-34 here cancelled school. starting to warm up its about -16 now WOO
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-34 here cancelled school. starting to warm up its about -16 now WOO
caseyssugarshack93,
Yow-sires!!!!
Ok you keep it!!!!
It's 8 here now!!
We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave!!!!
Dave
GUES WHAT!
I PASSED MY LICENCE EXAM!!!!!!! ONLY 2PTS off your allowed 20 off!
YEAYA!!!! gunna go up to dads at 2:30 and then to maple school tomorrow!!
then probably will tool around on dad's sled on sunday, havent riden a sled all year, gunna be cold but fun!
if any of you traders are going to the maple school in hyde park tomorrow im a bout 5 7 brown hair and have a john deere hat on witha ripped brim, probly in a F&S camo coat. i think we all have to wear name tags any way
Danno just dont go do somthing stupid and end up in jrthe3s woods he has cameras and guard dogs and a lawyer on retainer.
Bottled close to a barrel of syrup last two days, and made some fantastic maple cream and sugars. Went and got more bottles today plus a lapierre small releaser. Nice unit except for only one hole on top of the top chamber for the vacuum to hook to. No holes for the sap to come into to. Kind of defeats the purpose of the releaser if I can't hook it up to my tubing! Kind of like building a house and forgeting to hook it any utilities. And no, I'm not even thinking of doing it myself. Guess I'll see how customer friendly lapierre is now.
That's pretty fun Haines!
he not on retainer he is in the family
Enjoy the cold all, I'm off to St. Croix in the morning. No, I'm not trying to rub it in. Maybe. Though take comfort in the fact that I'll be pondering how the hell I'm going to have time to get all the sugaring stuff ready when we get back!
Andy, You just go ahead and leave us up here in the frigid tundra.:)
Chris
Forgot to mention that the lack of adequate antifreeze in the Chrysler may have rendered it a pile of useless metal and rubber today. Its setting in the semi heated garage tonight:) -12 degrees in NWPA this morning. Throw another log on and hunker down!
Chris
Hey Chris what the lastest on the little guy?
Jim
Jim,
I think they are keeping it updated under the ITS ALL ABOUT FAMILY section.
How do you know when the "maple bug" is more then a little bite?!...When you put $800.00 worth of kitchen cabinits in the sugarhouse kitchen even though the ones in your own house are falling apart, and the sink is about to drop thru the countertop! Yup, thats what we've been doing. We tried all the salvage yards and discount lumber stores, but got new stuff so it would all match and look good. Also gave the walls a $80.00 paint job. Syrup sales were out of control the last couple of months so we decieded to finish the sugarhouse kitchen before the season starts. Its hard to make confections, cream, and candy when all the pans and stuff are stored in boxes and stacked on each other. I can't wait till its done. I have been working on this dream for a long time :)........
Marty
I have been working on a road side bush putting it on tubing. I have the pipe installed and the saddles on. I am going to put the drops on today. I think I will wait till later in the day to go out as it is -10 at this time. cold tools in your hands at this temp is kind of uncomfortable.
Mapleack go to St Croix, who cares there are no maple trees there! :)
well im almost ready for sugaring time. finally got some pics up so tell me if its working or not.
Maple kid,
Looks like your in business!
I talked to Keith (Neighbor) today and he just ordered a roof jack for 10 inch stainless to go through his garage roof. He said it was pricey! Hope we offset some of the cost by fabing his 6 foot stack base from free stainless sheet!
He wants to get hoods on it too. If he doesn't this year he will have a lot of steam in the building!
I think I better go Cheryl is working on a sugar house puzzle. Its a fall picture of a old sugar house near Peacham Vt.
-12 degrees again last night.
Regards,
Chris
was 6 here today try to work outside but nothing would work so went in to build my releaser got a good start just have to order top and bottom caps for main chamber going to use 1/2 inch plexy glass
here one more
Boyd thats coming along great I'll take one?
