Eastern Ontario 2017

Well in tapping with buckets, you're letting the sap drip at its own rate. With vacuum you are forcibly sucking the sap from the trees. So if you're a commercial producer with thousands of taps and a quota to meet, you probably are going to go with vacuum and perhaps start tapping earlier.

However I do only pails and spiles, and my brand-new 2-spile tree has had no trouble producing almost a gallon since 3pm yesterday. I am almost afraid to go and drill my bigger trees, I have to get my floaties on in case I don't get the pails hung in time before I drown in sap! :-)

ETA: It wouldn't hurt to give a more precise location than just Canada. Just a distance of 30km can mean all the difference in terms of weather etc, and thus would make more sense to know which other sugarmakers are near you. And vice versa.

Sorry for t lack of details I live south east of ottawa

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Originally Posted by Jmacy

Sorry for t lack of details I live south east of ottawa

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OK good to know. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to also check out the NY thread for areas like Ogdensburg etc as they are also in the Seaway Valley.

Well, all the spiles are in and all of them are going...will be very curious to see how this season pans out!

Holy moly.. collected 112 litres of sap this morning!! Taps continue to run well. Hoping for another hundred litres today.. fingers crossed!
Be it early.. very happy we decided to tap yesterday.. weather looks promising!

What, that's all? ;-) Hey didn't hubby build a brand spankin new sugar shack?

Sounds like everyone is doing well collecting sap this weekend.
Today I got a barrel evaporator in and a woodstove in our other side of the shanty. My father in law wants to tap tomorrow. It has been a beautiful weekend.

Second bush tapped today,not too bad for repairs. One more to go which I know needs mainline repairs from trees coming down,some changes made.

Good start to the year here. I tapped Friday evening but was not in the bush yesterday (Saturday). However, I collected today around noon and gathered 244L from my 50 buckets (49 actually since one had decided to jump off it's spile). I collected again after sunset and gathered an additional 96L of sap from the same 50 buckets. That's almost 7L of sap per bucket! I'm currently boiling and intend on having the first batch done tomorrow. Crazy stuff for February 19!

So, in response to some earlier questions posted on the thread...

I would say it's definitely not too early for buckets. Don't look at the calendar, look at the forecast. Sometimes the season extends into mid April, some seasons it ends in March. Get the sap while the trees are giving it to us! I've heard that the most common regret of syrup people is that they waited too long to tap.

Also, I agree with Galena in that tapping higher on the tree does not make a difference with regards to sugar content.

And, with regards to sugar content through the season, I've always thought that, generally speaking, the sugar content started low, rose into mid-season before dropping again in the later parts of the season. I think I read that somewhere once but I could also be dreaming!

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Originally Posted by Bushfrosh

Good start to the year here. I tapped Friday evening but was not in the bush yesterday (Saturday). However, I collected today around noon and gathered 244L from my 50 buckets (49 actually since one had decided to jump off it's spile). I collected again after sunset and gathered an additional 96L of sap from the same 50 buckets. That's almost 7L of sap per bucket! I'm currently boiling and intend on having the first batch done tomorrow. Crazy stuff for February 19!



So, in response to some earlier questions posted on the thread...

I would say it's definitely not too early for buckets. Don't look at the calendar, look at the forecast. Sometimes the season extends into mid April, some seasons it ends in March. Get the sap while the trees are giving it to us! I've heard that the most common regret of syrup people is that they waited too long to tap.

Also, I agree with Galena in that tapping higher on the tree does not make a difference with regards to sugar content.

And, with regards to sugar content through the season, I've always thought that, generally speaking, the sugar content started low, rose into mid-season before dropping again in the later parts of the season. I think I read that somewhere once but I could also be dreaming!

