Spring Harvest 2015

Oh...that sucks. Although someone on the ridge can beat that by a longshot. I didn't hear it first hand, but something to the effect of 400 gallons of concentrate went down the drain. My hiccup just meant that I started boiling later than I wanted to, it didn't cost me anything. Last night was a long night. I'm finding that if I want to get into the upper teens with the concentrate, I need to get at least into the lower teens first before I start the evap. Otherwise by the time I get there, I'm almost shutting down.

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Originally Posted by Russell Lampron

At least you didn't pump the concentrate from 600 gallons of sap down the drain today like I did.

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That sucks, I dump a gallon of finished syrup on the floor the other day. Needless to say the language around the sap house was not suitable for Women & Children for a few minutes.

Aside from today, still getting good flows...generally around 1gpt/day. Sugar was holding steady at 2%, but dropped to about 1.6% yesterday. Color darkened quick. Went from making almost an Amber Friday night, to barely making a dark Sunday night, to well into a B Monday night, but back to a Dark Tuesday night, and Very Dark last night. Evap's running good, but getting back mixing even though I'm trying to modulate the dampers when I first throw wood in to keep the fire more consistent. Something to think about.

This weekend's cooling down a bit. I'm figuring we'll go well into next week before the trees bud out. Still have 6-12" of snow on the ground in most spots in the woods, so find it hard to believe the trees will turn that quick just because of a little warm weather.

My good idea for the year. I've heard of people using permeate water to clean pans, but I never had good luck with it. This year, I set the pan on the ground downstream of my RO discharge, and added a length of pipe so the RO would dump into the pan. Once my perm. tank overflows, I set the RO to drain and it flows through the pan before discharging on the ground. After one night of this setup, the pan was clean with a quick scrub from a tank brush. It doesn't get much easier than that.

yes very true. The permeate doesn't do much when its just sitting there. it needs to be moving in order to remove the minerals. Since the water is mineral free it is basically starving for minerals and even though its water its quite abrasive. Pretty interesting on a scientific/microbiological level. (or what ever you wanna call it)

This weekend is cooling down a bit? do you mean in temps or in sap flows? cause its gonna be 67 on Sunday and 70 on monday. Then 60's for the whole week. I don't know its gonna be pretty close to buds but the end of the week I am thinkin' unless there is that much ice in ground still to trick the trees into thinking that they shouldn;t bud yet. the following week night temps look much cooler. but thats too far away!!! I am not so optimistic I guess.

According to NOAA, low of 34 saturday and 35 sunday. Thats a lot colder than previous forecasts.

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Originally Posted by Dill

According to NOAA, low of 34 saturday and 35 sunday. Thats a lot colder than previous forecasts.

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That's what the Weather Channel and Weather Underground say too. In my woods that could mean a frost and we shall see.

true it really only has to get close for it to freeze here too. but with day temps that warm again not too optimistic. but we'll leave the vac on and see what we get.

Red, I meant the forecast was cooling down than what they were predicting earlier this week.

After barely being above freezing all day yesterday, it turned into a gusher about 6pm. Tank almost full this morning, so had to make an emergency return trip to the house to grab a load before work. Should be a big night. Hopefully we gain a little sugar with the cold weather.

Next week's forecast is warm, but generally overcast. I'm thinking we'll go well into next week even without a freeze. There's still snow on the ground and the cloud's will keep the trees from overheating. Nighttime temps nowhere near freezing generally, but that's expected this time of year.

I think the temps just got pushed back a day. it was originally supposed to be upper 60's to 70 on sunday and now thats monday. but its supposed to really sunny through tuesday then some rain but quite warm I predict close to budding for reds by next weekend. sugars always seem to go a little later. but they are all still tight now.

Collected 18 gal on 41 taps yesterday and hoping to do one more boil on Sunday. It is looking like our season might be ending this week.