February Journal 08, GO TIME

well i added about 40 more taps and am fully tapped so far i made 2 gallon, thats one gallon less than last year. im feeling good about sunday its going to be 45

I just got an interesting picture from my parents. It is safe to say they have some snow up there.

royalmaple; I take it that would normally be a flat empty front yard?

Old Royal boiled as late as anybody I heard of last year. The frogs were even trying to get him to stop as they were afraid to go thru the woods thinking they might get sucked up by his vacuum, so they headed to the sugarhouse to tell him to stop as you can see on one of his videos.

Jerry's my witness you were there towards the end. Might as well have been water we were boiling. Miserable stuff, but we made some syrup. Not going to happen like that this year.

Jim-

Yup, that is flat in front of their house. And that's not been plowed up to get more emphasis on the snow, that's the level. The garage is lower as you can see. And in the back of the house you can just walk right on the garage roof, without skipping a beat.

Where are your parents located??

They live in Jay, ME.

royal nice looking choclate

Hi all,
The evaporation enhancement unit is together, just have a few more things to do, like check for leaks, attach the float box, seal off one end, buy a blower, and set it up!
Monday should finish it up!!!!
Then to make a filter/canner!!!!
This sure has been fun!!!!
I'll keep you guys posted!

Dave

Matt, I really do believe you were making syrup that late last year. The first year I put the vacuum system in I quit boiling about the 17 April. I had run out of wood and long run out of desire to boil anymore when daytime high was nearing 65 degrees. Sap ran a couple days after I stopped. The sugar content had fallen to 1.5 the last day. That year one of the days around April 5-6 by 9:30 am Uncle shut off the vacuum pump as the tank was running over. Sad part was he didn't tell me till 1pm. Trees had been tapped that year about Feb 25.

Mark-

I would have paid for 1.5% in the end, it was like 1.1 - 1.2 for me. Yeah, that's pretty hardcore. But I told myself I wait all darn year for the sap to run and I don't care what happens, I'm gathering till the trees just stop. Boiling every single drop, not dumping a pint through the season, and I stuck to it and did it. I'm a diehard. Now with an RO, GAME ON. I'll boil till june. Might take till June to get rid of this snow.

I ran out of wood last year and had to get 3 or 4 of my brother's dump truck full of pallet boards to finish up. I'd cut wood all day and gather, then boil all night. Keep hammering on.

Jay Maine, Now that is in the middle of nowhere!! My brother in law left from here in VT ton. with a load of logs for jay...

If anyone is interested I am putting photo's on photobucket as we speak...

I thought I was the only one who ever ran out of wood, glad to know I am not. Definitely will not run out this year. THis week was cold, icy, snowy and finally warmer. Going to collect tomorrow - should have about 300+ gallons to boil down and make Grade B with. Taps are still in (since Jan. 12th) and looks like we will have some cooler weather next week as well. Had a real good season until we had three days in a row of 60+ degree days. I boiled down some funky looking sap, but it tasted all right in the end, just a little dark though. I will boil tomorrow night and possibly Sunday, then just wai for next week.

Andrew

Drain the rig filter the syrup pan contents and pray for good weather... I have done this when I was making b and came back to med.. cleaning does help at times..

Hey Andrew, Do you still have help coming this week? I hope Tim makes it as it certainly would be good experience for him. Might just give him the push to get his own rig going a little more serious this year. I told him last year where there were a few easy to get to trees that should run well and were close by but I don't think he ever checked on them.

By the way nice photos!
Mark

I hope he is coming!! man I am behind the 8 ball lol I also hope he gets more involved, I really think this is what he needs.... I know his sister has a bunch of trees on her land also and I offered to help him set up a pipeline there with some used stuff I have but I don't think he has caught the bug yet.. Do you boil on a raised flue or drop flue?? He needs some help with his 2x6 raised and I think he got discouraged last year with it. I really wish I could help but there are just too many miles between us...


Andy

Andy,
I have a drop flue but it is only 5 minutes over there. I wouldn't mind helping him at all. I offered last year but I really don't think he did much at all. I owe Ralph a favor for fixing my sons snowmobile. I'll check with them after break is over and see what they are up to.
Mark

thanks Mark I would really appreciate that..


