Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

Made another 8 gal or so. All tanks are cleaned and washed.
Total for year approx. 30 right now

We made about 3 gallons today. I have another 2-3 of sweet (almost syrup) waiting to be reloaded once the pans are running with more sap. The RO really cuts down on boiling....wood use....work cutting and stacking more next year. I last checked the sap puller at about 7:30 tonight. 90 gallons gathered so far today.

Mike

I have enough sap right now to make about 200 to 250 gallons tommorow. That will double what i have made so far.

The flood gates are about ready to open down here. Sap started running at some point last night, despite the cold temps.

I will be very surprised if we get any sap today. Still below freezing with a stiff north wind and almost 1/4" of ice glaze coating everything. The forecast is certainly looking good starting tomorrow for the next week.

Had a small issue with the electric releaser yesterday. Because the tubing is so tight the pump starves for air and starts to cavitate, so I have been cracking a valve on the releaser canister to let in a little air. Because it was so cold yesterday, but the sap was running, the spray from the submersible pump was freezing up the vacuum inlet so I had to shut off vacuum to thaw it out with some hot condensate from the evap. Same thing happened again later as everything was freezing up.

This morning I T'd in a ball valve to the vacuum line between the pump and releaser to keep the incoming air closer to the pump and not in the releaser. Hopefully this homemade vac. regulator will work. Been running at about 27.5" generally.

Also working on moving wood around to get ready for lots of boiling this week. I have done a test boil with water for several hours, sweetened the pans, and made almost 40 gallons so far with just over one cord. I have about 5 cords left cut and stacked ready to go, a huge slab pile and about 15 cords in logs. Going to buck up the slabs and start on the logs during breaks in the action just to be sure I have enough wood for the season. I don't want to have sap to boil but no wood. Need to make every drop I can, even some commercial at the end.:)

Still waiting for it to run here, must be with all east facing slopes we need the morning sun? I thought for sure we would run Saturday, but 2 gallons just isn't worth the fire... So close yet so far away. Fingers crossed, doing the sap dance. All but bought the beer. LOL

Made my first 50 gals this morning. Big deal. Is this season ever going to start

Boiled over 4,000 gallons on Sunday from Friday/Saturday runs. Have three barrels done, no more goose egg. Tuesday should change all our fortunes.

Made 150 gallons tonight with releasers failing all day. Still cold.

I had run the sap puller nearly 24 hrs a day between Thursday and Sunday morning when I emptied it. Had nearly 400 gallons of sap. Ran it Sunday and Sunday night. I left it running over night because it was warm, at least about 9pm. When I woke up Monday I could hear the wind and saw ice in the driveway. Upon checking on the sap puller I found 125 gallons of sap gathered. I turned the unit off to give it a break along with the generator. It did not seem to warm up at all, but I found 165 gallons in the tank at about 8pm on Monday. I guess I should have turned it back on. The weather looks great for the rest of the week. Good Luck. Mike