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Thanks for the compliment Brandon. Got my 24volt batteries charged, good for 600+ taps. Plugged in my 19.2, good for another 400. That's enough for tomorrow afternoon! I've been studying my records from last year, tapped early and used alcohol on the spiles and the bit, and the taps from Jan. were still running into April, after reaming, but I like a challenge. I still have to hook up and rinse the ro, vacuum the evaporator, and then I'm ready for sap! Andrew, if you read this go get some isoproply/rubbing alcohol and dip your spiles and bit in it, it will add time to the life of the taphole. Tap shallow now, 3/4 to 1 inch, so latter in the spring you can ream the hole and tap down to 1 1/2 ".
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I bought a new 325 gallon poly gethering tank today to replace the tank that was in the way of a falling tree clearing for the bigger sugar house last year. I didnt need that tank last year but will be going back to 100+ roadside taps that I havnt tapped for a few years. Going back to these roadside trees will put me over 400 taps for this year. I will be using liners in the buckets this year and hope it works out well enough to save all the bucket scrubbing. The price of 1000 bags was way cheaper than a day of washing buckets. With mild temperatrures for the next few days it will be a good time to get the sugar house in order and rebuild the trailer I use to haul the gathering tank.
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Parker,
We have alot of Hard Rock Sugar in WV, The West Virginia State Tree is the Sugar Maple, The area Brandon refers to in Pocahontas County is loaded with Sugar Trees. That area of the state is the coldest and usually gets plenty of Snow. I know I don't have trees like my friends in Somerset County,Pa. Some large producers are located there. My friend Ivan Puffenbarger of Highland County Va. has a large camp with around 11000 taps. If I could get my cousins in Pendleton County to open their trees they would probably have the largest camp in WV. On their 450 acre farm 75% of the trees are sugar, the sad part of the story is the other 25% is Red Maples. I have one sugar bush in Pendleton County, It's 98% sugar 2% Red, a 593 acre property that borders it is for sell. It is loaded with sugars, almost half of them could be hooked into my system. Unfortunately I don't have a extra 2.1 million laying around to buy it. However I do have another cousin that does and is working on the deal now. I've been told I could tap the trees if he indeed does buy the property. My grandfather owned that property at onetime, he bought it for 1700 dollars and sold it for 3500 dollars. Doubled his money from 1942 to 1947. Now his grandson will pay 2.1 million if he wants it. That my friends is Inflation
Mark 220 Maple
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220
It is inflation, but it is more supply & demand. Population keeps growing and "they" stopped making land years ago!!
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The test tree i tapped today is running... slowly right now but the sugar content is 3.5% which for that particular tree is about 1.7% higher than it was last year. Perhaps this will bode well for the season. Still on the fence on whether or not i want to tap the rest of them.
Van, let me know how your tapping situation went over there! i'll be excited to hear if you'll be boiling tomorrow. I'd anticipate that they will run well tomorrow.
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Mark,
You are right about our state tree being the sugar maple, but it is defninitely not in all areas of the state. I live in Raleigh county and sugar in Greenbrier county and you can't hardly find a sugar maple unless it has been planted in someone's yard in Raleigh county. Maybe it has to do with temperature, the colder the areas, the more sugars there seem to be. In Highland county, VA where you were referring to, there are tons of sugars everywhere and they like a lot of Pocohontas are 3500 to 5,000 feet in elevation. There are areas in WV like that too, just not this far south.
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Hung tubing on the roadside sugarbush today, about 50% complete (219) and ready for tapping. With trimming brush and working alone it takes about 1 hour to hang tubing for 20 taps. If I take it down and re hang it next year hopefully it will not take that long. I am using black spray paint above and below the tubing as it crosses each tree to record the elevation. Looks like I have plenty of slope on all lines.
I did get these 219 taps on about 700 feet of 5/16 tubing.
This week I need to get some more 5/16 tubing and try to finish the rest within the next couple of weeks. I am going to try not to hang any buckets this year. Big change for me:o Every one I had talked to about tubing said that it takes longer to set up and tear down I agree so far. Looking forward to easier time gathering.
Dennis, I did not enter anything in the PA farm show this year. My syrup is almost all gone, and I have been to busy hunting and hanging tubing:)
Dave Y, Hope the maple event was fun, how far is Verona from you?
Jon, as you see I am going the other way. Moving from buckets to all tubing. I will even be passing up some fairly good trees that I could hang buckets on.
We will have about the same number of taps (400+). I have a 325 gal leg tank that I like real well for the truck. I may pump direct into the tank this year since I will not need the dumping station.
Regards,
Chris
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Chris, I got back from Verona about 3hrs ago. It is a 5hr trip. I took the Mrs. with me. We both enjoyed our selves. I ran in to Dennis H. It was nice to meet a fellow trader.We enjoyed some good conversation. I picked up some supplies while I was there. I stopped in Troy Pa. and looked at some tanks Patheron put me on to. I plan on picking them up next weekend. I will go tho the woods tomorrow after work and try to finish up the tubing.
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Hey Dave good to hear you made it made it back safe and sound, I think I should have stayed over also. The first 2 1/2 hrs was through a mixed bag of crap, rain sleet, snow. Made for some real terrible driving, I knew I should of put the winter tires on the car before leaving, BUT the weather channel was calling for a very low chance of rain. They are never wrong right.:rolleyes:
Anyway it was great chit-chatting with you up at the conference.
I will have to plan ahead for next year so I can get the other seminars that I could not attend.
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45 degrees and rain today, really knocked the snow down. was able to string more wire today. i got about 300 feet of main line on 1% slope hope it will work??
RICH
