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Starting tapping now at the UVM Proctor Maple Research Center in Underhill Ctr., Vermont. A crew of 2 tappers, sometimes with a support person walking ahead clearing lines. Good going....not much snow on the ground. Hopefully we can have it done before we get much snow. Should have it done with a few weeks.
Line and chainsaw work for about a month before this.
Should have about 5,000 taps this year.
Lots of work left to do to get the sugarhouse put together....more to update on that later.
Running chainsaw in the woods now trying to clean things up. I have about 1100 tapped so far. Hoping to be done mid to end of next week. Looks like a cold front is coming our way. Good luck everyone.
Spud
I've been replacing a section of woods that had the oldest tubing and re designing the layout hope to be done soon and start tapping the first weekend in Feb.
though it sure seemed I should be tapping in Jan. but I think it will be relatively cold the next few weeks so should be OK.
I've been fighting a stomach bug and nasty cold all the same time sure hope to be back to par soon Looking forward to the season as we all are!
Funny, to me they suggested adding oil for the summer or running it periodically which I have been doing. Glycol would be easy though. Thanks for the tip!Quote:
Originally Posted by wsugar
Washing and rinsing ro now to be ready to boil tomorrow. Since Sunday afternoon when I closed the valve on the bulk tank I have pulled in about 800 gallons from 400 taps, 3/4 of that since some time overnight. Temp. went over 40 today and it is still running pretty well. Sugar at about 1.8 so not bad for January
We've made 170 gal so far. First year ever I have tapped in January. Sap is running today plan on boiling tomorrow. Looks like I have a little time to do some tuning in the woods. The new evaporator is working great.
This is my first time tapping in January but I'm thinking it won't be the last. Kind of like a dress rehearsal for the real thing...
We did not have a solid freeze here thursday night so I awoke to 1000 gal. of sap. I have 1100 of bulk storage capacity so I fired up the ro and squeezed that and what came in yesterday until about 2pm down to about 200 gal. The sugar content over the last week ranged from a low of 1.6 to a high of 1.8. Filled the evap. and boiled for about 2 hours and sweetened pans and made over 10 gallons. I haven't filtered or graded yet but looks GD to AR range with decent flavor. A little bit of a "tang" which I suspect is from the tubing...
Things froze up last night and it looks like winter is back for a bit. Going to finish up changing drops and tapping to be ready for the next warm-up.
On a related note, I found a couple smart spouts that were defective and leaking. I didn't notice it while tapping but then they were manufactured, the mold did not completely fill so it left a void in the drop connector. In both spouts I found leaking around at the drop, the leak was due to an inadequate seal. If you are using CDL smart spouts, something to keep an eye out for.
We finished tapping yesterday , Started two weeks ago and have collected a bunch of sap as we tapped , Ran the RO a couple times also , Sap ran good that last couple of days here and also got a little bonus run this afternoon . we will boil tomorrow first time in January for us .
Surprise runs this weekend and pulled in over 1 gpt sat. and sun. It's amazing what vac. tubing can do at 33F. Not enough to fire up so will let it freeze in the tanks until the next warm-up.
Finished tapping Friday and working on the list of odds and ends that need to be fixed this week. Thankful for the cold spell cause i'm going to Florida with my girlfriend from Thursday until the following Tuesday. The weather has worked out near perfect for us so far this year. Good luck to everyone. General Stark, hopefully that smart spout problem is not widespread or else there will be a lot of sugarmakers upset this year.