Good to hear you got the shop vac. I bet that was one item that the stores were not cleaned out of.
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Good to hear you got the shop vac. I bet that was one item that the stores were not cleaned out of.
They had plenty of them in stock. The new one wasn't the same size as the old one but I only had to put a piece of 3/4" plywood under it to make it fit where the old one did. I had visions of having to go to the hardware store to get fittings and stuff to make it work. That would have turned a 20 minute job into an afternoon project.Quote:
Originally Posted by BAP
I should be able to come out some day next week. I've got to go to Bascom's and to pick up my kegs and MES to get more prefilters for my RO I'll send you a PM when I figure out what day.
I don't know if anyone else has this problem but you probably do. When I first logged in this morning I had a PM so I went there first to read and reply to it. When I was done I hit the What's New tab and only got the post from 6:30 on. What happened to the ones from about 10:00 last night until 6:30 this morning? This isn't the first time that it's happened! Mods?
I don't know if anyone will come for maple weekend but I'm going to be open anyway. I won't be giving samples but am going to boil in the afternoon.
The sap is still running pretty good but it's getting a little cloudy. It looks like we might get one more week before it's done. I haven't done anything as far as vacuum leaks are concerned but the gauges keep climbing. The vacuum has been at 26.5" most of the season and it has climbed to a needle width over 27". I know it's not a gauge problem. I have gauges in 3 spots and they are all reading the same.
Everything has been going so well this season that I was wondering when something was going to go wrong. Well it happened! My bulk tank that had 560 gallons of sap in it fell off of the cribbing that it was on sometime during the night. Needless to say, I lost the 560 gallons of sap and have to get the tank back up and cribbed.
I don't know yet how much sap I got overnight but I'm not going to have as much for an afternoon boil as I thought that I would.
That stinks Russ. Like you said, when you think everything is going well, something happens that throws that out the window.
I went down to the woods this morning and brought up 255 gallons of sap to boil this afternoon. I ran it through the RO at 50%C 50%P and planned on boiling for 3 or so hours. I got a late start on that and didn't light up until 2:10. I ran out of sap at 4:00. That was 125 gallons +/- of 3% concentrate gone in under 2 hours. I thought I was getting about 60 gph out of my evaporator and it looks like it's probably better than that.
I got the bulk tank in place with better cribbing underneath it but need to pick up a couple of pvc fittings and a Fernco connector to repair the broken pipe to the RO. It's a good thing that I have a dedicated concentrate tank. I'm able to use it for raw sap while the bulk tank is down.
I didn't have many customers for the first day of maple weekend but did better than expected. I knew that the turn out wasn't going to be good and am happy with the way it turned out. It felt strange not giving samples though.
Hey Russell, I know what you mean about hitting your stride, thinking everything is going smooth and then you realize that your R.O. is sending something down the drain but both valves are directed to tanks. So you look a little harder and discover that you left your wash loop valve open so whatever your feed pump cant handle is going through that valve and running dow down the drain. Sure that doesn't sound bad until you realize that the R.O. has been running for an hour.
Also had to use the Oooo-SHI_ bucket on the first Draw because you have the float set in the wrong groove.
Something about Thursday night's maybe I shouldn't boil on them.
Glad you got your tank straight.
I hear you Nate. I've made enough mistakes with the RO to take my time and double check everything. Even if I know that everything is going where it's supposed to I go look to verify that actually is.
You can imagine my surprise when I went down at 6 this morning to open the valve on the bulk tank and start the RO. The end of the bulk tank was on the ground and the pipe was broke off of it.
I've had my share of Oh **** moments too and I've got the scorched and warped pans to prove it!
Russ,
Sorry to hear about your tank. Glad it wasn't any worse than it was, and that you were able to get it reset. Good that you had some business and customers. Kinda surprised, there is hardly any traffic on the roads around here.
Money wise it's not going to cost much to get the tank connected to the sugar house again but the potential syrup I lost hurts on a low sugar year like this.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pdiamond
There was only one new customer yesterday, everyone else had been here before. I have some good regular customers and they needed their maple syrup fix.
well Sh*t happens I guess, it does suck though especially in a bad year... Glad you had some people out yesterday.
I'm glad that I've got a tractor with a bucket loader on it. It made moving the bulk tank a lot easier. I wasn't happy with the way that it was sitting after I got it back up yesterday so I picked it up and reset it today. Now I've just got to get to the hardware store and get the pieces that I need to fix the pipe to the sugar house.
Reports from one of the big sugar houses in town was that their sales were at 30% of what they were last year. I ended the weekend at about 30% too. Most of the people that came this year were friends, relatives and repeat customers. The one new customer was someone that moved into a house down the street last summer.
