Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

So I tapped 4 trees just to see what kind of run we may get the next couple of days. It's supposed to be sunny and 40 degrees here today. My neighbor was just finishing tapping his 500 trees on pipeline and said some out of the wind were trickling yesterday. I have a ton of snow in the woods, I tapped on skis which for me are a lot more efficient then shoes.. This is link to what i use, I have the 20 year old boots when they were, "Garmot" and the whole set up is awesome.... https://us-store.altaiskis.com/produ...ted-2016-skis/

I had a friend stop by today and help tap. We put on new taps and put 350 taps into the trees. The releaser for our old bush is setup and ready to go. We need to extend the new mainline and install more taps. Some of the trees were running by noon.

Mike

picked .30gpt testing just under 2% here in castleton, still coming in hard at dusk

A few trees trickled here but no sap yet. Lots of headaches in the pump house as expected. setting aside the expansion until I finish tapping. Be sappy my friends!

Got the releaser back together and the vacuum system working this am and once it warmed up and the sun did its thing the sap started to flow. Nothing too amazing but we'll take it. Cleaned the bulk tank and closed the valve this evening after running about 200 gal onto the ground to rinse the lines. Vac at 25.5" so more leaks to find tomorrow but should have the sap collection system dialed in with a couple more hours in the woods. Then it's on to the RO and putting the evap. back together...

Got two runs hung yesterday with 3/16. Totaling 54 taps, will tap those this morning and set up tank. Plan to run two more lines and hopefully be around 100 taps by days end. It’s ambitious but we’re trying


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i had enough sap run yesterday to flush my lines. have a tiny leak at my releaser that's driving me nuts to find... think i found it by days end when things iced up. should get another somewhat run today with temps approaching 48 and sunny. hoping to get enough between today and tomorrow to fire up the evaporator for its maiden run!

Modest run yesterday afternoon. Vacuum good in one woods, not great in the other. Most vacuum problems due to squirrels. I think we proved (once again) that squirrels like chlorine...which we were using in limited sections for 3/16" tubing cleaning tests. Wade is cleaning up the electric releaser this morning (first run sludge), then off to leak check this afternoon. We will get some sap but probably not a great run this week...trees need some time to thaw and then recharge for good flows. Depends on how well it freezes tonite I guess.

Checked my 4 buckets and less than an ounce of sap in 24 hours...

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Originally Posted by Shirefisher

Checked my 4 buckets and less than an ounce of sap in 24 hours...

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Takes quite a while to warm up a tree that was at -20 deg F a few days ago. ;^)

Secondly, it often takes an initial thaw and then a refreeze to "recharge" the system to get a good sap flow.

I was pleasantly surprised when I test tapped a couple trees on Sat they were running well. So I tapped in almost all my buckets yesterday, everything was running very well. Looking forward to today's yield. Don't have the dumpstation buckets or the collection lines cleaned yet, but that seems to always happen. I can go a couple days with my buckets to give me time to get stuff cleaned and setup. 3/16 tubing will get tapped in next couple of days. Arch is apart getting some new firebrick added. Typical start to my season... oh and I need more wood :lol:

Cool thing this year is how many new trees I was able to tap as a bunch got big enough to tap. Guess that comes from doing this for long enough !

So we are off to the races !

I got 4000 gallons in the last 24 hours. Sap testing 1.3%. I was able to get vacuum up to 26 inches. I hope to get it to 27-28 tomorrow. Sap still running 300 GPH at 6:00 pm.

Spud

picked .50 gpt in the last 24hr testing 1.5% still coming now in castleton

No freeze here overnight and sap flow slowed way down. Was able to pull in over 1 gpt in 24 hours between 8pm Sunday and 8pm Monday. Not sure what the ssc is but may get to testing it today. Got around the woods yesterday and fixed a bunch of small leaks and the vac is up to 26.5 which is generally about the best I can do. Getting things ready to boil Thursday unless it really runs today....

I got 1500 gallons last night on the upper trees. Lower section froze. Running at 130 GPH right now. Should pick up in a few hours.

Spud

i picked up about .5 gal per tap yesterday. once the sun went down the flow slowed quite a bit. ran till about midnight. it was running fairly decent at 9:15 this a.m... hopefully another .5 gpt day!

I am at about 3/4 g/tap @1%.

We have our original releaser taps minus 75 taps (will be sent to the new releaser) up and running now. Lines are flushed and starting to collect. We are installing the last 200 feet of mainline (this will be hooked up to the other 75 taps) for the new releaser and then setting up the new releaser. Then off to add taps to the new section. Hopefully it will be a great year.

Mike

not much freeze last night picked .30gpt in last 24hr sap testing 1.5%, making med amber

Sap slowed down yesterday but did run some. I’m up to 1.6 GPT and now testing 1.5%. Vacuum is at 26 in the woods. Still need to find one more inch of loss.

Spud

I added another 30 on 3/16" yesterday. As I was tapping things were dry but as the day went on (and the drizzle started) things started to flow and eventually sap made it to the tank. Ran through the night from what I can see from a distance but didn't run up to tank and check if it was still dripping.

