As of about an hour ago my sap is running 500 GPH. It started running later in the afternoon and is testing 1.5%
Spud
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As of about an hour ago my sap is running 500 GPH. It started running later in the afternoon and is testing 1.5%
Spud
Funny Spud, I average 1.7 the last 3 years, and this is my second run at 2.1. I just shut my little operation down and got 110 gallons off 320 taps today. What a difference as you know. 40/1 vs. 50/1... I will run it right up into my head tank off my home built RO tomorrow and boil it off in my sweetened pan.Quote:
Originally Posted by spud
I have used accuweather for the last three years when using a sap puller for the the first 2 years and the full vacuum last year. I find if it does not forecast a drop below 28 for more than 2-3 hours overnight I leave the pumps on. I found it to be very accurate.
Mike
Finished tapping the first bush yesterday in the rain. Moving down the road to the other lots today. Hope to have all tubing tapped by the weekend!
Turned pump on yesterday at noon and sap started coming in pretty soon after. In went from 32F to almost 50F in less than 30 minutes. Let some sap run on the ground and then pulled in about 100 gal. after closing the tank valve. Froze up pretty quick yesterday evening. Pump is still on and I'm not expecting much today, but you never know. Looks like we could get a decent run this weekend.
I was able to get 3000 gallons before it froze last night. The wind kills everything for me. Weekend might be warm but it is going to be windy again. We need 45 and sun with no wind. Still real early so this is bonus sap as far as I'm concerned. Lets hope its a great season. It's looking good.
Spud
tapping out today, putting arch back together tonight and pans on tomorrow. Finish RO monday night drop in membranes and rinse them.
Sap is starting to come in. Going to head to the woods and put some more taps in then wash the ro this afternoon.
Warming up fast here, and sunny with no clouds to the west and s/west... Another "bonus" run into late tonight and maybe through tomorrow daytime. Forecast is changing for next week. What was gunna be a cold Wednesday/Thurs now shows 40ish We will see. It just gets warmer every time.
Glad I tapped early for my RO test.
Guess I'll head out and run more gravity lines.
**UPDATE** 7pm
Sap is running good, and still 45 after a high of 50 at 3:06. IT should run all night and some tomorrow.
Boy... did I struggle finding a vacuum leak. I heard it at the saddle, and tried fixing that for some time. Finally after going up and down the lateral, I could see air bubbles at the tee. I could hear nothing. Tried changing the spout, no help. There was no sap, only air from the spout! I capped the drop. Vacuum went back up to 24.5 from 22.5
**UPDATE 10pm**
Temperature keeps rising! It is 48! Sap is running at 15 gph avg.
**UPDATE 12AM**
Cooling down.. But, sap flowing at 25 gph since 10pm. It has turned out to be a great run for me here! It'll be interesting to see what the 55 on gravity yield tomorrow.
Good Nite..
Sap started running here as soon as I turn vac pump on. I headed to the woods to finish tapping, then started fixing a few minor leaks. We are now apprx 23.5-24" so very happy. I finished tapping in Andover just shy of 1200 taps (1187 if my math is right). So now off to Weston next weekend, that's my cold bush, seams to never start running until late every year and keeps on given good clean clear (3%)sap until very late. I have 600 taps there and usually a ton of repairs every year.
Hopefully have a boil tomorrow afternoon. 2nd of the season can't wait to burn the oil lol..
Good luck everyone, I think this will be a good sap run for a few days.
PM
Up to about 550 taps and sap has been running well since yesterday afternoon. It took a while to thaw but once the sun came out, things really got going. Collected over 600 gal. by 7 am this morning.
RO is rinsed and washed and ready to process sap so that is the plan this afternoon and then a boil this evening. Hopefully all goes smooth. So far this has been my easiest re-entry into sugaring. Knocking on wood. :)
all hi vac tapped run all day let it go on ground, 24" have some vac leaks to fix buying one of those vac leak testers from CDL. Arch almost back together hopefully tomorrow night. if get enough sap might boil thursday night of friday.
