Red Roof Maples 2010

I have to work this morning which is a pain but I will be turning on the vacuum pump this afternoon and drilling holes in trees. I have run some new mainlines for the upcoming season and so far have about 100 new taps ready to go. Supplies are running short but I should be able to add about 150 more before I have to buy more tubing.

My son in law Richard hurt one of his knees last month but it was a slight tear not one that needed surgery and he is back in the woods. He and I were both worried that he wouldn't be able to do anything this sugaring season. We have done plenty in the last 2 weeks getting ready to tap.

The extended forecast looks good. Mid to upper 30's for daytime highs for the next 10 days. The SP 22 has a new belt and is ready to suck.

Russ - I checked out Wildacres on the way home last night. He is 15 miles south of me. He has tubed a nice southern slope, snow was gone and 42 degrees, and it wasn't running. Think I still have 7 to 10 days. Gotta find my drill charger cord anyway. Bruce

Hi Russ, nice to see you back on. If theres anything I can do to help you out. Give me a ring. We got some sap yesterday but not as much as the pryer days. 32 here right now. Going down to turn on the pump and them over to Sunnyside for more supplies. We plan to start boiling around noon if we can get some of the land purchase stuff out of the way. Keith

Hi Russ,
Well I guess it's off to the races for you then.
Nothing wrong with that, been waiting for 10 months to get started!!
Say hi to Richard for me.
In one of your post you said you had boiled your bucket taps "Tree Saver".
Did you boil them in just water or did you put anything in?
Send me a PM if you would.
Still got to get down there to see your operation!!
Thanks!!

Dave

A couple more hours of pump and vac work and I should be ready to go. Holes are all cut and it's gravity feed until I get a little help from PSNH. It's time......finally.

I hope all you NH sappers, as well as you other addicts, have a sweet weekend. May your buckets runneth over.....right into the evaporator!

We got about 200 tapped yesterday afternoon. The sap was running good. Still have 300 or 400 to tap today. All of the hard work is paying off. When we got done we had only found 1 leak, a hollow tree, and the system was holding 23" of vacuum.

The low snow levels have made it easy to get around in the woods and I am able to use my doodlebug tractor to get around. I can't wait to actually gather some sap with it. It will be the first time that I will be able to. Usually we have too much snow and I have to use the 4 wheeler.

Kieth and others we will be out there today finishing repairs and tapping if you want to stop by. By late afternoon or sooner all of the vacuum taps should be on line with sap flowing.

Hi russ,

glad to hear your tapping...had my first draw off's yesterday got 4 gallons light yesterday afternoon.

I think were about done tapping here in Deerfield. we were gonna try to add some more lats on but we ran out of record fittings.
vacs working pretty good though. were getting about 24" steady

You guys are in the tropics down there. Meteo calls for above freezeing this week but I don't even think it will be warm enough just yet. I want to put out a test tap but can't decide what tree to put the test tap on yet.

5000 taps out 1000 more to go no sap has ran yet. Time to clean sugar house.