The Sap is Flowing

The sap is finally flowing Saturday in the Flint area!
I have 15 taps this year, 9 in the front and 6 in the back. Using 3/16 for drops and lateral, one line for the front and one for the back. In the front, the drops all go to the lateral as it snakes it way across the yard. In the back, I have one brach off the lateral to service two tree in my neighbors yard.
Attachment 19647

This year I decided to add a pump, or for now, since I don't have the fitting, two, one from each section. I am using a Aquatech 8800 for the pumps. They have 3/8 quick connect fittings. At this point I go from 3/16 to 5/16 then onto a 5/16 stub of a 3/8 quick connect to a 3/8 tube to a 3/8 quick connect into the pump. I have coming a 5/16 quick connect fitting to 3/8 stubby so I will be able to go from 3/16 right into the pump. These quick connect fittings work well for vacuum. I applied vacuum to one 5/16 to 5/16 connector and it did not loose any vacuum after 2 days. You can see my cobbled connectors below.
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After attaching the back pump on Friday, it immediately showed 8 lbs. of vacuum with no flow. At noon today (Sunday) it showed 24 lbs. of vacuum. The front has been lower starting at 4 lbs son Saturday up to 8 today.
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This year I covered an area where I will be running my homemade RO machine. Took 50 ft of rope from a post to the fence and back. Added plastic on top, close pinned it to the rope, used claps on where the plastic cross the privacy fence. The RO unit will go on the wooden fence. This way I can keep dry as I work with perm and water.
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This year I am trying something new which I read about this on a paper published somewhere around here. I call them lift lines. You place your tap below the lateral. So far it seem to be working fine. Here is an example.
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So far only 10 gallons of sap so far. We will see what the next days bring especially since we are expecting the mid 60's on Thursday.