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been hitting the sugar house pritty hard last few days making way for the new pans and getting everthing ready for the season had to give up on the double releaser project for now just have to much going on right hope to finish up the tubing this week and haed to canada friday to pick up new pans
I went up to Swanton and picked up my new stack at Leader's. While I was there I picked up a two handed tool, a pair of expanding pliers, an inside flue brush, spare rubbers for the Grimm floats and some pipe and tubing fittings and saddles. They were out of end line rings :o . I should have bought them when I was looking right at them at Bascom's the other day. The local store has everything but them. On the ride home the boss called and wanted to know when I could start this spring? I told her I wanted to sugar but for the price she is paying if she needs me I'm there. Just my luck the first good run some fool will want to start putting in a temporary bridge.
Sorry everyone, been so busy with spammers and other things I forgot to change all the tapping for states to 2010... Thanks Westvirginiamapler for picking up on it and sending me the PM... sometimes I need a kick in the A$%
Hope everyone is getting ready, I haven't even started except putting in a nice shiny stainless 8'leg sink in the SH.
Still have to pay for this years Lease so I can get in the woods... that will get done tomorrow then Saturday is the Mass Maple Annual Mtg and trade show... Who wants to go???
man I can't wait to tap I just wanna make syrup!!! he heck with all the legal stuff it will drive you crazy...I have say one thing though this country was based on small business and government feds and local push for small business they say its the backbone of the USA...well then why is there so much red tape I know you have to go through the process and there has to be rule and stuff but they could make it a little easier.
I guess thats part of the reason everything is made in china before you know it we are going to have to learn to speek mandarine!!!!
Boyd, glad to here those pans are in your future should see a nice improvement in boiling rate too.
Keith and I worked on the 11 drip channels for his preheater tonight. Found out I need to rebuild the hand break pivot joint, so that we can bend some 90's in stainless again. I was using a 3/8 bolt as the pivot and will move up to a 1/2 inch bolt. I might go all out and get hardened ones! Should be good for another 100,000 miles:)
Regards,
Chris
I am unpateint doing nothing I tried to make maple cream tonight. Have no idea what it's supposed to really be like but I got a light beige coloured spead out of it after a few million minutes of stiring. I have to see if it goes with peanut butter tomorrow. That and pawn some off on the teacher at school.
I spent all afternoon trying to find some kind of arch board. I even found the company that used to supply Les Enterprisie Denis Darveav. They stopped actually makeing it and just develop new products but they gave me his number and told me to ask him where he get's it now. About to pull my hair out or just use ceramic blanket instead. Story of my life.
Last 2 days we took time off of our logging pulp/logs to enter a 20 acre part of our woods that the cedar and tamarak are all standing dead and dry. Got 16 cords out. will have a pulp truck haul them to our sugar shack next week. Only a 4 mile haul and on woods roads so we cut them all at 9.5 feet so there should be better then 16 cord. Never used tamarak but heard it burns hot. Brothers and i have our "work weekend" planned for Jan 30th @ 31st. We will cut and split the pulp load/ cut pallets and put 1000 bags on the holders. Our sugar shack is by our hunting cabin so it should be a good time. Hope the weather dosn't turn below zero.
March seems like a long...long....loooong way from now.:(
sitting here in pittsburg new hampshire. should be thinkin of snowmobilin but my heads in the sugarhouse. its way to early for this warm weather at home. but on the brite side any thing thats under the snow at home wont be after monday:D
boy you got that one right...the anticipation is killing me...all this stuff going through my head...especially because this is my first year trying to get as much right as I can. I will make mistakes but the more I get right the better.Quote:
Originally Posted by farmall h
is it going to be a good year with all the rain this year?
hopefully it will be a good year for gravity tubing?
will this happen will that happen?
what else do I need to get done?
just get here already!!!!
Waiting is killing me too, but talking with you folks sure helps !
Yesterday I visited Dan W. His taps are in and he's waiting for sap. The weather man has been a little off but, it looks good for the weekend. Toured his new sugar house and checked out his new to him 2X6. A nice looking outfit. Yard trees scattered all around. He'll have so much time on his hands with that rig, he''ll be tapping the entire neighborhood soon:)
All 4,000 taps are checked, 4 vacuum pumps are operational, releasers are cleaned, saphouse is good, and my new ro tower with the 600 gal/hr is arriving next week. I love it when a plan comes together. Think I'll add more taps next week!
Hopefully this weekend I get closed to finished with my evaporator so I can do some other work on that honey list. Just have to figure out how to insulate and I am away. Or untill I boil the first time and have to patch leaks.
Bought an RTV with snow tracks to tap maples up a steep hill. Testing it today. Goes about 5mph in 8" of snow, 4wd med speed. Barely made it up a 30 degree incline, sliped and couldn't go up a 3' 45 degree bank with ice and mud. Did I make a big mistake? I thought I had read great reviews on here about the RTV 900. Does anyone have any ideas, thoughts, feedback, better results?
Help!
JC
Fred Henderson has that set up on his RTV 900. Check it out with him.
