OLJ dont you sleep?:) Have you tapped yet?
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OLJ dont you sleep?:) Have you tapped yet?
Got my sap ladder done. Tapped 100 clear check spouts. Have 6 basketball games today so hoping to tap the other 230-250 vacuum taps in the morning. Lots of hissing from squirrel chews and leaky saddles. Still getting about 15" at the releaser despite these leaks and several drop lines completely open and hanging.
just put in 150 taps today
183 tapped on vac today. Hope to get the other 148 in the morning. Then still need to wash my tanks. Still not sure if im putting out buckets this year.
got all taps in yesterday will probly start pump in a few hrs then look for those little leaks . may everyones season go stress free and please keep pierre delfranconie in your prayes he is having back surgery on monday and has 2000 taps out .
We have 223 in so far should get the rest in today
I'm in!, 350 tapped today and I'll finish tomorrow with another 100!
Itchin to go and have one out to see what's going on... but not a drop today. It looks too too windy monday and tuesday for me, wednesday and thursday look awesome but look at fri-sat and sunday...back in the freezer again with highs at 26-28 and lows of 20-23. Today would have been an ideal day to be in the woods, and I may kick myself for not going for it, but there's alot of good weather ahead.
I am about fully tapped with about 325 on vac. However, I am having problems with my water pump connected to my electric releaser so they are running on gravity tight now. Hope to get the vac going again tomorrow.
now that it seems everyone is tapped what kind of "runs" are you guys getting ? how is the syrup? whats your sugar count? just curious. I will be tapping by weeks end. looks like a decent forcast nxt. week.
I had a good sap run on Thursday night and Friday morning before the freeze set in. It was right at 3% sugar. Sunday did not run a much as Thursday.
I initailly had strange results with my beer hydrometer initially. It is calibrated at 70F. I tested sap from my tank at 32F. It read 0.5% sugar. I thought at lower temperatures it was supposed to subtract from your reading not add to the reading. After it warmed up in the house to room temperature it read 3%. It didn't seem like much water evaporated out of my cup because it still nearly filled my hydrometer sampling holder.
This was an exciting weekend for me as I made my first syrup ever. The first two batches were pretty light in color and tasted great!
Gathered 185 gallons tonight, some trees ran well and some didnt. Trees on the edge of a field ran extremely well, the ones deep in the woods did not.
For those of you that tapped @ the end of January how are your trees running? Sugar content? I got one good run in the last couple days of January but things do seem slower now. I know it's only mid 40's and not 50's or 60's like the last good run. I am glad I tapped when I did, I had some bugs to get worked out before we got really going. So if you were in @ the end of January, how do things look now?
i tapped in my tubing on sat. repaired those darn pesky squirrel chews sun. ran pretty good for me and got to boil in about 600 gallons last night. made some really nice medium amber
got tapped sunday gathered 500 gal of 2.5% sap no buckets tapped yet. good early run to get things going. Christopherh, did you find a gathering tank?
Tom, Still looking. I might have one built this spring. For now I'm still using a 65 and 35 gallon tank in the Gator. It's tough pouring the sap in the 6 inch opening. I did have a that Amish guy you mentioned build big funnels for them. Theyre not done yet. I think I'll hook up the 6 barrel tank to the Kubota this year to.
ChrisQuote:
Originally Posted by christopherh
have you thought about tubing? some bushes are not the best layout for it but. ..
Yes, Tubing will be in the works for next year.
Collected 100 gal off of 323 taps put in about 30 more. My trees are all reds and silvers and not very good producers. I really need to find a bush I can put vac to!!!
forth boil last night, got ruffly 60 gal. sap off 90 taps. still getting tons of sand & med-dark color! trees i taped on 1/12 are still going well. we made 20 gal last year off of 80 taps & the 30 i put out in jan. produced close to 2-1/2 gal,syrup! glad i rolled the dice.
ChristopherH. I also collect with 35 gal tanks in the back of my gator. This year I built this set up to avoid having to lift up and try to pour into the 6" holes. Not an original idea, but the bilge pump empties the dump tank almost as fast as I can pour. The pump has a built-in float switch so it shuts off on its own. It's powered by the 12V outlet on the dash of the gator. The pipe coming out of the dump tank swings from one tank to the other when one gets full.Quote:
Originally Posted by christopherh
I figured last year I had almost as much running on the outside of the 35 gal tanks as inside- this should fix that.
