January Journal

Today was a cold windy day but had alot of fun aside from that. Got the sleds out and went trail riding with my daughter in the morning then ran a 400foot mainline in one sugarbush. Just need to side tie and put in the laterals. Excited about this, will get me 150-200 taps on vac and is in a section that I could not get the tractor in so it was always a long haul carrying sap back to the gathering tank. Best running trees I have as well. So at this point Im thinking I will put out 800 taps 600 on buckets 200 on vac. Possible I might just drop to 500 on buckets and start a mainline in another section and just start it with 100 on gravity but next year I can expand that alot and run vac there as well. I have a personal deal that I dont spend anymore many than I made the previous years syrup sales so I never have any out of pocket expenses so if that cash box doesnt run out I will get that section going. Funny how we think or atleast I do. Adding taps with tubing but I still have to put out all my buckets. Plenty of trees to hang them. I think If this year is any good I might be a little overwhelmed but overwhelmed is how I like it. Times running out.

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Originally Posted by jrthe3

hey any of you guys useing CVs if you want to sell some of your old ones from last year let me know

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I'm using them again.I had about 150 left from last year, but am using them this year, along with 400 of the "new and improved version". I was on gravity last year and don't think they helped. This year I am using them only on my vacuum bush.

I got a similar SS sink, counter unit. The sink is one std bowl and one shaped with a 20-25 degree tilt towards the other and a opening into the other. I have no idea why it's shaped this way. The overall length is about just over 11 feet. I'll be installing it in my addition/kitchen/with ro room when I build it. I got it included in the package deal when I bought my 3x8 grimm evaporator with one season's use on it for $4500 a few years back.

Things are coming together for maple season. The RO room is built and mostly done. Big thing left to do is plumb the RO. The LR pump is plumbed and its enclosure is mostly built. Should have that wrapped up and on-site this weekend. I'll also get the releaser plumbed and test the pump out. Bill's working on my new hood w/ preheater and it should be done soon. It's looking I'll be ready to go Feb. 1st. The next two weekends are busy with maple seminars in Middlebury and Bellows Falls and the NHMPA annual meeting.

We got all our tubing finished on the weekend. All the laterals are done, droplines cut in and saddle manifolds installed. All 4,000 taps have now been switched over to semi-rigid! No more old green and purple PVC tubing for us anymore!!! Blue semi-rigid looks so pretty against new snow...

Had to fix 4 sections of mainline where limbs took the line down. The beauty of the 1/4" guy steel we use is it never breaks. It pulls out of the end tree or a drive hook on a side tie first. All we had to do was cut off the limb, re-tension and side tie and we're back in business.

We also got half our main bush converted over to stubbies so we can use CV's this year. We cut off old 5/16" spouts and added stubbies to 625+ taps and culled an additional 110 taps from trees that had 3 or 4 taps each (about a 15% reduction in taps). The goal is to have no more than 2 taps per tree by the time we've got only stubbies out in the bush. We went with the rule of thumb that if you can get your arms around it it only gets 1 tap. That works out to roughly a 24" dia tree before we use a 2nd tap. Hopefully, this pays off in the long run - when my grandchildren are tapping the same trees.

no we rent and the landlord switched insurance companys and the inspector found the sugar house in the garage and has made us remove it

That blows.

Sorry peace maker that does blow.

Finally got all the tubing redone. all the T's are replaced most laterals are 5 taps or less still have one with 7 and 1 with a bunch on it but that one runs behind the house and I aint puttin up bucket there I will still get more sap from vac on those.

Still need to put in 3 more saddles and finish putting about 125 or so more drops. and that project will be done. lost a few taps (ash thought they were red maples oops!!) and lost a few to the wind storm. Also picked up a few more that I didn't get last year. so hopefully even out.

I'll finish those up tomorrow, and should be able to finish my star sap ladder and get my 2 pipe ladder at least hung up. we'll see. Gettin there times runnin out!!! :)

The Evaporator is in the new sugar shack. The standard door is hung and the sliding door is built, picking up the rail for that tomorrow. Ordered the roof jack today...should be here next week. That should mean ill be ready for a test boil by the first week in february. Still need to plumb the head tank in but other than that I think ill have it all ready for when its time to tap. Fingers crossed:D Ill have 250 taps this year unless I feel the need to string more tubing haha

sunday afternoon i ran to the city/lowes and picked up some pipe and fittings and tonight i,ve been out in the sugarhouse plumbing the head tank.
i,ve desided to use whats called a thur hull fitting to drain my head tank..there used on boats.it won,t drain the tank 100% but it,ll be close enough.

delbert

We're working on trails. They are really nice now. The season could be within a month and a half if it warms up like it did last year. We'll see... It has been a pretty nice winter so far. Not much snow here, and not much cold yet either. We have some on the ground, but there are lots of bare patches too. I think Wednesday's storm may take care of that.

