When the trader was upgraded the classifieds no longer woork so they created a temporary clasiffieds section. http://mapletrader.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=74Quote:
Originally Posted by gator330
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When the trader was upgraded the classifieds no longer woork so they created a temporary clasiffieds section. http://mapletrader.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=74Quote:
Originally Posted by gator330
The head tank is now connected to the evap. all I need now is Sap. Feels good to have everything hooked up and ready to go.
not maple related but it will have a trickle down effect- had the planetary drive/final drive on my feller-buncher fail today. probably a $5k fix. ouch.
no anything here...i,ve been in bed with the flu bug..figures,i get a three day weekend and i get sick.
delbert
Eric,
Want to borrow my extra team? One harness needs a backstrap repaired, probably a $7.50 fix.
That is tough luck. One of the times that reminds you that you didn't realize how good things had been going until something bad happens.
Doug
The bigger you are the more $ it takes. Some days you look at the guy with the simple 40 hour a week job and say "man is that the way to go no headaches"
Man you guys are so right. It amazes me at all the people who work their 40 hrs a week and all I hear them do is whine and while they sit there reading the paper and getting paid for it I get comments man you got a sweet deal setup and the whole time in back of my mind Im thinking wrong. Grass is always greener on the other side till you get there. LOL
Delbert felt your pain this past week came down with the crap on my bday and was torn between which room I wanted to be in more the bedroom or bathroom. Awful stuff after the bathroom visits where over I slept for 36 hours. Think I woke up once and checked the trader though.
Theron,
I would guess I am about 2 to 4 weeks until I start tapping. Anything from Feb 1 forward is fair game. I usually stage tap which is I tap the biggest south bush first(40% of taps), then 1 to 2 weeks later, the other south bush(20% of taps) and then 1 to 2 weeks later, the north bush which has about 40% of my taps on it. This kinda helps stretch out the season, work out all the bugs and the north side stays really cold and runs great, but doesn't do much early due to snow pack and frozen ground.
Getting there. thankfully I got all my tubing 95% done before we got 18" of snow on wed. I still have to put in 1 ball valve and finish up my star sap ladder for a branch of about 40 taps.
Today I got the upper line to the sugar house tied on and installed the 2 pipe sap ladder. it went up easy!!! kinda just had to cut and paste it in I bought it from amber gold!!!! thanks again josh it saved me a bunch of time!!! I just have to switch out the one ball valve for a 90* elbow I took your advise and put the intake to the center apposed to in line.
tomorrow I can finish that up then start on replumbing the vac line to the releaser. that shouldn't take long. then re plumb my head tank into the float box with a separate small line into the syrup pan for that "just in case moment we have all had". and then replumb my sap pump and see if I can find a float valve so I don't have to worry about it running down.
Brandon- I think Im going to tap around the same time as you. I normally start in January but Im not ready this year and it looks like its going to be cold like a real winter here so I think its going to work out good. Ive just got to be ready 100% by the third week in Feb. Thats when it really starts to go here depending on weather. I got my last sugarbush hooked up today and its looking like Ill have my lines pretty good shape by the end of next weekend Im hoping. Getting close. Theron
Looks like cold in the long range forecast through end of January. Good for me to clean up any last minute jobs. Got my permeate tanks set and plumbed yesterday, pans taken off, flues brushed, arch regasketed and pans set back. Rig leveled and floats put in place. Added another 50 taps or so and repaired a couple lines that needed some help. Looking good so far.
Picked up ceramic blanket and firebrick today. now its time to get busy on finishing ALL of the projects left before tapping.
heading up to the sugar camp in the maine wilderness this week. had 900 taps for my first season, hoping to add another 300 this season. its not easy lugging everything over a 60 foot wide rapid mountain stream in the summer time with no bridge, but it freezes up in winter perfect for the tundra 300. I would guess that my sugar camp is the hardest to get too out of just about anybodies on here, but that makes it more fun in some aspects, no body bugs me there, and the log cabin is comfortable to stay in for a few weeks.
It was a busy maple weekend. We got Jim Brown's arch re-tinned. All stainless, hopefully he'll be able to post some pictures. Also got my shack parked in place and stack up.
Been a long slog here in the North Country. Had high hopes of a major expansion after last season but life got in the way. I have been chief caregiver to the "old sugarmaker", here at TTF (my 89 year old father) who fell and broke his hip last summer. Been making some headway but not as much as hoped. Have a second 600 gallon Ro set up and almost ready to go. Added 1200 feet of dry lines to my front bush for improved vacuum transfer. Added 1000 new drops and stubbies so the front bush (oldest taps) will be entirely CV's this year. Added several thousand feet of mainline to said front bush so most laterals are under 50 feet and most have 3 or less drops. In the process dropped 3rd tap from largest trees and added some additional taps for a net gain of approx. 100. In the backbush I have laid out a new line that should increase taps by about 600. It will tie into existing vacuum pump via a remote releaser and pump line. Hope to have some help over the next 3 weeks to get this nailed down. 20 below yesterday morning made me think I might still have a bit of time before it starts...also made plastic handle hard:)
Doug- hope your Dad can join you in the sugarhouse this spring. Good luck with the season. The coldest it ever got when I used to live in Canton was -38. Hasn't been anywhere close to that down here in balmy NH.
Eric,
He's planning on it. When I suggested storing an extra walker, he suggested we put it in the sugar house to use:)
Arch rebuild pictures are under an album in my profile .Thanks many times over GaryR Looks great with the pans on!
Jim and Doug
Jim, and Doug, and Gary
Looks like doug did most of the work:) Some one had to take the pictures right Jim?
