Had frozen lines yesterday evening, but running well at dusk tonight. Not much in the tank so it started late. Have been having good evening runs before the freeze with the 3/16, and still 33 degrees here at the house, so am hopeful.
Printable View
Had frozen lines yesterday evening, but running well at dusk tonight. Not much in the tank so it started late. Have been having good evening runs before the freeze with the 3/16, and still 33 degrees here at the house, so am hopeful.
Nothing worth mentioning here.... forecast looking better for next week but I don't think much is going to happen before then unless we get an extended period of clear skies and that March sun warms the trees.
Up to about .5 GPT for the day. Sap still running 300 GPH but should freeze up in an hour or two. Sap is testing at 2%.
Spud
1.5 gal per tap in the last 24hr. Running well when I gathered at dusk. South facing slope. Ground is still snow covered.
wont lie, pretty jealous of those last two reports. My trees are still pretty froze. I got maybe 1/4gal/tap yesterday MAYBE.
I pulled in about .5gpt yesterday as well. Vac. was fluctuating between 25" and and 27" last night before it froze up. A sure sign I have some more disconnected drops despite finding them all 24 hours previously... I'm hoping for another decent run today so we can boil tomorrow for the open house weekend...
Forecast for next week keeps getting better. Looking like a big state wide sap run. Hope you’ve all got enough wood left!
Sap is running good today. I'm up to .75 GPT and it's still coming in. Should hit a gallon before it freezes up. Still testing 2-2.1%.
Spud
Another 1.5 GPT today. Hard freeze came early last night. Expect it to run later into the evening tonight.
I’m seeing a couple of days in the 50’s next week, followed by cooler temps.
The spouts popping off has been pretty ridiculous for us. Yesterday our 3000 tap bush was running 12" vacuum, I spent nearly 5 hours walking lines through the deep snow, found a lot of popped drops, and got us back up to 26.5 or so and then my dad found a leaking quick connect and fixed that we so we were up to nearly max vac.
Then today my dad gets there after work and we were pulling 10" again. He fixes everything and comes to help me at our 12000 tap bush where we were pulling 15" to start out. We found 30 popped drops and a few chews and spouts that needed a whack. Walked 7 miles through the knee high snow. Glad i'm young and can do it. Now back up to 28", would like to get to 28.4" which has historically been our max vacuum there. Haven't been running at max vac too much this year, but been above 27.5" almost always, usually around 28".
I hope the spouts stop popping off drops. At least next week there will be some nights that don't freeze so spouts won't be able to pop off as much. I estimate we have reconnected 120 drops to spouts this season so far, some trees we've had to do it three times. Ridiculous.
Ended up getting a bit more than .5 gal per tap today in our big bush, not sure about small one. Should be a big week coming up. Good luck to all.
I feel your pain for sure. Yesterday I started the day with vacuum down to 22.5 inches. I walked about 2 miles through very deep snow to find three spouts that had popped out. Of course they were all in the farthest section of my woods. I am now running 25.5 inches of vacuum to all my booster tanks. I hope the snow melts fast so I can get around the woods easier. I hope to get to 27 inches by tomorrow or Monday.
Spud
Went to collect barrels this morning only to find someone stopped and turned all my 55 gallon barrels on their side. I guess I should have collected last night instead of spending time with the family.
Do you guys secure your barrels to a tree to prevent behavior like this?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
That sucks.. at any time someone could come to either of our bushes and do a lot of financial damage in a short period of time but we've never had any sap or equipment stolen, nothing vandalized. Then again, both our properties are set back off the road a little with not much tubing visible as you drive by at 40 mph. So we escape a lot probably. sorry that happened.
I was talking with one of my neighbors, a fellow sugarmaker, at our open house today about the issues he and others, including myself, have been having with vandalism and theft in this area of VT. It's a serious problem and it is a major PITA given that we all work very hard to make our crop. I'm lucky that I have only had some gloves and a bottle of defoamer taken. Others have lost considerably more valuable equipment. It appears as if about 12 sugarhouses in the area have been affected by the same family/group, and that they are using and or selling the equipment they are taking. They do this at night and they always drop a guy or two off that then walk in off the road and grab what they can and then load it up when they get picked up. The only hope in catching them is getting them on film. Someone suggested to me that a leg-hold trap may be a better option....
We were able to boil today from sap we collected Thurs. and Friday. About 1300 gal. came in with over 1gpt Friday. Today ran pretty well also so we have some more sap to process tomorrow. We made 27 gal. of AR right on the GD line. Lots of visitors and great sales. And the only mishap was I overflowed a permeate tank so no big deal. Also got to try out our new diaphragm filter press pump. All I can say is WOW, it is awesome and so far superior to a gear pump.
Just over 1 GPT tonight. Cooled off quicker last night than I expected. Driveway is getting crunchy underfoot now.
I was able to get a little over a quart per tap today. Sap tested at 2.2%. Tomorrow should be the start to a very busy week. Good luck everyone.
Spud
Fired pumps up Thursday to find 10-15 inches at all releaser, after chasing popped off t's and spouts back to 25+, 20-30 pop offs all together on about 3300 taps. Very frustrating. Final back to boiling pulled in 5200 gals from Thursday afternoon to Saturday midday, and made about 70 gals Amber but oh so close to fancy!! That's ok fancy and Amber are both 2.00 so no more premium for the light
http://www.cdlusa.com/wp-content/upl...nd-anglais.pdf
best money I ever spent in sugaring! no need to walk every line just turn up unit and sweep the lines at 40 ft.
oceanstatejoblot.com maple syrup 10 QT
About 1 GPT tonight. Tested at 2.0. A couple of weeks ago it was testing at 1.8.
