I did nothing syrup related yesterday. I started my dutch lessons on the computer. Het meisje een onder en tafel! Got to get ready to start my maple syrup import business in the Netherlands.
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I did nothing syrup related yesterday. I started my dutch lessons on the computer. Het meisje een onder en tafel! Got to get ready to start my maple syrup import business in the Netherlands.
Okay okay I'll fess up. I went out and cut a few trails around a small bush. looked over a section that I haven't tapped and found a few tappable trees hiding among the pines and cedars. found some young trees that will need to be protcected and pampered for my son's future. was hoping to get out again today but it's really cold here. 16. bought some spiles on e-bay.
Well I'm glad that we are not all laying around getting fat.
16 thats balmy. dont you have longhandles. I've checked beaver traps @-70 wind chill and caught fish at -30. put your coat on and go do some thing even if its wrong. (this is were I would put the smiley face . but i cant figure them out)
Dave Y,
I remember those days - my buddies would go out and ice fish when the mercury read 10 degrees, coupled with a 15-20 mph wind whipping across Oneida Lake in Syracuse, and that ws fun. And all that was without a shelter because we were poor college students. We would play football and snag seagulls when we were bored. It's tough to reel in a seagull on six pound test and a three foot jigging rod. I miss ice fishing, those are good times.
Andrew
Well we finally got the grates in. I found a couple of end plates. I think they were out of a boiler or some sort of heat exchanger. They are 28 inches in dia. and 1 inch thick.They are full of 3/4 inch holes where the tubing went through. Should have lots of air flow. I used a torch to square them up and sized them to fit. We set the rails in the fire box and slid the plates in on top. It looks good. Now I'm getting excited, can't wait to fire it up to see how it will work.
Dave Y I thought I was the only one that couldn't get the smileys to go where I wanted them to go.
Andyp
Andrew, Yea ice fishing is fun, but i never seem to get to do it any more. I'm still out in all kinds of weather. Thats one thing I never let bother me. The nastier the weather the better i like it.
Andyp , Well maybe some body could give us some computer lessons :-)
I finished tying my mainline tonite and took some pics of the bush, let the Labs run thru the woods. They sure like going the the sugarbush. I cleaned my new tanks In the freezing rain. Man I must be stupid! Dang It was cold ! I even had to thaw out the water. I really wanted to get that job out of the way!
Doing research Plastics and on FDA items that may relate to maple. If I find anything of value I will let you know:) Dave Y and Andy the : and the ) will usually work. Try it, then do the preview post to see if it worked.
Had a real nice visit with Paul form Turtle Maple about large maple sections (cookies) He is really into the educational aspects of teaching maple, we could all take note of some of his and Kathy's work.:)
Good positive maple news!!!!
Looking forward to the NWPA annual members meeting Sat Jan 19 at the Blooming Valley church We will have sugar makers for NEOhio as the guest speakers and will roll out the new NWPA brochure. The beautiful brochure was a result of a $15,000 state grant to promote maple now that's going in a positive direction for our hobby. Starn Marketing group of Meadville Pa did a wonderful job putting this together. 10,000 of these will be at road side rest stops for the public to pick up and 5,000 are for members to hand out. If you get to see one our little maple business is shown in several photos. I provided several other maple related photos too. Local Nature Center Asbury Woods (Erie) is featured making maple and also the Newbury book Miracles On Maple Hill gets a page since this was written here in North West PA.
Regards,
Chris
Guys- Sounds like everyones gearing up for the big season. Im getting closer to being ready. I keep on plugging. Should have the ro room done tomarrow hopefully. I have my gasket so I can setup my evap and get the pans out of the kitchen. Have minor plumbing to do with the tanks. Hoping to have most of the little stuff done this week. Ro comes next week. Getting there. I see on some of the other posts things get a little heated sometimes. For what its worth this is my thought, Nobody has to be right and nobody has to be wrong. This is just syruping. I should have the inside of the shed looking pretty nice in a week or two, Ill try to get some pics. Pretty exciting seeing people tapping allready. Have a happy, Theron
Theron, Glad to see you are finally going to put those pans on your arch. I thought i was going to have to do that for you.
Good Morning, fellow PA-ers! I have the day off and hope to get the bulk of the woods-work done. I got the tank cleaned and ready, and the mainline cleared of downed trees, but I still have to attach droplines to my new 50+ reds, and add a quick disconnect here and change a connection there and so on and so forth.