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Where do you store your sap? Or do you have 100 buckets and keep alternating the 50 full ones? Im asking because im looking into purchasing a holding storage of some kind

Hey Cops,
I'm far from any expert, but I keep my sap in brand new garbage cans, only used for sap and I store my sapping stuff in them in the off season to prevent any other use...cheaper than extra sap buckets

I store my sap in 2 1000liter stainless steel totes that are placed on the north east side of new sugar shack .
Having them placed on that side of my shack it blocks all the sun and it keeps them shaded to help keep sap stay cool and prevent spoiling in the tank between boils.

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Originally Posted by JeffB

I store my sap in 2 1000liter stainless steel totes that are placed on the north east side of new sugar shack .
Having them placed on that side of my shack it blocks all the sun and it keeps them shaded to help keep sap stay cool and prevent spoiling in the tank between boils.

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How do you like your Patrick phenuef pans? I'd like to upgrade in the next year or two and I hear he is one of the best.

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Originally Posted by TurkeyJohn

Hey Cops,
I'm far from any expert, but I keep my sap in brand new garbage cans, only used for sap and I store my sapping stuff in them in the off season to prevent any other use...cheaper than extra sap buckets

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TurkeyJohn
I hope those are the food grade specific ones. There are some nasty plasticizers, anti odour chems and release agents used when they make the cheap ones.

I went to TSC and bought a 100 gal leg tank. I now have 2 x100 gals on wheels for collecting and temp storage and a 200gal at the sugar house. Cost a bit, but 20yrs later I'm still using them and they're good as new. Over 20+ yrs the cost per year was small.

For extra sap storage, if I run out of 15l water containers, I use old protein supplement tubs (like the great big kind you get from Popeye's etc...a friend's son works out, so he saves them for me). I dig bunkers for them in the snowfall off of my house on the north side so the sap stays cool til I get to boiling it. I have used a garbage pail bought and used only for sap, but that is pressed into service only when absolutely necessary. I probably will stop using it.

I use 5 48gal food grade barrels and a 260gal food grade IBC tote on the back of my truck. Works well but always some way to improve it.

The jury is still out on the Patrick Phenuef pan , this will be my second year boiling on it. Last year I had real issues getting the front pan to boil. I could never get the syrup section hot enough to draw off. Basically it was hybrid drop flue batch boiling pan.

I always had to finish everything i concentrated on a turkey fryer set up.
I think this was because of a combination of small small problems (IE pan not perfectly level, boiling in a 3 sided lean tou, to much air under fire) ect. Since then I have corrected all these little problems and even built a 10x12 actual sugar shack that my evaporator is now in.

I did alot of research and corrected all these problems ,I ever called and spoke with Jim at smokey lake who makes the same pan and explained my problem (couldnt get a hold of Patrick) Jim suggested and recommended that dividers be welded in and turn the drop flue area into a continuous flow drop flue area.
Jim calls this his pro pan set up and its a upgrade option when you purchase a smokey lake pan, it slows down and almosts stops the mixing of the gradient in the drop flue and syrup area . He said since the drop flue area boiled with such turbulence all my pan did was mix sap and concentrate so i have to slow this down.

So basically after 280 bucks of modifications I now have a new upgraded pan to use this year.


I will say last yr the boil rate was great, if i really fed the wood it and had it ripping, i could get 22 to 26 gph evaporation but never drew any actual syrup, i always ended up with 45 liters of super sweet concentrate.
I can keep you updated this year but looking back as of right now, I would have spent the extra 550 bucks a year ago and purchased Patricks 24x30 raised flue with the 24x18 syrup pan set.

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Switched to bags this year. Hopefully less cleanup at end of year. Homemade bag holders from PVC pipe.

10 trees tapped on Saturday. Not enough in the bags yet to collect. Worried about the coming even warmer spell. I've got as much snow as available piled around my storage buckets. I'll likely boil whatever I have in the middle of the week to avoid spoilage.

Ok ,I am officially ready.


