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I brought in 1900 gal in the last two days. we emptied 800 buckets an took seven hundred of of tanks to keep them from running over. the bucket brigade is coming at 8am to get the rest of them. If my calculations are correct we should have over 4000gal off this first run. I should be boiling till after work Monday!
Dennis- PRESS RELEASES, WHAT IN THE SAM HILL, I SPEND TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS AND IVE NEVER HAD ANY PRESS RELEASES. Thats awesome Dennis. Glad to see you got the big sap. I better get some of that to try on my pancakes. Dave- Hit the buckets just right. Did it ever go gangbusters or did the sap kind of add up slow and steady? I ran the ro all day yesterday and got what Im guessing was at least 4000 gallons all into one 1500 tank. Be honest I think it may have been closer to 5000 but Im not sure. The ro exceeded its rating for 12 straight hours. The lowest it got was 660 gph but usually it was running 780 or even higher. I think theres some pretty sweet stuff in that 1500 gallon tank now. Going to boil that as soon as the ro is rinsed this morning. Looking foreward to boiling actually. I still have almost 3000 gallons of raw sap down in one section of the semitrailer. Thats some of the newest stuff. Ill start recircin it today once my ro is clean again and maybe boil it tomarrow or I may have to monday. So far Im really happy. Im not getting much sleep becouse I can only sleep 4 hours max and something has to be pumped etc. If Im pumping tonight up from the semi I can only go 2.5 hours on the sap pump. Theres a lot going on at once. I have the releaser across the road dumping into tanks. Then theres a gas sap pump running there to pump it to the semi. Then at the semi theres a gas pump pumping it to the sugarhouse tank or the releaser. Then the ro is running and the vac pump is running. Lots of stuff to fail but thats sugaring. Knock on wood it going pretty darn good. Got 25" of vac pretty much across the board now with the sap running which is very good I think for so many taps on that pump. Im only running 1. somthing cfms per 100 on 3500 taps. Lot of vulnerability. Hope everyone is having fun. Once I get coffeed up gotta go get started in the sugarhouse making Jerry some quality product. Theron
Dennis H., congrats on getting an interview with the paper, but be careful what you wish for. Last year I got in 3 times, with big pictures and good in depth articles (2 different papers). When our maple weekend came I had easily 5 or 6 times the traffic I did the previous year. My sugarhouse was FULL TO CAPACITY, with a waiting line outside for 5 of the 6 hr long open house on both days of the 2 day event. It seemed great at the time but it cost me dearly. I had set my prices at a level about 15% above the previous year and I sold out my season's entire crop and I had my highest production year ever at the same time. I did not get to take advantage of the late season price climb of huge price increases. The only thing i did not sell that weekend was my commercial stuff, which I sold to Bruce Bascom at his open house in may. This year I am trying to hold some crop for the Christmas season and would like to start next season with just a little carryover, maybe about 5 gal each of Lt, Med And Dark grade A. I did buy some bulk from another producer but I would rather sell my own product.
It is still definitely Winter here in the North Country! I woke up to clear, starry, skies and 0 degrees. Won't be any sap here for a few days. Those that tapped for the 2 day warm spell will be frozen solid. Long range weather really shows nothing for the coming week. Good thing as there is always more to do. It is now down to fixing things up. A few sags in the lines, fixing a better pump line, etc. I have about 30 more taps and laterals to do. Left them 'til last as they will block off access to the back part of my bush for all but foot traffic. Was gonna do them today but at ) I don't know if I want to.
Got both vacuum pumps up and running this week. I moved the old one (hydrovac 30cfm) to the new bush for the 840 taps there. When we got it running, had 25" at the releaser. Better than any time last year. Put the new one in the front bush (liquid ring 75 cfm that some old pirate sold me) for 1750 taps there. Had 27 inches at both the releaser at the pump and at the remote releaser 1400 feet away. Tried the inverse slope pump to move sap that same 1400 feet. Worked slick with rainwater so it should be fine when we finally get sap.
I will have somewhere between 40 and 100 buckets to keep the tourists satisfied and will be buying sap from another 1000 buckets with the possibility 0f 400 more. I will need lessons on time management from Theron and Dave. If they can get a workable schedule (that includes a little sleep) and post the details, maybe I can figure out how I will keep up. Keep that southern sap flowing guys!