I got .75 GPT yesterday and it tested at 2.1%. I don't seem to be getting as many 1 gallon per tap days as others but my overall numbers seem to be good. I am at 67% of what I got last year. I am hoping the big daddy trees will really kick in sometime this week.
Spud
How much? If your in the woods how far away can a leak be for this unit to pick it up? Thanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flat Lander Sugaring
Spud
And can it differentiate between a leak and the rustle of beech leaves in the breeze?Quote:
Originally Posted by spud
Found another 45 hanging drops yesterday but got vacuum up again. I'm sure it will be down again today. Had a really good boil, got about 150 gallons through of nice GD. Haven't made fancy in a couple years. Got a new probe from Marcland so our autodraw was working well again finally. Drawing off with just a .1 or .2 degree variation in temp. Good amount of niter in front pan and easy filtering still. Sap was at 2.0 or 2.1, best of the year for us
These ice cold nights sure do make it easy to keep your sap fresh. Expecting a couple big runs today and tomorrow.
Another open house weekend in the books. Sunday was slower but still good visitation and sales. Was able to boil both days though took a bit to get going Sunday as the sap tank valve kept plugging with ice and starving the ro. Made a total of 60+ gal. AR over the weekend which was surprising given all the ice in the tank and how much sap we had. Sugar content has clearly come up.... The only mishap Sunday was not fully closing the drain on the pre-heater and then finally realizing it when the flue pan level kept going up...
Yesterday was the first day in a while no drops were dangling. We'll see what today brings. Looks like we will all be busy this week with some warm weather and nights without freezes. I need to inventory the barrels I have to make sure I have enough syrup storage...
Sap has been running since 9:45 this morning. Running 350 GPH and should run till about 9:00pm. Still testing at 2.0%
Spud
As things finally start thawing up here on the hill we are discovering pull-aparts....on mainline fittings with stainless fittings.
1.5 GPT as of 6pm, and running strong. Temp is down to 25 already.
Probably will switch to gathering before work so the tractor doesn’t dig up the pasture roadway. It is still mostly ice and snow covered, but it is melting fast.
I got .75 GPT yesterday. It was a good day but I think my big trees are still a bit froze. I tested the sap last night and it was 2.1%. Went down to 28 degrees last night so today should be another good day. I am at 68% of last years production. Several weeks of good sugaring to go.
Spud
sap ran fairly well here yesterday. not quite 1gpt. but sugar went from 2% up to 2.5% which I don't get too often. I had a first boiling last night. Our first draw lasted 3 1/2 hours. stopped for 20 minutes and went another 2 1/2 hours. We've never come close to that before. made our first AR this year as well. things should pick up a bit the next few days.
Good run yesterday with about 1.25 gal/tap. Had to search out a few disconnected drops to get the vac back up to 27", but not too bad. Still on snowshoes to get around in the woods.
I shipped 4300 gallons this morning at 2.2%. Sap is only running 200 GPH but should run all night. Sap is now testing 2.0% so it's dropping.
Spud
Made another 35 gal. AR from sap collected the last three days. Puts me at about 315 for the season so far and no end in sight.... Probably about 1500 gal. but hard to say exactly given the ice in the tank. Sap flow slowed way down once it clouded up this afternoon....
Just under 1 GPT at 4pm, and test dropped to 1.7.
Still 35 out at midnight, so will be curious to see if the natural vacuum keeps it running tonight.
Expecting 50’s the next 4 days, with only a couple of borderline freezes.
Concentrated Monday and Tuesday. Boiled today. Started morning with 600+ gal of 37 Brix concentrate (at 23 deg F) and over 6,000 sap at 2.4 Brix in the tanks. Just finished boiling, but RO still running. Made 375 gal of mostly Golden/Delicate. No niter, easy filtering. Total of 1,320 gal so far on 4,925 taps. Will probably have another 250 gal concentrate in the bulk tank tonite before the RO shuts off. Will likely just concentrate again tomorrow and boil on Friday.
The run from yesterday through mid-morning produced over 9,250 gal of sap in 26 hrs. One of the better runs we've ever seen...and good sugar content and excellent sap quality. A few more weeks of this and we'll need more barrels.
I would never make syrup again without a refrigerated bulk tank. Totally separated the RO and evaporation processes and made work-flow MUCH better.
Dr. Tim, could you give an estimate for per gallon cost of a refrigerated tank like the one you have? I definitely like the idea of transitioning to high brix sometime in the future. Also love the idea of having fewer boils while boiling more sap at one time. The money is made in the woods and if you can concentrate labor out walking lines during these big warm spells and then wait till a cold spell to boil, you'll make a lot more money in the end.
Also how many gallons of syrup per hour have you been drawing off your rig?
My cold/West side woke-up last night, and started out-producing the sunny-side that has been carrying the bulk of the sap this last week.
An unpleasant first today — dead squirrel in a bucket.
Chasing lots of leaks also.....Averaging 1 gpt or so per day, nothing too exciting after the freeze we just endured, hoping some of my big trees frozen still or I'm a bit worried about gpt production levels being somewhat low, of course 18-20 degree nights with 36 degree days aren't that handy either, now we get the warmth but lose the freezing nights!!- can't win. I know the flow into the releaser isn't what it was a few weeks ago, and color is closer to dark from light Amber. Hoping for a few more good runs, trees sensing spring here in the Champlain valley I believe.
About 1 gpt in the last 24 hours here. It didn't really run much until the sun came out this afternoon. Still lots of snow in the woods and not much in the way of signs of spring though I did hear a Robin today for the first time in 2018. Going to wait until Friday to boil as I don't expect sap flow to be too dramatic given the lack of freezing.
Been sugaring for over two months now and no sign of it letting up in the near term. At .42 gpt for the season so far.