vermont maple school location
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vermont maple school location
You and Patheron crack me up. :lol: It is way too cold here to do anything. Stay in the garage today and work on the sap trailer sounds good to me. I still have about 10 more lats to run, then put the drops in and we are ready for the BIGSAP. Can't come fast enough. Work called today and told me they had a couple jobs they want me to do in a couple of weeks, told them to let me know how that goes for them. I sure hope you are right about the big sap, I might be lookin for a job:oQuote:
Originally Posted by 3rdgen.maple
Hyde Park is actually is actually in NY about 2 miles north of Poughkeepsie, a short ways east of the Hudson.
I went this morning and bought another 500' of 3/4 30P for branch line. That should be the end for this season on expanson. Too cold out with wind chill so I will just plow the sugarhouse out again, and try to make a quick, simple spooler for the tubing I bought. I have a rather simple idea I'm going to try. If it works I'll share the idea. Then I'm going to begin cleaning out the sugarhouse and getting it ready. Wow, I sure stash lots of STUFF in there in the off season. I need to build more storage building (s)
Yet another Hyde Park is in Vermont between Morrisville and Johnson.
Don't they call us "woodchucks" up here? Not "red necks? (No offense Wdchuck):lol:
No offense taken! I dont mind being called a woodchuck OR a redneck- hence the name.
Wow maple trader has picked up lately 6 pages and its only the 22nd. THe monthly journals are usully 3 pages. I went to the MMPA annual meeting today. I bought a new 2 handed tubing tool. It is going to make my life easier. I tryed it out and put in a few drops using a flashlight tonite. I got some arch gasket so I can put m evaporator back together. There was a workshop on grading syrup and off flavors that was pretty neat. All the syrups with off flavors that we tasted was bought off store shelves or entered in a contest so it reminded us to check all our syrup because it just takes one bad jug to turn away a customer forever.
well its been awhile, been a busy guy at VTC. told every one no im not sugaring this year, cant swing it while im in school, but gues what, i couldnt stay away form it. going to boil on weekends and my uncles going to take the sap produced during the week. vtc's got a maple production class taught by glen goodrich, thats my favorite class at college! went to maple school with the ol man today, learned that having my mainlines go up into the releaser 8" probably was really limiting vac to getting out to the rest of the woods because that created a sag out side the releaser that filled up and gas cant be transfered easily threw that, gues i f'd up there! but thats why you go to maple school! moving back to waitsfield next weekend! going to be nice living 50 ft away from my sugar place again. got alot to do yet, moving the tank thats in front of the sugar house to the back, putting a wood floor in from the pad out to the wall of the sugar house, putting in a couch, got some tubing to fix, some logging to do, told my mom's boy friend to plug the ol JD in so she'll start for me tomorrow morning, going to try to cut and pull some timber, maybe take out a few squirrels with the .22 i borrowed from my ol man today at maple school. sold him 2, 5 gal drums he gave me 3.30 a pound, i rounded it to $350 for the both of them, the bulk price is 2.80 so i must say i like doing buisiness with my ol man! keep warm guys, im probably going to be warming my hands on the tractor stack more than i will be logging ha! thank god for woolies and carhartt coats!
Got most of the AOF finished today. Need to weld in nozzles. then put in ceramic blanket and brick. Lots to do still but it is comming!!:) 10 more inches of snow today so I think I may have a little time yet.:D
Dan O,
Can't keep a good man down,,,,or away from maple:D
been workin in the woods pretty steady getting ready for the 2011 season. added a good 75 taps today shootin for a other 75 tomorrow added 350 new taps so far. looks like ill add about 400 new taps and 250 got new drops. hopin for a good season
hope everyone is doing well and getting the woods work DONE!
Not maple related, but we butchered 2 pigs yesterday using our (food safe)
wooden butcher tables and cast iron kettles. just like the days gone past
Yesterday I just plowed out the sugarhouse AGAIN and started cleaning out the sugarhouse for the season. I had 2 rototillers stored in there, but now I put them in my shooting house deer blind until they are needed again. I also kept looking at my solar charge controller. Even on a totally overcast day it fully charged the battery bank. I can't wait to see how well it will run the sugarhouse this year. (new system, larger and far more efficient)
Dano did you take up Dr. Tim Perkins offer and lending a hand? Curious cause that would be a great opportunity for anyone. Spent the day yesterday plowing after all the new snow. Got to get to the woods yet though but seeing the thermometer is reading 2 degrees I think Im staying inside today. Tuesday temps are back up in the 20's. Almost go time just a few more weeks.
