Spring Harvest 2013

[Russell Lampron]

Hi Josh, What are the details on your new RO? How do you like it? Inquiring minds want to know.

[red maples]

curious too!!! did you go the new H2o Inv. 600? I think you said you were looking at a used one as well...

[Amber Gold]

1996 Darveau Turbo Compaq. 1hp feed pump w/ 5hp pressure pump...no recirc pump. Used but tested Mark 1 membrane (haven't confirmed if it's passing sugar or not). It processes >600gph at first, and will stay there until the concentrate's around 7%. Issues so far is the pressure gauge was shot when I got it (new one coming in), and the feed pump leaks (think there's a bad seal). Also, as experianced the last time I ran it, the feed pump's low, then pump's up to the filter, then drops back down to the very bottom of the membrane tower...you can get an air pocket in this section of line and need to bleed the air off (crack a fitting open), for the RO to work. Only happened once so far. It's a nice machine, simple, and it's remarkable how much faster a 600 is than a 250 Since the pressure gauge is gone, I haven't pushed it too hard...just been recirc'ing 50/50 to get the conc. level I want.

[bkyrdmpl]

I've been waiting for a Spring Harvest update for a few days. How are they running?

-backyard in Strafford

[red maples]

he's either drowning in sap or just busy getting it right!!! before we finally get going!!!

[Dill]

Its been busy over in Barrington. I'm hauling all my sap over to him this year since I haven't got the new place up and running yet. My brother in Lee is hauling a bunch as well.
Lots of new lines in Josh's sugar bush also. So it will be interesting to get a final tap count. I think the total for syrup so far has been about 15 gallons, but the sugar content has gone up to around 2% from 1.5 which will help.

[Amber Gold]

Been busy. Two days of training for work and getting home late make for a day/night of rushing around.

We boiled about 700 gallons Monday night and made some syrup...just made MA. Boiled another 580 gal Tuesday night and made more syrup that just made MA. For some reason, syrup's darker this year and I can't get into a LA or well into MA. It also seems like the niter's heavier this year. Syrup total so far is one keg filled and maybe another 25 gal bottled. Sap for us actually ran good yesterday and last night...got about 600 gal in the tank this morning. Sugar's around 2%. Our tap count TBD, but on vac. we're somewhere north of 800, w/ some more to go this weekend. Also adding in a 60 tap gravity woods. Tap count for Mark's and Alden's sap coming to our SH is TBD. I figure we'll be north of 1500 in total after this weekend.

This morning on the releaser, I found the plunger end of the manifold lying next to the releaser...first time this has happened and no clue why. The moisture trap was full of sap and no tracks in the snow, so not like someone took it off on me...weird.

Everything's coming together and working well. Woods is working splendidly. Been pulling 26.5" all day with little time spent checking for vac. leaks, and haven't been in the woods since Saturday...feel pretty fortunate. RO's working well, and with all the sap getting delivered late in the day, I do appreciate being able to process 600gph...it's faaaaaaaast. The downside is the amount of permeate it dumps into your feed tank during a sugar rinse. Had a breaker tripping issue the other night, and once I let the breaker cool down all the way, it ran cool the rest of the night and stopped tripping. Not sure why, but new electrical feed and 60 amp breaker...had similar issue last year with the 250.

[Dill]

The Dill's had some hiccups yesterday. I had about 70 gallons in my tank at 8 when I checked the pump and releaser, evidently I'm running near the top end of what that hobby can handle. Cause when I got there at 4 the moisture trap was full and I had zero inches of vac. Got that straightened out, and the releaser dumped about 10 times in 10 minutes running full bore, but I didn't get most of the heavy run ended up with 100 gallons.
This morning the elbow was froze solid, the vac line to the pump was froze up, and the top of the water filter housing was froze. Quality ice chipping time, but its already flowing good.
My brother had some tanks just about overflowing in Lee, but I think he's ready to get rid of that old homelite waterbug. It took forever to catch a prime and your pretty much going to go deaf listening to it scream before it catches. He had to leave a barrel because it wouldn't pump the last one.

[Amber Gold]

Collected >1000 gal from our woods yesterday, and boiled down almost another 250 gal from Mark and Alden. Finished up about 1am and made about 20 gal of syrup. Just crossed the line into dark (bummer), but had little flavor...odd. Tasted like it should've been a light, but it's dark. 300 gal in the tank this morning and only a little freeze overnight. Hopefully it runs good today. I'd like another 20 gal night.

Releaser was pulling 22" when I collected sap yesterday. Found a spout pulled out. Fixed that, and a few squirrel chews on the way back out, and back up to 26"

Met with PSNH this week, and going to try like heck to get electric down there this year, more to test it out and see how well it works. Big benefit is it'll keep the pump near the releaser (easier troubleshooting) and it'll eliminate the vac. line and it's issues.

[Amber Gold]

Things are going surprisingly well here. Spent Saturday in the woods and got the woods back up to 26.5"...just finding little vac. leaks here and there. Tap count is around 830 and probably won't go up too much higher from there. Saturday we boiled in the late afternoon so we could go to the UNH hockey game with my oldest daughter...UNH won 4-0...awesome! Sat.'s boil was fast and furious 13 gal in 1.5 hrs from startup/shutdown. We collected ~500 gal and Dill brought another 250 gal more.

Sunday was spent getting material's for the electric service, hauling sap, and getting the SH somewhat cleaned up...it's slowly coming together and looking presentable. We collected ~900 gal and had another 300 (I think) delivered). Made about 25 gal of almost MA.

Syrup total this year is approaching 100 gal. Syrup's been darker than it tastes. Yesterday's boil was starting to creep back up into a medium, so maybe we'll get back up there.

We want another 800-1000 (or more woods), but I wonder how I'd find the time to manage it properly. I wouldn't want to add another woods to sacrifice production out of the woods I have.