Got another 2000 feet of wire and mainline up in Hill,,Starting to stress a littel about being ready!!!

Well the 2x6 is stripped down to angle and tin. Taking it over to GaryR';s this weekend and re-doing everything in Stainless.Vacuumed out the sand and numbered the brick,took pictures so as to know were everything went at a later time. Every thing in remakable shape for as hard a we fire with forced draft! No holes or thin places in the arch just a little rust outside. Should last until we upgrade at some point.

Jim

I'm in the best shape I've been since 2003. Should have new branch lines finished before 2/1 and all of the added laterals. Still need to make a motor mount to put the snow blower motor on the vacuum pump. Then a little plumbing to complete. I also need to do a few days work at the sugarhouse. Need to finish solar connections as well as clean it to be ready. I also need to re-arrange things for bottling. I bought a second canner so I can finish and have up to 30 gal hot at one time to pack some 30 gal bbls for the first time. I'll also have some 5's, SS rebuilt soda kegs. I have a welder friend reworking then by making SS tops with a 2" and a 3/4" bung and SS weld it to the keg top. I'll have 20 of those. The original fittings will be welded shut.
I'm thinking I want to have over 300 gal SS syrup storage, We'll see if I get there. Really what I want is to use my last bbl as I pack the last of the season, but I can't see the future clearly enough. I figure a banner year this season with vac on 550 and hopefully another 350 gravity would be about 400 gal, but I will not predict it by any means.
I think I just found another sugarbush for 2012. The owner says they have 89 acres with some steep hills, some gentle slope and some nearly flat. We are going to set a walk around this summer to explore and dream. This bush is about 10 miles from my sugarhouse. Then I'll need a bigger haul truck for sure.

Been busy the last week and a half, cleaned up the syrup shed and made some order in there, it got so cluttered since last spring. Made up 500 drop lines and mounted a sp-11 vac pump to a base with a new electric motor. Today since the weather was in the mid 20's i went and strung out 4 rolls of laterals. I also fired up the old john deere 420 crawler that i bought last summer and plowed some trails to get good at doing that job with it. Very happy with it. Also made a sap trailer to pull behind it. Cleaned out the bottling room, I think i will be the most ready that i ever was? Thursday I will go and put the drop lines on the new laterals i put out today. Winter is going by fast!

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Originally Posted by twobears1224

sunday afternoon i ran to the city/lowes and picked up some pipe and fittings and tonight i,ve been out in the sugarhouse plumbing the head tank.
i,ve desided to use whats called a thur hull fitting to drain my head tank..there used on boats.it won,t drain the tank 100% but it,ll be close enough.

delbert

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Hey Twobears,

I couldn't find a bulkhead fitting (thru wall) at Lowe's for my collection tank so I had to go to Grainger. It's no big deal, but I have to order things there because they don't keep a lot in stock - or at least the stuff I've been looking for - and have to make two trips. Where in the store did you find it. I scoured the PVC section.

Sean

opp's sorry about that sean.i got the thur hull fitting from a marine store right acrossed the road from the lowes store.. it,s called west marine.do a web search for them..you might have one close by.
i have my tank all plumbed.i used the thur hull fitting for the drain and line going to my preheater it worked great.on the feed line to the tank i used a slip to thred 3/4 inch male fitting.i took a 1 inch spade bit and drilled a hole thur the tank then screwed the fitting it..they thred right in.i then took a female tread/slip fitting and screwed it on the other fitting.for the overflow line i took a 1 1/4 inch hole saw and drilled a hole thur the tank then i took my dermal tool and sanded the hole just enough to get a 1 inch slip/female fitting into it.i then used pvc glue to glue it in..it seemed to work good.
i,ll take some pic,s tomorrow and post them..it got dark before i could get pic,s

delbert

That's alright. I'd be mad at myself if was right under my nose and missed it.