I didn't add things up yet. worked yesterday making bagged bfast and lunches for kids. the number are growing on that stuff every day we are up to 230 meals or (460 meals a day with bfast and lunch combined). I want us all to do good but at the same time I really want people to stay home too. tough stuff right now.
My wife runs the kitchen at the Penacook Elementary School. She went in yesterday to make breakfast and lunch bags for the kids that get free lunches. At this time the parents come to the school to pick them up. I don't know what will happen if the state goes into total shutdown. Where my daughter is in NC the cooks are making the lunches and the school bus drivers are delivering them.
I boiled again today and made 4 gallons of very dark. I didn't check the ssc of the raw sap but the ratio was about 100 to 1. Glad I've got an RO. The syrup looked dirtier than it has all season but it filtered easier than any of the syrup so far.
With the news of the executive order that the state is shutting down all non essential businesses I decided to call it a season. They are doing the same thing in NC and my wife wants to go down to be with our kids through this crisis.
My season was good enough and my trees are about to bud so calling it a run or two early isn't breaking my heart. The sap was smelling sour in the bulk tank even though I had just pressure washed it. The steam smelled a little off and the foam was hard to control. Last season on the next to last boil the syrup had an off flavor and it stunk so bad that we could hardly stay in the sugar house. Processing grade syrup is worth next to nothing so "no thank you" on a repeat of that.
I'm at 151 gallons and should be close to 160 after I finish the contents of the evaporator this morning. Not a great season but it could have been much worse.
Looks like the last freeze here tonight. Didn’t freeze last night but ran good yesterday. See what it does today and tomorrow but will probably call it quits too. It certainly has been a crazy year. Stay safe safe Russ in your travels south.
Russ - stay safe on that adventure. Bruce
Russ, Stay safe in your travels to NC and enjoy your time with your kids.
Stay safe in your travels Russ and enjoy being with family!!!
I finished the contents of the evaporator this morning and got 8 gallons more to put the season total at 159 gallons. If I hadn't ost that 560 gallons of sap when the bulk tank fell I would have been closer to 170.
The buds popped on some of the reds near the house today. It looks like it wasn't a mistake to call it a season last night.
I'm bringing nitrile gloves with me for when I need to get gas. We're bringing a cooler for drinks and we're bringing food with us so that we don't have to try to find a place to eat on the way down. The traffic shouldn't be bad with everyone staying home.
170 gallons, not too bad!!! good to be cautious!!! safe travels
Thanks Brad, I'm taking all of the precautions that I can. I know that taking a trip like this is probably foolish at a time like this. We want to babysit our new granddaughter while our daughter and son in law go to work minimizing the times when she actually leaves the house. Hopefully when it's time for us to come back home this pandemic will be under control and things will be getting back to normal.
Yesterday was a busy day. I got the taps pulled in the morning, the plastic tanks washed in the afternoon and made a trip to the dump. I jugged up some very dark which I have to label this morning as well.
I did the final wash on the RO overnight on Friday and ran the permeate through it while I was pulling taps. It's unbelievable how well these MES membranes flow and clean up. The flow rates were still at the benchmark at the end of the season just like last year. I haven't needed to do an acid wash since I put them in at the beginning of last season. In those 2 seasons I processed 20,855 gallons of sap, most of it got 2 passes and was concentrated to the mid to upper teens.
This is the fastest that I've gotten this much stuff cleaned and ready for the offseason. I have to thank my son in law, my wife and my cousin for helping out. I couldn't have done it without their help.
actually as long as you minimize your stops bring your own food etc etc you should be pretty good!!! who knows how long this thing will last!!! good to family that helps....
Russ, are you sugaring this year? I haven’t seen you post anything yet? Are you doing ok? Has anyone heard from him?
I Was wondering about Russ myself always enjoy fallowing his thread . He’s always about a week ahead of me for starting and finishing the season .
I have not heard or seen anything from him either. He is on my FB page and his last post was thanking people for his Birthday wishes. I hope he is doing well.
Maybe he stayed in North Carolina?
That’s what I was wondering. I hope his health is ok, I know he told us that he had been treated for cancer.Quote:
Originally Posted by GeneralStark
I haven't heard from him either. Went up to see him last February before everything shut down and he was doing very well. Got to enjoy a boiling soda with him. I was messaging him a few months ago and I know he was looking forward to be sugaring this this year. He's probably just busy is all. I will hit him up on facebook and see what he's up to.
yeah he's fine!!! just busy with projects and getting ready for the season.
Thanks for checking and letting us know.Quote:
Originally Posted by red maples
I'm finally getting around to checking in. I'm starting my 2021 thread tonight. Thanks for the concern.