Andy

I cleaned my syrup pan once this year, but not because I wanted to. Let's just say I was way beyond syrup - tar to be exact - and I was gone for 30 minutes. A lot of crusty syrup, but no scorch marks on the pan. It cleaned up in about 45 minutes. It's amazing what a 60 grit flapper wheel on a 4" grinder can do. It was great, and I was back to boiling that evening. Lost about 8 gallons of syrup --> $350.00, about a day's work. Rule#1 in syrup making: Nver leave your syrup for more than 5 minutes, 10 minutes max even if it is in plain view. Live and learn I guess.

Andrew

Andrew,
Rule # 1 In sugaring is NEVER LEAVE the EVAPORATOR while YOU are BOILING PERIOD!!!!!!!!

Better never leave it more than 60 seconds, 5 minutes will burn up a pan and better not even leave it 60 seconds if you are close to a draw.

Valley view-

International paper is in Jay, and the biggest log buyer around is Irving, and there plant for softwood logs is in Dixfield, just a couple of towns over.

Nice pictures, it's great that more and more people are putting up pictures of there operations.

Temps look good for Northern NJ this coming week. I have about 50 taps in, with anohter 50 to go in mid-week. Here we goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! :)

I must say every year I learn something new - never leave the evaporator AND order 50% more packaging conatiners than you you think you may need, just in case it's a good year. Gathered ~375 gallons today, and did not get them all (I can't wait to go to tubing!!). Still holding about 2.3% sugar into our fifth week of sugaring. It has been a good year, and will use up all our conatiners by the end of the night and will finish up around 70 gallons of syrup. Next year I will order 100 gallons worth of containers.

I mostly drained my syrup pan today, and we are back to making Grade A Dark syrup. THanks for the tip. Taps are still running hard even after those 60 degree days. Next year will be a great year, I am already thinking about how much wood I will need - got plenty this year - and a 600 gallon storage tank and a blower for the evap.

Beatiful night tonight for aboil, no wind and clear skies under a partial moon.

Andrew

Andrew,
For next year you should look into putting up some of your syrup in 5 gallon cans to hold till you need more to bottle up. Just a thought.
Mark

GMCOOPer,

I bought 5 gallon containers this year, getting ready to use them. I might get two more for next year. Boil is going well, will wrap up here in about an hour.

AKM

I had to go get another bulk tank this one also a 400 sunset. Thursday night before dark I go up to the barn to scope out everything and make my final plan of attack.Saturday around noon I get up there and there is a path beaten down from Rt 40 to the barn . This barn is all overgrown and at least 500 yards off the road. JUNKIES attacked The tank is still there but stripped everything that was soft metal was chopped with an ax or something. There were 4 universal stainless milker pails with lids......... The list goes on and on. It just never seems to end around here. I got the tank out of the concrete and rolled up on its edge.I hope that I can get some help on sunday to move it the rest of the way out. The only saving grace is that there was a blood trail where one of the thiefs cut themselves and dribbled spots of blood back to the road. But aside from the stuff taken I guess the worst part of the story is that some of the foot prints in the snow looked like they belonged to a little kid they were about 6"long and real close together. I will rest easy knowing that some scum bag is raising there kids up exposing them to that kind of BS. I think it is time for me to fill my property with Mc.Mansions sell them and move up to northern Vermont where maples are plenty........Good night -ss

super sappy,
Sounds like you had a bad day. It is sad that there are such disrespectful people out there. A couple years ago I had my tractor at the sugarbush, went to gather sap and some low life had siphoned all the fuel out of my tractor. As if it isn't hard enough to make a buck in the syrup business!!!

supper sappy- I got just the place for you...got this listing in my email the other day...if you could get $500,000 for your place, you could get this one and put up a nice sugaring operation with the leftovers...

http://www.fountainsrealestate.com/p...sc.aspx?Id=148

anyone on here know this property? looks pretty nice from the few photos...

