Was suposed to freeze here last night and never went below 36 degrees so another sapless day. Maybe tuesday night now.
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Was suposed to freeze here last night and never went below 36 degrees so another sapless day. Maybe tuesday night now.
I've been out of the country for a week - just left the buckets up - came back to close to 100 gals of slightly hazy sap with only one or 2 cloudy enough to dump - my rule of thumb is - if you can see the bottom of the pail - it's fine.
Boiled 40 gals off yesterday, and today I awoke to 2" of snow (covering my wood pile !#@#! ) and strong winds. So much for boiling off the rest today. Hopefully it doesn't get to cloudy in the tank waiting till tomorrow.
Forecast now sounds like I might get more runs this week after all.
We had a big weekend and the 5 lonely drums in the corner is now down to 1 lonely drum, plus another that's only half full. I've never seen a year like this. It's barely frozen at night for the past 2 weeks but it keeps running! We'll have to shut down this week because once the last 1.5 drums are full we'll have nowhere to put syrup anymore. Ambition is also on the low side too...
Cold with a few inches of snow is here, might get a few more days out of this
season, I knew it would come back.
Snow here also. It is actually getting white on the ground. Now if it goes below freezeing it will help.
We've got a foot and a half of the white stuff, if the sap starts flowing again it will be worth putting up with more snow!
After finding the old sugar bush yesterday I wish I could get ahold of another 20 buckets and really push the sugar maples for the few days left of the season. I might have to boil 24-7 but what the hell it only comes once a year.
Officially we got 24 cm, about 10", but it blew like ... so we've got bare spots and then 3 or 4 feet. We've had more than 36 hours of freeze so something will start to flow tomorrow. I need to clean and re-hang buckets. Then try to get the new ( new to me ) extractor tank going. See post in vacuum.
Having a bit of fun trying to figure out how it was hooked up and how I should hook it up.
Something is going to flow tomorrow and Thursday. Maybe buddy, maybe good. Hmmmmm Anyone got any firewood ?
Brent we got lots of wood sap has not ran here in two day but thing just opened up at 4pm today collected at 9pm and picked up 320gallons of nice clear sap should be a great weekend!
Good to hear you got another flow. We had a flow here to but this morning I had a 4' drift right across the field between the house and the bush. I went to work in a funk. Came home a bit early and the strong sun had eaten way the drift enough to get back and there was a strong trickle into the tank on the pipeline, but the inside of the tank had gone mouldy ... and the wood that is left will not burn hot enough. D O N E
So I split some wood for next year and we spent the night bottling.
I've been wiffle waffling for the past few days, ever since they said the weather was going to freeze nights again. I expected the temps at night to moderate, but this morning, they still have 5 nights of freezing forecasted. Last night wasn't a hard freeze though, -1. I think it pretty much took all night before it froze. Lake Erie goes against us sometimes I think.
I had finished off what was in the pans on Thursday. I didn't know if I wanted to start up again. I have some wood left. Dad's all gung-ho to do some more. I rebored some of the buckets on Monday the 30th of March. We dumped out the rain and old sap in the morning. I checked them around 8 last night and they had around an inch and a half in a 20 L pail. Some of them only a few drops. I rebored the buckets by the shanty and the 40 taps out at the front of the bush and they put 2.5 inches in the same pail in 4 hours.
I bleached the main lines yesterday morning. I got 3 of the 10 mainlines rebored. I'll do some more today. Hopefully I'll get enough out of this now. I know 2 years ago I rebored and got more syrup in April, than I did in March.
I don't like making syrup too far into April because then I get behind in all my farm work. (vegetables)
Hi Argohauler
I hope it doesn't go buddy on you before you get what you want.
We also have an Argo 8x8 magnum about the same age as yours but we don't use it for sap .... yet.
what tank did you put in and how did you mount it ?
any chance you have picture of it.
