Steaming drill bits in Andover- 2013

[Amber Gold]

My goal this year...no burnt pan. We'll see if it happens. So far it's been a yearly ritual.

[tuckermtn]

Pan is pretty badly puckered and the burnt crap is being very stubborn. Have had it soaking in pretty strong pan cleaner since 2pm yesterday and still have some stubborn areas. Lots of elbow grease needed. Ordered a new pan from Bill Mason yesterday but not sure when it will be available, so trying to get this one atleast workable. Kat is now officially inducted to the burnt pan club that Mark and I are already members of...

Fortunately we have some cold weather for a bit of breathing room. Looks good toward end of the week and next weekend.

[tuckermtn]

Mark and I worked on tanks and plumbing today, while Kat got in another 300 taps. Approx. 700 in so far. Will have another 250 in by the weekend, then wait and see on the buckets...

Had vacuum on this afternoon, but not much running.

Looks hit or miss from Friday on...

Good luck to all getting things dialed in...

[red maples]

yeah really nothing running we still hit 40's but trees need time to recover and thaw from the deep freeze over the weekend. maybe Friday, then maybe mon/tues/wed maybe. We'll see I guess!! Hope your pan gets done quick!

[tuckermtn]

No real run today despite the 40deg temps and nice sun. Kat got lots of tanks cleaned, Mark worked on some new tank covers. My jack of all trades and detail oriented cousin Ben has been working on finally running some legitimate lighting (moisture tight and caged) and a few more outlets to the sugarhouse. Finally got the tank in the unimog.

Might have a line on a replacement syrup pan- Bill was too busy, so I think I located a factory second at Leader that will work.

Heading up to The Rocks estate tomorrow for the Intermediate Maple Workshop. Think the snow will hold off till after the workshop...

I thought we were pretty well set to get rolling early this year, but it always takes way longer than I think...

-Eric

[Russell Lampron]

Before the season started I thought that I was further behind than I really was. Everything came together right on schedule though.

Good luck with the new pan and hope you make it back before the big snow starts.

[Amber Gold]

Unimog...those things are cool! Great sap hauler.

[tuckermtn]

Was shake down day for the RO today. Started with 600 gals of raw sap, made 300 gals of permeate and dumped the concentrate. Then ran through 300 gals of water to rinse all the perservative out of the new XLEs. Late in the afternoon Mark and Kat each hauled in 200 gals and we started concentrating what was left for raw sap and then the additional 400 gals.

Boiling in a blizzard- Fired up the evaporator around 6:30 and shut down around 8:45. Drew off maybe 3-4 gallons.

getting used to the XLE flow rates and settings. Had the slightly faster NF270s previously. Was running 2.3 sap through at between 250 and 300 PSI, 6-7 GPM and making 1.5 GPM of 8.2% concentrate. 0 sugar passing as best I can tell with my Hanna refractometer.

Boiled on warped pan tonight, running deep. Tomorrow the plan is to swap out the warped one for the Leader 2nd we picked up last weekend.

Feeling like things are coming together here...hope everyone has an excellent season...

[tuckermtn]

been pretty straight out here in Andover. Continues to be the year of pan problems- this time a leak around the drain fitting in the flu pan. Fortunately it sugars over with burnt crap pretty quickly. Was thinking about pulling it off and getting repaired, but then I looked at the 10 day forecast.

Made 4 gallons out of the burnt stuff from the first boil, then we have made 48 gallons of good syrup. Don't have new grade set yet, but based on last years gade set it is borderline light. Have another 20 in the canner that I hope to get to this morning.

We had an unexpected good run yesterday. 37-38 deg with a NW wind and it was running pretty well. Not sure if we will get much today as is snowing and about 29 here at the house.

MArk and Kat have been putting in a lot of time and have made all the difference this season. Thanks to Parker for the pump and sap help. Also getting some drop in help from neighbors as well.

I enjoy the busy, productive nature of sugaring, but to me there is a community, social aspect of it that I also enjoy a great deal. Kat's boyfriend stopped over to hang out last night as we were boiling and he brought along his banjo- blower blowing, evaporator boiling, beer-drinking and banjo picking seemed to all fit together pretty nicely...

Need to do some jugging and clean up around the sugarhouse- have some visitors coming tomorrow afternoon. Time to clean up the beer cans and burnt sugar...

- good luck to all in The Maple Nation...

[R A Powers]

Eric, Sounds like you burnt a pan, sorry bud. You were just telling me how hot the new arch was at the PO the other day. Dick