. Will try to post pics tomorrow.

Nick

[Parker]

Getting sanborns buttoned up..took a vessel off the r.o. tonight and took the membranes out with some help fron tkrmtn and some friends...think it might be the original membranes fron 1987,,,just wrapped up perferated plastic sheet and paper like stuff inbetween the layers of plastic? OLD SCHOOL

[maplecrest]

well today is the last day so i can get my life back. traffic has been so heavy that i cant stand it anymore and the gun shots at dark i hope will be gone. nov might as well be considered the worst month of the year. it always puts me behind because it is not safe to work here. i am sick of hearing bullets going thru the trees. finding bird shot in my tubing. and bullet holes in my main lines.

[brookledge]

I had my first Christmas fair of the season yesterday and it went good. I hope the next few I have are as good. The last week I have been spending every night getting ready. I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving and now to sell a lot of maple before Christmas
Keith

[Sugarmaker]

nas,
Looking forward to the pictures of the new rig. should be a nice unit and will boil like mad for you. does that mean more taps too?
Regards,
Chris

[nas]

Here are pictures of it set up at the former owner's and loaded on the trailer. I hope to unload it tomorrow.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll244/milburough/Maple%20sugar%20stuff/evaporator.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll244/milburough/Maple%20sugar%20stuff/IMG00118-20101128-1449.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll244/milburough/Maple%20sugar%20stuff/IMG00119-20101128-1450.jpg
I would like to get up to around 400 taps this season and add a couple hundred every year. I got a couple of old vacuum pumps with it too, so I might try them this year too.

[waysidemaple]

nas,

Looks like a good find and lots of syrup to be made. Good luck with it. I dont think you could have fit much more on that trailer, thats always a good thing when its full of maple stuff!

Scott

[Sugarmaker]

nas,
Looks like a lot of evaporator there. Good value from what I can see. That's a huge rear pan! I am sure you will have it polished up and ready to go for the spring. That rig may eat through sap from 400 taps very quickly.
I see the previous owner had a bee problem too!
Thanks for posting the pictures!
Regards,
Chris

[PATheron]

Tomarrow is season opener for deer down here at Pierce and sons. I can shoot a buck and a doe and brother can shoot a buck. Hoping to be standing ankle deep in brass by noon. Theron

[Farmboy]

Bent up the Stainless steel for the sides of my evaporator today. The peices aren't quiet long enough so I need to bring them to my dads buddies house so he can weld more to them. Also got a sunset milk tank from the they guy I got my evaporator from. He gave it to me with the evaporator I just never had a chance to pick it up. The model # is MC-200PX. I'm assuming that it's 200 gallons. Were going to build a base for it sot it sits outside the sugar shack and acts as a feed tank for the evaporator. Not much more time till the season starts.

[Revi]

I finally finished up the front room of the sugarhouse today. I mudded the walls behind the woodstove yesterday, so today I sanded, painted and put trim up. Not bad. I call it sugarhouse carpentry, because I use rough wood and it's not too fussy. The woodstove in there makes it a good place to work on a chilly day. I guess 10 years is enough time, so it's good to be done.

I finished up my studio this summer, and then I realized that the other end was rotting. It took me 20 years to bring that project to completion. I guess I am in the mood for finishing projects this year.

I have some other projects in mind, so it's good to get these two done. For now...

[Rhino]

Wisconsin gun hunt just finished yesterday, Had a dream season that will never ever happen again. Got a 8 pt, a 9 pt, and a 12 point. (group hunting/group tagging legal in Wis.) I was in the right place at the right times. Today i'm going to walk pipeline and take any limbs and trees off the lines. Mild weather today, 40 degrees.

[waysidemaple]

In for breakfast from hunting. So far our group has put down three doe, one by me. Head back out after some coffee and go for the big Buck. Good luck to all those hunting today. Be safe.

[Amber Gold]

Thursday, dug trench for electric service and ate turkey.