Dumped 40 gals of sap this morning - left over from Monday - weather all week was no good for boiling (outside) and by this morning it was well past usable. No flows during the week til yesterday afternoon, then the trees all opened up. A quick walk around this morning it looks like I have 40 gals at least sitting in the buckets to collect tonight and forecast for the weekend is for -5 nights and +5 days - so looking forward to at least another few runs. Will see how it turns out.
Going haaaard today. Ran one tank over, had to turn some other vacuum systems off until we caught up a bit. We'll be leaving sap in the sugar camp overnight because there's too much to boil today. Sugar content has dropped below 2%, which is normal for late in the season. Colour has come back a bit but would like to get more light stuff for retail but it`s not that critical. Bulk prices are the same for extra-light or amber so it really doesn`t matter much.
Well I think I just wasted my time reboaring. Ice came out of the lines, but I only had little trickles. The buckets hardly dripped. The really good trees hardly produced. Me thinks I'm done. Now it's not supposed to freeze here tonight. I think I'll start pulling tomorrow. Took a tour around the bush, scoping out wood to cut and trees that should be removed. Got some firewood cut for next year.
Brent: The tank is made by Raven I believe. It's 100 US gal, 8" hole with lid and a strainer. It has a 1 inch drain. The people I got it from, put a hopper on top, which is good for transporting your gathering pails. It fits in just perfect widthways. It's not quite as long as the length of the back of the argo. I put a chunk of plywood on the back argo tray. Then I had some chunks of 2X4 and 6 to put on top of the plywood. That gets the drain up away from the centre of the argo where it comes in at the bottom, where the indent is on your argo tray. I then put a couple hunks of wood between the end of the tank and the back of the argo so it doesn't shift.
I use a 3/4 hp submersible with 1.5" hose to pump it out. Takes 5 mins to empty. How muddy is your bush. Our bush is a swamp, hence why I use an argo, BUT if you're travelling through many waterholes, you'll need to grease those seals every couple days if you can get the time. An argo won't chew out your trails as bad as a tractor or 4 wheeler. I'll try to find a picture to scan in.
Great runs here the past few days at last. Sap not as sweet, I can't test
it, but we get about 4 litres syrup from each 45 gal. drum of sap. Looks
good again today, hard freeze and sun is bright already.
ennismaple/Valleylad, did you get enough drums from Atkinson's? Looks like you could make a ton of syrup with your forecast. Are Atkinson's buying bulk syrup? I'll be taking my dark syrup, when I finished off the pans, to Jakeman's. Last year it paid for my supplies with a little left over.
cramadog2
Hello, This is my fist year making maple syrup and I'm HOOKED!! I've just done 7 tree's and I'm boiling on the BBQ in a steam table table pan. (not very cost efficient but a start) I had pulled the buckets a week and a half ago but seen the forecast so I put the pails back up on Wednesday and the sap is running awesome. So I was wondering when do you know it's time to stop? I'm in Perth county Stratford area. Of course for next year I'm going to build an evaporator as I have the bug!! This site has a wealth of knowledge. THANKS
gunnergo4th
I'm sorry to hear the bad news. This is a horrible addition. And it hits at a time of the year where there really isn't much else going on, so it gets worse and worse.
"HE" will tell you when it's over.
The pronoucement comes gradually
The buds in the trees start to swell. Pull some down that you can reach. If they are small and dry keep going. When they swell and are moist and sticky inside, the end is near.
The sap will start to get a little cloudy
The sugar content will go down and you'll boil a lot longer to get less and less.
The syrup you make will get darker
In the very last stages you will start to detect a smell in the steam vapour that indicate the sap is going buddy. Then it will be over real fast.
Start to try to keep your batches small later in the season. You don't want to ruin some nearly finished good stuff with the 'buddy' foul stuff. This also means you should be keeping your sap collection segregated and use it in sequence.
You might want to trip up to visit Dick Obrien aka "Uncle Richard"
http://www.unclerichardsmaplesyrup.com/
He's a bit east of Hanover. He has a great little shop for all stuff maple and knows whereof he speaks ... he has over 3000 taps and has been at it a lot of years.
