My plan 2022/23

Tomorrow I will run the three new lines on the perfect slope. After stringing them out, I will add the approximately 80 drops. That may last until Sunday to finish. I then have a fourth line to install, mostly an old one from last year, but I will add several more taps to the start of it.

By the end of Sunday, I will know how many taps I will have for 2023. It should be around 175 to 180, with three collection areas and 4 collection barrels.

Then I start splitting 7 face cords of wood for 2024 evaporating. I just finished splitting 14 face cords for winter 23/24 and a little bit for 24/25. (Without a wood processor lol)

I strung the three lines this morning with the help of two friends. Before I went alone to connect the drops to the line, my neighbour shared with a picture of a large black bear on his trail cam, which is in the same area of where I am running the lines. I kept an eye out for it. Things were going well installing the drops, until I could not find my tension hooks. I had just used them on the previous tree. I searched where I thought I put them down and then quadruple checked where I walked. After not finding after looking for almost a half hour, I drove home and got a finger rake. I eventually found them, just barely, about three feet away from where I thought I had left them, buried in the leaves. I may paint them a fluorescent colour. I finished off the one line, but lost my momentum and was losing the light, so I will try and finish the other two lines tomorrow and install a fourth line.


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The slope on the runs is excellent and there are good good steep runs at the end to power the tubes. The sap should race out of these lines. My transfer tank on my ATV holds 35 gallons, I wish I had like a 100 gallon one for my truck.

The runs look pretty good, Gary. That bear looks even better. I would put him down and have fresh bear liver and onions that night for dinner. It's one of those meals where you can sit back with a nice cold Canadian brew and say it doesn't get much better than this.

Unless the bear is chewing at my ankle, he is safe around me. I did pack some bear bangers and bear spray, in the extremely unlikely chance he came around.

I had planned today to get started at 8:30 am, but woke up at 5 and did not fall asleep again until after 6:30. I did not wake up again until 11:10. I raced out with no breakfast or lunch, and got in a good rhythm and finished connecting the drops on the two remaining drops. I added one more drop, so there are 74 drops on the three lines (21, 30, 23). The lines are approximately 510’, 550’, 550’ long. I meant to check the altitude at the peak, but it is a big drop from the top peak to the bottom. I definitely will have to break a path in the snow a few times prior to the start of the maple season. It is hard enough walking up there now.

I also strung a fourth line and got it connected just as it turned so dark I could not see very well. I have about three drops to add to that line tomorrow, but it will have 21 drops.

Tomorrow I will check out two lines I left up for the summer, and I will get a good count of my total drops. I will also add seasoned wood to my evaporator wood pile, to total out to about 7 face cords beside the evaporator. If the RO is working, that should be enough.

Today I put the final drops on the fourth line and also checked two other lines and made a repair to each of them. I also changed how the three lines connect at the bottom.

I measured with an altitude app the drop from the peak of the 3 lines to the collection area and it showed it being an 80 foot drop. It seems like more.

All totaled I have 150 taps. Tap count per line:

Collection area 1 (50 taps)
1 - 12
2 - 10
3 - 19
4 - 5
5 - 4

Collection area 2 (26 taps)
6 - 13
7 - 9
8 - 4

Collection area 3 (2 barrels) (steep hill) (74 taps)
9 - 21
10 - 30
11 - 23

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I also some additional wood to the evaporator pile.

Tomorrow I start splitting for evaporator year 2024.

Gary. your lines look really good, how did you manage to keep them so tight.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pdiamond

Gary. your lines look really good, how did you manage to keep them so tight.

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I had help this time with someone pulling, as I was unraveling and guiding the lines.

Also when I add the drops with my tension cord, I take out any slack. That is really what makes the difference.

Maybe that is the difference between yours and mine. I use the tension hooks, but I was all by myself.

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Originally Posted by Pdiamond

Maybe that is the difference between yours and mine. I use the tension hooks, but I was all by myself.

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When I pull the lines together, and cut it, I see how much one line overlaps the other and I cut the difference out.

When I piled the wood around my evaporator, I added more wood to the top of the row than I originally planned, and was fearful it would tip.

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Today the top of the row behind the evaporator fell over, but fortunately it fell away from the evaporator. It made me think if it fell forward after I have my base stack installed, it would be bad.

I made a second row of wood on the left and dramatically reduced the height of the back row and the row on the left. The row on the right is three rows deep and looks to be very solid.

I also started splitting wood for 2024 season. As everyone knows, splitting the wood into wrist sized pieces vs home firewood takes twice as long. I should have it all completed come the weekend.

Today I finished splitting my 2024 evaporator wood. Next tasks are to give the collection barrels a rinse after sitting all summer.

I still haven’t done anything to my RO. I could stand pat with the 400 and two 150 membranes. I still do not understand how they work as far as flow. I still don’t get why the two 150’s at the end would not slow down flow from the 400. There is a piece in the puzzle I am missing. Maybe it is not about flow and instead about how much water is removed.

I still have to wire up the bilge pump and get the hose for it. Eventually I will buy a second transfer pump and maybe a second RO pump as back ups. Getting all of the lines up and finishing splitting the wood has taken the pressure off me and now I can do things at a more leisurely pace.

(I have 47 face cords of split wood on my property now and another five face cords of cut logs and a few more face cords of logs yet to be bucked up.)