Doug
Doug- Make sure the sugarhouse is real ready. Those are SERIOUS vac levels. 25" plus at the releaser will turn everything to a whole new ballgame. Once those trees start running as long as its over 32 degrees youll never see them stop. West wind, east wind, south wind, windbag neighbor, whatever. Theron
I got a paltry 90 gal of sap this morning, lit a fire for an hour. Managed to add 23 more taps on tubing after that, hopefully add a few more tomorrow. I would've gotten alot more done if I hadn't spent the whole morning waiting to get my spare truck inpsected, had to get the everyday truck towed in last night, unknown throttle problems. My south facincg trees were running hard late afternoon, looks like I'll be boiling a little tomorrow, plus I've got some canning to do and need to wash tanks. Ah, the relaxing weekends!
been a wild three days. 7000 holes drilled, three vac pumps running finding leaks, fixing problems. ect. good shake down cruise. averaged better than 1/2 gallon sap per tap yesterday from 2 pm to 2 am. not bad with the snow depth
Break time again in the cold north.:)
Sap flow averaged about 1 gallon per tap twice this week. We are at about 30 gallon of syrup. Main wood shed has not been touched as I have worked off all the wood that was the extra. Most syrup has been medium grade although the sap looks great? Just got into light range once today then fell off again to medium.
It was very nice to boil in the morning I really like that time of the day to boil better than the evening. Just seems nice to look out side and see the sun shine.
We had Visitors Thursday evening friend Paul and his wife from work we boiled eggs in the sap, and had a couple of boiling sodas made from our maple syrup and our honey. Very Good! thanks for our friend Zach Form work who is a home brewer.
Sat. Gary R. , Laura and Butch stopped by. Also another friend from work, Dave his wife and her father. Also Ward and his wife plus Keith T. and neighbor Russ and his daughter. It was nice to have friends drop in, set a spell and visit !:)
Viewed out door boiling at Kurt's tonight on his high-tec efficient two pan evaporator. He made some nice syrup too!
Hope all is going well.
Dave Y,
You still boiling?
Regards,
Chris
Guys- Boiled today. Feel like Ive been on the front lines of a war or something. Barreled 100 gallons of some pretty nice syrup. Had plenty of opportunities. Still have 2500 gallons of sap in the tanker trailer but cant get it to the sugarhouse becouse of freeze ups. Dont have enough filter press for what Im trying to do. Ive decided im not a serious producer but I tap like Im one. Have to get better in the sugar house to survive. I feel like im doing a good job becouse I havent lost any sap yet and its all gone in the barrell but its been a struggle. 15% seems to be the magic number in the evap. It really works very well. The ro is working very good and the evap is performing great. We seem to get a nonstop draw and it is very easy to keep the density perfect becouse you just get a constant draw off into the pails. The sap is basically syrup when it leaves the flue pan. Its 10 degrees light when it hits the syrup pan and we had some draws that were 10 gallons before it stopped. My biggest problems now are filtering and pumping sap without it freezing up. I basically need a bigger filter press but im trying to come up with a system that will get me by for the season and I think I can get along. The freeze ups are a real pain moving the sap but Im going to keep working at it. Next year will be easier becouse Ill get things finetuned in the off season. Gonna sleep in in the morning and enjoy a little down time. Had a few too many boiling sodas tonight. Glad to be kind of cought up. Hope everyone is having fun. Good luck on the BIGSAP. Theron
THHE(LITTELPRESS)RROONNN- has it really opened up and RUN down there yet,,or are these the first small runs of the year?
Parker- I think I had one day on the house bush they all turned on and I think that was the only honest run on everything Ive had. Across the road I dont think Ive seen a serious run yet. When the house bush did that my double was dumping every 30 seconds all afternoon. I dont think Ive seen the real thing yet but as of tomarrow night Ill be at 300 gallons. Thats nothing to snease at but this early season stuff is a pain. To much freeze up. I told Matt once I get things paid up Im not tapping till it quits freezin nights. Sounds a little unconventional but man I hate frozen stuff. Theron