after a long trip today and 4.5 hours of walking around bufalo ny waiting for my uncle to come back accrossed the border (i don't have a passport yet)
i got my new to me pans home they look great can't wait to try them out
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after a long trip today and 4.5 hours of walking around bufalo ny waiting for my uncle to come back accrossed the border (i don't have a passport yet)
i got my new to me pans home they look great can't wait to try them out
Weather here is turning back to winter again after tuesday. Looking at teens well into feb. Spent the day with nephew with a refresher course on tapping, setting up the evaporator and all the in's and out's. Let him do a water boil and play around with the float box and firing the evaporator. Couldn't wipe the smile off his face if I wanted too. Made for a nice cleanup as well. Made some maple fudge and some cream. Got a call from the Fed's today and they want me to come down to washington D.C. to work on some equipment. Heading out sunday and be back wednesday I am hoping. Nice little break from the norm anyways. Hopefully the weather turns into our favor mid Feb. I would love to be tapping on Valentines Day.
RedMaples......you have to set up more taps! At least to 500!!!!:cool:[/QUOTE]Quote:
Originally Posted by farmall h
eventually I will be there. this year I figured on 200 taps and ended up with 300:rolleyes: (no addiction here)
one thing on my side is time If I need alot of boiling time I got it.
But I can't go up to 500 taps yet here's my thinking
it's like a snowball/butterfly effect
1. as it is I don't think I will have enough sap storage. I will have 350 gallons of storgae and if I need it I have several 55 gallon poly drums. so I have to
watch the tanks because they can fill p quickly and over flow if Iam not careful.
2. with the extra sap comes the need for extra wood. which I have about 3+ cord split dry now. have lots more wood around just in full log length. but don't feel like split and firing at the same time.
3. With extra sap comes extra syrup and I have don't have enough containers for that much syrup.
next year I plan on adding (look at me 2010 season not here yet already into 2011). also will be a small vacum, relaser and 787 gallon stainless tank. and about 50 more taps. and adding in more mainline to shorten up the laterals to get more effect from the vacuum.
and build a 24 x 30 finished insulated barn with a walk in freezer. down stairs for ice carving business. upstairs art studio for my wife. expanding the sugar house. get some chickens build chicken coup(that will only take a week end), increase thae size of the garden. put in a road in the woods to have better access to far away maples.
oh man somebody stop me !!!! what am I crazy!!! not a biblical guy to say the least but ...please god give me the strength to....
Red you will not need the storage if you just boil the stuff down and quit sitting on it.:D Get after that stuff.
Well winter returned with a passion last two days. I had to get up in the middle of the night and put wood on the fire. She who has to be obeyed didn't wake up and do it.
Trying to get this evaporator finished this week and then be able to test boil when it's warm enough again. My one problem is trying to figure out how to move it by myself or with a 4ft 11 helper. LOL
Pretty much ready to go and just waiting on tapping weather. Pulled all mine north side taps down out of the trees yesterday and marked areas I could find damage on them. We got about 1/4" of ice night before, so would have been kinda hard to find all the damage on them with all the water and ice on them. I have about 220 taps on the north side that I don't tap until about half way thru the season and they will usually run about 10 gallon of sap per tap in about 2.5 to 3 weeks since they don't usually get thawed out until around March 1st. There is cattle in there part of the year during late spring thru early fall, so at season's end, I slide the lines up the trees to 7 to 8 feet off the ground without loosening anything and all the mainline has barbed wire on above and/or below it, so they don't bother it either. Works good and laterals are way too high for cattle to bother.
Fortunately the ice didn't hurt anything. Always cringe with fear when they are calling for ice as we don't normally ever get tornadoes, but we do get ice from time to time.
Shooting for starting tapping biggest south bush around Feb 6 or Feb 13 and the smaller south bush a week or two later depending on weather.
I had a new one happen to me today. I started the vac this morning and then went out for lunch. After getting back I decided to walk all the lines to be sure I didn't have any leaks.
I could hear this one leak from quit a distance off, I figures I either had a stubby come loose from the CV spout or I had a tree rat chew hole.
Well I found which tree it was and there was no hole to be found and it started to look like the CV spout wasn't set completely into the tree.
That is when I found that just below the spout about 3/8" there is a little hole from some sort of insect. That is where the vac leak is. So I took a toothpick and pluged the hole.
The sap is still running in that hole but I am curious if that insect hole will cause a slow running tree at the spot. Should I drill a new tap hole??
Below is a close-up of the tap and insect hole.
The first couple area I tapped (400 taps +/-) several years ago required no thinning. It looked good to go from day one. I've been thinning an adjacent area (300-400 taps) that I would like to get on-line for this season. This new area has beautiful maples, but has alot of old, dying apple under the canopy.
So, how clean is clean enough? I know once I run tubing, I will not be able to get in there to clean/thin further. Most of the thinning is done, but all the dead wood is on the ground. I imagine I'll be tripping on this stuff until it rots -but if I move that stuff out, I won't be adding those taps this year. Left some varied species in the bush.
Anybody in CNY want to come over and tell me what you think? I'm struggling with whether to run mainline tomorrow.
Now, the next section that's coming on after this section has some amazing trees:)
The sap is still running in that hole but I am curious if that insect hole will cause a slow running tree at the spot. Should I drill a new tap hole??
Below is a close-up of the tap and insect hole.[/QUOTE]
Pretty darn clever plugging that hole with a toothpick. If you stopped the vacuum leak, I would not re-tap the tree. Now, if you were still leaking vacuum, I'd cap the tap and throw a bucket on the tree. I'm crazy about vacuum leaks - can't stand them, but that's just me.
Either way, I would not put another tap in the tree unless it's a two tap tree. If you plugged the hole, I don't think sap yield will drop significantly due to insect hole.
Man, did the wallet take a hit today!! My new Lapierre 900 gallon stainless tank showed up, along with a new Lapierre single vertical releaser, 800' of 3/4 main,and 300' of 1 1/2" main. My new Atlantic Fluidics vacuum pump should be here by the end of the week. The power will be hooked up to my vacuum shed this week. I had to buy a huge pump to try to overcome the whirlpool in Roseville, Pa.!
This time of the year seems like a lot of outgo, without much income!!