WOW Farmboy you do know its febuary and its days before go time.
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WOW Farmboy you do know its febuary and its days before go time.
He is in pretty good shape compared to some of us :)
made some nice head room in the new sugar house today found 1300 of storage tanks
the plan is to set the previous owners 2x5 flue pan on a 2x5 arch raw sap will come in to it the out of that into my 2x6 into the finisher then threw the filter press and into the caner
next is to make room for the 6 cord of wood that needs to be run from my old sh to the new one =clean the area out
then next week in the woods tap count looks like between 600 and 700
peace glad to hear you found a new home. I didn't realize there was another shack on chapel hill except the leaky bucket boys
welt today was the day. im Offically a new business owner:)
Been putting laterals and drops on a new line for the past several days. Bush is about a mile into the woods and because of snow, only access is with the horses. We are spending a couple hours a day just in travel. We thought about taking our lunch with us but the rest/warm up time would be sorely missed. Snow is about 30 inches deep and makes for slow going. Good news is I had hoped for about 600 on this line and it looks like it may reach 800. Bad news is that we have to slog through the snow for those additional taps. Been taking Ibuprofen to help these old legs. Six degrees here this AM. Hoping that tapping will not be necessary before the first of March and we have enough thaw first to make the going a bit easier. Half my laterals are under snow now as well as a significant portion of mainline. Depending on final count on this new line, I should have about 4200 on vacuum this year. Keep Sugarin:)!
well it use to be closer to the road but when the bi pass came they paid to move there house and sh ... so if u are coming down chapel its on the left just before u go under the bipass
Congratulations!!!!!! Watched the special they had on TV with you, I think I saw it on youtube. Very impressive!!! Keep up the good work, keep reaching for your goals.:)Quote:
Originally Posted by CaseysSugarHouse
Today i shoveled out all the storage tanks so next weeks warmer weather will hit the bare metal and aid in getting the rest of the snow off of them. Put 25 taps on one lateral comeing down a big ridge also, I want to see how much natural vac i get on that line, I have people that doubt it, so we will see how much production comes out of that line. I will put a 50 gal. container at the end so it will be easy to gauge the flow day to day. All new line, drops and taps, about 200 feet of line i would guess. Will be like a mini Proctor test comeing down that hill. Going to bulldoze all the trails on Monday so i can benefit from the warmer weather on the trails also to help melt away some of the snow. Following weekend is wash weekend for us and assemble the evap. Time is flying by fast.
I'll be assembling the connections to the bulk tank after clearing lots of snow from around my main tank. Then I plan to build my sap ladders and attach my saddles connecting my lats to the branch lines where I added. I still have a few more lats to run in one section. I also want to start plumbing in my vacuum pump to the Zero tank. Lots to do, will be busy old man. I bet I'll sleep good tomorrow night (well, come to think of it I always sleep good) It's almost go time, I can plan on burning the midnight oil soon.
well we got the platform built for my permeate tank today, ran line from tank into sugarhouse. started the vaccum shed.busy day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! opened up the last 5 gal. keg of syrup. just as nice as when it went in, hate to bring it to bascoms tommorow but oh well trade it in for some parts.. probly shoulda called sugar joe instead of goin to bascoms. its gettin close to go time im gettin real nervous :o
heading in the woods in the morning to get alot of stuff done putting in 16 valves,lifter line booster that has to be 20ft in the air Yippie get to do that tomorow get the lines all hooked up to the booster. and then into my lifter which i hope to get all plumbed in sunday. and get my lifter bush ready to tap. then off the the next sugarbush to cut trees off my mainlines. got a good 2 days of work on my 1000 tap bush and that should be ready to be tapped. I plan to tap my newest tubing first and oldest last. lots and lots of work to do and a short period of time. TIME TO KICK IT IN HIGH GEAR!!!!!!
NATE
Tomarrow I will be shoveling out mainlines, sunday I will be shoveling out the laterals, monday I will be shoveling out the drops, Tuesday I will start shoveling out the bucket trees, wednesday ahhh never mind. Guess what I have in the forecast this weekend? Bet nobody can figure it out.