I boiled sweeten the pans yesterday and was a bit discourage that my sap was 1.9 but after reading here and seeing some where even lower I don't feel quite as bad. Hopefully it bounces up after good freeze this weekend.

First boil was yesterday. Everything worked and made some nice amber rich syrup. SSC was about 1.5. I was impressed by how much sap came in wednesday night and thursday am when the temps rapidly spiked to 40. Was also impressed with how rapidly the temp dropped and the snow piled up while boiling. I was happy that the power stayed on given the winds... Time for a little break to tweak a few things and then we should be busy again next week.

picked .25 gpt testing 2.25, took a while to open up but now running the hardest I've seen in 16 years

we never got above 33 here last night... despite it raining all night we never got a drop. lines a full of ice! looks like we have some good sap running weather today into tonight though. hoping for a fairly slow warm up so my releaser doesnt' get flooded!

I never got above 33 either. Sun is out not and sap just started running a bit. Let’s hope for a great sap day and night before it all freezes up again. Good luck everyone.

Spud

Not much happened here overnight either...

Still working to get vacuum up in one section of the woods. Happens to be where we were doing 3/16" sanitation studies with Clorox. NEVER AGAIN -- **** squirrels.

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Originally Posted by DrTimPerkins

Not much happened here overnight either...

Still working to get vacuum up in one section of the woods. Happens to be where we were doing 3/16" sanitation studies with Clorox. NEVER AGAIN -- **** squirrels.

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Well noted Dr Tim!

I had to leave the house at 4am and the sap had started to flow. Things are running hard now, installed vac gauges. Hoping to have sugarhouse ready to boil for tomorrow. SSC tested 2.5 on virgin trees (86 tree test)


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I have tree rat problems as well!!!!

starting to roll in now at a good pace. hope my forecast is right and it stays this temp till 3 a.m tomorrow!

Sap continues to run well here. It took until this am to get going but once the sun came out it really picked up. Nothing historic but certainly quite good. Pulled in 1 gpt by late afternoon and will run the ro overnight and plan to boil tomorrow. No freeze in the forecast for tonight so I'm not taking any chances. Looks like potential for sap through the week with another boil likely friday after cleaning on thursday.

I finally got a chance to plumb in a sight tube for my head tank so I will no longer need to climb a ladder to check the tank level. There are a few other minor refinements I'm hoping to get done this season during breaks in the action... assuming we get some breaks before the end of the season...

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Originally Posted by GeneralStark

Sap continues to run well here. It took until this am to get going but once the sun came out it really picked up. Nothing historic but certainly quite good. Pulled in 1 gpt by late afternoon and will run the ro overnight and plan to boil tomorrow. No freeze in the forecast for tonight so I'm not taking any chances. Looks like potential for sap through the week with another boil likely friday after cleaning on thursday.

I finally got a chance to plumb in a sight tube for my head tank so I will no longer need to climb a ladder to check the tank level. There are a few other minor refinements I'm hoping to get done this season during breaks in the action... assuming we get some breaks before the end of the season...

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General, how did you plumb in your sight tube?


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We had no new sap last night, just over 30 degrees in the Upper Valley. This morning it warmed up pretty quick. Found a few leaks and managed to get vac up over 26" most of the time and nothing below 24". I added a few taps to some runs. We boiled the 400 gallons of sap previously collected. I checked the tanks about 1 hour ago and there is a little more than 350 gallons from today on 350 taps. Not to bad.

Tomorrow we'll finish the main line run for the new area, finish the releaser pluming, and then add more taps.

Mike

gathered 1.2 gpt in the last 24hr! still testing 2.2, big sap! still making Amber rich

I went down to the sugar house at 6:00am to shut the pump off but the sap was still running 125 GPH. Sap ran all night and I have another 1700 gallons in the tank. In the last 24 hours I have gotten 1 GPT and sap is testing at 2.1%. Tomorrow could bring a little more sap but maybe not.

Spud

The last two day’s we have gathered 1.2 gallons per tap on 2700 taps. Sugar has been as good as 2.2 and as low as 2.0.
Made two beautiful drums of LA and working on our third. This morning tanks are full again. Haven’t done the calculations yet but I’m thinking something like 1.0gpt.
Hookin up a pump in our permeate tank today with a line and wash ball so we can back our trucks under and wash out truck tanks easily.

All right a trickle in my test buckets but I'm going to tap my 30buckets today as I'm thinking early next week will be the first run...and I don't have to show up to my day job today.

Ok. I went all out and have tapped 35 on buckets... just a little trickle thus far but we'll see what happens the next few and then a goof freeze Saturday night. I'm thinking Tuesday night might be my first boil if I'm lucky!

Sap trickled in all day yesterday and I got another 1300 gallons before it froze up. Sap is testing 2.2. Looks like we might get a five hour run today once the sun comes out. It’s 28 at the house right now.

Spud

gathered .25 gpt last evening testing 2, a few sap moths , frost coming out fast