You guys better be ready the dam is about to burst!!!
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You guys better be ready the dam is about to burst!!!
Finished tapping the tubing today. Sap ran I got around 50 gallons from about 100 taps. I started bricking my evaporator too. I should finish that tommorow. My pans are getting welded saturday. I will probably test boil Saturday night and sweeten the pans Sunday if I have enough sap.
Sap is running hard i n southern VT all night. 20" of vac and it is pouring in. A little light on sugar, around 2%, maybe a tad under
Finally got my new mainline strung and mostly pulled tight. I dont' know how you big guys do this as the 750 feet I ran took forever and my hands are killing me from fighting with wireties.
off to cuba this week so hopefully it gets and stays cold here.... then on to lats and tapping first week of March.
I'm thinking I'll be up to aroudn 140 new taps roughly counting trees where I've strung this new mainline.. giving the tress from the past few years a year off.
With the outside temps almost 70 and then firing the evap for about 4 hours it sure got hot in the sugarshack!
Today the trees are not running at all. Last night the temps only got back down to 38 and with winds as high as 40mph it just isn't happening today. Now tonight is a different story.
I now know one way that is not advised when working mainline. I have tension on my lines and went to install a wet dry manifold where one of my branch lines tees into the main. I had my grandson (16 and a football player) helping me. I use a mainline tool to pull the tubing onto the fitting. Well, I clamped the 1" dry line with the tool and decided I wanted to tighten it even more. I did not properly have the tool preset and only had about 2" of tightening left. I cut out about 3" of tubing and went to pull the line onto the fitting. If you haven't done the math, I did not make it and ran out of travel. So I pulled full force in one direction while my grandson pulled in the other on the tubing and with the tool opened to it's max. I was going to release one clamp and pull the tubing the necessary 2 more inches and reclamp. Can anyone say stupid? When We both pulled as hard as we could I released the clamp and that is when all h#ll let loose. The tubing flew apart, my grandson lost his grip and lost his end and I managed to hold the tool. I had him grab a piece of 1/4" nylon rope we had and while I held the tool I instructed him how to attach rope to his end of the the pipe with a timber hitch and several pipe hitches. Then I had him run the rope back to the tool and pass it around the gusset brace to the clamp. Then he pulled as tight as he could and I was able to relax. When I did I realized I had cut a DEEP GASH IN ONE FINGER TIP and it was bleading rather steady. I got blood all over the surrounding snow so it looked like a war had gone on. We were about 200 yds from my truck and while I released some of the sideties on the tubing my grandson ran (in snowshoes) to get my first aid kit and a glove to cover my hand after applying a bandaid over the tip and another around the finger to hold the first one in place. By this time the bleading had stopped but I didn't want to yank it open again. Then we worked without thinking and without sucess. We released some more side ties but still could not get the tubing together. The next day, while my grandson was in school I did it fairly easy. I went to the nearest end and put on a come along, then I the tubing and anchor wire and the tubing was let loose about 3 '. Next I went to the scene from the night before, clamped the tubing as it should have been in the first place and then I pulled tight again with the comealong. I had to pull before assembling to make the manifold line up with the tee in the wet line. This time the assembly went well.
After I got to realize how stupid I had been. When I ran the dry line I strung it as tight as I could pull, then I hooked the winch to the anchor tree and pulled as hard as I dared. After it rested a couple days I tightened again. I repeated the 3 or 4 times and then attached the anchor wire around the anchor tree and crimped the wire from tree to the chinese finger type pull I use. After this I attached several side ties further tightening the tubing. Now my grandson and I were going to pull it by hand to choke up on the tubing, NOT!!! Warning, do not try this, I can vouch for it's stupidity.
Now I need to finish my system before next Thursday. The forecast calls for below freezing temps until Thurs. I need to finish some plumbing on my vac tank to the pump, build and install a moisture trap with rackett ball inside to prevent sap flow to the pump, do a few sap ladders (3) and tap about 550 taps. I would be out there now but we are having blizzard conditions and windchills well below 0, with white outs most of the time. I do have off until 2/28, so I should get it done ok. I also need to do some work in the sugarhouse which I will do this PM and need to wash the tanks. When this weather breaks I'll be working long hours for sure. I likely missed 2 days of sap already and don't want to miss any more. This is so much earlier than my usual good sap flow days. In the past, without vac I never had more than a trickle before about March 5-10. I'm hoping vac this season will give me good flow at 36 degrees which they forecast on Thursday.
Wow Flats rough day. I learned the hard way myself a few weeks ago and felt pretty stupid but hey its how we learn sometimes. I was cutting in a 6 star ladder to the upper mainline that is about 9 feet in the air. Its all tied in to the mainline wire and for some reason never crossed my mind to release the tension on the mainline. Cut through it and it sprung back about a foot and that was all she wrote. Could not get it stretched back as it was pinched in all the ties. Had to release it all and untie it and start all over. The dumb things we do lol. Like go to every weather website until we find one report that make us a little happier lol.
how true that is about the weather searches:lol: sorry to here about the main line, looks like you'll have some time to repair.