-tuckermtn

update on Theerons BIGSAP- I just came in the house. Have 1220 taps on 26" plus 60 cull trees on it. The cull trees are small ones im going to cut out. So I have 1280 by canadian specs. The pump is running smoothly at 26". The lines are just starting to thaw out. The mainlines were froze solid becouse I didnt have the pump running yet when I first tapped. Its supposed to be 40 degrees untill tomarrow night right through the night. Im hoping when the lines thaw tonight all hell breaks loose. Keep you posted. Theeeron

I am with DAVEY on this 1. couple years ago i was going to keep the boil going when i quit for the night. next morning i had about 1/2 inch of what looked like caramel in the syrup pan. 2 hours to clean it. from then on if i wasnt in the building the fire was put out

RICH

SS,
Man to bad about the tank getting whacked.:( Man I would be fumin mad too.
I have a lot of SST setting at my place! As most of us do.
Hope you can get a replacement tank to get you going. Maybe plastic will be the way we will have to go?

Regards,
Chris

Made 11.5 gallons this weekend. I love GRade B syrup, it tastes great, especially with ice cream. Have made almost 70 gallons for the year so far.

AKM

SS - that just plain s_cks!

Theron - 26"? You better watch yourself, if the saps not runnin' your liable to suck those culls right into your main line, roots and all:)

Guys- I failed you guys and I failed myself. Im only holding 20" on the bush. Bright side is the releaser is dumping every 1 min 20 sec. Is that good? Theeeron

Easy TTTTHHHEEtremendouslybigsapRROONNN-not a failure,,,,you way ahead of the curve here,,,,just go out and find the leaks and fix them,,,you will get it!!! Then back up to high Vac.,,,,,when its really running your releaser will dump every 30 sec.,,,,,how much sap is in the tank?

He's not far away from 1300 gallons, at least that is what he told me at 7am. Trees didn't kick in until probably after midnight sometime. I talked to him around 10pm and just getting a dribble in the dry lines. I know those boosters were frozen solid, and beyond that there were spots that were frozen solid. We fixed a few minor sags which were frozen solid. So hopefully now keeping that pump on will reduce the freezing. Kinda hard to get vacuum and sap to go through solid pipe ice jams.

I think he's starting to buy into this "northern" tubing setup.

He called me and I told him get out there and start finding leaks. Now's when they are going to add up big time. Find a leak now and you'll get that vacuum up.

He is sticking by his national holiday, Monday Feb 18th, will be BIG SAP Monday from here on out.

He's gonna be busy today/tonight. But I'm sure he'll be on later to give updates. Or he will trust me enough to pass along the lies. NO we will stick with the truth, not even slightly modified.

Matt, does he really have that much sap! I was there around seven last night, it was starting to unfreeze but i thought there was still alot of ice in the lines and i didnt think it would unfreeze that much.

Tom-

She's broke free now. He called me around 10 to give me an update. Todd(sugarmaster's left hand man) was there setting putting in the membrane for theron and gonna give him a step by step on running it. Hat's off to Richard, that is some customer service for sure!!

He had (his best guess) 1700 gallons of sap at 10, said the sun was peaking out and releaser was dumping every minute. He walked around and found some leaks and taps that we never put in, once he did some of that he went back and got to the pump and it was at 25". So he's in good shape. Said the sap was right at 2% from what he tested.

He's gonna give me a call later on when everyone clears out and things settle down.

I went back to get what remained of my 400 gallon sunset tank yesterday.These are hard to move by yourself. Well I figured that the thief wouldnt be back so I left it until I could get help. And I put a trip wire on the path that they were useing.( I am a bastard that way).I was wrong - I go up today with my wife to drive the tractor and sure enough they were back. They swiped the motor off the vacuum pump but left the pump and stole the agitator paddle,smashed the windows on the old cars inside etc there were some boards full of nails thrown around just inside the milk house( i dont know how they got there ready to be stepped on) But the good news is That the tank cleaned up real nice and is sitting in my driveway, Maplecrest you have a Delaval 75 minus 1 motor sitting in my bucket whenever you are ready, and oh yea that trip wire, well I put it right on the path next to a colvert that was overflowing thru the barnyard and judging by the marks in what was left in the snow someone got a wet ***. -SS