Steaming Drill Bits in Andover - 2014

Not sure when the season really begins, but if you call starting to tap the beginning of the season, then it is underway for us.

Parker and Courtney are doing a bulk of our tapping for us. They started at Hatten's in Salisbury yesterday afternoon (425 taps there) and then from there to Putney (275 there) and finally to Chase Hill (135 taps). Huge thank you to Parker and Courtney for all their help.

Heather and I worked on the RO plumbing today, along with another neighbor Jay. Have only a couple more connections to make there and then installing the membrane when we get enough sap to rinse the preservative out.

Heather and Sophie and Kat are planning on putting up the 75 tap all 5/16th run tomorrow. We will put the extra 210 gal tank there, as last year we had a few overflows with the 150 that was there. Then we will start picking off the smaller tubing runs till we get to buckets last.

Vacuum pump set-up Tuesday and Wednesday, then hope for sap on Thursday-Sunday. Using generator 4.5 gal fuel tanks for the honda vac pumps - no more leaky 5 gallon hydraulic pails for fuel tanks. Mark is going to build some small platforms for the tanks in the shop tomorrow.

It is going to be quite a cast of characters at Tucker Mtn. Maple this season. As my ALS progresses and I have been less able to do the physical work to make it all happen, I have been amazed at all the folks who have chipped in to help make this season a reality. Many, many thanks...

all the best of luck to maplehaulics around the region -

-Eric

Good luck on a great season!!! I am going to start tonight myself...maybe 10 taps LOL gotta start somewhere!

15 taps on Sunday, 30 more this week sometime?

the thrash is on my friend!!! Have a great season!!!

Good luck with the new season Eric!!! It's underway here too.

965 taps in as of yesterday. 2 vac systems up and running, one to have the crew set up this morning. Parker and Courtney have been doing the woods work, my brother and cousin doing the sugarhouse prep and snow removal. Heather and Sophie washing tanks, mark building and tweaking...

No real runs so far to speak of, but today looks promising. we hope to have 300-400 gals. by tomorrow to boil raw and sweeten the pans. More than that and we will rinse membranes and run the RO.

beautiful day out there...time to get off the computer...

-E

We wound up with a little over 1200 gallons by the time we got going on late Sunday afternoon. 800 gallons from Hattans orchard in Salisbury (425 taps) was what impressed me.

took Mark and I a couple of hours to dial in the evaporator, but think we have a good sense of the "cause and effect" of more pellets vs. more burner air vs. more door air. We were running a stack temp of around 825 deg. with a good full rolling boil in the back pan. The evaporator was keep up well with the RO which was putting out 1.5 GPM.

We were too conservative and left more sap in the feed tank than we need for the shut down process. it is not as fast a shut-down as an oil burner, but it is way faster cool down than our forced air cordwood arch.

one potential problem is that our auger which is feeding from the bottom of the silo in to the smaller "day bin" inside the sugarhouse seems to be breaking up some of the pellets and making some pellets back in to saw dust. have to keep an eye on that one..

all in all, very happy with the new configuration. We ended up with around 10-12 gallons of what looks like medium.

drained the pans tonight for the deep freeze. will run sweet through press before returning to rinsed pans when it gets time to make some syrup again. 10 day forecast looks cold...

Eric, did Mark set up an evaporator yet in his sugar house? That is an impressive pellet burner you have there.

Eric,
Do you think you would recommend a pellet burner for a larger rig? thinking that I may convert my 6 X 14 in a few years if i run out of wood, should bolt right up to the existing oil fire panel. I know its early, but about How much pellets are you burning per gallon?

Ed,
I decided to hold off another year. I was back & forth some last Fall but when I weighed the choice between humping my own wood or sitting back w my feet up at Eric's watching that pellet rig run I decided to stick with Tucker Mountain. Between the new RO & the new rig I was impressed at how smoothly our first boil went.
Good luck with the rest of your tapping.
Mark

Eric,
I just signed on for the first time this year and see that you got the pellet burner going. Congrats Bud. Sorry to hear about the health problems. Butch and I may drop by to see the new burner in operation when it warms up. Dick

Good to hear you are helping Eric out. That is a sweet looking pellet set up. I have never seen one work before. We plan to finish tapping this weekend. Buckets mostly but a few more yubing lots too.

Happy boiling

Ed

Ed and Dick - I know its hard because we all tend to be boiling at the same time, but you are welcome to stop over anytime we are boiling...figuring this might be one of those "once it cuts loose its going to be a crazy 4 week season..."

Pretty slow around here these days. Ben, the chief engineer at TMM, has been working on one of the SP-11s that is only pulling around 10". He thinks it is the set of rings on one of the pistons. Other than that, working on accounting and taxes in front of the wood stove.

