Steaming drill bits in Andover- 2013

[tuckermtn]

Had to start somewhere- Kat and Mark drilled the first 200+ taps in at Hattans this afternoon- Mark in his boots and Kat on her tele skis making tracks through the sugarbush. I worked on washing the tank and setting up the new drain fitting. Should finish up tapping tomorrow and get the SP-22 turned on and releaser set.
Will fix leaks and get that bush tidied up before moving to set up some south facing 50 and 60 tap all 5/16ths runs. Shooting for 1500 taps this season and lots of helping hands...

[GeneralStark]

I'm glad to see that there are others that like to tap on skis. I'm hoping for more snow in the next week or so to have better ski tapping conditions.

There is a company in Michigan making these funky skis that are more like snowshoes that are great for using in a sugarbush. They are fat and short with a waxless base and can go pretty much anywhere. I have been using these more and more in the sugarbush.

http://marquette-backcountry.com/

Anyway, good luck with the season! I look forward to following your progress.

[tuckermtn]

415 taps in, vac running but only pulling 11" at the releaser. Sap not running very hard, think the releaser dumped twice in 2.5 hrs. Need to fix some leaks and a star fitting tomorrow...then shifting gears to running some long 5/16's.

After tomorrow, we have only one day above freezing in the 10 day forecast...I like the slow warm up way better than the full-tilt start we had last season.

[red maples]

Hey eric... I agree I have been running full speed (except for tonight) all week trying to get everything done. then a freeze up to work out any bugs and the relax a little I hope then right back at it when thing defrost again!!!

[tuckermtn]

chasing leaks yesterday but Kat finally got the vac levels back up to a respectable 23 at the releaser, 18 at the last gauge. Need to figure out if it is just the back gauge low or if there is a bigger issue. was running pretty well around 4, and still running when Heide and I checked at 8:30pm. Guessing we have 225 gallons off of the 415 taps there. will set up sugarhouse today and boil it in (no RO) tonight.

[tuckermtn]

Surprise run Saturday and we collected 400 gallons of 1.6% (total gathered so far- only 415 taps in). After most of the day getting things dialed in, we fired up at 5pm. Sweeting the pans with raw sap takes a good long time... Front pan was stuck at 214 for several hours then spiked when some foaming got away from us...so first boil of 2013, first burnt pan of 2013. Will drain it off today and asses the damage.

[Maplewalnut]

Opening day jitters, hope your pan scorch is minimal. We had the same thing here but caught it just in time. I need to re level the rig this week, our first draw was 4 gallons on a 2x6! Good luck Eric

[red maples]

OH NO!!!! well at least you got it out of the way early!!! and you can get caught up on it the next few days might get some sap on Tuesday!!!

[morningstarfarm]

Ouch...hope it's not too bad...good luck with it...

[Russell Lampron]

Sorry to hear about your pan scorching incident. Had a close call here last night too but caught it in time. Had the float valve stick on the front pan. Noticed it just by chance and got the sap flowing again before the level in the pan got too low.