January Journal 2008

MATT
whats is the down side to useing steel ties???

RICH

Parker- Im on it buddy. Lines done tomarrow. Then im going to get a box of valves and gages. Im thinking about gaging every main. I cant let you guys show me up. Im going to walk that line every day and if I find that I have a major vac loss, say down to 24", its going to be treated as an emergency becouse that is going to be totally unacceptable. If my wife leaves me, my boss fires me, the kids forget who I am thats just going to have to be how it is. Im looking for bbiiiiiiiiiigggggggggggg ssaaaaaaaaaaaapppppppppppp. Theron

Theron,

For some reason I have it in my head that this is your first year tapping,and it seems you have gone all out this first year doing 1200+ taps. If so, way to go man, hope all goes well. I' m like you, when it's sugaring time, nothing else really matters - six weeks of pedal to the medal. I would rather survive on two - three hours of sleep than dump sap on the ground. Good luck.

We will collect our first batch of sap tomorrow, looks like a great run so far, and I will either boil tomorrow night or Monday morning.

Andrew

The steel ties rust out.

Andrew-Nice job catching the first run. I bet youll make some real nice syrup. This is my first year at this level. I usually run 100-150 taps gravity. Ive been doing that for a long time. Ive kind of got the basics down but ive never messed with vac or actually ran a real evap. My rig was a homeade one that my father had made for me when I was probly 12 or so. Been using it all thes years making 25-30 gals syrup a year. Its been good to me. Had a lot of fun doing it. Theron

Matt,
I was thinking the ties I've been using are galvenized. Went and got some out of the truck and they sure looked galvenized to me . If you cant find any let me know I can ship some of these to you or check with my supplier on Monday about getting some.

Has anyone ever used a tier like the phone co. uses to tie their lines??? Has anyone ever seen them?? They wind the phone wire onto the hugh tin wire as they move them along.. Would this work??? You alll have me wondering.

Andy

I don't know how common it is but I have seen in some of the catalogs where they sell large spools of mainline with the wire already stranded around the mainline. I haven'r heard where lots of people do this, but your idea doesn't sound bad, but I'm trying to think about repairs in the future. if a tree was to come down and break that small gauge wire that is stranded around the wire and mainline, all the mainline comes loose, unless I'm misunderstanding how the little wire wraps around. But if you tie individual ties every 20" or so, then you can just cut in and fix where needed and re-tie a section, rather than a whole length of mainline.

THeron,

Sounds like sugaring runs deep in your veins and you have some great childhood memories of making syrup, especially if your father helped make your first evaporator. Those are great memories to have. Theron, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?

I took my three year old with me to finish tapping, and he loved it - he's old enough and big enough to negotiate the terrain without falling too much, and he loves to help put the buckets on the trees. My 18 month wants to do nothing except hold the drill and wear down my battery.

AKM

I can get the galvanized from a dealer, I was just wondering if I could save any by buying from another source. Outside the maple industry, and save 300 percent.