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Well if anyone needs it, I have cords of Dill farm patented slow burning pine for sale. Perfect for maple weekend. Just know that your gloves may go into the fire with the stick if you don't pay attention.
But ya I'm thinking the same thing. Burn crap pine, probably leave the steamaway off and just use the RO to pump up to the head tank. Glad its sunny right now, but its still really cold. And holy cow that wind was blowing last night.
thats pretty funny.... Dill...
I didn;t want to hold sap I'd rather have good syrup then have sap for show. which I am glad I did. because what I did make will be beautiful in glass.
If worst comes to worst I drain the evap. put water in the flue pan add some sweet to front pan and just boil water I have done it before with the enclosed hood you still get the visual in the front pan and the sweet steam and you can clean the back pan at the same time. The forecast for me is pretty bad not many freezing nights next week. I hope that changes. for the better. I will end up just a smidge over last year if thats the case.
then basically hold sap for sat and sunday because we aint gonna git much friday its a thawing day espeically with no sunshine on saturday or sunday. blah!!!
I have a 200 gallons on hand from earlier this week I havent boiled yet. Its been so cold im not to worried about spoilage... tomorrow is warm but i'll toss some snow on the sides of the tanks. This weekend looks like a washout anyways so i'll be boiling and dont expect many visitors but Im not on any kind of a list so normally just friends/family/neighbors here anyways. I dont expect much sap this weekend at all or the beginning of next week, temps are up but it just looks like a wintry mix/rainy mess. I think the season might be basically over, the buds are swelling on my trees and the forecast is poor right up until early april
I'll be boiling raw sap Saturday with no blower and no bubblemaster. Depending on how it runs tomorrow and Saturday will determine what I do Sunday. I have 375 gallons of sap in my bulk tank for the weekend. I'll probably boil about 200 gallons Saturday.
Hope everyone had a good day despite the weather. numbers WAAAYYY down as expected but still ok sales and a few pretty busy points as well. actually more people than I expected.
Only managed maybe 15 gallons of sap on the over night and if I got 30 gallons of sap all day today that would be a lot. need it to be a little warmer.
Well I am toast. Excellent crowds today. Just after lunch or I noticed a gentleman from unh coop. We was watch my maple presentation and after the crowd switched out he came over and asked if I could get wired up to make a pod cast, I said sure. So he asked me a few questions. Then I started my speech and he recorded me for a out 1/2 an hour. Pretty cool. So that will be out after it gets edited. It wasn't a record crowd but folks were out.
After I got everything cleaned up and tents away. I had to collect.sap. I was tired but I ended up with 250 gallons total few the last few days.
boiled out 525 gallons yesterday. was hoping for more but only managed about 8 gallons sugar was pretty low. I like better when the ratio is more like 50:1 rather than 60+:1 I wish there was more bucket sap that is at 2-2.25% so that does help but its alot of work.
only managed about 250ish gallons from last night through this afternoon and buckets and gravity have both shut off.
all the weather forecasts are different by a few degrees which can make all the difference I hope the WMUR forecast is right thats the most favorable one.
I am starting to see some of the bucket guys around are throwing in the towel. seeing the buckets are gone in some areas.
Definitely a slow and steady week. We finally got freeze here last night not much bUT at least it got things moving again. Boiled out another 525 gallons but only made about 6.5 Gallons. Sugar really took a hit. I was hoping for a little more sap today but since.we haven't had a freeze since sat pm. I managed 300 gallons today. Hopefully we will get another freeze tonight but with Temps only getting into the upper 30's now and 5 to 10 or what ever inches of heavy concrete coming not expecting too much for tomorrow either. Slow and steady. The cold ground and cloudy cool Temps have kept the red buds from swelling. And I have a string of about 20 sugars on the edge of field and I noticed they are swelling a bit. If the forecast doesn't change looks like we might run out of cold nights before the buds pop. Just keep chugging along. Need about 38 more gallons to reach my goal gonna be close.
I got 475 gallons here today. Boiled in 550 last night and made 9 1/2 gallons. I need to make 58 gallons to reach my goal. The sap is still coming in clear and the buds are tight so I think it's going to happen. The snow should help us. If the temps are right it could run good.
Yup same here, low low sugar, and just plugging away. I was hoping for really big sap yesterday but more of the same. Good run but not great. Making 8 or 9 gals a day. That RO is the only reason I'm still standing. Heading out in a bit to pump what I've got before the next big snowstorm.
still going I think the next couple of days will be the end of the buckets low pressure system usually will keep them going for an extra day. There are no freezes left in the forecast down here not even close. there was one for saturday but that changed. so when the Vacuum runs dry I will be done I guess. Would have been nice for us southern guys to get a couple of days of consistent sap weather. very up and down here. not a terrible year like last year but kind of a drawn out tough slug of year. its not over yet but getting very close. final push to the end!!! good luck everybody!!!
Next year I will be ready earlier so I can hit the January thaw if it comes.
anyone get Bascom's openhouse flyer yet? wondering when what weekend it is so I can try to plan.
Sox won opening day!!! go Sox!!!
How did the sap run for you today? If it was anything like here you should have gotten some sap today.
Oh yeah sap ran great today. All season long it has been 1 freeze and 3+ days no freeze, then totally freeze up for 3 days then no night freeze for 3 to 5 days. Been a vacuum season. Down here yet again.
Every year it's the vacuum that saves my season. This year I didn't put out any buckets and with the weather we've had I'm glad that I didn't. Good luck with the rest of your season.