Thank you, but, could you tell me how to find Fred Henderson? I am fairly new to this web site (3 mo.) I don't see him under members?
JC
what else do I need to get done?
just get here already!!!![/QUOTE]
RedMaples......you have to set up more taps! At least to 500!!!!:cool:
Well i can tell you that i bought a 09 polaris ranger and had tracks on it to start last year. but it was hard to monuver through the woods. this year i tried it with out the tracks just tires, a world of difference. it goes anywhere . im still breaking trailes where i havent even been yet this year through about 16-18in of snow with no problems. the big difference here is the rtv is disel ,slow and heavy, like 3200 lbs. the ranger is 1200lb and gas. so it turns more rpms and spins the wheels faster, plus i put a 125 horizontal tank in the bed to gather two of my tanks in the woods. theres my feed back. p.s im selling the tracksQuote:
Originally Posted by paradisegrounds
Paradice go to the top of the page to members list. names of all members are listed there.
after a long trip today and 4.5 hours of walking around bufalo ny waiting for my uncle to come back accrossed the border (i don't have a passport yet)
i got my new to me pans home they look great can't wait to try them out
Weather here is turning back to winter again after tuesday. Looking at teens well into feb. Spent the day with nephew with a refresher course on tapping, setting up the evaporator and all the in's and out's. Let him do a water boil and play around with the float box and firing the evaporator. Couldn't wipe the smile off his face if I wanted too. Made for a nice cleanup as well. Made some maple fudge and some cream. Got a call from the Fed's today and they want me to come down to washington D.C. to work on some equipment. Heading out sunday and be back wednesday I am hoping. Nice little break from the norm anyways. Hopefully the weather turns into our favor mid Feb. I would love to be tapping on Valentines Day.
RedMaples......you have to set up more taps! At least to 500!!!!:cool:[/QUOTE]Quote:
Originally Posted by farmall h
eventually I will be there. this year I figured on 200 taps and ended up with 300:rolleyes: (no addiction here)
one thing on my side is time If I need alot of boiling time I got it.
But I can't go up to 500 taps yet here's my thinking
it's like a snowball/butterfly effect
1. as it is I don't think I will have enough sap storage. I will have 350 gallons of storgae and if I need it I have several 55 gallon poly drums. so I have to
watch the tanks because they can fill p quickly and over flow if Iam not careful.
2. with the extra sap comes the need for extra wood. which I have about 3+ cord split dry now. have lots more wood around just in full log length. but don't feel like split and firing at the same time.
3. With extra sap comes extra syrup and I have don't have enough containers for that much syrup.
next year I plan on adding (look at me 2010 season not here yet already into 2011). also will be a small vacum, relaser and 787 gallon stainless tank. and about 50 more taps. and adding in more mainline to shorten up the laterals to get more effect from the vacuum.
and build a 24 x 30 finished insulated barn with a walk in freezer. down stairs for ice carving business. upstairs art studio for my wife. expanding the sugar house. get some chickens build chicken coup(that will only take a week end), increase thae size of the garden. put in a road in the woods to have better access to far away maples.
oh man somebody stop me !!!! what am I crazy!!! not a biblical guy to say the least but ...please god give me the strength to....
Red you will not need the storage if you just boil the stuff down and quit sitting on it.:D Get after that stuff.
Well winter returned with a passion last two days. I had to get up in the middle of the night and put wood on the fire. She who has to be obeyed didn't wake up and do it.
Trying to get this evaporator finished this week and then be able to test boil when it's warm enough again. My one problem is trying to figure out how to move it by myself or with a 4ft 11 helper. LOL
Pretty much ready to go and just waiting on tapping weather. Pulled all mine north side taps down out of the trees yesterday and marked areas I could find damage on them. We got about 1/4" of ice night before, so would have been kinda hard to find all the damage on them with all the water and ice on them. I have about 220 taps on the north side that I don't tap until about half way thru the season and they will usually run about 10 gallon of sap per tap in about 2.5 to 3 weeks since they don't usually get thawed out until around March 1st. There is cattle in there part of the year during late spring thru early fall, so at season's end, I slide the lines up the trees to 7 to 8 feet off the ground without loosening anything and all the mainline has barbed wire on above and/or below it, so they don't bother it either. Works good and laterals are way too high for cattle to bother.
Fortunately the ice didn't hurt anything. Always cringe with fear when they are calling for ice as we don't normally ever get tornadoes, but we do get ice from time to time.
Shooting for starting tapping biggest south bush around Feb 6 or Feb 13 and the smaller south bush a week or two later depending on weather.
I had a new one happen to me today. I started the vac this morning and then went out for lunch. After getting back I decided to walk all the lines to be sure I didn't have any leaks.
I could hear this one leak from quit a distance off, I figures I either had a stubby come loose from the CV spout or I had a tree rat chew hole.
Well I found which tree it was and there was no hole to be found and it started to look like the CV spout wasn't set completely into the tree.
That is when I found that just below the spout about 3/8" there is a little hole from some sort of insect. That is where the vac leak is. So I took a toothpick and pluged the hole.
The sap is still running in that hole but I am curious if that insect hole will cause a slow running tree at the spot. Should I drill a new tap hole??
