Feeling the Walk jeff and I took yesterday! Steep ground-long conductor line, 1.5 miles to the end of it? Rupert has some NICE maples,,,,got another 3 cords in today,,,mabey 10 left to go...............
Printable View
Feeling the Walk jeff and I took yesterday! Steep ground-long conductor line, 1.5 miles to the end of it? Rupert has some NICE maples,,,,got another 3 cords in today,,,mabey 10 left to go...............
Worked in the woods on Thurs and Friday and got about 1300' of 1/2" mainline up. First experience with the 30p manline and definitely glad I paid the extra for it as it is easy to work with and should definitely improve sap quality over the dreaded black stuff. Weather was great both days and the woods are so beautiful and the temps just perfect this time of year.
Went to a different entrance into the mainlines this time with the lateral lines. I almost always bring a lateral into the mainline at a tree and I use the "Y" forks which are awesome for keeping the laterals nice and tight. I drilled a 5/16" hole into the top of the mainline and took a 5/16" connector inside of the lateral line and forced it down into the hole in the mainline. I sealed it up with high grade silicon caulk which was completely unnecessary, as there was a tight seal in the mainline with the fitting. There is no tension at all on the line going into the mainline, and if the lateral line has something to fall on it, all of the strain would be on the other side of the "Y" fork. I think the caulk would be completely unnecessary for gravity which is what I run, but would be necessary for vacuum. Most of the mainline I put up is attached to overhead electrical lines that were taken out of service. I would guess they are aprox 3/8" in diameter as I got aprox 3000'+ of it that was taken out of service and I side tied it off with 14 gauge wire which should break fairly easily if it is stressed.
Be interested to see how it works as I added another 85+ taps this fall and most of my lateral line mainlines were getting over capacity.
LIFE WAS GOOD TODAY!!!!!! No rain and there was this funny looking ball of flame in the sky that I have not seen in quite awhile. Colors are really showing now unfortunetly though alot of leaves got prematurely blown off the trees from the high winds and rain over the past few days. Got some deer cut up and made some venison breakfast sausage to pour some syrup on. Got some more yet to do on it and make some Italian sausage yet. Unloaded 1.5 cords off the wagon and stacked, got the wagon filled with another 1.5 cords. Sold the last 13 quarts of syrup I had to the bed and breakfast next door. They provide a complimentary pancake breakfast for the fisherman with my syrup. One couple liked it so much they took 4 quarts home with them and put in an order for next year as well. I gotta tell you guys, living here my whole life and have tasted everybodys smoked salmon nothing taste even close to as good as theres. They glaze the salmon with the syrup I sold them. I did have one of those, man Im *@#$#% mad:evil: but happy :D at he same time moments today. The story goes something like this. When we bought the John Deere tractor (slightly used at the time) from our local now out of business JD dealer I had them do a tune up on it. Hydraulic fluid change, Hydraulic filter, oil filter etc..... Well soon after we started using it which was years ago we had to frequently change the hydraulic filter as the hydraulics would get slow from the filter clogging. I would go to the dealer and get a few of them at a time. I would change them every couple months and when doing annual maintenance I would change the hydraulic fluid as well. Well 2 months ago I used up my supply of filters. Now mind you I have been splitting wood by hand mostly cause I got tired of how slow the splitter would work. So I ran down to napa with the filter number in hand and asked if they had or could get any. Guy says we do not carry that brand but he could look the number up and get a different brand. He played with the computer a little bit and looked at me and said...... how many miles you got on that 67' ford truck. Huh ford truck no it is a john deere tractor and I need a hydraulic filter. Guy laughed and said this was a special filter for a ford truck and it was not even a hydraulic filter. Well he had the correct one in stock so I got 2. Put it on and wow look out that bucket goes up faster than you can blink and the splitter is like a rocket now. It never worked that well from day one. The thing is twice as fast with the right filter compared to the other one. I cannot believe I never burned up the pump. AHHHHHHHH yes life was good today.
Working on maple now finally with work slowing down. Putting in the Booy bush for the boys right now. Got about 3000 ft of mainline up yesterday. Its all hedgerows and fun to put in. Awefull distances though. Not sure if its going to be gravity or vac when its all said and done. 4000 ft to the releaser with one inch line. Then another 3000 to the end. Only 300 taps though so have to see what happens. Worst case scenerio I put a dairy pump on it but Im going to try to run it off the house first. Kids are helping build it. Found a way to keep them out of trouble and off the streets with the wire ties. That keeps them busy. Even had to bust out my heavy hitter, pretty little mommy, yesterday to help us man the spinning jenny pulling out mainline. Looks like quite a stroke going on with the pickup, fourwheeler, ton truck, all for 300 taps. Makes the neighbors wonder. Anyway having fun. Always makes me happy to see more tube in the air. Got an awefull lot to do. Got to get everything hooked up in the shed, trying to put a thousand taps in, and need at least seven more cords of wood. Thats coming to a halt next year. NO MORE WOOD!!!!!! Gonna hit the switch baby and TAP ALL OF RUTLAND TOWNSHIP, OH YEAH!!!!! Gotta get going, almost daylight out there. Theron:)
I've been busy with my latest toy. I bought a 28' travel trailer that I found on craigslist for $300 last Saturday and have been making the needed plumbing repairs so that I can properly winterize it. Now that I have that figured out it is back to sugaring stuff and I am going to start filling the wood shed today. I used 2.25 cords of wood to make 162 gals of syrup last year. With the planned repairs and expansion I am going to put in more this year. I think that I can get 3 cords into the woodshed and I want to have an emergency cord piled near the sugarhouse.
Russell- someday Ill have an RO,,,,,,,,,2.25 cords for 162 gallons!!!!!!!!!!72 gallons per cord!!!!!!!!
Theron great to hear from you, it has been awhile. Not sure if you got caught under a load of tubing and couldn't get back up!!
Anyway, it is now time to get my but in gear and get going. I picked up my 200gal dairy tank on Fri, awesome!!:cool:
I have to go to the local Feed mill to pick up the wire and start hanging tubing. Just not sure what size to run 3/4" or 1". Not much difference in $$$. I am leaning toward 3/4", easier to work with.
I tested my 2 bender dairy receivers and they work great. I picked up a few clear flapper style check valves for them, Now I can watch the sap come in and also dump, cool!
parker, here i am sucking wind behind you and your hurting!!! was a get day!!!
finished as much of the woodshed addition as I was hoping to yesterday- then relocated the wood shed door to accommodate the wood cart track - making cart and track are next on the list. Think we will try to build the track in sections so that we can add track as we work our way back into the wood shed. off to the sandwich fair this afternoon- best fair in NH in my opinion...
The thing is twice as fast with the right filter compared to the other one. I cannot believe I never burned up the pump. AHHHHHHHH yes life was good today.
3rdgen welcome to the new world. me and Ford have this agreement now. I don't pay them $19 bucks for filters plus what ever the oil is and they stop sending me letters once a month telling me I am due for a oil change. One of the last times they changed oil and then I did they left the ring for the old filter on the flange for the filter and screwed a new one back on. I can buy a Fram filter for 4 bucks.
We had a International dealer here that people had trouble with their work on tractors and one day a mentaly handicaped fellow they had cleaning the shop asked if he should throw what he found in the garbage away or not. Turns out the shop mec. would draw parts out of stock and just throw them away and say the work was done and send the tractor back.