My magic number is "34". That's how many gallons of syrup I need to make to meet my goal.
since last night my magic number is down to 18 to reach my goal. still a slight chance. with 5 + gallons in the evap. and vac is still going!!!
Good luck Brad. I hope you make it.
Well still going. Pulled all gravity and buckets on Thursday. but no peepers and buds are swelling but its been pretty cool no frosts since I don;t even remember. been averaging 170 gallons of sap a day on vacuum sugar is still at 1%. haven't boiled since Wednesday night. So I have 500 + gallons get that ROed and boiled out on Sunday.
guessing the peepers will start up tomorrow or monday. I think I might call it quits on sunday night and just boil any remaining sap on monday afternoon and boil out any remaining sweet on tuesday. I won't be able to keep it cool anymore since we are going to be in the 70's mon and tuesday.
I am 82 gallons as of wednesday night so hopefully I will get 6 to 8 gallons out of what I have 3-4 gallons out of the evap and finish arounf 95 gallons only 5 gallons off my goal. I'll take it. long season though. thank goodness for vacuum!!!!
This has been another strange season. I hope that there is enough sugar in your sap to get you as close to your goal as possible.
I called it a season yesterday. I exceeded my goal of 175 gallons by 2 1/2 gallons and still need to finish the evaporator.
just finished had a total of 570 gallons for today. Warm in the sugarhouse today. but listening to the red sox game was good. made another 8 gallons and it lightened up from (25 is Very dark cut off) 35 to 43 on the "Hanna" scale. only 5 points off of my lightest this year which was 47(49 dark cutoff ) . most of which was around the 35 to 40 mark. Syrup still tastes good.
still going!!! I was gonna cut the Vac today but the sap is going!!! we got a little freeze last night and I got about 200 gallons of sap today. I might throw a bucket of sap in the chest freezer and add it to the stock tank in the morning its in the RO room which is insulated maybe I can keep it cool enough to keep things going!!! I have plenty of wood so might as well keep going!!! :)
If I had plenty of wood I would have waited until today to end the season. After finishing the evaporator this morning I have about enough wood left for a good campfire.
Go as long as you can. I think the warm weather tomorrow and Tuesday is going to make the trees bud here.
trees budded here I finished out my pans last night. funny thing though sap was still coming in.
So after I finished out my back pan and emptied the majority of the syrup out I finished off what I collected yesterday and today and the sap was nasty to say the least. the syrup is even worse it is VILE!!! I actually needed to RO it anyway just to top off my permeate tank
but it will get tossed.
didn;t reach my goal but factoring in everything for ease of calculation including the 2.5 that will get tossed.
I ended up with 96 gallons of syrup. I know my trees and the weather down here on the seacoast so my goal was only 100 gallons. but it was about about <1.4 pints per tap. collected 6900 gallons of sap which is the most I have collected by 1100 gallons and that is 71 gallons sap/ gal Sugar was very low 90% of season due to extended warm nights and little to no winter dormancy it peaked at 1.5 to 1.6 right before the freeze up but average was about 1.3% . made about 7 gallons of very dark early in the season and the rest was all dark. Had 570 taps on vac and about 50 on gravity and buckets but the main bulk of the sap was vac. as we all know it keeps going long after the bucket runs stop. so not much at all for sap those 50 taps. so it really hurt my per tap sap average but factoring them in was 11.13 gallons per tap.
it was one of the longest and up down temperature years I think I have seen since I have been sugaring. inconsistant temps combined for only 1 really good run which was early in the season. a little more consistency to the weather could have been a bumper crop down here.
It was a pretty good year overall and was about 45 gallons more produced than last year which was my worst year to date.
I will be working in the woods this year to improve a few things to get better flow and better vacuum transfer on my flat woods here. Adding another 50 to 60 on the vacuum lines and always looking for woods to tap. I think I am gonna invest in a leader fill-Stop bottler this year then I can label while bottling and fill 2 at the same time. 2 canners and 1 larger one has a second fitting. they did some re-designing and I think the bugs are worked out from what I am hearing. I wanted to get a candy machine but since I borrowed so much money from the house this past year for upgrades due to the poor 2016 season I can afford it so I will have wait another year.
Going forward with the weather patterns being so unpredictable with little to no extended dormancy for the trees it is vital to tap early like early January. sugar will continue to be low without extended cold to convert the carbs in the trees and with tap hole sanitation by changing out drops and adding new spouts each season the holes stay open longer so tapping in early January won;t effect end of season sap flows. tapping early is a change that needs to happen or we won;t make as much syrup. If I am tapped in and it freezes up well then it freezes up. I didn't have 1 tap come loose this entire season even with a blizzard, crazy winds, super warm temps and super cold temps.
It was a very smooth but long season and the mid season freeze up was actually quite helpful in getting ready for maple weekend.
Always fun in the sugarhouse. love to boil but time for the suck job of the clean up and get taps pulled and get along with the spring chores and start on wood for next winter and maple season!!!
See ya everybody.
I will be in touch Russ. we'll hook up soon!!!
The trees are very close to budding but haven't yet. The sap that came in Saturday was cloudy and full of bacteria but still made good tasting amber syrup. I'm glad that I decided to call it a season Saturday. We got a freeze here Saturday night and I'm sure that the sap probably ran pretty good Sunday but It felt good to finish the evaporator before the contents spoiled. I don't have any desire to make commersial syrup with the prices as low as they are now.
I want to go down and check out your sugar house too. We'll have to make it happen. Message me on facebook.