Thanks Brent, This a perfect usage of time between winter huntin and trapping and spring turkey. It's pretty hard to check the buds as the maples are over hundred years old but the buds have got bigger. The sap is as clear as water with the odd fly in it. As for the buddy smell or taste is it very obvious or is an experience thing? Just one more hobby (addiction) to fill in time!!
gunnergoforth. I thought I recognized the handle. I can't remember which board though. OTB, OHL, CHC, or OOD?
I had a visitor come to the shanty 2 Saturdays ago. I was finishing up the boil for the night and letting the fire go out. I was listening to the Leaf game on the radio, when I heard something. It sounded like a gobble. So I went out the door and and turned the corner and there was mr. tom.
This afternoon I was bringing in the buckets with the argo. I saw around 5 deer in the hay field. My lab gave chase for a bit and they crossed the laneway to another hayfield. Started counting, there were 7 total. When I was coming up this evening with the syrup pan 4 deer were in the hay field. This time the dog wasn't with me. She got tired of running back and forth from the bush. These deer didn't even run away. Just watched me drive along.
Anyways ennismaple is Valleylad at the OHL and I'm cramadog2 at those 4 sites. Syrup makin is fun. But don't get too big or you won't have time for spring turkey like me, too much work to do. ;)
I was out yesterday and checked the bud on my trees they are still dry and small and with a forecast like this, this season may never end.
Today
Sunny. High plus 5. UV index 5 or moderate.
Tonight
Clearing this evening. Low minus 8.
Sunday
Sunny. High plus 4.
Monday
Sunny. Low minus 8. High 10.
Tuesday
A mix of sun and cloud. Low minus 4. High 11.
Wednesday
Sunny. Low zero. High 13.
Thursday
Sunny. Low minus 1. High 13.
Friday
Sunny. Low minus 1. High 13.
Have a great aster everyone.
With -5 temps last night me thinks my trees should rain forth great bounty today. Back aches already.
Well their is no end to the sap today made 6 gallons of syrup and still not at the end of the sap,
Now I am very confused, yesterday we made great amber nice and dark yet today we are back to light/medium and the temps. have remain and sap is still 2.3% and clear. :confused:
Your set up may be the reason for the change. If you're like me when you quit at night there is still a load of sap in the evap, so when you start the next day, you're still boiling "old" sap and if the weather gives you a good cold snap, like you got, it could take several hours to get it through the evap and some mixing would occur. Maybe on the end of day 2 or beginning of day 3 there is no trace of old sap from warmer weather and all your sap is fresh and bright and you eventually get that coming through and get light syrup.
I've seen it posted on the trader that something like this is pretty common after a good freeze.
Out trees are running fast and furious. Just no wood for the evap and the only folks that have wood want an arm and a leg for it and it's all cut short and chunky for woodstoves. Spent the day cutting down and splitting long
skinny peices for next season. New signs on the nearby roads are bringing a surprising number of shoppers up the driveway.
Thanks Brent for the explanation that maybe it but the sap was less than 24 hour old and I tear down the evaporator and wash it out before boiling each time, the nights have been getting colder. I due hope you find some wood soon to get the last of the runs!
I've got the wood woe's too Brent. I left the tarp off the woodpile, the wood was way over in moisture content to begin with but 6" of wet snow on top of it it's just not worth boiling. Too bad though as my pails and buckets are all overflowing. I already started to disassemble everything last week as I thought it was over then, I'll know better next year.....wait for the fat lady to sing (or the peepers).
I don't think I'd have time to boil anyway since I screwed up my first 23 litres. I used a kosher defoamer this year and got way too much in the batch, now my syrup (all in glass bottles of varying size) looks like cr..p. I'm going to heat and filter a litre to see if it clears up if it does I'll have to redo it all. I do have about 15 more litres to bottle in another batch so hopefully it's nice and clear. I will make sure I check it before I bottle.