Picked up a 400'roll of 1/2 blue for the smaller side of the north bush, I will be putting up all the mains tomorrow and Monday, it will still be cold and the main line will be tough to work with.... I figure to stretch it out best I can with ropes , then tighten it up and let it be and pull tighter on monday when its around 30 deg out(balmy compared to the -15 this morning)
Mass Maple had it's annual Mtg today and a good talk on the ALB, great presentation from Robert Childs of the UMASS Extension. Still looks grimm for the Worcester Ma. area with the possibility of 20-30000 trees that could be taken down.
what a deal i got today ....here is what i got 1- 500 gal drum 2 -30 gal drums 2-275 gal totes 3 -5gls jugs 18 ft of 10 inch stack roof jack stack cover and base stack 2x6 leader raised flue lead free 2002 evap.. the pans are mint arch needs a little work ... all delivered to the front door of my sugarhouse with a small crew to move it in all for a grand total of $1800 thanks valley view
went to the maple school today in hyde park, IT WAS THE BEST DAY OF SCHOOL IVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE!!
it was awsome and i learned alot. for any one whos hasnt gone you dont know what your missing, if i could i would go to it again, i learned all about tubing and vac, i learned that all saddles except for the ipl ones are basically junk and even the ipl ones you have to shim w/ a piece of pipe or it leaks, and learned simple ways to check for leaks etc, the guy who talked about the multi fittings had 4000 taps on a 1 hp vac, runs it all season, and gets 3/4 gal per tap, it was nuts, he also said go w stainless fittings because all of the plastic fittings will cause ice blockage, he did a test which you or i could repeat which u have 2 pipes one w/ a plastic conecter and on w a ss con. fill them w/ water and lett it freeze and keep them outside and the ice in the ss will fall out in 2 hrs where he said it had been a week since the ss ice fell out but he took them to a confrence and the one w the plastic fitting the ice didnt fall out until he was in the autotorium in the middle of a seminar a week later, i couldnt believe it. saw spike vasseure and estman long from in the valley down in my town. cool to be there, was told by many of the people there that "you need to sign up to be the maple king" as they handed me the sign up sheet. i get 500$ if i win and i have to speek at a bunch of places and be at the farm show etc. but i think i have a good shot at it!
Going to maple school jan 30 at miners insutute
my buddy mike parker told me about it and wants me and my dad to go.
DanO---There is another maple school next weekend in Middlebury if you want some more schooling. Hey!, aren't you the kid that doesn't like school????
we picked up another 5" of snow last night. It is still coming down. another 1-2 today,they say. Last night was 1-3. Doesn't look like anyone will be tapping any time soon. I will have to strap on the snow shoes to work in the woods. At this rate I will need them again this year to set my taps.
i with you dave we got about 6" last night yesterday i went out on the snow machine there where places in the woods on the edge of the feild where the snow is like 8 FEET deep a few year back it was like that and i taped with snow shoes when the season was over had to take a ten foot ladder out in the woods to pull my taps
if i can find a ride YOU BET I WILL GO!!!!, are you gunna go???Quote:
Originally Posted by maplwrks
this is the best school ive ever gone to, you dont have to raise your hand to ask questions, you can get up and leave if you want to, you dont have to ask to go to the bathroom, and you cant get detention or get suspended, (ive never had to deal with either, im just not that much of a badboy) what more could you ask for and you learn about maple all day!!! i <3 maple school!! hehehe, i just wish i had brought money, lappiare had $42 rolls of tubing, uhhhhhhhhhh, and i need to sign up for the vt maple sugar makers assn, plus ive got a bunch of old mercry thermometers and a merc. hydrometer that you can trade in for new ones, theyre all digital and fancy, and you dont have to pay any extra!! just trade 'er in. its great, i learned alot and talked to lapierre about a vac releaser, they are the only ones who have a used one, say does any one have a releaser they are willing to sell???????
dan build one i think i got it figured out will find out when i hook up the vac pump and suck some water out of a bucket
when all said and done i have about $300 into it and about 4 hours
NWPA maple folks and all,
Northwest PA Maple producers are having their annual members meeting Jan 24 starting 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM lunch is free for the first member joining and $7.00 for guests. It will be held at the Edinboro PA Fire hall. Several speakers including Gary Graham from Ohio State and our own Jim Brown.