Got mt home made roof jack in place today. I need to cut the mettal roofing and put it back up tommorow. I finished retinning my evaporator friday. After I finish the roof jack the evaporator is going in the sugar shack. Then I need to brick it. I dont think the bricks are going to get cemented in this year because im going to take the evaporator out after the season to pour concrete. My dads buddy is coming over to look at my pans sunday so he can figure out what parts he needs then hes going to weld thermometer ports on it monday or tuesday. I worked on making one sap pump out of the 2 I have but there just not working and I dont have the time. Looks like Im going to go to tractor supply tomorrow and get a new pump and a tank for my neibors bush. Hopefully I will be ready to tap wednesday and boil by saturday.
Fired up the arch with water yesterday and tried out the preheater tank. Seemed to work pretty good, but the steam hood idea didn't work out to well. The steam just rolled around the outside. Oh well, maybe some modification will help. We opened all the trails with the snowblower, but it is going to be a lot of work to get to the trees with all the snow on the ground. I am going to wait until next weekend and see what the weather looks like. The temps look warm for a few days, but not the freeze thaw that the book says is best.
I am amazed with waht those darn tree rats will chew on! The other day when I tapped my trees that are on tubing I found alot of chew marks on the stubbies at the end of the drops. They were not all the way thru but they have to be close. It looks like I will have to start controlling the tree rat population soon!;)
Walked the woods today making paths so I can get the tubeing up tomorrow and Tuesday. The snow was waist deep in some spots 8-O .Cleaned out a bunch of buckets and the storage tank. It's go time!!:D
I only have Leader and Lapierre health spouts in the woods and amazing how many of them have been chewed on by the squirrels.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dennis H.
150 taps in today - we've started. Got some mailine work to do tomorrow after finding a section down this afternoon.
Scary incident last night. While out riding snowmobiles with my buddies last night, about midnight, the guy who was leading took what looked to be 185-200lb. deer right in the chest at 65 mph. Amazingly, he walked away from it. His snowmobile did not fare so well. After he got up, he took out his buck, walked out to the deer who had sustained bad injuries and put her down. Very sureal night. Nothing good happens after midnight.
Glad your bud is OK there Danno, that had to suck.
All trees on tubing are tapped, only about 20 taps left to put out on buckets.
Sap started running good about 4 this afternoon, had a high of 46 today. Tonight is only supposed to flirt with freezing, mid to upper 30’s tomorrow. Expecting a good run.
Everything is ready to go, cleaned out, set up, repaired, checked out and ready to rock…
Bring on the sap!!
Evaporator is clean, 200 of my planned 300 taps in, tanks set and cleaned. Little bit fof sap ran today but not much. Made it to 46 degres today. Hopfully we will have syrup by wednesday night if the forcast stays the way it is right now.
Got the home made roof Jack done today. I also dug out my milk tank. My dads buddy came over and looked at my evaporator pans and took the plug from my bulk tank so he could drill it out and weld a 1" female NPT fitting on it. Milk tank threads are a pain in the ***. On saturday he's welding thermometer ports on my pan. I got a stock tank for my neibors woods and ordered a pump from tractor supply company today. Tommorow I'm moving my arch into the sugar shack and I'll start to brick it. The seasons almost here.
Hopefully I'll tap this week and can boil by Sunday. Nothing like last minute.
This sucks its 50 degs sunny and the sap must be running like mad and I'm stuck inside not tapping.
I've been considering changing my name to Last minute maple, but I think you have me beat this year.
It was warm here high of 41 again with rain up to 2pm. I was thankful to see that. Lost alot of snow today and over the weekend. Betting 2 feet melted. Did some changes on the milk can releaser and let her run all day. Works rather well and did not have a problem. She will be all plumbed in couple days sitting on the tank and vac pump connected. Then cobb up a roof over it all and then drill some holes, then give head tank a rinse and boil some water to get the dust out of the evaporator. Will be online by midweek, just in time for the next cold spell and snow storm. Man this maple stuff is alot of work.
