Western New York

[Waynehere]

We have slowed way down. Tonight might be our last boil as it took 4 days to get enough to fire up the RO. This week looks iffy weather wise.

[wnybassman]

Had a total of 315 gallons of sap to get through today. Got done with that and decided to catch up on bottling again, 8.5 gallons of 41% robust.

Not sure where I am going from here. If I had 100+ gallons by morning I'd like to run that and call it a year, but the wind coming our way says I shouldn't light a fire tomorrow. lol Not sure I want to wait out another cold spell. Might just drain the flue pan Thursday and hand feed it into the syrup pan while pushing permeate through the flue pan.

Had a "dumb moment" today. Got done concentrating today and wheeled the RO over to where I do the rinses. Plugged it in and it wasn't pumping, just slurping and spurting. Messed with it for 15+ minutes, changed the prefilters a couple times thinking they were defective, still a no go. Finally unscrewed the prefilter one more time and discovered the o-ring seal wasn't here. Went over to where I concentrate and found it on the ground. DOH!!!!!

[MapleMark753]

Well, we are done for the season. Now, clean up for a coupla weeks or so. Last boil was on the 2nd, and it was Very Dark. Good syrup, but took two filter tries with the cone filter deal we use.
I don't like clean up so much, but I do like actually seeing the crud and niter in the evaporator just sort of dissolve away with simmering permeate and vinegar!
And, I do like reading about others "dumb" moments. Its a good laugh, usually only because I can remember when I did that too. Anybody who has not had multiple dumb moments just hasn't done this long enough I think
take care Mark

[Waynehere]

Was our last boil last night. Ended up with about 80 gal for the year, which is average. Still have about 40 gal to bottle yet, but will wait till warmer weather comes.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Bottled close to 15 gallons today. I still have the sweet in the pans and possibly one more sap run if it's not spoiled or buddy. Officially past 1 quart per tap. The syrup I made 4/1 and 4/2 darkened a lot. I thought sure it was very dark and then it barely graded as dark after filtering. Anyway, I think I have one run left in me.

[bowtie]

I'm done for the year, just turned off the propane after getting a nasty smell off pan and finisher, my wife thought it smelled like wet tree bark, I think it is metabolic, trees are not budded in the slightest. Wasted a lot of propane it, I start it and walk away checking every 15-20 minutes or longer, so I wasn't paying close attention to it.thought it was smelling funky but I think all steam off evaporators has a weird smell. I have a very sensitive sense of smell so i rarely get the sweet maple steam smell even when everyone else around tells me it smells great. Well time to get new evap picked up and bigger sugar shack started,and then garden,food plots,wood cut, clean up maple stuff, trees planted and on and on, sometimes I think I need throttle back on somethings, oh yeah it's fishing season and I also want to get into beekeeping this year. Lol like I need another "hobby".

[Kettle Ridge]

sometimes I think I need throttle back on somethings, oh yeah it's fishing season and I also want to get into beekeeping this year. Lol like I need another "hobby".

Congrats to you and others for making it through another boiling season. Beekeeping is a great hobby - and doesn't require propane! Watch out for black bear however, which I understand is a bigger issue in your area than mine.

[wnybassman]

We just got our power back from being out since noon yesterday. Had to dump 120 gallons of sap today that I collected yesterday. Too windy to boil yesterday, and no power for the shack until tonight. Sap does not have a very long shelf life right now. Walked the lines and had a dozen or so branches pinning the tubing to the ground, nothing came apart though. A big ash tree needs attention, snapped 8' off the ground and leaning against a small maple. Hopefully it will just come down during the next wind event. Taps are still in, planned on quitting but I guess we'll see what's out there after work tomorrow.

[concord maple]

Going to hang in there through the middle of next week to see if we can get one more run after this weekend's freeze.

[wnybassman]

I guess I'm done, nothing ran today. Will finish off the evaporator contents tomorrow after work or Sunday