I was given an old stainless sink that I want to rig up by my steam-hood drip line, so I can use that hot water more efficiently. Then seal up some gaps around the bottom of the siding on the shack to get some of the worst of the drafts out. We're thinking COMFORT this year. Maybe a recliner, too, and a satellite dish! :)
Hi Beth,
Careful not to get too much comfort going on there. Sattelite dish and recliner sounds like a recipe to fall asleep especially next to the warm evaporator hehe. I am mostly ready just waiting for the next warmup. Cleaned the evaporator and sugarhouse last week when it was warm and reconfigured and old woods cart for 325 gal. polytank to haul from roadside trees 6 miles away. I havnt tapped these trees for 5 years and with the poor volume of sap from the woods trees Ive been tapping figured the extra work and distance was worth it.
I have tv in my saphouse, and a comfy chair, and yes I've fallen asleep in it a couple times while boiling. Nice to have a wood fired evaporator that stops itself after a bit. Went and looked at two of my other sugarbushes today. One had a ten foot section of tubing gone, something was hungry. The other is a mess. Mainline down, spiles came off of the t's and them darn wasps plugged them. A good morning of work in it.
March is syrup season. March is also college hoops. I used to boil outside, often finishing under flashlight, while my wife sat in the family room watching basketball. No more - as soon as I moved into the sugar shack, I ran about 500 feet of cable from the house to the sugarshack.
Now we have a pizza delivered. Put the pizza box right on top of the steam hood, and pizza stays hot and we all (wife and our two girls) eat pizza, watch basketball and make syrup. Great times!
For the past few weeks I have been putting in some time in the woods upgrading everything I can for this year. Ran 500' more 1" dry line and added two vacuum boosters to get better vacuum to the upper end of one section. Added more shut off valves to help detect leaks. Thinned and cleared out a few areas to add more taps. Finally ran new laterals to a couple sections that I skipped years ago and never got round to doing before. Have a couple short sections of mainline to run still and few more taps to add to them. Built and replaced drop doors for the cupola. Waiting for the new Vacuum pump to show up then will have to get that hooked up. Still have a bit more tubing repairs to make. At this rate I might even be ready this year. I have the new tapping bits already waiting, I haven't tried them in the drill yet. Trying 300 of the disposable spout adapters also this year. Construction is extremely slow so I might as well make use of the time!
Mark
DaveY- Im going to try to put the pans on tomarrow. Got to get the ro room done first. Just got the gasket so I couldnt put them on before. Takes me a long time to do anything becouse Im kind of finicky. Bought enough ball valves today to to put a shutoff on every main. Parker told me told me high vac levels are abolutely critical to production so im not messing around. Gages everywhere. Tthhheeeerrrrroooooonnnnnnn.
I've been getting things ready. It's about a month from the earliest possible start date here in Maine, but there is always lots to do. I fixed the mast that the electricity is hooked to, with the help of a friend who can do anything. I sent off for new plugs. The ones we had leaked and fell into the pan. It's not worth it to have things that drive you crazy. There's enough that can go wrong without that.
We have our wood ready, but have a lot of little fix ups to do up in the sugarwoods. I plan on using February vacation for that.
There must be 3 feet of snow in places, so we'll have to tap low so that the taps aren't all up there in the treetops by the end of the season.
Theron, Nothing wrong with finicky. Your operation is real neat. that's something i have never been. I put the last touches on then tubing system this afternoon. It is done!!! The tanks will get set Sunday and then I can tap on Monday:)
One thing that is not mentioned on here a lot is that this winter is about as close to a normal winter as we have had in 3 or 4 years. Been cold here for most of the past 6 weeks and the next 10 days look the same which will put us close to Feb.
DaveY Nice job on the lines. Are saying you are going to tap monday of next week? Ive got at least two weeks to go to be ready but that would put me first of feb and Im hoping it gets cold for a little while. Im going to watch my buddy Richard and tap when he does. Pans are on the evap and I hope to finish ro room today. Theron
Dave-
Upload some of those pics so we can see what's going on.
Worked on my pump house down the road today, just have to put the front door on and it's good to go. Might put on the meter box and electrical panel and some circuits tomorrow and call Central Me power and get some wattage in the cottage.
Then solid work on just tubing. Sap will be to the road, pump on electricity, big tank by the road, just need to run some more pipe. Miles ahead of last year.
Suppose to be seriously cold next week, theron you'd never make it next week here.
Big sugar-makers event in NWPA today. Our annual members meeting was very well attended and we also had several dealers, and a good pancake and french toast lunch. Great job by President Gary Bilek and his board of directors.
