2011 Spring Harvest

[Amber Gold]

Again, the season's early...sure wish I had another weekend to get ready. I could use it to get everything tested before I tap in. I made some changes to the evap. over the weekend and would like to test fire it before it's full of concentrate. The RO's not even had a test run, and it won't before I tap in, so hopefully that goes without a hitch....cross my fingers.

This season, there's been some significant improvements. I opened up a high production (I hope) new woods of 600 taps. This is all done by the book so we'll see if I can get 0.5gpt (my goal). I'll also be able to salvage about 60 taps of my old woods, but those will all be on gravity.

Looking at the extended forecast and it looks like I'll be making syrup this weekend if everything goes well.

[Dill]

So you ended up tapping? What happened to "This is way too early I'm not going to jump until the presidents weekend?"

[Russell Lampron]

Good luck with your new woods and all of the improvements. It always seems like you could use one more week to get ready.

[Sugarmaker]

Josh,
You have put a lot of work in to the new woods and I am sure you will get the 1/2 gallon of syrup per tap.
Hope your season is good!
Chris

[red maples]

Hey there it is!!! was waitin' for the spring harvest thread!!!

That would be great if you hit that .5 gpt!!! Not knowing what was going to happen next, a few months ago...and all the work you did this year!!! and for the rotten season last year.( with the exception of russ). you deserve it (well we all do for that matter!!)

Good luck on the 2011 season!!!

[Amber Gold]

I went out tonight after dinner and got 220'ish taps in. In my travels I found one tree I missed a drop on and another which needs another drop...shame on me...this will be fixed tomorrow. It was actually pretty nice out. About 12F w/ minimal wind, beautiful clear sky, and a 3/4 moon.

Skipping work tomorrow and heading out early to hopefully get the rest in by noon so I can spend the afternoon checking for vac. leaks. Hopefully get the membranes flushed tomorrow night if all goes well.

[Russell Lampron]

Josh like you I took today off from work. Going to hook up the releaser and fix the known vacuum leaks. Hopefully things will thaw out enough to get a run tomorrow and Friday. I would like to boil Saturday if I get enough sap.

[Amber Gold]

Busy two days, but it paid off. After tapping Tuesday night, I got up early and got back at it Wednesday morning. I got two more mainlines tapped out by 12 pm for ~530 taps total. One last mainline to do either tonight or Saturday morning and that couple with misc. taps I need to put drops in for and such should yield about 600. After getting the taps in, I got the vac. pump running and the cooling line from the sucking water. Got down to the releaser and pulling 27" w/ everything closed. Went into the woods and went down each mainline to fix leaks and got one line to 26.5", another to 25", and another to 24"...pretty psyched because I was shooting for 15" or better. I went up to the vac. pump to check on it before I left and the bucket with the cooling line stuck into it in the pond froze up or something because it was no longer sucking water...pulled it out and stuck the line straight into the pond. Checked on things this morning and the cooling line froze up and the storage tank was like bath water and only pulling 22". Hopefully things thawed out and I got cooling water today.

Tonight, I'm flushing the membranes and hauling sap to leave enough room for tomorrow's 5gpd run...

It's looking like the sap should run through Friday night then shut down through the end of next week. Like Russ, I'm glad to get tapped in time for this run to get the bugs worked out before the season really starts.

[Dill]

Can you make that cooling line circulate faster to prevent freeze ups? Or insulate it some how?

[red maples]

Josh 5gpd....Gallon per day????

How much sap did you get today???

Yes this is a perfect time to work out bugs. I am just counting this as a test run ....run!!!


I am just trying to fine toon the sap lift. I ended up rebuilding the top and the bottom with PVC. Why? Ah just trying to get it to be as effective as possible. 23" at the releaser and 18.5" out at the end of 1 line so pretty good vac transfer. but its still favoring 1 side lots of power on that 1 side shoots it straight through to the other side!!! I don't think the trees are running that good yet. So it was working better with 1 side shut down.

I'll get there!!!