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Up to about 550 taps and sap has been running well since yesterday afternoon. It took a while to thaw but once the sun came out, things really got going. Collected over 600 gal. by 7 am this morning.
RO is rinsed and washed and ready to process sap so that is the plan this afternoon and then a boil this evening. Hopefully all goes smooth. So far this has been my easiest re-entry into sugaring. Knocking on wood. :)
all hi vac tapped run all day let it go on ground, 24" have some vac leaks to fix buying one of those vac leak testers from CDL. Arch almost back together hopefully tomorrow night. if get enough sap might boil thursday night of friday.
I never turned my pumps on yesterday till 7:00 pm. I got busy doing other things and really did not think the sap would run. Yesterday it was only 38-39 and cruddy out. At 7:00 last night i needed a tool out of the sugar house and when I was getting it I heard sap dripping into the tank. I turned both pumps on and woke up to 1500 gallons. I probably lost 2-3000 gallons during the day. Still have 1000 trees to tap and my back is killing me. Hope to be all tapped by Tuesday. Might get some big sap Thursday and Friday.
Spud
i read often but don't post much. Tapped this past week(300). We have sandy soil and are exposed to the south. No snow cover and I dont think theres alot of frost, coming out fast. Got 600 gallons in the last 2 days, running like the end of march. Testing 2%. Hoping for a long season all!
Just shut down the vacuum at 10pm when sap finally stopped after 36 continuous hours. Two day total was 450 gallons, and I even averaged 1/2 gallon each from my 50 gravity taps. RO and boil tomorrow. Sap is 1.6%. Nice to have the RO this year!
Can you imagine, I would have to boil for 15 hours to get 8 gallons!
Spud, if I had known you weren't all tapped in yet I would have come up to help for a day! Sap flow was mediocre yesterday but last evening it picked up and we are rinsing the RO and whatnot and maybe sweetening pans Tuesday or holding off altogether until Thursday.
Pulled in 700+ gallons of sap yesterday off the 500 or so tap in so far. First boil, first syrup of the season, and the first time we've ever made syrup on the first boil. Hoping to finish tapping the tubing lines today and get the buckets up by Wednesday.
Vacuum was running at 20" below the big sap ladder and at 15" above. About the best I think I'll see with the guzzler.
All systems working well. Concentrated over 800 gal. yesterday afternoon from about 2% to about 12%. Got the evap. put back together and boiled for a couple hours and sweetened the pans and made about 6-7 gal. of nice tasting syrup. Probably on the edge of GD and AR.
Going to try to finish tapping the next couple days and get my new water-jacketed canner installed. Looking forward to moving on from the propane canner.
Thanks but it looks like I will be all tapped tomorrow. It looks like the sap will run Thursday and then maybe all night into Friday. I would love to get a couple gallons per tap before it freezes up again. Good luck.Quote:
Originally Posted by WestfordSugarworks
Spud
Weather sure is crazy. Near zero this morning. Looks like near 50 and raining on Thursday.