I never turned my pumps on yesterday till 7:00 pm. I got busy doing other things and really did not think the sap would run. Yesterday it was only 38-39 and cruddy out. At 7:00 last night i needed a tool out of the sugar house and when I was getting it I heard sap dripping into the tank. I turned both pumps on and woke up to 1500 gallons. I probably lost 2-3000 gallons during the day. Still have 1000 trees to tap and my back is killing me. Hope to be all tapped by Tuesday. Might get some big sap Thursday and Friday.
Spud
i read often but don't post much. Tapped this past week(300). We have sandy soil and are exposed to the south. No snow cover and I dont think theres alot of frost, coming out fast. Got 600 gallons in the last 2 days, running like the end of march. Testing 2%. Hoping for a long season all!
Just shut down the vacuum at 10pm when sap finally stopped after 36 continuous hours. Two day total was 450 gallons, and I even averaged 1/2 gallon each from my 50 gravity taps. RO and boil tomorrow. Sap is 1.6%. Nice to have the RO this year!
Can you imagine, I would have to boil for 15 hours to get 8 gallons!
Spud, if I had known you weren't all tapped in yet I would have come up to help for a day! Sap flow was mediocre yesterday but last evening it picked up and we are rinsing the RO and whatnot and maybe sweetening pans Tuesday or holding off altogether until Thursday.
Pulled in 700+ gallons of sap yesterday off the 500 or so tap in so far. First boil, first syrup of the season, and the first time we've ever made syrup on the first boil. Hoping to finish tapping the tubing lines today and get the buckets up by Wednesday.
Vacuum was running at 20" below the big sap ladder and at 15" above. About the best I think I'll see with the guzzler.
All systems working well. Concentrated over 800 gal. yesterday afternoon from about 2% to about 12%. Got the evap. put back together and boiled for a couple hours and sweetened the pans and made about 6-7 gal. of nice tasting syrup. Probably on the edge of GD and AR.
Going to try to finish tapping the next couple days and get my new water-jacketed canner installed. Looking forward to moving on from the propane canner.
Thanks but it looks like I will be all tapped tomorrow. It looks like the sap will run Thursday and then maybe all night into Friday. I would love to get a couple gallons per tap before it freezes up again. Good luck.Quote:
Originally Posted by WestfordSugarworks
Spud
Weather sure is crazy. Near zero this morning. Looks like near 50 and raining on Thursday.
woke up this a.m and had 47 degrees on the thermometer... and no sap in the tank! it just started dripping at 6:20 this a.m after being above freezing all day yesterday and last night! In the past it seems I've gotten decent runs when it rained... not last night. the 30-40 mph winds from the south probably killed that! pressure is falling quickly, so hopefully it'll be a good day in northern VT!
Sap ran OK up here overnight -- not terrific, but better than nothing. Tanks all about half full. With the sap that came in on Fri/Sat (again, modest run), we'll be boiling later this morning. Hopefully the sap will pick up a little better later on.
Last night and this morning was the second time we have had thunder and lightning here this winter. I awoke to one tank over flowing and sap running hard. That tank only had about 100 gal. from the weekend and marginal runs this week, so over 300 came in overnight but it was not running when I went to bed.
I know I have a couple leaks and now that everything is thawed I am hoping to get those fixed this am before adding more taps. Looks like I will be boiling again this evening.
I got a little over 6000 gallons today and the sugar is up to 1.8%. Kids and I checked all lines and fixed some leaks. Running 27 inches everywhere. Sap is still running 200 GPH at 6:00 PM. Slowing down fast though.
Spud
Ok so when do you no your ro isn't big enough any more?. The last two runs have averaged apprx 90-100gph. I think my 300gph ro isn't going to keep up if I get more sap then what I have been. I'm considering and upgrade next year to a 600 expandable. But is there some formula that tells you your to is going to be yo small?
That really sucks Spud. :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by spud
Seriously...that is great vacuum. Nice job.
Repaired several leaks yesterday and got the vac. back up to 27". Sap ran well until it started to cool off in the early afternoon. Pulled in over 800 gal. from about 600 taps at over 2%. Not bad for late Feb. If the season goes through March I am going to need some more barrels.
