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I've been wiffle waffling for the past few days, ever since they said the weather was going to freeze nights again. I expected the temps at night to moderate, but this morning, they still have 5 nights of freezing forecasted. Last night wasn't a hard freeze though, -1. I think it pretty much took all night before it froze. Lake Erie goes against us sometimes I think.
I had finished off what was in the pans on Thursday. I didn't know if I wanted to start up again. I have some wood left. Dad's all gung-ho to do some more. I rebored some of the buckets on Monday the 30th of March. We dumped out the rain and old sap in the morning. I checked them around 8 last night and they had around an inch and a half in a 20 L pail. Some of them only a few drops. I rebored the buckets by the shanty and the 40 taps out at the front of the bush and they put 2.5 inches in the same pail in 4 hours.
I bleached the main lines yesterday morning. I got 3 of the 10 mainlines rebored. I'll do some more today. Hopefully I'll get enough out of this now. I know 2 years ago I rebored and got more syrup in April, than I did in March.
I don't like making syrup too far into April because then I get behind in all my farm work. (vegetables)
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Hi Argohauler
I hope it doesn't go buddy on you before you get what you want.
We also have an Argo 8x8 magnum about the same age as yours but we don't use it for sap .... yet.
what tank did you put in and how did you mount it ?
any chance you have picture of it.
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Dumped 40 gals of sap this morning - left over from Monday - weather all week was no good for boiling (outside) and by this morning it was well past usable. No flows during the week til yesterday afternoon, then the trees all opened up. A quick walk around this morning it looks like I have 40 gals at least sitting in the buckets to collect tonight and forecast for the weekend is for -5 nights and +5 days - so looking forward to at least another few runs. Will see how it turns out.
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Going haaaard today. Ran one tank over, had to turn some other vacuum systems off until we caught up a bit. We'll be leaving sap in the sugar camp overnight because there's too much to boil today. Sugar content has dropped below 2%, which is normal for late in the season. Colour has come back a bit but would like to get more light stuff for retail but it`s not that critical. Bulk prices are the same for extra-light or amber so it really doesn`t matter much.
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Well I think I just wasted my time reboaring. Ice came out of the lines, but I only had little trickles. The buckets hardly dripped. The really good trees hardly produced. Me thinks I'm done. Now it's not supposed to freeze here tonight. I think I'll start pulling tomorrow. Took a tour around the bush, scoping out wood to cut and trees that should be removed. Got some firewood cut for next year.
Brent: The tank is made by Raven I believe. It's 100 US gal, 8" hole with lid and a strainer. It has a 1 inch drain. The people I got it from, put a hopper on top, which is good for transporting your gathering pails. It fits in just perfect widthways. It's not quite as long as the length of the back of the argo. I put a chunk of plywood on the back argo tray. Then I had some chunks of 2X4 and 6 to put on top of the plywood. That gets the drain up away from the centre of the argo where it comes in at the bottom, where the indent is on your argo tray. I then put a couple hunks of wood between the end of the tank and the back of the argo so it doesn't shift.
I use a 3/4 hp submersible with 1.5" hose to pump it out. Takes 5 mins to empty. How muddy is your bush. Our bush is a swamp, hence why I use an argo, BUT if you're travelling through many waterholes, you'll need to grease those seals every couple days if you can get the time. An argo won't chew out your trails as bad as a tractor or 4 wheeler. I'll try to find a picture to scan in.
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Great runs here the past few days at last. Sap not as sweet, I can't test
it, but we get about 4 litres syrup from each 45 gal. drum of sap. Looks
good again today, hard freeze and sun is bright already.
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ennismaple/Valleylad, did you get enough drums from Atkinson's? Looks like you could make a ton of syrup with your forecast. Are Atkinson's buying bulk syrup? I'll be taking my dark syrup, when I finished off the pans, to Jakeman's. Last year it paid for my supplies with a little left over.
cramadog2
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Hello, This is my fist year making maple syrup and I'm HOOKED!! I've just done 7 tree's and I'm boiling on the BBQ in a steam table table pan. (not very cost efficient but a start) I had pulled the buckets a week and a half ago but seen the forecast so I put the pails back up on Wednesday and the sap is running awesome. So I was wondering when do you know it's time to stop? I'm in Perth county Stratford area. Of course for next year I'm going to build an evaporator as I have the bug!! This site has a wealth of knowledge. THANKS
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gunnergo4th
I'm sorry to hear the bad news. This is a horrible addition. And it hits at a time of the year where there really isn't much else going on, so it gets worse and worse.
"HE" will tell you when it's over.
The pronoucement comes gradually
The buds in the trees start to swell. Pull some down that you can reach. If they are small and dry keep going. When they swell and are moist and sticky inside, the end is near.
The sap will start to get a little cloudy
The sugar content will go down and you'll boil a lot longer to get less and less.
The syrup you make will get darker
In the very last stages you will start to detect a smell in the steam vapour that indicate the sap is going buddy. Then it will be over real fast.
Start to try to keep your batches small later in the season. You don't want to ruin some nearly finished good stuff with the 'buddy' foul stuff. This also means you should be keeping your sap collection segregated and use it in sequence.
You might want to trip up to visit Dick Obrien aka "Uncle Richard"
http://www.unclerichardsmaplesyrup.com/
He's a bit east of Hanover. He has a great little shop for all stuff maple and knows whereof he speaks ... he has over 3000 taps and has been at it a lot of years.
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Thanks Brent, This a perfect usage of time between winter huntin and trapping and spring turkey. It's pretty hard to check the buds as the maples are over hundred years old but the buds have got bigger. The sap is as clear as water with the odd fly in it. As for the buddy smell or taste is it very obvious or is an experience thing? Just one more hobby (addiction) to fill in time!!