Fall Prep

Finished splitting this year's wood and covered it up, the hurricane gave me a good start on next year's supply :lol:. Fired up the evaporator to clean it out today, no leaks which is always a good sign.

Last season I used one of those small vacuum tanks that John Langer was selling up at the CT maple convention at UCONN, what a difference it made, 85 gallon tank that was good for 60 taps. This year I'm either going to sister it with another 85 gallon tank or build a second unit so I can get 120 taps on vac. Anyone else out there using small vacuum?

Anyone out there using a Steam-Away - pros/cons/cost?

yea vac sure is the way, im working on getting the rest of my taps onto vac, put a culvert under the power line access road that seperates the upper part of our woods from the lower so i can get them onto vac this year too. plan to feed a mainline thru and down the back of the field about 400ft to connect up to my other mainline

my copula has been installed. looks fantastic I must say! One more thing checked off the list. Now I need to stain it (hopefully but not a deal breaker by any means)..Clean out my 200gal tank and set that in place. then I need to get orgainzing my sugarhouse..move all of my garage equipment t othe front of it. the back 1/2 is reserved for sugarin. Here is a question for you all. Thinking about having a large tarp system that I can roll up and down on a horizontal pipe to somewhat block any low hanging steam from the front half of the garage. it would keep the sugarin half alot warmer and isnt that how steam really rises, via warm air?

the roll up tarp thing will work as long as the steam has a place to go,some days are better than others as far as gitting rid of the steam

should go right up my copula. I have the area petitioned off all the way to the peak of the roof...

that should work good for you,you can roll it up a little if you need a draft to get it out,i some times have to open the bottom of my over head door to vent the steam out depending on the weather

only 6 or 7 weeks to go! i got most of my wood ready to go, probably will still split some more to have on hand if the weather holds out. have been busy getting all my taps on vac, in the past had many that were still on gravity but this year i dug under the power line access road and put in a culvert to run a sap line thru so now the upper part of my woods is connected to the lower part so they all can be on vac now, and also making an electric releaser for the front sugarbush since i have power there at the shop so figure thats the easiest method

heres a few pictures of setting my new zero tank, and putting the feed tank up on the roof of the ro room i built earlier in the year

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...2&l=12c8ca11f4

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...2&l=e45da7b1ea

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...2&l=914e675049

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...2&l=b32fc4897c

also here is the gear pump i setup for my filter press, i decided i had enough of pumping by hand!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...2&l=03b55cc696

and here is where i put a culvert under the powerline access rd so i can run my sap line thru it and around the corner, thats what the post is for, then down the hill to my vac system

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...2&l=129f8d8bef

Im getting worried about the warm weather!!

i wouldnt worry too much yet! dont forget that last year we were all saying it was a pretty mild winter this time of year, then after christmas time we had cold and snow constantly till march!