I just sent 20 gallons of sap down the drain....... It is still drizzling in. I blew it I should have tested the sweetness. Dang it. Anyway, I have about 2700 more to tap and some more work on the conductor line and manifolds and I am ready. Its coming quick.
One of the 1st great days for sap to run and the power company decides that they need to shut off the power for like 5 hrs to replace some kind of surge protector. Right in the best part of the day, 11am till 4pm. Man that sucks I am wondering what kind of sap I missed.
But the buckets are doing good though. They would do better if the darn wind would stop.
I know we need to check everything before we start Thad, but the drains???:lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad Blaisdell
have not tapped yet still way to much snow in the woods i got a little to finish up in the sugar house hook up the new preheater and hang the new steam hood over the front pan hope to test run the releaser tomorow wash everything up and be ready to go
We have 6 inches in places where it hasnt melted yet. Everywhere else around my area has no snow at all. Got 200 gallons sunday from 150 taps. Hoping to start evaporating wednesday.
Well got my 5 taps in on Sunday, 3 gallons collected so far. Going be a cold windy night but warm up nice the rest of the week. Going to tap 3 more trees on the weekend. This is only my second year of doing this but friends are already asking to come down the shore for the boiling. I think they just want to stand around an open fire, drink beer, eat some clams and goof off.
2010 2 trees 8oz
2011 goal is 8 trees and a half gallon.
Put up tubing in my niebors yard today. That added another 35 taps. If I get my tanks clean tommorow I will probably tap all my tubing if Daylight permits. When it gets dark I will set up some spotlights in the sugarshack and brick my evaporator. Made some more progress. This will be the second year in a row I've tapped before my evaporator is finished. Next year I'm going to try to be more prepared. My pump shipped today and it should be in this weekend.
Quite buying new evaporators every year and you will be ahead next season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Farmboy
I won't have another one for several more years unless I expand over 600 plus taps. And my sugar shack couldn't hold much more than a 8' evaporator but I could squeeze a 3X10' in there if I really needed to. The 2.5X8' should be pleanty for a few seasons.
Tapping tomorow all day and equipment set up:)
600 thats a 2x6 amount of taps.LOL Im at 800 with mine and theres no looking back now or rest for that matter.Quote:
Originally Posted by Farmboy
i,am still at it but,it,s looking like i,ll just have to sell sap this year.i have so much to do i,am begining to doubt i,ll have my arch,ect all setup and be fully ready to boil.
i think i,ll just tap as many as i can and sell the sap to my dad.he has 1500 taps now and a 5x14 evap that boils really well so he can use the sap.he,s retired and needs something to keep him busy anyhow :D
delbert
Boiled some sap last night. Looks like a great run over the next few days. I've sold 5 of my backyarder pans in the last 4 days.
I tapped today. I put in 90-100 in today. I still have 35 on tubing to put in and q few dozen buckets. I moved my evaporator moved into the sugar shack. Tommorrow I'm going to get the rest of my tanks out of the trailer box and finish tapping tubing. I need to brick my evaporator too. But I can't boil till saturday afternoon so I will probably tap before I brick the evaporator. Buckets can wait till sunday or Monday unless I have time before then.
Well it was a good day down here in PA. Nice weather and the trees were running like crazy.
I had a really nice peaceful evening boiling on the new evap. It was nice to not have a blower running in the background.
With this evap I have so much free time between firings that I am already looking at ways to improve it!
I want to make a new door for it, basicaly an air tight door. Also I will have a hood and preheater next year.
I tapped about 120 before the sun went down, slow going with about 18" of snow on the ground sure am glad I had snow shoes. Trees were running slow I turned the vacuum pump on for a little bit to check it and make sure everything was running. The releaser dumped a couple of times but it wasn't running real hard. Today should be better I think the trees were still thawing.