I used PVC glue last year when I toyed with the idea of a testing cup made out of PVC. It came out alright and it withstood the heat of boiling water fine, but after multiple rinses, I couldn't shake the glue smell. In the end I just wasn't comfortable enough with it, so I opted to go with a stainless thermos I forgot I had. I came across it this past summer and there was no trace of the smell.

I know PVC is used a ton for maple stuff. Is the adhesive smell not an issue because it's on the sap end of things?

Sean

My Mason finisher/canner arrived today! Getting ready to go out tomorrow and hook it all up in the shack. Should have the day off due to school being closed from the storm - yahoo. Who says kids are the only people who love snowdays??? Can't wait to play in the shack and then go for a snowshoe and/or cross country ski!

Anyway, the finisher is very, very nice. It's a 16x20 and should do the job nicely this season. Hoping for some nice runs so I can break it in!

Enjoy the snow fellow northeasters!

Keith

Calling for 2 to 4 inches here tonight maybe another inch tomorrow. Its snowing hard now but will see what it looks like in the morning. Had the lights and heater on in the new sugar shack tonight, it was nice to be inside and see the snow falling outside. Can't wait to fire up the evaporator. Planning to brick it tomorrow, and tackle the roof jack sometime next week.

Talked to the electrician tonight and I can get him to wire in the AOF blower when I get it. Will put in a dimmer and mount the controls next to the air under fire blower switch. (Nice to have a 20 year old grandson that is an electrican:))
Not much maple happening.
Except thinking about those guys in KY making syrup! Weather will be up here before we know it and every one will be busy.

Jim Brown,
Better get going on that arch rebuild, or Gary may have to boil all your sap!
Don't forget to post some pictures too.

Regards,
Chris

Close to a foot of snow has fallen here since like 1:00 am. And it is only 7 o clock. I think we are going to get pounded today. We were way over due. Our area has been dodging bullets all winter. Oh well. Heading up into the woods to run lats. and drops, and to get wet.

Chris; I have some pic's of the naked 2x6 just angles and tin! looking forward to getting it re-tinned with S/S. GaryR was over Monday evening and said should not be a problem. He has a brake(he made) and a plasma cutter. Should put a lot of life in it as well ' I'll see you at the meeting and let you know how we made out!

Jim

Snowing like mad here. We're supposed to get 6-9 inches, with more on the coast. We haven't had much snow here, so this is okay by me. I went up to check the sugarhouse and we probably have a couple of inches already. Gave me a chance to use the 4 wheel drive. Nice. If I'm going to be guzzling gas I may as well have 4wd. My little truck got totaled last Thursday, and I'm in a Jeep Cherokee borrowed from my father.

We got 2' of snow dumped in the woods today. So much that the S185 bobcat with a regular bucket had a hard time with all the snow so I only used it on the blacktop. Then I got to break out the JD450. No amount of snow can stop that. Hopefully some of this will melt so I can get into the woods and hang tubing.

We only got about 8-10", real fluffy. Should settle in a day or 2. You guys farther east sure got hit harder and you can't handle it like we can. We have locations within 50 miles of here that can get 24-36" lake effect and 12 hrs later they have everything opened up and might even get hit like that again. I'm glad we don't get hit like that only rarely.

we got 17" here in central NH. not much maple today except bought another honda wx15 transfer pump off craigslist. give me some BIGSAP to pump...

what a day..i,am wore out.i have two sick parents i,ve been babysitting today (tummy bug) plus,i,ve been on the go all day long in this crappy weather.i drove a school bus and i guess we can,t have snow days anymore..we just go nomatter the weather.
the roads where total crap today from 4pm to 8 pm i saw two tractor trailers go by the house on the hook..both smashed up.
the only good thing about today was a good report from my doctor and a package from the maple guys came today.i bought some fittings from them.

delbert

Also ended up with 17 inches of snow here. It just got that much harder to work in the woods.

Not much maple today only got 4 maybe 5 inches from the storm. Really windy all day, got everything plowed out easily but it just blows back in, owell it was fun too plow some snow again. Picked up some of the tools laying around the sugar house. Hoping to get into the woods tomorrow to cut some brush but will see how the weather is. Waiting on the roof jack now. Once that is here the evap will be ready to go. I can't wait to fire it up for the first time.

