Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[GeneralStark]

My dad tells a story from growing up in Maine that there was some absurdly young drivers age limit so that kids could drive farm equipment on public roads. Anyone remember having a license or permit before 16?

Latest long range I have seen looks like warmer weather by the 10th of March or so. Looks like it could be a fast season, which will be very different than the 3-month season last year.

[GeneralStark]

Nowadays kids spend their time Face Booking their 50,000 friends and complaining how hard life is.

Spud

Man I got to get to work. I only have like 15 followers on instagram....lol

[doocat]

What’s Instagram.....

[Sugar Bear]

Man I got to get to work. I only have like 15 followers on instagram....lol

Nowadays kids do a hole lot of nothing, or if its something, then it is petitioning to have things that are extremely bad for you legalized and thus for your own decision making on the most ordinary things like which way to drive on the interstates.

I remember in the early 1970's my sisters older friend got her permit at either 14 or 15. She lived on a active cattle farm in Waitsfield and man was she a Cutie Pie.

Anyway ... we got dream streams made of gravity into the barrels today here in Southern CT. Not sure why, not that sunny out or warm. May well run out of fire wood this week.

Have sap send wood. Dry wood.

[MikeVT]

.....seems as though this thread has gone way off topic.....

Just finished tapping in Fairfax. And hooked up new vacuum and ran several hundred feet of vacuum and pump line into woods. It’s been real cold here, even these warmer days haven’t been enough to get the sap moving. Looking like next Monday we may start getting enough sap to boil. Last thing to do is clean r/o. What are people using for first rinse? Water or permeate? I’ve got a friend that can give me a couple hundred gallons of permeate, but water is easier.....

Happy sugaring!
Mike
Summit Maple
Fairfax, VT

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Started tapping today. Been in the woods for two days pulling lines out of the snow after the last snow storm. Pump house is done, all I have to do now is finish the "old" woods and I'll be ready to go.

[hookhill]

We use water from the well to rinse the RO at the start of the season. Not sure what other folks do. It is the only choice we have. I guess a guy could save some permeate from last season. Not sure how much better that would be after being stored for months.

[hogisland42]

I know a guy that uses lake water to wash ro at the start of the year.

[WestfordSugarworks]

Go ahead and trash the younger folks but holding those kind of attitudes will limit your ability to see the reality around you. Some young people are doing not much, some old people are doing not much. People of all age are doing all different things. I'm 22 and have been sugaring for 5 years. Graduated UVM with a degree in forestry in 3.5 years this past December and managed 10,000 taps (now 15k) the whole time. Also started a business last year while running the sugaring business. Now have a full time employee who starts with me in 2 weeks. I know a lot of other young folks doing cool things and working hard. Also know some who aren't doing much.

Anyway, we still haven't boiled. Sitting on a few hundred gallons of 15 brix concentrate for like 3 weeks now. I'm headed to Florida tomorrow to pick up a truck. Looks like we will get some sap and hopefully my dad can manage alright, but he works full time. We'll see. Ready for the sap to come hard and heavy once I get back. I'm checking out leases on neighbor's property- hopefully going to start runnning wire on a lease within a month or two.

[drewlamb]

Amen to that. Happy to see a handful of my oldest daughters friends at town meeting today voting for the first time. And I guess I like my own kids allright - proud dad watching my middle daughter placing second in the nordic state championships yesterday and the team taking the whole thing (https://www.timesargus.com/slider/u-...7b4f9596a.html). Sorry to gloat so blatantly.

Haven't done it before but was thinking of rinsing with sap. Anything wrong with that other than losing a couple gallons of syrup? Is there a rule of thumb around gallons per tower? I just have a single tower and CDL told me that a 100 gallon rinse is enough.