Ben actually headed north yesterday to visit Quebec city since he had never been up that way, and with the ten day forecast looking cold, I said take some time off. Well, when he was crossing the border, the Canadian border guard asked him what he did for work. Ben mentioned he worked in a maple operation, and the border guard held him up for over an hour - grilling him about why he wasn't tapping, or flushing lines, etc. Seems like they thought he might be heading to Quebec to work for another maple operation...I told him if he needed me to post bond for him I would be right up...

stay warm everyone...the sap will run again...soon I hope -

-Eric

Eric,
It's probably a good thing that Ben didn't have a quart of New Hampshire maple syrup with him, he would probably be gone for the season. I haven't tapped yet since it only takes us a couple of hours to get out our 50 to 60. The cold really bothers my copd and we do it for fun so i'm not going to torture myself. I still have about a hundred feet of line to dig out. I'll do that next time it's in the 20's and the sun is on the line. I hope it's not another one of those short seasons but it is sure looking like year before last weather wise. Looking for warm days cool nights and 3% sap. Dick

Eric & Parker,
Have you Guys had any run at all with the late afternoon temps the last couple of days? I was in Lebanon Thursday afternoon picking up some pellets for our pellet stove and there was a guy from Plainfield that had a about a hundred gallons in a tank on his truck. He said it came from his buckets but his lines were all frozen solid. It was good to see that Parker is back on line. I was wondering what was up. I hope you get a run soon, I would really like to see that new unit of yours in operation. Dick

Dick - we had a few drips Friday afternoon, but not much more that a quart of sap in the buckets. Latest day we have ever hung buckets is this year. Hoping for a bit better run from today. We shall see. Give a shout on my home phone - 5602 to see if we are boiling. I would be surprised if we had enough to fire up this evening, but you never know.

-Eric

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tuckermtn

Dick - we had a few drips Friday afternoon, but not much more that a quart of sap in the buckets. Latest day we have ever hung buckets is this year. Hoping for a bit better run from today. We shall see. Give a shout on my home phone - 5602 to see if we are boiling. I would be surprised if we had enough to fire up this evening, but you never know.

-Eric

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I'll keep my fingers crossed, Dick

Finally had our second boil for the season yesterday. Had 900 gallons from Tuesday to start with and then picked up another 1180 gallons yesterday. fired up at 12 noon. ran out of sap once, then finished around 8:30. 35-40 gallons I am guessing.

having problems with the auger from the bottom of the silo to the day-bin inside. First it bound up, then no pellets dropping in to the auger...puzzling for sure. This is a silo we installed, and has nothing to do with the CDL arch...

Vicky Smith stopping over tomorrow for Seal of Quality inspection. Hope to have some more sap to boil on Saturday for the 1st open house weekend of maple month...

good luck to all...

-eric

Finally jugged up the syrup we made on Wednesday. 40 gallons of medium. So we are at 50 gallons of medium total for the season. Very good flavor so far.
chasing the freeze up last night - sap seemed to shake loose late afternoon yesterday. Not a tsunami, but a good short run for us - one of the better for the season. Hauled in around 1300 gallons - mostly purchased sap - so we will plan on dealing with boiling today in the below freezing temps.

Ben thinks he has figured out the silo auger problems - the universal joint which holds the last 18" of the auger had lost its drive pin, so it was not turning properly. To make sure we didn;t run out again, he, Mark and Heather filled up 6 or 7 trash barrels of pellets for inside to we can manually fill the day-bin if needed. Will burn though that before trying silo again.

Still having issues with the D & G sap lift we installed at Hattans. Freeze ups b/c it wont drain fully, and then the slide mechanism on the chamber is now hanging up, resulting in no vacuum to the bush. Ben has been working on it way to much...not impressed.

Temps warm a little on Tuesday - then Wednesday - on it looks very good...Bring it on.

Burnt front crossflow pan about 20 min. after start up this afternoon. good thing we had another to swap out. love being able to simmer fire down so fast with pellet arch. soaking in acid tonight.

made 3 gals. of scorched C and 16 gallons of I am guessing medium.

Eric,
Sounds like you have had a frustrating season so far. I hope things smooth out a little bit for you. It looks a little better temp wise over the weekend and next week. It's been along time since we have had single number lows in the middle of March. I still haven't tapped and will not until it looks like at least a week of good running weather. I still have plenty from last year and it probably wouldn't hurt if the trees got a year off. Keep the faith and I'll check in this afternoon to see if you are going to be boiling. Dick

Very busy maple weekend Saturday for us. Was nervous as it was quiet till about 11am, then crazy till 2:30-3pm. Exhausted...
cleaned out of cream by 1pm...made another batch this afternoon and starting another one now.
Boiled raw sap so we could hold enough for tomorrow. made 13 gallons or so today, which brings us just over 100 gallons YTD.
Ben and my brother are out gathering buckets now. will gather tank runs later this evening, closer to freeze up.
Snow squall around 1pm made it look pretty festive...

best of luck to all - hoping for a good Maple Weekend Sunday for everyone...

Very good MW sunday for us. Lots of friends and neighbors checking in today, which I enjoy since the social aspect of sugaring is one of the things that drew me to it. Great chance to catch up after folks have been hunkered down most of the winter.

