Brandon, you still going?
Printable View
Brandon, you still going?
Yes still going here. Lines been out of tank since Friday night. Got unexpected mini freeze lay night and stuff ran in ground for while today which helped clean snot out of lines. Got to 70 today and sap kept running. Probably quit by morning or noon tomorrow but 3/16 was cranking this afternoon. Hope to have 500 or so to boil tomorrow afternoon and a better freeze forecasted for tomorrow night and much cooler rest of week. Showing mid 20's Sunday night too so we keep praying hard and hoping for the best. All taps are leader seasonal on new 3/16 and check valves on all the 5/16 so hoping they hold out until April. Not very much warm weather as mostly cold days other than last 10 days.
Boiled 560 gallons today and supposed to be in low to mid 20's tonight, so hope it gets the trees re-fired tomorrow and off to the races again. Snow nearly all gone and frost should be about gone too. Showing freezing 3 nights in row starting sunday, so hopefully one more run maybe after this week.
Boiled 460 more today and sap running good. Majority of it is coming from 3/16 tubing. Hoping to get small freeze tonight and sap will run couple more days. Got down to 24 to 25 last night for several hours. Started with clean evaporator and raw concentrate yesterday and syrup is a light dark which is good since we are in week 7 since we started. 7900 gallons of sap and Aprox 140 gallon of syrup so far about 57% of full crop.
good to hear you are still at it Brandon. hope you have a good finish to the season and get closer to full crop.
Boiled 415 more gallons on Thursday 03/19. Sugar was down to .75 by Friday so dumped sap since not very much. Been tough year here as February was way too cold and March went from cold to warm and only had one deep freeze which was first week since sap started flowing on March 3rd. Went up to highland county Virginia yesterday and stopped at 11,000 tap operation on vacuum and they had made 250 gallons and season just about over. Visited another camp about 15 miles away and they were only at 1,800 gallons on 18,000 gravity taps. Needless to say hey had experienced Same weather and been very tough year especially for 11,000 tap producer on vacuum.
Brandon,
The 11000 tap operation is having a bad year for sure! There is two camps in WV within 15 miles, both are over 1000 gallons made, one camp has 5200 taps the other 4200, both have tubing system installed correctly with high vacuum. There is only one properly installed tubing system in Highland County, it is located 1 mile from the 11000 tap operation, it has 2500 taps the second hand info I heard that he was over 500 gallons two or three weeks ago.
Mark 220 Maple
Boiled another 550 gallons of sap today. It was around .7 sugar from the 3/16 lines that don't ever quit running. Normally wouldn't have fooled with it but since syrup is way down this year, it only took 4.5 hours to gather and run it through RO down to 60 gallons and boil it. Showing deep freeze 2 nights in row this weekend, so hoping and praying for one more run before it ends. This is week # 8 taps on south side have been in, so hopefully they will hold out. They are all either Leader seasonal on the new tubing and clear check valves on the old tubing. Taps on north side only in 4 weeks, so they should be fine. About 62% of full crop with 4 to 5 gallons I made today and hoping to get to 70% to 75%.
Those 3/16" lines are amazing. I wish that I had enough slope here to make it work. I hope that you reach your goal Brandon. If your forecast is right you could.
Russ,
I think they will perform as good or better than mechanical vac with right slope and set properly. I will probably be around 20 gallon per tap this year not including what I let run on the ground and the weather hasn't hardly cooperated at all.