Hope everyone is ok from the truck getting smashed up Revi....Them cherokees are a great ride and easy on the gas if it's a 4 cylinder. 4x4 is not a bad thing here in Maine.

You can imagine the swearing here as I just found out I'm gone 2 weeks in feb and 2 weeks in march for work (ok, one week is down south for pleasure)... add in the week in Jan I already knew about and it looks like my season isn't going to amount to much..... still needed to finish shack addition and run a new mainline... not sure it's worth the investment if I'm going to miss at least 2 good weeks of the season.

First year I finally had enough wood ready ahead of time.....

Father in law would be happy to boil... but there is no way he's going to cross the swamp and do the collecting.

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Originally Posted by Revi

We're working on trails. They are really nice now. The season could be within a month and a half if it warms up like it did last year. We'll see... It has been a pretty nice winter so far. Not much snow here, and not much cold yet either. We have some on the ground, but there are lots of bare patches too. I think Wednesday's storm may take care of that.

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That's amazing and a lot like last winter. I am probably 1,000 miles south of you and all it has done is snow here for 6 weeks and snowed the majority of the days in 6 weeks. Last year we got close to 150" of snow in 2.5 months and it was not the fluffy lake effect snow like they get north of us, it was the real nice stuff that you wouldn't blow with a blower.

Brandon- How much longer till you guys down there start tapping? I think were on schedule here at Pierce and Sons. Ive been working steady in the woods and lucky for me I have a great Dad thats done a lot to help me in the sugarhouse. He closed it all in and it really turned out nice. Were going to be out of the weather after all. Still a list but its getting to be easier stuff. Got our first batch of oil and should be firing up the evaperator in a week or two. Should be done in the woods in next two weeks hopefully to where Im ready to just put out releasers and tanks and things. Going to end up with a new 400 tap bush on an sp 22 but lucky for me the neighbor is going to let me run it off his electric. Booy bush is still going to have a gas pump so that will be the only taps on gas, about 400 there too. Just about have my neighbors 1250 done and then only thing down there is hook up the ring pump and releaser. So I think things are going to be done on time and done pretty well but have had to work pretty steady to get there. Im really looking foreward to boiling this year for the first time. I think Im going to make some pretty great syrup. Now I dont have to recirculate very much at all and not at all if I dont want too. I think what Ill do is if Im around during the day Ill put both RO's on recirc and I should be able to get rid of a thousand gallons of water an hour. I think Ill do that a couple hours and just bring the sugar up just a scosh and then when Im ready to start boiling Im going to just send both RO's to the head tank, set the concentrate to match the rig and go. Im not going to even fill the headtank or nothing. Should be nice clear stuff for sap and it will be in the barrell almost instantaneaously. Id say if I get rid of a couple thousand gallons of water out of six Ill probly be able to do a 55 gallon drum of syrup an hour. Have to be on my toes with the filter press, no goofin around. Cant wait for season. With all the new stuff everyone is doing its going to be a fun one. Theron

nice to finally get some snow out here, got about 2' of powder. just got in from plowing my sap roads and clearing off my tanks. still got to run some more lats on a new bush down the street, looking at 100+ taps there. can't wait to tap:D

I just got in from plowing my sugarhouse out, about 12", all light stuff. Would be good to have a plow truck, I've been using my old excavator that only goes 1.1 mph, a slow push when the sugarhouse is about 400 off the road and the parking extends another 120' past there. Someday I'll get a plow truck again.

18 hours of plowing roads yesterday and all people stopped me for was to tell me the roads arnt wide enough well thats what happens when you get 20 inches of snow.This weekend going to start and hopefully finish the arch

Got the head tank set today. The smoke stack is in along with the roof jack and rain collar. Pans are on the arch. All thats left to do is plumb in the head tank and I'll be ready to boil. Moved the rest on the sap buckets up today as well as the other collection tanks. I think...and I may regret saying this...I'll be ready by go time this year.

Ooooh, bought the sugarhouse a be-lated Christmas present. A new Double Bernard mechanical releaser. No more dubbi'n around trying to make a home made releaser! Need to buzz up to Swanton to pick it up and look around....maybe something else up there that I may need.;)

I know I have not been on much in some time and making syrup this year is going to be a real bust sence I have not a thing ready at all! No wood, evaporator or any thing close to working. But can someone tell me were the used equipment section went? I was hopeing that something close by would fall in my lap by looking in here today and was amazed that I can't find it????