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BIGSAP UPDATE NORTHEAST PA- Been struggling. Ive had two nights of 8 hour sleep in around 8 days Id say. Usually 4 or 5 between syruping and work for the power co with the storms. Yesterday was a tough one. Nothing worked right. Im fighting freezeups everywhere and this is a tough time to sugar but like a wise old sugarmaker(Parker) says you gotta WANNNNN it. I had roughly 5000 gallons of sap this week to boil this weekend and Mike Christian and Jerry came down and helped me. I cant express the appreciation I have for them to do that. Yesterday we just couldnt get anything to go right. Freezeups were the first part, I have to pump my sap from the bush across the road and it is taking some finagaling to get it reliable. Then this happened. I had the vac running and Im all tired and I go over to lift the flap at the bottom of my double bernard to see if its full of ice and it happened to be the one with the 27" on it. Wrong move. Explosion, The float hit the top of the releaser so hard it almost blew the top off. Destroyed the linkage on top. Then the RO just would not perform at all. Terreble numbers for output and Im not sure if the membrane isnt good or What. Then couldnt get any perfomance out of the evap. Finally gave it up and had a beer and that was really the only good thing that happened to me all day. Went to bed at 1230 got up at 0430 and went back to work. Drained the flue pan and block and tackled it up and had a look. Flues were terreble becouse I cant get my brush back far at all. Cleaned them all out and then Jerry saw that the opening at the end of the arch in the brick was too far back. Took the bricks out and put everything together. Then Jerry had done a super wash on the RO the night before so that was ready to go. Had 2000 gallons of concentrate to do. Fired up the RO big numbers. Ran it all day and the output stayed great so no membrane issue. Now I know how to run and clean it so it will really perform great. The evap is a totally different rig. The boil is unreal. I actually made 20' of stainless stack copper to the top hat. Just stuff the wood right to it. Basically Im doing an honest 600 gallons per hour with the ro running and the boil. Its all 15% when it hits the evap and I think thats going to be the magic number. So this is what I came up with for the week. I sent 150 gallons north with Jerry, Ive got probly 20 in the evap. Took off another 5 after he left and theres probly 500 gallon of 2% down the road. So Id say Ill probly be at 185 for the run. The 150 is 6600$ and Ill tell you what every little bit helps. I feel like Im getting a handle on things now. Nobodys got better friends than I do. Between Matt and Russ coming down last weekend and Jerry and Mike this weekend Ive learned more about sugaring than I would years on my own. Hope everyone likes the stories. Zar
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Just think you were also planning on having alot of buckets about six months ago and we were telling you, you would need about 4 people to do the collecting every day.
You can catch up on the sleep in April
Keep up the good work
Keith
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Zar, I don't ever go by one of your posts!! So keep those stories coming! As we all are sitting here waiting for our season to start it's great to get here about you guys that are making syrup!! Just don't work your self sick!! That won't help your situation.
Jim L
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Looks like cold weather for a few days, so dumped the sweet back in the front pan and made another 4 gallons of dark amber today. Was a great day to boil as the sun was out and the sugarhouse was very coimfortable.
Mike tore up the place with the WH A-100 Dragging the dog around the yard in the wood wagon.
He also canned up the 8.5 gallons of medium for tapping payment.
We ate pulled pork with maple BBQ glaze for early dinner.
Then traveled south the see Father and Son to assist in hanging some 3/4 inch main line. Very nice looking set up Jim and Chase will have this year. They are not going to tap for a week or more.
Got some 5/16 from Jim to finish the last 20 taps on Old Albion road north of town. Looks like we will be just shy of 500 taps for 09. Still have some tapping to do just prior to the next warm up to complete all the drilling.
Regards,
Chris
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I just got in from boiling, collected 215 gal of sap today, most of which ran yesterday. This was the third boil we've had, for a total of about 800 gal of sap so far. We added another 93 taps today on tubing, for a total of 756 taps so far. I'd like to go to 900, but if we get a good season I'll run out of wood.
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I'm just going to pick up a new woods tank tomorrow and will set it Tuesday. Then, after rinsing the evap today I still need to final clean everything and I am ready to tap with the next thaw. I may add some more taps this week because the forcast has all week below freezing except for a few hours Wednesday. Might be i can get more taps in on my new bush yet. Like to hit 800 total but it doesn't look real good. In the woods the snow is not a factor in most spots anymore. It has settled/melted/whatever enough that many areas I can walk on top if the temp stays below 32. If it gets above 32 it is tap time. I should be able to tap everything in 2 days once I get started. I have 2 decent cordless drills, 2 batteries for one and 3 for the other. I look forward to seeing what it runs like into a tank with good slope and near 400 taps on line there. The most I ever had on one line before was 70 something. And it will really get good next year if I get vacuum. RO first then vacuum, hope i can do both in same season.
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Thanks Theron for a fun time, just got home
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I got almost 300 drops in the woods today. One more day should finish up the hill. Then several hundred reds to hook up in the lowland, and a bunch of screwing around to do making connections, setting tank and vacuum pump, run pipes to saphouse, etc. Hoping to be ready by March 1.
Tim
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Got the new rig moved into the sugarhouse today.
Took the pans off, unloaded the loads of stuff into the sugarhouse. Spent the rest of the day with a wire wheel and went over all the iron, and then hit it with a rattle can. Looking pretty nice now.
Cleaned out the ash pit and removed the grates and cleaned below. Had one side of the brick fall out during the move. So I got them back in place and just have to put the pans on and clean them up.
Big suck is going to be here this week. Theron better hurry up and get what few runs he can till I turn that sucker on.
Hope to have the evaporator all done tomorrow so I can focus on the woods. Pleanty to do there. Hopefully things don't get going for a few weeks. This thaw is a bit weird for us, should have been about 3 weeks ago.
There is talk of roads being posted in the near future, yikes. Gotta move some wood.
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Made up a list of things that needed to be done before I could tap and threw it in the trash last night. Had a good weekend and got everything on the list crossed off. I still have a small list of things to be done when I have sap but things are looking real good now.
Theron it was a pleasure to go down with Matt and help you out. I learned a lot of stuff that will help me out up here. One of the first things that I did was run a recirculation line from my RO to my bulk tank.
Matt those rattle cans make a big difference don't they. Glad to hear that you have your new rig home and that the big suck is on the way.