I was hoping next year would be a little easier but reading everyone else's posts I know that even if I improve my evap rate I'll just tap more trees. The only saving grace will be I'll be able to take time off work and my health should be better.
Thanks again to all the maplers who've posted their knowledge and experiences it has helped us newbie's from making all the mistakes there are to make.
Hey Argo, I recognize those handlesas well I'm on the lodge and OOD. I bottled almost a gallon Sat night and seemed quite good. Had a bunch of taste testers yesterday at the in-laws Easter dinner and everyone loved it! So of course everyone got a bottle to enjoy. I have pulled the buckets now and I'm finishing up about 15 gallons of sap today on the BBQ. Can't wait for next year with a real evaporator. So it is now time to clean everything up and get ready for TURKEY season. I would like to thank everyone on this forum for the knowledge it really helps a newbie to get things right. Definitely my new addiction!!!
went out to boil today and everything is frozen, and I can't light the fire to thaw it out as there is nothing in the pan.
After another LOOONG weekend of boiling, I'm had enough for this year. Course it was killing me to dump out about 40 gals of crystal clear sap yesterday as we pulled the buckets and taps, but I have no more time for boiling this season. Now it is time to finish up my flue pan for next year.
This year's record below.
Date.....6am...Morn....4pm...Aft....Wind.....Sap.. ....Boiled
07-Mar....-2....Sun......6.....Rain....Light.....Tapped.....N/A
08-Mar.....4....Sun......8.....Sun.....Med......25 Gals....N/A
09-Mar....-2....Frz Rain.0.....Sun.....Light.....25 Gals....N/A
10-Mar....-2....Clear.....2....Rain....Light......45 Gals....N/A
11-Mar.....7....Rain......1..Sun/Cld..Extrm.....50 Gals...30 gals
12-Mar.....-12..Clear...-4.....Sun.....Med......0 Frzn.....N/A
13 Mar.....-12..Clear....-5.....Sun.....Light.....0 Frzn.....N/A
14 Mar.....-5....Clear....4.....Sun.....Med......0...........4 5 gals
15 Mar.....-6....Clear....5......Sun....Light......75 gals....55 gals
16 Mar....-3.....Clear....8......Sun....Light......45 gals....75 gals
17 Mar....-3.....Clear....8......Sun....Light......35 gals....60 gals
18 Mar.....6.....Ovcst...8......Sun....Light.......10 gals...45 gals
19 Mar.....1.....Clear....8......Sun...Light........0 ..........N/A
20 Mar.....-6....Clear....2......Sun....Light.......30 gals...N/A
21 Mar.....-6....Clear....5......Sun....Light.......45 gals...45 gals
22 Mar.....-6....Snow...3.......Sun....Strng......25 gals...55 gals
23 Mar.....-6....Clear...-1.......Sun...Light.......0..........N/A
24 Mar.....-4....Clear...7........Sun...Med.......30 gals....N/A
25 Mar.....-2....Clear...8........Sun...Med.......75 gals....N/A
26 Mar.....11...Ovcst..9........Rain...Light......25 gals....N/A
27 Mar.....-2...Clear... 9........Sun...Light......10 gals....55 gals
28 Mar.....1....Clear....12......Sun...Light.......15 gals...55 gals
29 Mar ....1.....Rain....8........Sun...Light.......10 gals...65 gals
30 Mar - 4 April - Travel
5 April .....-2...Snow...4........Sun....Light......80 gals...45 gals
6 April - 8 April - No runs
9 April.....-4.....Sun.....8.......Sun.....Med......120 Gals..N/A
10 Apr.....-2....Sun.....6.......Sun.....Md...........0....... 65 Gals
11 Apr.....-1....Sun.....6.......Sun....Strong.....30 Gals...45 Gals
12 Apr.....-2....Sun.....8.......Sun....Med........25 Gals...65 Gals
13 Apr - Taps pulled and clean up.
Total for the year - Between 90 and 100 litres of syrup made.