See you there!
Chris
chris it is looking good for me to be there sat hope to get to put some faces with these names
also there is a section for the NWPA on the board
Snowing to beat the band today. They were calling for 8-14 inches of new stuff. Really light and fluffy snow. We've already got 10 inches, so they are on target so far.
We ended up with 10 more inches this morning been plowing most of the day.They say 1-3 more today and I think they will get it, snowing like crazy right now(3:00pm)We won't think it was so funny that the guys in Maineand NH tapped on snow shoes last year we are looking at the SAME THING!!we now have over 30 inches on the ground in the woods.Global warming my hind leg!
Jim
Yea Jim, I might have to plow out my collection route.
Buckets are washed. brought about a face cord of wood into the garage for the evaporator. Homemade canner is finished. Test ran the new sap pump.
Just need to mount my stacks, sanitize things and tap. A little warm weather would help also. Maybe in a few weeks.
Hope to see some of you guy's in Edinboro next Saturday.
Got out to the woods today,6+" of fluffy new snow, My Son Jimmy, Clan Delaney and I rolled out about 1600' of mainlines today , it was around 15-18 deg out but surprisingly the mainline rolled out nice and stayed pretty straight.
still worked up a sweat. we cooked the ramin noodles and keilbasa on the tailgait for lunch and made some hot cocoa..... tomorrow my son and I will tighten everything up and side pull.... I am not using mainline wire due to having to remove each season end so getting it tight is interesting.
I'm sitting here in my recliner half thinking about going out to the sugarhouse and finishing the last bit of firebrick and the back of the arch but...... comfort and relaxing warmth is taking over!! a good nap already started that off.
I have tomorrow off so I need to run to tractor supply for a few things and the local small maple supply guy for some grippers(hopefully he has some!)
Funny you should mention the global warming issue. We are hearing less and less of it each month. I was thinking today when I started college 15 years ago and well before that, the big topic then was ozone depletion and the ozone layer was being killed. Never hear about that now since I think it repaired itself as science says or I say, God repaired it if it ever was much of a problem or just another scare tactic and a big news money maker like so many of these things are, like Y2k, what a load of garbage.
Guys- I know you guys get a kick out of me being all psyched up this time of year waiting for the first sap run. Im watching the weather like a hawk and weve just come off a week of below zero temps. When do you guys predict I make my first 50 gallons of syrup. Theeeron
Well its better than Christmas here today. Picked up my sp-22 yesterday and am thrilled with it. Visited with Theron for a while and walked his new bush since I was in his neck of the woods and got home ahead of the snow to boot. Looking to get the pump all hooked up this week, finish the evaporator readiness and hopefully test boil next weekend although I have a date with my wife, two snowmobiles and about 100 miles or so of groomed trails next weekend also. Things are looking great, its one day closer to sugar season and plenty of snow to ride on to pass the time.
Ought to be perfect riding. Good snow year for the snowmobiles. Theron
my bet is feb 7
well just about finished the releaser today just waiting on the end caps hope they are here tomorrow it looking like after this week i will be all ready to tap so maybe i will get everything on vac LOOKING FOR BIIIIIG SAAAPPP
Well it just shows how unpredictable the weather can be.
On Friday it was looking like later this week I might be on board to start taping, well now it looks like it might be a few more days. The temps are still going to be below freezing dureing the day, maybe one or two days will be just above.
With the past week and half of frigid weather it will take a little longer to get to Go-Time.
I think what theron has is rubbing off on me, I can't do anything right now but thinking about making syrup and when I will be able to start.
THANKS THERON.:rolleyes:
Maple Walnut great to hear about you pump. How many taps do you think that the SP-22 will handle?
I have been keeping my eyes open for a vac pump, no luck yet. But I really haven't had the time to look all that hard.
PEACEMAKER
that sounds like a very good deal that you got. i am looking for something like that also
RICH