Below is a close-up of the tap and insect hole.
The first couple area I tapped (400 taps +/-) several years ago required no thinning. It looked good to go from day one. I've been thinning an adjacent area (300-400 taps) that I would like to get on-line for this season. This new area has beautiful maples, but has alot of old, dying apple under the canopy.
So, how clean is clean enough? I know once I run tubing, I will not be able to get in there to clean/thin further. Most of the thinning is done, but all the dead wood is on the ground. I imagine I'll be tripping on this stuff until it rots -but if I move that stuff out, I won't be adding those taps this year. Left some varied species in the bush.
Anybody in CNY want to come over and tell me what you think? I'm struggling with whether to run mainline tomorrow.
Now, the next section that's coming on after this section has some amazing trees:)
The sap is still running in that hole but I am curious if that insect hole will cause a slow running tree at the spot. Should I drill a new tap hole??
Below is a close-up of the tap and insect hole.[/QUOTE]
Pretty darn clever plugging that hole with a toothpick. If you stopped the vacuum leak, I would not re-tap the tree. Now, if you were still leaking vacuum, I'd cap the tap and throw a bucket on the tree. I'm crazy about vacuum leaks - can't stand them, but that's just me.
Either way, I would not put another tap in the tree unless it's a two tap tree. If you plugged the hole, I don't think sap yield will drop significantly due to insect hole.
Man, did the wallet take a hit today!! My new Lapierre 900 gallon stainless tank showed up, along with a new Lapierre single vertical releaser, 800' of 3/4 main,and 300' of 1 1/2" main. My new Atlantic Fluidics vacuum pump should be here by the end of the week. The power will be hooked up to my vacuum shed this week. I had to buy a huge pump to try to overcome the whirlpool in Roseville, Pa.!
This time of the year seems like a lot of outgo, without much income!!
Dirty Jobs running the Sugaring episode again at 9pm tonight est.
Thanks, Jim!! Most of us were just starting to get over the last time it showed!!! Stand back Pa., another whoopin' is coming!!!
Decided to do metal for the sugar house roof. Amber Gold came over to give me a hand. All we got done is the coupala, and the whole time we are saying "man that looks too small". I think I'm going to rip it out in the morning go half as long and twice as high.
Dennis- Your running so many cfm's per tap a little hole isnt too much of a deal I dont think. Thats allmost a 10 cfm pump on your little woods. Itll be fun as heck to see how much sap you get. How many gallons have you got in a day so far? Mike- Quit dissn us southerners! Were just trying to make some PENNSYLVANIA FANCY!! You ought to see the stuff come out of my lines yesterday. Thats going to make some Pennsylvania fancy. Theron
Yesterday was a great day! Attended the Northwest PA Maple producer's meeting. Could have talked for day's with all the wonderful member's there. Learned alot more from the great seminars. I got so excited I came home and drilled 3 1/8" test holes. All in reds that I have never tapped. All were running sap. The refractometer read 1.6 in the first. The second read 1.7 and the third read 2.2!:D My wife was with me and immediately said I should tap that one. She even walked around with me as I dreamed about putting a few hundred on tubing. I don't know if I'll ever take that step though.
Well I am off to DC don't know if I will have time to keep up with the trader so I am sure there will be alot to read when I get back. Theron go make some of that Pa. Fancy. Any idea how much you have collected yet? I wish we were at the tapping stage here weather wise. Sure would be nice. Looks like mid to late Feb. now. You guys all be safe and talk to you when I return.
Gary R was right the sap adrenalin and sugaring BS was flowing yesterday at the NWPA Annual maple meeting which was attended but famous maple traders like Gary R, Jim Brown, Jim (King of PA syrup) Bortles, Jan (Premium producer) Woods, Jake (Tappin and Sappin) and many others. You will seem more folks from this are getting on the trader too. :) We know its the place to be if you want to talk maple and get lots of input. and good discussions.
Good talks by Brad Gillian from Leader and local forester on the Asian Long horn beetle, Gary Bilek on invert sugar levels and how to change your invert levels in syrup, and Kirisa Durfee on maple benefits to your health.
Got to examine the new check valve spout too. Several Leader dealers were on site.
Jim Bortles and I made some nice crumb and Greg Walberg made sugar on snow. Both demonstrations were well received and we got a lot of good questions.
I was wound up like Gary R and had to go home and hang tubing for 130 taps. Felt good to get out and start to get ready for mid Feb.
We have rainy, raw, windy, warm sugaring weather today. One of those days where if you are out in the bush you cant wait to get back to the sugar house, get a fire going and get the steam rising.
Regards,
Chris
I most say a nine year old daughter shure can be handy at times. I was talking about adding an avatar and she took a photo, down loaded it and set it up so I could have one too. As she walked away she tapped me on the shoulder and said "if you need any more help let me know".:)
gator,
Cute but true!:)
Chris
Sugarmaker,
you must be sand bagging only 130 taps. I put about 200 drop lines on today and washed around 500 buckets. Only 700 more to go. It was good to see all of you yesterday.