Argohauler - Yup, that's me on OHL. We've got a nice tom running around our sugar bush that I hope to put in the oven and all kinds of deer. I even saw a bald eagle on the weekend.
We're done - FINALLY!!!! I boiled out the evaporator last night. Sugar content was down and the sap was so slimy I had a terrible time getting it through the RO. Here's what my "relaxing" long weekend entailed:
Friday - I arrived at the camp at noon to help finish washing the pans. There was 700+ gallons of concentrate and 900 gallons of raw sap waiting for me (leftovers from the 4500 gallon day my brother didn't finish). I boiled until almost 10 p.m. before there was enough room in the twin 800 gallon tanks for the 2000 gallons of sap we gathered. I managed to get the raw sap tank drained and washed and the concentrate tank half empty by 4:00 a.m. but was completely exhausted so I shut down.
Saturday - Fired up by noon. Gathered another 2000 gallons sap. Everything concentrated, boiled and concentrate tank washed by midnight.
Sunday - Easy day. Drained & washed evaporator. Gathered 1100 gallons sap. Done boiling and home by 10:00 p.m. Filled containers for orders and Perth Festival of the Maples until midnight.
Monday - Delivered drums to Springdale Farm (Don & Marion Dodds) for sale to LB Maple Treats. Showed my better half how to check and adjust density of syrup being reheated on stove to fill more orders. Gathered 1800 gallons sap. Concentrate tank empty by just after 7:00 and pushed water behind sap until 8:30 to boil out as much sugar as possible. Home to Toronto by 2:00 a.m.
I think I could sleep for 3 days straight. Coffee will have to keep me propped up for now!!! All that's left to do is wash 20 miles of tubing, the evaporator and 10 storage tanks. I don't plan on seeing the inside of the sugar camp for the entire month of May!!!
Well I am going to wrap it up tomorrow. The past week was the best ,after
the snow. Got my one litre of syrup per tap, and that is just great for my little set-up.
That's book value per tree. Well done. Now you can start to concentrate on cheese balls !
Thanks. If you or anybody here ever visits Upper Canada Village, come visit.
Well 10:15pm last night we had our last boil made 5 gallons total for the season is 51 gallons not bad for no time off from the full time job and a north facing hill. Time to clean up and start cutting wood for next year!
We rounded up as many guys as we could find to help wash tubing on the weekend and went HARD. In 2 days we managed to vacuum wash about 2850 taps and all the mainline for those systems. I figure it was about 20 km of tubing and mainline. I also removed the taps and dropped the lines for about 750 taps where the lines come down every year. One more good weekend should get the cleanup done, except the evaporator - that will be done at the start of June when you can't stand the smell of the fermented sap in the pans anymore!
We'll be at the Perth Festival of the Maples on the weekend. We've got some really good entries for the competitions in light & medium syrup plus maple sugar, granulated sugar and maple butter so hopefully we come home with some ribbons and not much syrup left!
Well another fall clean up has started, we washed the bush yesterday,not leak in the system no bear bits this year and no blow downs, it was one of the quickest wash's we ever done, just need to finish piling the wood and clean out the sugar shack. Another season is just around the corner,can't wait!;)
Well let it snow, let it snow. About a foot down last night and 2.5 more to come Sunday. Just wish I had the time to finish all the prep beforehand.
Hello just getting started, Trying to figure out whether to go buckets or tubing. I am going to start with about 20 taps. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks In advance
That's like debating Ford vs Chev vs Dodge and you'll get different opinions from everyone. Gravity tubing will generally not produce as much sap as buckets, unless you have some long runs with lots of slope and many taps (say 30+ per line). For the number of taps you have I'd suggest starting with buckets. Thay take more time to gather but the difference won't be that great for a small operation.Quote:
Originally Posted by rocnron
Good luck!