Attachment 6736Attachment 6737Attachment 6738
Good luck this year.
Johnallin, Wow! what a great idea! Where did you get the pump?
ChristopherH. I got it from a Cleveland boat supply store - West Marine. But found this link on line;
http://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Bilg.../dp/B003BQ934E
It's a 1500 gph pump ( that's 25 gal/min!) with an automatic float switch. Once powered up; it begins pumping as soon as sap depth gets to about 1/2" and continues until the tank is empty. This way I just dump and go for the next pail. I also took another bucket and cut the bottom out to fit snugly in the top hole - this acts like a big splash gaurd and holds a 12" ss mesh screen and filters to pre-filter the sap.
The pipe is 1" cpvc on one of those new (to me anyway) push type fittings. The added benifit of these is that they swivel; which allows me to swing the discharge pipe from one tank to another. The pump is screwed into the bottom of the tank and comes apart for cleaning by depressing two little tabs on the sides. Entire assembly then can be lifted out and cleaned each day or as needed.
Like I said; I can't take credit for the idea, it's been mentioned here before, I just put it together with what I was able to come up with. As I go to bigger - and taller- tanks, this will become even more useful. As it is now, I'm only lifting to about waist height - but can empty a pail as fast as I can turn it on its side.
I can send more pictures if you're interested.
Well today's "run" was a letdown. Was supposed to be in the low 40s but never made it much above freezing in our bush. Pulled in maybe 80-90 gallons off 325 taps on vac. Looks like the next run wont be until Monday, but of course the forecast changes by the minute.
A big thank you goes out to One Leg John who spent much of the day yesterday at my place troubleshooting my electric releaser system. Its definitely a work in progress. Fortunately I have been able to run the releaser and water pump at 15" of vac but no higher. Even at 15" Im amazed what vacuum can do when gravity tubing would just be weeping sap.
Well what do you know. I went back down and turned vac back on at 830 and weve got sap running. Not great but ill take it. It actually warmed up after 7 pm. Still running as of 12:30 am.
Heus, how much have you pulled in since yesterday? I'm on buckets and I was lucky if the spiles were damp!
I got about 200 gallons on 325 taps. Not great but better than nothing. Most of that came last night between 830pm and probably 1 or 2am.
I think I will put out my 50 or so buckets this weekend. If they dry up early oh well I have hundreds of other maples to tap if needed.
Hangin 100 buckets and bags today to get my tap count to 425.
Collected 85 gallons yesterday. I'll try to get the rest of my taps in tomorrow. Hopefully Monday and Tuesday will be good to us! I did can some syrup off the first batch. I'm using new pans that I did a test boil on and cleaned. Unfortunately the syrup has a metobolic taste, anyone have any experience with that?
141 taps in , about 25 more to go.
usually a metallic taste is from old english tin pans (which you definitely dont have), RO systems, or pan cleaner residue left . when was the last time you cleaned your pans? use a solution of just hot water?
When I did the test boil and cleaning, I only used water. I did this just prior to the first run. I dont use an RO either. This is a new set of pans, I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it.
just give it some time until your next boil mid week... im sure itll be fine.
or bring it to my house and ill put it on my oatmeal.
26 Taps on Sunday, Feb 10th. About 30 gallons collected so far. Experimenting with a turkey fryer this year. Can't really have much of a fire... I'm cooking in the inner city. Neighbors think it's meth.
Much to learn. Hoping for about 6 gallons of finished product this year...
lol, i love it . first post and you mention methamphetamines ..... :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Maple216
good luck this year and we all have been there before ... until the maple bug sets in . then your broke on the streets selling meth just to support your sugar habit ...
Nice moves.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maple216
Here's the current urban driveway set-up. Slowly adding sap to the boil in the turkey pot... evaporating in the pan. Finishing on the kitchen stove, with adequate ventilation. Any tips from the Ohio pros?
Attachment 6872
Looks like you guys are on the right track! Beware, this can become a lifetime addiction! This is a great site, with a ton of info buried inside. Also pick up a copy of the Maple Syrup Producers Manual.Well worth having.
6 degrees out right now supposed to get to 37 but not until later this afternoon. Not sure how much of a run we will get but the dun will help. Not supposed to go below freezing tonight then cold again tomorrow afternoon.