Sweet and Sour Dill Products 10

Ok since I dug up last year's info, thought I'd do it right for a change


So tapped in Lee 2-12, planning on collecting it all tonight.
Got a test boil done last night, the preheater leaks so the hoods off for now. I'll have to patch that up and get it back on later in the season. I also have to make the front more airtight, when I cranked the blower I couldn't even stand in front of the arch. And the pan therms seems to be broken I'll have to replace those once I make some money.
But it does boil hard, filled the whole sugarhouse up with steam, not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Planning on tapping my 3 Northwood spots this weekend.
Bring on the maple madness.

I also want to give a local business a plug. Lindquist Machine on rt 4. They will weld anything. One the hinges on the door was half broken off. They cut it the rest of the way off, made a new one out of mild steel and welded that to the cast iron door. It fits like factory new, done in 2 hours for 30 bucks.

Just boiled down the first 110 gallons of sap for the year. What a difference with the fancy 2x6. Fired up at 7:30 and shoveling snow into the fire box at 9:45. Kiddo was so excited to gather sap she fell asleep in the truck and slept through me trying to figure out the water bug sap pump.
I need to fix the hood, the steam was a bit much. I still spent most of the boil outside, guess I'm not used to the is fancy sugar house thing yet.

We got Amber Gold's sugar bush tapped this morning. Got home after lunch and got most of my buckets hung. Had a neighbor up the street stop to ask me if I'd tap a big tree by his house. I've never seen a tree this big, hung 5 buckets and probably could get away with another 4.
The saps running great, 47 degrees and sunny isn't bad weather to work in.

Dill I sent you a pm a while back, did you get it?

I am tapped all 35 trees as of yesterday, and some trees are running and some are not. No idea why not.

I did get that PM, sorry I must have forgot to hit send on the reply. I haven't heard of a Jim Dill, or the Muster in the Mts, is it a revolutionary reenactment group?

I took a long lunch and tapped one of my other spots, 65 taps on nice fence line trees. With 1 red oak for "hints of Oak flavor". I thought the bark was odd when Josh and I where running lines, but looking up there where maple buds. So I popped a drop into the line. Unfortunately those buds are not attached to that tree. Josh use a neat trick of a hollow core rope to hold 5/16 tubing, picked up off another trader, its slick.
I have one more bush to tap, where we also ran lines sunday. I've gone from 20 taps on tubing to burning up my 3rd roll for the year.
Has anyone used a homelite waterbug pump? If so what's the secert to getting it primed?

Glad to hear there were that many taps there. Those will run nice and sweet.

Last year I managed to tap a black oak (first in NH I've seen), a dead maple, and 1-2 other non-sap producing trees.

Is there a spot in the top where you can pour water into the pump head? Mine does.

Dill np, just wonderin is all the folks I mention were Alton located pretty much as far as i would know.

That oak outta spice things up good..... :lol:

The other day all the trees were begining to look like sugar maple to me too.

I confess, I'm part of the oak tapping club too. Took me 2 days of empty bucket to figure it out:emb: . Got this other tree, swear it's a maple, it doesn't produce a drop.(could be dead?):confused: Hows your first batch, Alden?

I can't get it to sweet up. Maybe I not moving it around enough if that makes sense? The odd thing with the perpendicular (cross flow) front pan is the front channel is the one that boils the least. I know the flue pan is boiling like mad, I wonder if its sweeter in the back? Its level, and I've boiled down 130 gallons of sap? Must be forest elves putting water in my buckets.