All of my 105 taps are in and the little run the past 2 days have flushed them out.
Everything is cleaned sanitized and ready to collecting,store and trasfer sap
Sugar house is ready ,filters changed,cleaned and sanitized pan,float box and all sugar equipment.
Wood is cut split and stacked in easy reach of evaporator.
COME ON MOTHER NATURE START YOUR SAP ENGINE !:D

FWIW peeps, if not sure about if your plastic storage containers are food grade...

http://ecovillagegreen.com/903/what-...-numbers-mean/

..I am glad to see that my Roughneck garbage bin is a #4, so indeed foodsafe. *whew*!

here is another site that lays out food grade acceptable bucket etc.

http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-Food-Grade-Buckets

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Originally Posted by ridgerunner394

here is another site that lays out food grade acceptable bucket etc.

http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-Food-Grade-Buckets

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Yep, basically it says just what the other link does but goes into less detail.

Well, this great weather got the best of me so I put in a dozen taps to see what up. My best producer (located along driveway) is pouring about 1 litre per hour with 2 taps. The rest of them are very slow still. We still have 33 inches of snow so hopefully this warm spell knocks some of that down. Long range for here is above zero for the next week then just below for the following week.

I just returned from the bush on FOOT :mad: sap hauler has about 30 gallons in it I collected from my furthest collection site BUT :mad: the 4 wheeler and collection tank are still in the bush BURIED to the frame after the wheeler broke thru the false solid ice/snow trail and left me stranded back there.
I managed to use the winch and pull myself out back on top of the hard pack but thats it !!!! Thats as far as its gonna go till after work tomorrow then will figure out how to get it back to the shack.

In the mean time i gonna bounce the idea of a new Polaris Razor with the track kit on it to my wife LOL ! :lol:

Im going to have to figure out how to get around the bush with this much snow

MAYBE SHE WILL GO FOR A TEAM OF HORSES AND OLD SCHOOL SAP SLIEGH INSTEAD OF A NEW RAZOR !!!

Hey

We bought a 2'x4' drop flue from Patrick in 2014, so we are starting our 4th year. Last year we bought a steam hood/pre heater for it, we haven't tried it yet. We just build new sap house and got everything setup, unfortunately we are still waiting for a few parts to connect it all together (hoping they come this week). We tap approx 150 trees and the system works great, I'm sure the pre-hearter will make it even better.

Nothing wrong with his quality of work. You can search this site and you won't find many people that question his quality. His timing sucks and leaves you waiting, which is frustrating. I got steam hood last April, it's now February and still waiting for a few parts.

Despite that, I would still recommend his products. Just plan ahead and be patient.

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Originally Posted by Galena

FWIW peeps, if not sure about if your plastic storage containers are food grade...

http://ecovillagegreen.com/903/what-...-numbers-mean/

..I am glad to see that my Roughneck garbage bin is a #4, so indeed foodsafe. *whew*!

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Thanks for sharing Galena, indeed my roughnecks are safe like yours. Appreciate you providing this link, puts my mind to ease though I remember researching it before I bought them!!

Hey
I wasn't bashing Patrick or his quality of work.
I was just stating some problems and the frustration I had with the pan I purchased.
I was asked my opinion and voiced it about Patrick's pans, opinions are like ash holes , everybody has one and that was mine !
Glad your experience with Patrick's pan was good but mine sure has not been YET !
I am hoping this year is diffrent

Oh I share your frustrations. If my wife doesn't get to see this steam hood/pre heater in use I may be divorced.

Just keep texting and texting Him until he replies. He eventually will. He shipped me my float box eventually last year. I think he gets overwhelmed and spends a lot of time delivering his stuff. I don't know how he finds time to personanally deliver every piece of equipment he makes.

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Originally Posted by JeffB

I just returned from the bush on FOOT :mad: sap hauler has about 30 gallons in it I collected from my furthest collection site BUT :mad: the 4 wheeler and collection tank are still in the bush BURIED to the frame after the wheeler broke thru the false solid ice/snow trail and left me stranded back there.
I managed to use the winch and pull myself out back on top of the hard pack but thats it !!!! Thats as far as its gonna go till after work tomorrow then will figure out how to get it back to the shack....
MAYBE SHE WILL GO FOR A TEAM OF HORSES AND OLD SCHOOL SAP SLIEGH INSTEAD OF A NEW RAZOR !!!