Friday, got wire and supplies and installed. Went to the woods to better cover my tank and level it and proceeded to get my truck stuck. Fortunately my Uncle was driving by and he pulled me out.

Saturday, Bought and bottled 20 gallons of syrup.

Sunday, Installed drops and saddles on 90 taps and ran 2 rolls of tubing.

[Parker]

Back from Goodriches with 20 rolls of 30-p and 7 rolls 3/4",,,,,,GOTIME!!!

[Thad Blaisdell]

Tomarrow is season opener for deer down here at Pierce and sons. I can shoot a buck and a doe and brother can shoot a buck. Hoping to be standing ankle deep in brass by noon. Theron

Is that brass or b.s. I couldnt understand the translation.

[red maples]

I need to get in the woods and finish my tubing up grades!!!! Town meeting tonight 6:30. Don't know if I will go or not??? My son's b-day today 5years old man where does the time go???? He start kindergarden next year.

busy with family stuff nasty head cold mon, tues, wed and trying to refinance house appointments paperwork blah blah blah!!! leaves are done finally around wind and rainy days. Gotta try to get the driveway markers in before the ground gets too much more frozen!! maybe a little snow on saturday here don't know how much yet maybe nothing. gotta get the snow blower on the tractor some time this week maybe?. sugar house is a mess boxes fitting etc everywhere!!! Got x-mas lights on the house spent too much time on that they worked for 2 days. now there is a string out on the top roof, 2 sections of icicle lights out 1 headless raindeer, and the new big LED snowflake is out geez!!! And it get dark at 4:30 sucks!!! stupid time change anyway!!!

[twobears1224]

i finely got back to some sugaring stuff.tonight after work i started working on my rollup door for the woodshed end of my little sugarhouse.a friend gave me a bunch of garage door track and the hardwear.so,i figured i,de make a four foot wide garage type door for the woodshed end.

delbert

[Randy Brutkoski]

What ever happened to the Canadian wannabe,KENWP. Havent seen any post from him. He was good for at least 50 post a week.

[BoarsNest]

Well, deer season is pretty much over. Good thing my son-in-law shot his first deer otherwise no vension in my freezer. We spent some time cutting and splitting wood this weekend to get ready for next year. I came up with a new fixture to cut the kiln dried kindling wood that my buddy Doug gets from one of his suppliers worked great! Check out my flickr site to see it if you're interested.

[PATheron]

Parker- Your going to put the rest of us out of business! Thad- Brass= empty 30.06 shells. Brother did it, he got the big one. 3 pts on one side. Gave him payback with the trusty 06. One shot one kill. Big deer too. He likes to dish out the payback although Im not sure what hes paying them back for. Ive had them pull a couple drops off and chew up a couple other ones but thats about all theyve ever done to me. Theron

[Gary R]

No brass flying here. Absolute worst first day of buck ever! Fortunatley I got one with a bow. My wife only seen two deer all day. I sat and pushed all day. I only seen one live deer. One dead one was an illegal buck (small). The four people who shot at it were standing around woundering who'd take it. I think they left it lay. What a shame.

[Sugarmaker]

Very quite first day of deer season. Got to hunt the morning with both grandsons, The afternoon we saw several does on some mini drives. I am going to finish day two, out back in the tree stand. Looking for horns only:)
Chris

[whalems]

Picked up 7 rolls of tubing today. The expansion is on! 300 taps more for this season for a total of 450-500 we will see:)

[Fishgill]

Sided the new shack today. I hope to finish it up by Muzzleloader season. This is the first year in twenty or so that I've missed the shotgun opener. I really want this thing done before the snow starts.

[ejmaple]

gill looking very nice!! i got a couple 275gal totes set aside for ya. give me a call or stop by, i'll be laid off for the winter next week so i'll be around. also i got a filter press so if you still need a cone filter tank its yours. see ya, ed