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I realized when I got out here that I forgot to disconnect my outdoor hose after cleaning up last weekend; so I probably need to rebuild that faucet yet again. My sap had ice on the top of the barrels, but only about 1/2” thick, so I easily punched my pickup tube through to empty them.
My new pump worked like a charm, so filtering was much easier this weekend. Ended with 3.75 gal. of syrup; better then I thought I'd get.
dsaw, I didn't make it down this weekend...watching the forecast for my next window. How much flowed on Saturday (if you were there)?
Thanks, Andrew
I'll almost hoping I didn't tap to early with this cold snap were having now. Didn't tap everything yet, only about 30 on tubing and another 10 or 15 on bags. Gonna hold out a few more weeks for the rest of the bags. Although I did make a gallon and a half from that early run, hopefully it doesn't come back and bite me in the but from the tap holes trying to heal up
Andrew, I checked a few lines late Sat afternoon and they were flowing; can't really say how much. I managed to puncture a tire on my 4 wheeler so I didn't make the rounds like I wanted to on Sunday (yet another thing I need to buy, a spare tire for my 4 wheeler).
Munstermaple, not sure how much behind us southerners you are; but I think we're probably starting our downward slide towards the end of the season. Next week barely gets below freezing at night down here on a few days.
I've made syrup the last three weekends, and only got amber syrup on the 1st one; so I think I timed it correctly. I've still got trees to tap, but right now I'm leaning towards passing on more tapping and focusing on getting my equipment in-line to handle these, for me, greatly increased amounts of sap I'm getting from 3/16 tubing. If the long range forecasts change, I might do more tapping.
In Fulton county we collected 1030 gallons of sap in the 4th week of January on 141 taps but it has been froze up with only 1 day a week above freezing for the last couple weeks. It looks like only 1 day next week above freezing. It is interesting the difference from southern IN to northern IN. I am curious to see how good the vacuum tubing works after no runs for 3-4 weeks. It is a new tubing system this year so I hope we catch some more big runs with it. I hope to hang some buckets when we come out of this freeze.
Thanks for the info! I think I will head down on Friday - supposed to get up to near 50.
Lol, the similarities continue..my electronic shift is locked up on my four wheeler so I've been on foot this season...haven't had time to get it looked at because every minute I've been down I've been running the ro and boiling. Hoping for a good haul Friday!
I'll be almost out of action without my ATV. I don't know if I can get my tractor to any of my barrels. I can add building roads to my summer to do list. Apparently my tire size is really odd because no-one has the tube in stock and they had to order it. Supposed to be in tomorrow. I tried to order a spare one myself; but of course it's delayed. Plan is to head out tomorrow; but may get delayed waiting on a tube.
I have had good luck with tire plugs. Maybe that could get you going till you get a tire or tube. I carry a plug kit in the gator tool box because we have poked holes in the tires going through the woods. The tire patches for the inside work good on radial car tires but don't seam to stick good on inside of the atv tires.
I carry a plug kit in my truck; but the tear was over an inch long, no plugging that. I could hear whatever punctured it rolling around inside it. Luckily the tube came in and they got it installed today. I smeared silicon over the tear to somewhat seal it, but they advised I get a new tire due to the size of the tear. I might do that, pick up a spare rim, and make this my spare tire. More likely, I’ll buy a used rim/tire combo on e-bay (~$70), then ride this till it fails. Then I can bite the bullet and buy a new tire; but already have a spare. Seems like cheap insurance compared to loosing a weekend of syrup if I were to loose a tire early on a weekend.