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Hey are there any horse loggers in your area? Maybe they can help out and then you only need hire them not pay for the upkeep of a team of horses. I worked with a horse logger up in NW BC and it's amazing what a good team can do.

First batch..
122 litres of sap to 2850ml of syrup.
Rule of 86 means we had 2% sugar content.
Expected for this early on.

Very busy couple days. This early warm spell caught me unprepared. Got 150 taps in yesterday and fired up the vacuum pump late yesterday for the first time. Spent today running one last section of mainline, laterials and drops and brought another 110 taps on line. Everything worked well. Wow what a difference vacuum makes. Have a little over 300 gallons of sap collected. Spent the evening getting the evaporator and RO all setup and ready to go. Will start boiling tomorrow.

Hi everyone, glad to see you all back at it again. I have not done anything yet. Spent this past weekend in Ottawa with the kids and wife, so I missed getting my tree's tapped. Yesterday when we got home and settled my son and I got all the stuff ready, and went back in the forest to have a look around and just mess about. All my trees are sitting waiting for me, next weekend I plan on Tapping.

who's all tapped in at this point? (buckets) It was definitely good for a run over the weekend and this week looks good for Eastern Ontario, but I'm still hesitant to go in too early. However, noticing the weather, plus there is no snow around the base of the trees after the weekend, I'm wondering if I should get at it.

Good to see you back here, Al!

We have 135 in. Tapped Sunday, collected 100 gals Monday. We'll put more taps in later this week. Found out that I need to replace my smoke stack (stove pipe) when I bumped it and it disintegrated, so that stopped us from boiling last night. Will likely be making steam tonight.

We got 1400 taps in on the weekend. Not nearly as much as we needed to get done - but between ATV's and trucks getting stuck, deer damage, downed limbs & trees, vacuum pumps not working and other crappy luck we only spent half as much time drilling as we had planned.

I HATE TAPPING IN SNOWSHOES!!!! Not only is it tough on the body it also cuts my tapping rate down by 40%.

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Originally Posted by c0ps

Where do you store your sap? Or do you have 100 buckets and keep alternating the 50 full ones? Im asking because im looking into purchasing a holding storage of some kind

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I use 22L pails hanging on a spile. I drill a hole in the side (which limits the capacity of the pail to 15L) so that I can hang them from the spile where the bark permits. If not, I hang from the handle and keep the lid at an angle over the spile (which can blow off in the right wind). I have a few additional pails (with no holes in the side) that I use to haul to my boiling location. The pails used to be used for juice concentrate.

Once at my boiling location, I use large barrels for sap storage when I start to get a back-log. Each barrel holds between 200 and 250L. The barrels were also originally used for food purposes. Usually, I only need one or two barrels for storage. However, during last season's tsunami, I think I had 6 on the go at the peak of the insanity!

As for sap, I was surprised to see a bit of a run yesterday. I don't think our temperature climbed a lot above zero but man that sun was nice and I guess the trees liked it too. I haven't added everything up yet but I think I got another 100 to 150L. Will be heading back to the bush soon to see what today holds which I'm guessing could be good with last night's cold temperatures.

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Originally Posted by Kyle Baker

who's all tapped in at this point? (buckets) It was definitely good for a run over the weekend and this week looks good for Eastern Ontario, but I'm still hesitant to go in too early. However, noticing the weather, plus there is no snow around the base of the trees after the weekend, I'm wondering if I should get at it.

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I think I'm gonna tap Saturday.

All tapped here too, 110 in (80 on tubing, 30 buckets) . Just finished collecting and got 100gal. Will boil tomorrow to sweeten pans.

We got 280 taps in over the weekend another 75 this week and we will be done. Sap was pouring out of the trees on Sunday. Hooked up vacuum today had half the bush running at 20" by the end of the day found a few new chews and some taps we missed. looks like the rest of this week is favorable to some good sap runs.
Enjoy everyone