Hey that Arch retinning really looks good!
And I didnt know you could put pictures on albums on here. Was I sleeping when you guys sis traing on that feature?:)
Anyway very nice job on refreshining the rig. Did you use stainless hardware? I didnt and wished I would have, after 10 years is pretty rusty.
Regards,
Chris
Chris; Every thing is stainless except the the top angle,the front casting and the rear stack casting.All holes were pre drilled and stainless self tappers put in.
Jim
Jim,
Very nice!
Have to get back at the work thing! Lunch break is over.
Chris
Well I'm back at school now....Didn't even make it through the first class without getting on the droid phone and checking the trader. Owell I guess thats what it's for haha. Good thing the evap is mostly ready to go.
Jim - the arch looks good!
Just picked up another 25 taps and retained some taps that I thought I might lose to property changing hands. Good fresh taps along a creek that really run good. So I will be moving some lines from a less productive site to those new trees. Also getting some new 5/16 stainless spouts for buckets and may hang the 30 buckets on good trees along the route this year. instead of around the house on reds that just produce a drop more than nothing. Still have a string of maples that I would like to tap but just cant convince the folks to allow it. Need to stop and ask again.
Hope folks are ready. This rain today made it feel like syrup season is just around the corner.
Chris
Things are coming together. RO room is about done, RO is wired and I kicked the feed pump over so all should be good there. SH is a mess and really needs to be picked up. There's still a 1/2 days worth of woods work to do, but now there's 18" of snow on the ground. It can wait until closer to the season. I hope to have the RO plumbed and vac. pump set up on site this weekend. Saturday is the NHMPA annual meeting so we'll see if I get it all done.
I still have the neighbor's property to get online which is a days worth of work for 60 taps on gravity. This will be the last thing I do and those won't be getting tapped in until March 1st the earliest.
In order to be ready on time I have stoped adding to "the list" and am concentrating on wraping up all of the little thing that need to be done before taping. LR pump is finaly fixed and back in service. All tanks are set and level. Evap is plumbed. To do = pick up and install RO, Plumb new tanks to ro, build pump skid for new LR pump, set new pump skid, run power to new pump. That about does it. When those things are finished I will allow my self to set more lines and taps. My prediction ... Feb 17th first boil.
Brian- I have two things I need to make you aware of. I hope you make a ton of syrup this year and I say that becouse your my pal and I hope you well but the other thing I need to tell you is YOUR GOING DOWN AND YOUR GOING DOWN HARRRRRRD!!! I intend to destroy your averages on more taps, probly warmer weather and without checkvalves. Im just going to do whatever it takes to do it, compromise my health, spend less time with my family, or even neglect my elderly parents, WHATEVER!!! Bring on the sap Im countin taps this year Im not drawing candy off my syrup pans anymore, and Im not rounding off the closest 55 gallon drum. Were going tap for syrup, full and accurate records. Three weeks to operation TAPOFF at Pierce and video gaming, boob tube watchin, phone textin wondering what theyre good for Sons.
Were going to burp that six by thunderbolt weekend after this one with about a months worth of salary in fuel oil and see what that thing does. If Im not satisfied were putting two more guns in it.
If I go down, then I hope I do not get back up. The last 600 new taps have used up 300 multi fittings, 4 miles of main line, and 8 weeks to put together. I am ready to put in a Jerry bush just to see if 7/16, 30 taps per lat, and no vac has a better return on the $. Theron, You may have some tricks up your sleve, and I hope they work for you, but if it ends up killing you then was it worth it?
Brian,
Those numbers on the last 600 are sounding like most of my bush. If I ever get them all, there will be about 5500 but it sure takes a lot of tube to reach them all.
Doug
Have you done sap yield test comparing 1/4 spouts to 5/16 under vacuum? If so is there a big difference? thanks
Nearly froze to death but I finally got started on the shack addition. Spent twice as much time on it over the weekened and only got about 1/2 of what I expected done. Can anyone relate?
Got 1/2 the roof on and the walls up and wrapped in the house wrap... but thats it. So now it is nicely filling up with snow and I'll have to shovel it out when I'm done.
I was going to tap a new section of woods.. but gonna be travelling so much next month not sure if I should just retap same old section. I wanted to give that section a year off.
So at Yells and "when will they be big enough to really help" sons we are WAAAYYY behind as I like it.
They are probably going to say the 1/4" run as much or more so they can sell them. About like the micro spouts and some of the other things that have came out in the past few years that were the newest and greatest.
i,am back at it..:D...tonight,after work i was cutting up tubing for drops.
i also got my bascoms catalog today and i made up a list!!
delbert
Brian- Yes, If it kills me it is worth it, Im taking no prisoners, Im giving it everything Ive got. Im running my vac just short of callapsing all my tubing and Im looking for a controlled nuclear reaction in the evaperator and thats just how its going to have to be. Good luck. Theron
How much oil are you planning on burning through that bad boy? What nozzles are you going to use?Quote:
Originally Posted by PATheron
If you do you won't need to refuel all season!!! You also can't run out of sap or the whole world will know how you make syrup.Quote:
Originally Posted by PATheron
LMAO. Great one Theron.Quote:
Originally Posted by PATheron
I got 1st dibbs on one of his RO's and one of his milk tanks if he kicks the bucket!!:lol:
I'm wondering if Theron's wife can be cloned!
It's doubtful we'll hit Theron-esque #s/tap this year but my math says we'll have a record year with only average weather. Should be fun!!!
If he still has a wife or maybe she is waiting until he gets the 6 figure check this year that he has promised her! :)