I'm going out in a few minutes, the temp is way up to 5 above!!!
We had our annual maple meeting yesterday. The turn out was excellent. Quite a few new backyarder's showed up. Hoping everyone has a great year.
A couple of guy's on here seem to be excited about this cold weather. Their expecting a great season. They must have already forgot about last year. Cold until the last week of February. One week of decent weather and then 60's and sunny for most of March. The guy's up north were making syrup before we were:o Only time will tell what mother nature will bring us. Hopefully by adding vacuum things won't be as bad whatever the weather.
Thanks to backyardsugarer, I've got a salamander running in the new syrup kitchen today. Putting in outlets, switches, and OSB walls.
Picked up an old Garland six-burner stove with 2' griddle over the past summer for finishing and an occasional pancake breakfast, for me and crew, during the season!
Stay warm.
Gary,
Folks that were at our NWPA maple meeting seen me try to do a demo on making maple candy with our candy machine. I did good getting the light syrup cooked to 240 in the pig. Started cooling it, got to 200 degrees and hit the switch on the screw. Grunt, groan and very little movement. Had seven syrup makers attack the machine pulling, pushing, probing, prodding, twisting, nothing! Just seemed that the bearings were locked up in the motor.
So I brought the candy machine home and took the gear end off the motor. All the gearing was in good working order and had plenty of grease. This motor had a small magnet type attachment on the end opposite the drive shaft. This seems to be some type of a motor brake. Maybe to stop the motor as soon as the power is shut off? I took this end off the motor pulled out the entire armature and found the bearings to be in like new shape and all free.
Went back and looked at this magnetic motor brake. It had a fiber disc that the motor shaft had to engage and turn. The thing was not working so the brake was on all the time. I took this apart took out the fiber disc, tested the motor and it worked fine. The gear motor will function fine without this brake, so we are back in the candy business.
Morel: Try the equipment before the demo! Also a reminder things tend to go wrong when trying to show a group.
Regards,
Chris
been distracted from maple trying to get my machine back running.
But got back in the maple groove today and headed over to Maine to get my new syrup pan and 16 x 28 finisher that Bill Mason has been building.
Bill did an amazing job putting some custom touches on the finisher. Some we talked about, some he did of his own creation. Nice to have someone doing the fabricating who has sugaring experience as he can invision what improvements might mean...
He put a v-groove in the bottom of the pan and a bottom drain so it should all drain to the outlet. Then he put what I'm going to call a "kick-stand" for the pan so you can prop up one end of the pan with ease. Should make sure everything makes it out of the finisher...
final touch is the jug rack- he made it a tray and put some stainless mesh over the top so that if you drip out of the valve it drops in to the tray, not on the mesh or the shelf. All that I was hoping for, and more...
Bill also did an excellent job making a copy of the 2.5 x 2.5 syrup pan. All I need now is sap...
Cannot speak highly enough about the service and quality of Bill's work. Was done when he said it would be done, and for what he said it would cost- a heck of a lot cheaper than any evaporator company in Vermont...
stay warm everyone...
looks like I ought to talk to Bill. The pan looks great. It is nearly what I'd need but mine is 3x2, same style, Grimm raised flue. Is it soldered or welded? How much did the pan run if I might ask?
Dave- its welded out of 20 gauge. price was $600.
Well got out a little today!!! Went out snow shoeing for an hour this morning it was only 10* so I figured I would throw on an extra layer ...MISTAKE!!! ooofff worked up a good sweat!!!
Then got lazy for a few hours
decised to go out a get the releaser plumbed into the mainline. 12* with wind is awe-some... I can do it no problem with out the wind....I hate WIND!!!
anyway thats done.
Brought the stuff into the basement to re plumb the head tank. I'll just do a dry fit and put it together outside. much nicer working by the woodstove.
Put up laterals and used my new tubing tool to put up 45 drop lines. working in the woods sucks with all this snow. Cut up a cherry tree that was stuck in another tree. Hopefully Ill finish up my neibors woods in the next few days. Then on to the other neibors then I need to finish my evaporator. I have a lot to do before the season.