Sales were about half of yesterday, but total for the weekend is about the same as last year, which was a record for us. Boiling raw sap we still managed to make 30 gallons of syrup over the two days...all medium so far. We sold out of the last of last years B and all of this years borderline Dark A - actually had the TMM crew talking about how we could go about making some more Dark...cook more in the finisher, then dilute back with water I guess...never had that problem before...

Very light sap runs both days...up to 120ish gallons so far...

lots happening Tucker Mountain maple today. My whole family was up helping out, including a bunch of nieces and nephews. Started with about 1300 gallons of sap, and trucked in a whole bunch more. Made 40 plus gallons, and still have a full tanks of for tomorrow. sap has been quite sweet for so far, with loads testing 2.5 or 3.0. Making medium amber.

50 gallons yesterday. Dark amber. RO slowing down, did soap wash last night.

vac pump problems yesterday - hobby releasers hung up, belts burning up, etc...

Good sales yesterday despite the crappy road and poor weather. We have well stocked shelves, but only 45 gallons of bulk stored up...need to make a lot more syrup...

In the same boat. Have syrup on the shelf, but little in storage. Need to change that.

Me 3!!! The shelves are stocked and only 14 gallons in bulk.

Get you're life jacket on. Sap tsunami warning in central New Hampshire

over 3000 gallons of sap Tuesday (mostly from bought sap) approx 75 gallons of Dark A in 7 hrs. might need a bigger filter press...

gaining on the bulk inventory. lots of help from friends and neighbors hauling sap...

best one day total for us...

3000 gal of sap...nice! How's the new rig working out for you?

And stop that talk about a sap tsunami. I've made those predictions twice now and failed both times. I think Mother Natures senses the optimism and wants to put it down. I will say, the long range forecast is looking about perfect...

passed our previous season best last night, with 647 gallons accounted for. more that half of that is from purchased sap, so we will see how the numbers settle out for our per-tap production. making borderline B/C, but still have good flavor. burned almost 7.5 tons of pellets so far. finished off the 6.5 tons on Sunday, then bought a ton of bagged pellets...glad we didn't have to dump bags in all season...

crew is tired but satisfied that we have been able to salvage the season. Couple more boils I suspect...might get over the 700 gal. mark if things go well...

all the best of luck to folks still making some steam...

wow nice numbers... way to salvage a rough season with purchased sap. Hope that new pellet evap worked out good for you. sot sure what the charge for pellets in bulk like that are but it beats cutting splitting enough wood.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tuckermtn

passed our previous season best last night, with 647 gallons accounted for. more that half of that is from purchased sap, so we will see how the numbers settle out for our per-tap production. making borderline B/C, but still have good flavor. burned almost 7.5 tons of pellets so far. finished off the 6.5 tons on Sunday, then bought a ton of bagged pellets...glad we didn't have to dump bags in all season...

crew is tired but satisfied that we have been able to salvage the season. Couple more boils I suspect...might get over the 700 gal. mark if things go well...

all the best of luck to folks still making some steam...

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Erik, Great to see you had that kind of production out of the weather we had this year. It looks like you were running 21 to 23 lbs. of pellets to the gallon witch is way less than half the cost of oil per gallon for my little 2X6. Whats next, a bigger silo or an expansion of the day bin so you can load a few bags at a time? Dick

Great job Eric and crew!

What are you getting for GPH? Also, with the pellet burner, can you run it hotter/faster or cooler/more efficient?

still at it - we have 1000 gallons to run through this morning but I think that will be it for us. a little over 720 gal. lots of good grade B - think I need to market it as "limited edition" or "last grade B we will ever make" sort of thing with the grade changes in the works. hope to catch up on the trader in a few days - been pretty straight out...

good luck to folks still at it...

still half-way decent sap yesterday. around 2000 gallons, mostly from our own taps. buckets done, vac bushes slow, running low on second extra ton of bagged pellets so we will chase sweet out of pans today and call it a season. syrup still behaved itself yesterday, but mark did a lot of scum skimming to keep things in check. 1100 gallons of permeate to start the clean up process.

will keep vac taps in till after forecast cold spell this week, but don't think it will amount to much.

no peepers here yet, but did hear a woodcock "beeping" in the clearing behind the barn last night.

final tally for 2014 season is 782 gallons, but the crew wanted to round that down to a lucky 777 so that is what goes on the wall. Our own taps only yielded 220 +/- gallons of syrup - about 1/2 of what they should have.

no light amber this year. Lots of Medium, but most of that is out the door already from maple weekend sales. Lots of B in bulk - will sell some of that to buy in a bit of medium for cream and custom glass orders. Good flavor up until the last 35 or so gallons.

Huge amount of help this year from friends, family and neighbors. I am so thankful for all those who helped out in both large and small ways to make the season a reality for Tucker Mountain Maple...thank you...

all the best -

-Eric