Mapleflats - make sure you check your mainline connections. I was over tightening mainlines this past week and wound up pulling them off the fittings further down the line- and this was with two clamps on each side of each fitting. Pulled connections is a tough way to lose sap. I really prefer the grey poly pipe connectors over the blue maple mainline connectors. The blue have smaller barbs which causes them to be pulled off easier, but I have not found the Y connecter in grey.
what a day today was!!!!! found all the watson lines ...fell on the ice ....tailgate broke off the truck with me on it ....the freshly fixed snowmobile threw a chain in the crank case and left me in the woods had to drag it out with a 4 wheeler .....then coming home the tailgate fell off .... good news is my rib that was out of place is now back in place cause of the fall
I know what my job will be 1st thing in the morning will be.
Bucket Chasing!!
The wind here has been none stop all day with gusts in the high 40's.
Peacemaker it sounds like you had a very interesting day to say the least.:rolleyes:
Danno, in the past I pulled a few connections using conventional screw clamps but I have not YET had a clamp fail using the pinch clamps. I get them at lowes in the insert (barbed) fittings section and I use the proper tool and I use 2 clamps. Real fast, real secure (so far)Quote:
Originally Posted by danno
I know exactly what you're talking about, Dennis! This is my first year not doing buckets. I always dreaded the wind. Now I just worry about it taking limbs down and dropping on the lines.
Limbs down are a hassel but if designed properly the fix is quick. Most tension should be from side ties pulling the line one side and then the other and these side ties should be a lighter guageI use 12.5 HT for main and mild 14g for side ties). Then the side tie fails when a limb falls and you remove the limb and do a new side tie. Fairly quick to fix.
boiling this weeks sap today, about 25 gallons. should make some good early syrup.
scratch that, i burned it. feel really stupid now, i went inside for 5 mins to check on something, and it was burned. doesnt taste too bad, might finish it off for the family, or chuck it it depends
scratch that, i burned it.:mad::cry::cry::emb: feel really stupid now, i went inside for 5 mins to check on something, and it was burned. doesnt taste too bad, might finish it off for the family, or chuck it it depends
Collins if the syrup is only slightly burned let it all sit in a container and the burnt taste will dissipate. Dont ask me why or how but an old timer told me this once and I tried it unfortunetly a few years ago and it actually worked.
Finished bricling my evaporator today. My dads buddy welded my pans. I got my evaporator all put together today. Tommorrow I need to put up my stack and feed tank. I will test boil tommorrow if we dont get that much snow and Im not plowing all day.
snowing and cold: we wait
Had to repair a mainline wire today. I found the loop around the end tree that holds the ratchet tensioner broke. The funny thing is I figured that it would break at the THERON SQUARE KNOT but nope, it broke where the wire went thru the tensioner.
This mainline is where it goes over a right a way so it is 15' in the air. I guess those trees must have gotten swaying yesterday when we had all that wind.
Dennis
I`ve had the same problem and your right it`s from the tree swaying.We fixed the wire a few times before we decided to top the tree.
Well Im at school and the report from home is 13 inches of snow on the ground. Our big fourwheeler with the 35 gallon tank on it crapped the bed while dad was plowing with it this morning.....great!!!:mad: Looks like ill be using the old international scout to plow the trails out in the woods when i go home wednesday.
this is the first year i jumped on the tapping band wagon and it will be the last year from now on i will be sticking to my guns only thing i made with the 150 gallons of sap i got last week was a dirty evaporator
Boyd,
Glad to see your enjoying the early runs too! NOT!
Well I have a good reason, I need to get some syrup for open house. But I may lose a good week at the end of the season:( Time will tell. Hang in there. Good news is, your tapped!