Feelin a little uneasy tonight. Pretty much have my lines down to a few hotspots then its going to be continuous tweeking from here to thaw time when I can. Seems weird to be about ready. This week Im in the sugarhouse preparing for next weekends "OPERATION BURN OFF". Then I should be about ready to tap in. Looking foreward to see and hear that big machine in action. Ive got to run duct work to the piggyback and a little finetune on level and hook up the headtank and should be about ready to try it out. Were bearing down on go time. One more month and its #@$!ASTROPHIE SAP! Theron
Theron,
If you want to feel a little harried and pushed to be ready on time, you can come up here for a couple days. I had loads of fun wire tying at 5 below this PM:D
Built 40 drops this afternoon, 30P Leader tees and health spouts, now need to find trees for those.
Quite cold out looks like it will go to 10 below.
Chris
Doug- Id love to come up. Ive got tons of stuff Im supposed to do every weekend but like you said If I want to feel up against it I could just skip a weekend. Ive been working in it everyday too. Its a killer. Ill work about an hour and a half and then come back and get warm. What all are you working on now Doug? Theron
DOUG:wait till tomorrow morning..that minus 5 is going to feel balmy. :lol:
delbert
Already -16 below here! Supposed to drop to -25/-30 by morning.:o
Yeah, that is what they are saying here too. Probably just cut and skid logs in the AM. That'll keep the horses warm and us too trying to keep up with them.
it,s already minus 25 here at 9:20pm and still droppin.
delbert
-25 Wow thats pretty cold. We are tropical -1 here in southern NH.
-3 here right now. The snow is our worst problem. 3.5' on the level. Haven't been to the woods in a few weeks. Hope it's not as bad down there.
-25 here this morning. Not a chance of pulling the last of the laterals on this 300 + tap bush I have been working on. Wait for another somewhat warmer day. This will push me up to 700-750 taps this year.
Right now i have -29 and have been up since 3 because water line froze not working in sugar house today till water is unfrozen cpmaple crown point ny
8am and minus 32... in alittle bit i have to head to work.. the school bus i drive has a air door to let the kids on..and it,s either closed or wide open..the guy that invented that sure didn,t live in the north country... :rolleyes:
delbert
Eric, Those are some nice touches on the finisher. I like the "kick stand" I prop the tank up with a stack...the kick stand would be nice. You've done some work to your arch with the air tight front. Did you add over fire air as well?
We went to our local Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association meeting on Saturday. It was a good turnout and as usual we came away with all kinds of neat tips and other info. The most beneficial were 2 tips from Rejean L - the Force 5 combustion expert. The first was to keep the hatches on the steam hood partially open to speed up evaporation. He said that foam slows down evaporation and that by partially opening the sliding doors you get rid of the foam and allow the gas in the liquid to escape into the air faster. If you've got a pre-heater you need to figure out how much you can open up the hatches without compromising the pre-heater's performance.
Afterwards we asked Rejean about using our auto-runoff and got a great tip from him that should allow for more frequent draw-offs of syrup. For those of you who haven't met Rejean he's a wealth of technical knowledge.
Yesterday we decided to get some work done in the woods, despite the -25 C (-35 C with windchill) temperature. Once we got properly dressed and moving it was actually quite pleasant in the woods. We managed to get the rest of our main bush switched over to stubbies and made a few repairs here and there. In total, we reduced the number of taps in our main bush by over 16% by removing 3rd and 4th taps from trees that have been overtapped for decades. Only a few monster trees have a 3rd tap but the long-term benefit should be worth it.
We still have some work to get done around the sugar camp but we've pretty much finished our work in the woods and could tap tomorrow if we needed to. It won't be long until we're thinking about charging up the drills!
Rejean was at the NH annual meeting last year. He sat with us and ate lunch the guy is pretty amazing. he really knows his stuff. When I talke dto him last year he had a bunch of things he was working on, Smaller more effiecient evaps2x6 2x8 drop flues, whole house wood boilers, amoung other other things.
Our NH annual meeting this year the hot topic was the changing of the grading system. Wow can of worms there!!! and the VT McDonalds dispute over the Oatmeal. We wanna get in on that too.
I wanted to work in the SH house today but ended up shoveling off the roof. there was a lot of snow packed up there!!! we could get 0-12 inches of snow on wed/thurs. so now I am almost ready I have a little more to go I'll do it tomorrow!!! :(