2011 Steaming Drill Bits- Tucker Mtn Maple

[tuckermtn]

Put in 450 taps today with help from Kat and Dave-

still need to set tanks and get vac pumps and releasers set up on those two bushes before before thursday.

cleaning boil hopefully tomorrow night...

then the rest of the taps depending on 10 day forecast next weekend.

[Backyard Sapper66]

Eric,
Glad to hear things are starting to roll over there. Been waiting impatiently over here. Portable evaporator is setup, buckets and spiles are sanitized and triple washed as well as the (2) 50 gallon juice drums for storage. I've located about 25 trees that I will be tapping this year on the property, some that are big enough for 2 taps!! Getting excited as you could probably tell. Couldn't sleep so I fired up the laptop and poked my head in to see what everybody was doing.
Good luck this year!!!!
Talk to you soon.......
Doug

[tuckermtn]

Hey Doug- hope things go well for you this season...stop down anytime if your back in Andover...

[Backyard Sapper66]

Eric,
Rest assured I will!!!
By the way, where do you buy your plastic syrup containers? I have been using mason jars but wanted to send some syrup to family members across the states and figured the added touch of an authentic maple syrup container would add to the excitement of getting free syrup.
Let me know when you can.
Thanks a million!!!
Doug

[Parker]

Eric- You got the drop on me this year! Looks like you will get some sap this week....We are going to start on sat. (which is early for me) Gotta log 1 more week.....GOOD LUCK, you have been working hard on it all winter and it will pay off this spring!

[3% Solution]

Hi Eric,
Nice looking place you got there (forgot to post after Jim and I came over).
Jim and I got to get over there some afternoon while your at it. Of course that would mean we'd be right at it too.
Think I headed out to was tubing Friday, then going to tap the next warm up.
Good to ya this spring.

Dave

[tuckermtn]

We go the rest of Salisbury tapped Wednesday and got the pump and releaser set up yesterday...still need to do leak patrol over there...looks like there will be close to 250 over there. so we have just over 500 in now.

was running a bit in Salisbury and at Putney, but no gusher yet...

Putney road has a tank under it, but today's task is to set up the small ladder in to the releaser, then releaser and pump. hope to get that set-up by late morning.

need to get to concord to pick up my round poly stock tanks...one is 8ft round so need to figure a way to get it home so we can build some covers.

lots to do after this early season shake-down.

[tuckermtn]

picked up 200 gals from salisbury at around 3pm yesterday then another 125 as of midnight last night. So a little over a gal/ tap since we got the vac pump up and running on Thursday morning. Refueled the vac pump but with the wind kicking in it wasn't running much when Parker and I left it last night.

sweetened the pans last night- one nice thing about a new pan and truely flat syrup pan is that while boiling last night I had one of the best looking gradients I have ever seen...tried to take a picture of it- well see if it does it justice...textbook

frigged my back up so not sure how much I'm gonna get done in the woods today...lots still to shakedown and set-up.

[Backyard Sapper66]

Eric,
Is there anything I can do to help? I have a few errands to run this am but if you need some help I would be willing to help out. Let me know.
Doug

[Russell Lampron]

Close to a gallon per tap isn't bad for the first run. I hope your back problem isn't too serious. This is a terrible time to have something like that slow you down.