Steam in Salisbury

[Parker]

everyone we stopped to see was still having good runs but they all thought thursday would be the end of it,,their trees were starting to bud,, I was very suprised that the elevation of lake champlaine is 90' above sea level,,and most of franklin county is relitivly low in evevation,,when we stopped at Goodrichs(other side of the state) he said the evevation was 1000' at the sugarhgouse and the woods were all higher that that,,,I do have to say Glenn has some absolutly amazing woods,,,fantastic looking maples with amazing crowns,,they just grow diffrent in Vermont...

[small_operator]

I collected my last batch Monday afternoon. I ran about 75 taps this year all rock maple but one red. I also missed the January run and one in March, but I made 7 gallons total, which is up from 5.5 gallons last year. Next year I'm definitely using a vacuum. I use my truck manifold vacuum hooked to an old 100# propane tank to clean my lines with, and using that it definitely pulled some sap thru at the end that wasn't coming out with gravity. My lines are on a good slope at the top, but they go almost level for some distance. I'm running a 2x6 Small Brothers with shiny tin pans. It's really too big for the amount of taps I have. I'll also see if I can get more trees. It's funny how people have 2x6's with an RO, but it makes sense. It must save a lot of time boiling and you can handle more taps.
Gary

[Al]

Dang Parker, You should of stopped in an seen my 131 bucket modern operation in Fairfield. You would of been astounded to see my 40 cup water heater and my ladel used to measure syrup level in the front pan. Next time your in the area give me a call. Can't wait until the 29th. Took the day off it's our Maple Festival and also all the big dealers open houses. 8) All within 20 miles.
We're finished now and so is everyone else except for my neighbor. He has 10'000 buckets. 8O Takes him awhile to get to the ones on the mountain.
Take care,

[Parker]

I picked up my releasers yesterday,,was surprised to see the 1,000 gallon tank in Hill running over (with no vacume) rte.11 had 500 gallons,,hoit road 350 gallons,,for a few seconds I was planning on firing up the 2 ton and collecting-boiling,If I collected eveything I would have had over 2,000 gallons,sap was pretty gross,cant stand the smell of that stuff boiling,came to my senses,,NEXT YEAR!!!

Al I could not remember the name of the road you live on,,we did not see any sines for pumkin village, ,I bet we drove right by your place to boot,,are you neighbors the Horrigans? On the way from Coreys to Brannons we shot down Buck Hollow road a ways and saw were I spent some time in the spring of 1983-1984,, Small opperator how do you pull sap thur you line and not get it going into your engine? are there more taps available to you? This sugaring is a horribal illness that gets in your blood and grows,,,I bet you will be up to 5,000 taps with a big RO on that 2x6 befor you know it!!!