february Journal

Well I didnt get as much as I wanted to get done, I went to the hardware store to get supplies... then My front hub on the truck went, started to grind... that at the same time as my wifes van is in the shop with engine trouble. Well my Dad came and drove me around for parts, I worked on it early evening and all is well now.
I did get a little electrical work done in the sugarhouse though, that with the stack being up it wasn't a total loss today.

Got a few calls today from guys wondering about the warm weather! and tapping.. told them to wait!!!

More getting ready today placing containers to gather in and rounding up more taps. If I'm not careful I may be near 500 taps next year. Hoping that the tubing saves the day in the gathering area. I need to get a nice trailer to haul all this stuff around.

Chris

well all my tanks got washed today and mother nature is washing my sugar house floor

Update from Pierce and Sons. Been R.O.ing all day and going to boil in the morning. Not going to be a lot of syrup for the amount of sap becouse of the low sugar but thatll be fine. Having a lot of fun playing around with sugar concentrations. Not going to be much sap left when the R.O.shuts off. Looks like a nice light amber in the flow meter on the R.O. Think we might of accidently took it right to density in the R.O machine. Hoping to see what a constant draw off looks like in the morning. Got my main men from up north showing me how things are supposed to be done. Have a happy. Report in on syrup in the morning. Theron

Danno2840 gotta be a relief to finally get an evaporator. Congrats. Just gotta finish bricking the arch and Im ready to go. Well when spring does get here anyways. Did not tap this 6 day teaser we are getting. Trees I think would be idle for a couple weeks after this warm spell. Letting the snowpack melt for easier travel into the woods with the john deere. I bet we lost a good 12 inches of snow pack this weekend, just about 36inches to go. I gotta admit though jealous of you guys watching the sap flow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 3rdgen.maple

Danno2840 gotta be a relief to finally get an evaporator. Congrats. Just gotta finish bricking the arch and Im ready to go. Well when spring does get here anyways. Did not tap this 6 day teaser we are getting. Trees I think would be idle for a couple weeks after this warm spell. Letting the snowpack melt for easier travel into the woods with the john deere. I bet we lost a good 12 inches of snow pack this weekend, just about 36inches to go. I gotta admit though jealous of you guys watching the sap flow.

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Hey 3rdgen,

I'll be up your way next weekend to fish the Salmon River. Your location caught my eye.

We had just a trickle on the test taps and buckets we put out. We'll see how the week goes down here, but I think it's not quite time yet for full swing. We tapped the first few days of Feb. last year and I think we paid for it with low production in the early taps due to low temps and then early closing of the tapholes.

Sugardaddy, Steelhead fishing has been AWESOME I thought last year was good. 12 fish in 4 hour days is the norm. Yesterday slowed down a little. Cold runoff puts the fish down for a day but there are still willing fish to be caught. I am a fly fisherman by heart but I use a 11 foot spinning rod for the steelies. 6 lb main line, 4 lb leader. I dead drift flies just bouncing them on the bottom. #12 and # 14 black stoneflies with chartrues tail fibers is the ONLY fly I use for Steelhead. I tie up dozens of them. Use to be able to get them at Fat Nancy's Check there they may still have them. I have used alot of other fly patterns and nothing produces for me like those stones do. Browns are still in the river too so you got a good chance at getting one of them. Happy Fishing. If you see a guy on the river with sap buckets and fishing gear stop and say Hi.

PAARRRRRKER- Just went out to the shed in my shorts to see what my R.O. did for me last night. Started with maybe 4000 gallons of 1.5%. Now just looking in the head tank looks like theres about 300 gallons of 21%. How would you like to boil that stuff in Marvin. Boil time. Time to earn my money. Should be about 3 hours and well have some syrup. 4 gallons of sap in the evap one gallon of syrup. Oh yeah baby, Oh yeah. Im telling Russ to take it a little easy on the firewood. Theron

Theron,
Looks like you guys really squeezed that stuff. Did you just keep recirculating or were there pressure changes at the RO? I gotta see this thing in operation. Jeeez, I haven't ever even seen an RO in operation and here I am thinking about how much I might be able to squeeze the stuff down. Congrats on the early syrup. Hope it gets sweeter as the week progresses.
Doug

Doug- Just kept recirculating it. Easiest thing in the world really. Not too sure about boiling the stuff but well see. Should be coming off over a quart a minute by my calculator. Thats not bad for a 3 by 10. Theron