Steaming Drill Bits in Andover - 2014

[R A Powers]

Eric,
I just signed on for the first time this year and see that you got the pellet burner going. Congrats Bud. Sorry to hear about the health problems. Butch and I may drop by to see the new burner in operation when it warms up. Dick

[highway]

Good to hear you are helping Eric out. That is a sweet looking pellet set up. I have never seen one work before. We plan to finish tapping this weekend. Buckets mostly but a few more yubing lots too.

Happy boiling

Ed

[tuckermtn]

Ed and Dick - I know its hard because we all tend to be boiling at the same time, but you are welcome to stop over anytime we are boiling...figuring this might be one of those "once it cuts loose its going to be a crazy 4 week season..."

Pretty slow around here these days. Ben, the chief engineer at TMM, has been working on one of the SP-11s that is only pulling around 10". He thinks it is the set of rings on one of the pistons. Other than that, working on accounting and taxes in front of the wood stove.

Ben actually headed north yesterday to visit Quebec city since he had never been up that way, and with the ten day forecast looking cold, I said take some time off. Well, when he was crossing the border, the Canadian border guard asked him what he did for work. Ben mentioned he worked in a maple operation, and the border guard held him up for over an hour - grilling him about why he wasn't tapping, or flushing lines, etc. Seems like they thought he might be heading to Quebec to work for another maple operation...I told him if he needed me to post bond for him I would be right up...

stay warm everyone...the sap will run again...soon I hope -

-Eric

[R A Powers]

Eric,
It's probably a good thing that Ben didn't have a quart of New Hampshire maple syrup with him, he would probably be gone for the season. I haven't tapped yet since it only takes us a couple of hours to get out our 50 to 60. The cold really bothers my copd and we do it for fun so i'm not going to torture myself. I still have about a hundred feet of line to dig out. I'll do that next time it's in the 20's and the sun is on the line. I hope it's not another one of those short seasons but it is sure looking like year before last weather wise. Looking for warm days cool nights and 3% sap. Dick

[R A Powers]

Eric & Parker,
Have you Guys had any run at all with the late afternoon temps the last couple of days? I was in Lebanon Thursday afternoon picking up some pellets for our pellet stove and there was a guy from Plainfield that had a about a hundred gallons in a tank on his truck. He said it came from his buckets but his lines were all frozen solid. It was good to see that Parker is back on line. I was wondering what was up. I hope you get a run soon, I would really like to see that new unit of yours in operation. Dick

[tuckermtn]

Dick - we had a few drips Friday afternoon, but not much more that a quart of sap in the buckets. Latest day we have ever hung buckets is this year. Hoping for a bit better run from today. We shall see. Give a shout on my home phone - 5602 to see if we are boiling. I would be surprised if we had enough to fire up this evening, but you never know.

-Eric

[R A Powers]

Dick - we had a few drips Friday afternoon, but not much more that a quart of sap in the buckets. Latest day we have ever hung buckets is this year. Hoping for a bit better run from today. We shall see. Give a shout on my home phone - 5602 to see if we are boiling. I would be surprised if we had enough to fire up this evening, but you never know.

-Eric

I'll keep my fingers crossed, Dick

[tuckermtn]

Finally had our second boil for the season yesterday. Had 900 gallons from Tuesday to start with and then picked up another 1180 gallons yesterday. fired up at 12 noon. ran out of sap once, then finished around 8:30. 35-40 gallons I am guessing.

having problems with the auger from the bottom of the silo to the day-bin inside. First it bound up, then no pellets dropping in to the auger...puzzling for sure. This is a silo we installed, and has nothing to do with the CDL arch...

Vicky Smith stopping over tomorrow for Seal of Quality inspection. Hope to have some more sap to boil on Saturday for the 1st open house weekend of maple month...

good luck to all...

-eric

[tuckermtn]

Finally jugged up the syrup we made on Wednesday. 40 gallons of medium. So we are at 50 gallons of medium total for the season. Very good flavor so far.
chasing the freeze up last night - sap seemed to shake loose late afternoon yesterday. Not a tsunami, but a good short run for us - one of the better for the season. Hauled in around 1300 gallons - mostly purchased sap - so we will plan on dealing with boiling today in the below freezing temps.

Ben thinks he has figured out the silo auger problems - the universal joint which holds the last 18" of the auger had lost its drive pin, so it was not turning properly. To make sure we didn;t run out again, he, Mark and Heather filled up 6 or 7 trash barrels of pellets for inside to we can manually fill the day-bin if needed. Will burn though that before trying silo again.

Still having issues with the D & G sap lift we installed at Hattans. Freeze ups b/c it wont drain fully, and then the slide mechanism on the chamber is now hanging up, resulting in no vacuum to the bush. Ben has been working on it way to much...not impressed.

Temps warm a little on Tuesday - then Wednesday - on it looks very good...Bring it on.

[tuckermtn]

Burnt front crossflow pan about 20 min. after start up this afternoon. good thing we had another to swap out. love being able to simmer fire down so fast with pellet arch. soaking in acid tonight.

made 3 gals. of scorched C and 16 gallons of I am guessing medium.