Check us out at www.pamaple.org
I am going to try a auto draw off this year if I can get it plumbed wired and rigged up! So bear with me I will need some help and ideas from folks that have them in place. As usual I will want to make some mistakes along the way:)
Chris
Matt- Your right, too cold up there. When I have to cuddle up with Noah to get my core body temp back up above frostbite levels its too cold. Ive got my potbelly running in the sugarhouse today. Just right in there. I think its going to get cold down here tomarrow too. Keep up the good work we need to see the big sap. We dont want Parker showing us up. Theron
You better not say that too loud Theron. If marvin ever heard that, he'd fire up now with anger. And parker would be out in your back yard with the husky even'in up the competition. Slay a few of your rockies and settle the score.
I need a bit more sap before I am a contender, just enough for slickers. I want chestwader sap this year.
So, you mangaged to talk Cheryl into another purchase? Dad and I ordered one before we left the meeting as well. We'll have to share stories on setup and figuring out how to use the drawoff, though they appear pretty simple!Quote:
Originally Posted by Sugarmaker
~ Andy Kinter
Had our winter association meeting today nice crowd good speakers, talked about R O s and vacuum tubing
RICH
Yes it was a very informitve meeting. I thought tubing and vacumm systems might be in my future,but I like the K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid) method. Maybe when I have to go to a woodlot we will consider it again. Also KUDOS to trader member Mark Schaefer for his 1st place med amder syrup entry. Rich I wish I knew you were going to be there we could have done a face to face hello. Maybe on the fall tour in the Sault,nice weekend get away with the Mrs,s ? I'm glad you made it home safely Herb.
HELLO HERB
i am putting up vacuum this year so i dont have to fight the mudd again. it has been a real challengewith the flat land here. royalmaple has been walking me thru the trouble spots. he has been very helpful.
RICH
Guys- Just picked up my tools and took them in the garage. Shed construction is done. Got some more wiring and plumbing but all the building is pretty much wrapped up. Started the whole project last January around this time, took a full year. Pretty happy with everything and pretty happy its done. Just have some plumbing a bit of wiring and misc and I should be all set. Only thing I didnt do is the kitchen counters but I might say the heck with it for this year have to see how the time goes. Going to shoot for just being ready to make syrup. Ro comes next saturday. Starting to look like a real sugarhouse. Gotta get a new coffee pot for the shack and ill be ready to make syrup. Ill get some pics in about two weeks and hopefully everything will be complete. Maybe if I get done a little early ill put out a few more taps. Thats the part I really enjoy doing. Theron
Almost finished the bush up the road, need a couple mainline fittings. Went across the road and fixed a couple spots in that bush. Three more to check on, and then finish getting the vacuum system set up down the road. Sold a good amount of syrup today, at least my wife did. Looks like the beginning of Feb. maybe when I put the rest of my taps in.
Theron, I'm not tapping monday that was a joke.
Matt I am still working on the Pics.
Chris, you will have to fill me in on what I missed at the big meeting.
Ok guys I have some pictures posted of the pipeline. I will try to take some more tomorrow when we are setting the tanks. Just click the link in my signature. you will sell them there.
Dave Y,
The link to your pictures only brings me to the main page. There must be some sort of sharing feature that you have to enable for everyone to see them.
Russ
Link should be:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dyeany
found out do not have enough power to run new r/o. power company here friday to stake two new poles new service 200 amps at the sugar house same time 200 amp gen switch hook up.maple school yesterday long talk with glenn and bruce on prices. the bottom fell out of the dollar as we all know. projections of 2 dollars a pound comm.but sales of supplies up 10 percent.hit the 5000 tap mark this week more to go. now vac pump problems to solve will keep me busy this week
ok Russ try it now.
Wow Dave! you've got a lot of work done there! Looks like your sugarbush is along a forestry road? How far away from home is the bush? The time you spent gathering last year you will spend boiling this year.
Dave,
It works now. You have some nice looking trees there. I like the bulk tanks too.
Russ
DaveY- Nice looking woods. Trees are awesome. Im going to have to take a ride out sometime and check it out. Is the woods on a side hill or is it kind of flat to where you had to slope your lines? Its always hard to tell from the pics? Looks very nice. Theron
DaveY,
The pictures are great. Made me just realize what I need "SUSPENDERS".
Great looking tubing set up in the bush and good sturdy rests for your tanks.
How much did that beaver weigh? 50 lb?
The NWPA Maple meeting was very good, only I could have used the whole 6 hours to flap my gums to everyone. Including some names from the trader.
Tappin and sappin, Gary R, Father and son, Sweetwood Maple Jim Brown
The big news was the unveiling of the NWPA maple brochure. This is almost to nice to give away.
I am stuffing 50 of them with our price list and business card and they will really show off our maple industry. This is the results of a $15,000 state Ag grant.
Looking for help setting up a auto draw off for 2008. The old 3 x 10 gets a new friend. ( New toys are nice!):)
Regards,
Chris