The systems in the sugarhouse are working very well. I got my new canner installed and is making life alot easier. Keep syrup at 200F off the evaporator, check density, add de and run it thru the filter press. No more propane and no more worrying about burning syrup.
Up to 20 gallons of GD. Great flavor.
Hey Guys, We're up here in Northern Vermont (Irasburg) and are contemplating tapping soon. We use only buckets so,
with this crazy weather, do you think it's too early for us to tap or are we missing out?
The kids were able to scan the whole woods in about 4 hours. It would have taking me two days. Sure glad the little saplings are on school vacation this week. Looks like Monday we might get some more.Quote:
Originally Posted by DrTimPerkins
General- Sounds like you're season is starting off well. I hope you do great.
Spud
Maybe you could rent them out.Quote:
Originally Posted by spud
That's funny, my buddy's 18 year old helped us last week while on vacation putting on new taps, drops, etc. I swear he flew from tree to tree, great to have his help. He is heading to Umaine in the fall for forestry so he loved the work. I told him to never get old, hope he follows through with it!
All tapped here in Thetford and looking to add a few more taps in the current bush. We put three in today and will tap a few small trees to death until we have a chance to cull them. We will leave the nicer trees alone until they are ready. We ended up with about 300 gallons of sap yesterday collected. We dumped about 50 gallons total from cleaning the lines out. Next week looks great for temps.
Good Luck,
Mike
First boil tomorrow at noon. Been tapped in at our small bush for 10 days and are finally boiling down everything we've collected tomorrow. Tried to boil Tuesday night but small hole in our back pans flue drain. Got Leader on the phone within 5 minutes of this realization. 12 hours later two guys from leader came down with their truck and we got some of our friends to help lift the back pan out and loaded it up. Then this morning they brought it back all repaired and ready to go. Couldn't ask for more in that situation. Very grateful.
@ Flat Rock -- we're backyard sugarers in Georgia, VT - Franklin County. We hung our 25 buckets Monday, collected 19-20 gallons on Thursday which is now 50oz of the good stuff as of yesterday. Trees were apparently ending a run on Monday as the drill bit was soaked - like drilling into an apple :)
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Sap sat go 4 days, started getting a tinge of yellow, to and arch wasnt together into Thursday night. Got ro running rinsed and tinned side of arch Friday afternoon insulated it set pans, plumbed and started boiling Friday night at 7:30. We made about ten gallons Friday and ten last night. Just a hair under fancy.
Sap coming in at 2.6/2.8
Upgraded ro doing ok taking 2.6 to 9.3 one pass still playing with vfd and hz . Tapping all gravity today.
Put heater on high Wednesday in little house with releaser warped all the PVC fittings can we say vac leaks, Leader Rutland saved my @%$#. Thank you Tom and staff!
The temp is supposed to climb all day long and into the night. By midnight we are going to be in the mid 40s. With all this wet sugar snow we got last night we could get a good size run tomorrow. Pumps are on and me and Sarah Lee are waiting.:)
Spud
Turned on the vacuum at 10am, finished all my taps today, including the 75 buckets. At 5pm 100 gal of 2% from the vacuum, gravity and buckets going good. Overnight and tomorrow should yield plenty to keep me busy late. Tues and Wed look slow.
**10pm update** 41.5, sap coming in at 20 gph, forecast for 40ish until evening tomorrow. After nightfall it will slowly drop after that. Should be a good run!
**UPDATE** Two day run yielded me 650 gallons.
Just froze up here. So pump is off for the night.
Sap started running at about 6:00am this morning. It was slow going all day long but I was able to get 4000 gallons. Wednesday might bring more sap but next week is looking good.
Spud
I tapped two weekends ago and checked leaks in the rain Thursday. We turned pump the vacuum on this morning at 0600. We collected about a gallon per tap but, man was my sugar low!! Looks like we will be quiet again until next week. This is my first good sap run in February and it took a leap year! ;)