SM
Update from Pierce and Sons- Last week was a real stuggle down here for us but things are starting to come together. Still tapping so couldnt get the vac where I want it yet. Id tap at night when it was froze and chase the heavy leaks in the days when it thawed. The sap did run surprisingly good for a couple days for such early sap. Got around 7000 gallons I think. Some of the first of it real thin then got better. All the while were hooking up stuff in the shed. Found that my newer cdl machine had a bad high pressure pump so had to process all the sap with the older machine which worked great. We really like the evaperator a lot. Very easy to operate. We ran it at about half throttle to get the hang of it with 8% sap and we both agreed next batch were going to take it to 12%. The piggyback developed a leak at a float box that had been patched. We drained it and decided not to use it. It will be easy to fix but need to lift it off the evap to do it and dont want to mess with it. I think Ill probly sell it and just use my ro equipment. Ended up making a 55 drum of dark syrup and theres probly a drum plus in the evap so Im really happy and figure were off to a good start. Gonna finish my last bush on the ring pump tomarrow night and then I have two 400 tap dairy pump bushes to do and Im ready to get the vacs where I need them. All in all Im pretty pumped about the year and I think its going to be a good one. Everybody better get ready Its almost go time everywhere now. Also, lost 8 pounds in 8 days, Weighed myself this morning. Looking pretty buff. Theron
Spent the weekend cleaning up wind damage and fixing a couple af leaks throughout the bush. Got everything nice and tight now but weather looks cold for a while still. Didnt need the 10 inches of snow we got again Sunday night, it was just starting to get walkable in the woods after a few days in the 50's. Yet to hang remainder of buckets, hoping for a later season this year since we susually fininsh up first week in April and no decent weather in sight in the 10 day forecast.
Keep at 'er Theron!!! I wanna be able to see the steam from your sugar shack here in Ontario! I always joke that I come out of sugar making season at my fighting weight too - no time to eat enough to keep the weight on.Quote:
Originally Posted by PATheron
spent to much time in my buddies woods and not enough in mine, helped him tap, and he got to boil on friday while i was still tapping, only have 421 out of 700 in but ive got alot to do yet before i can even think about boiling any hoo so i gues it was a good thing i didnt get tapped, hopping to brush the rust out of the tank in the big woods, and stick the lines in on thursday and let it fill, that load will probably go to my buddies since im not ready to prosses it. way to much to do!
been real busy in the woods getting everything ready. 1300 taps in. hope to tap the rest tomorrow. getting releasers and pumps out and then just waiting on mother nature
NATE
Well we had a busy week here trying to get ready. Got my buddy on Friday to dig through a 4 foot snow bank with his bobcat so I could set my tank and releaser up. Got the releaser plumbed up and waded through a good 18 to 20 inchs of snow to finish up a dozen entrences on the new mainline. Sunday my daughter and I plowed out the sugar house with the backhoe so we could give it a rough cleaning. Monday we tapped in the bush with vacuum and fired the pump up for a few minutes to check for leaks and found the releaser has a leak some where. :mad: Today we washed the pans down again and plumbed up the evaporator. Wed. if it gets above freezing we are going to pressure wash head tank and barrels for my seasonal lines. Possibly we can tap in the 50 or so seasonals at my parents. I will do the 50 or so around the house on Thursday morning before bed because i just went back to night shift for 4 months. Seems like no matter what I do IM always behind the 8 ball, but its still a little early here. At least this year there is not a snow storm forcasted last year we tapped early to beat a storm that dropped 2 feet on feb 24.
Got the rebuilt arch bricked and mortared today. Need to install the stack and put on pan gasket and it will be ready for some test boils. I plan on doing several small fires to help cure the mortar and season the bricks.
so ups is something .... last Tuesday i ordered my taps for this year should have been here weds so i could tap on Thursday and Friday.. they where a no show so today i finally find out they went to the Ehrich road house which we use to live at lets see maybe 8 years ago
lol
way to go ups
chris maybe tapping earl was i good thing cause i got a lot of kinks large and huge worked out but this first run cost me a lot of money so i only about a 100 gallons of syrup to pay for all the broken parts
I am not to enthusiastic about going out again today but I guess I can't let -14 bother me. This global warming really gets under my skin, I wish it would just cool off.
Well I did a test run this morning on the rebuilt arch and AOF system. It went pretty well. I need a different blower for next season but it is time to stop spending money on this project for this year:( Over all I was happy with the results. This will be my first year on a real evaporator so I have alot of learning to do, But am looking forward to the adventure:) I need to get about 200 more taps run for a total of 600. But it looks like I have at least another week before we start getting good weather. Good luck all, Mike
Man is this frustrating. 2nd day of warm temps but no sun and both 3/4" lines going into the releasers are frozen solid!
The other day the temps dropped when I was boiling and did noticed it and the releasers froze along with the main's coming into them.
I looked and the lat's are they are thawed.
Then the other thing is the pipe that I use to pump sap from the 200gal tank up to the head tank remains frozen.:mad: So there is no way to start to boil the 50 or so gals of sap either.
Man this sucks.
yup, pretty much nothing you can do until mother nature decides to warm the place up alittle!Quote:
Originally Posted by Dennis H.
I keep saying its early yet and if this is going to be anything like a normal year then we are back to the march sap runs like it should be. Yes its fustrating I too have a frozen releaser and lines everywhere. Forecast is what kills me. Within 30 minutes they change it. One minute you look and theres a good run coming today friday sunday and monday. Few minutes later no run today friday sunday just monday. How do you plan when those friggin idiots have no clue. Wish I had a job that I could f*^K up everyday and still make good money.