Washington county NY

[COMSTOCK MAPLES]

Cool setup. I'd like to look into doing something like that. Does that pulls around 15" of vac steady?

[lakeview maple]

Its now pulling 21" consistently , I found a leak today and it picked it up to 21" . Average day with sap , between the guzzler and gravity I got about 250 gallons , Im hoping for a flood tomorrow. Stop up Comstock and Ill show you the setup.

[COMSTOCK MAPLES]

Ok sounds good. My main still going some at 11:15 pm so may just go all night thru tomorrow. Let it flow!!!!!!!!

[cpmaple]

I thought weds. run was gonna be good. Only pulled in 75gallons. what a unhappy feeling. Hoping to get some today but still 36 degrees here at 424am. getting ready for work then I will stop by the tanks on way in to see what ran over night hoping to have a few hundred gallons by the time I get home tonight so I can boil. LVM sounds like your having a much better year this season then past glad you healed and are back at it. cpmaple

[COMSTOCK MAPLES]

Had are open house today. Went real good. The new sugar house worked great way more comfortable than last year. The people stopping by was steady most all morning then slow in the afternoon. But it was a lot of fun seeing people enjoy watching the process and the hot coffee. Wish the temps were a little higher so the sap would run. Maybe this week it will let loose.

[adk1]

This weather has been unreal. Every time you look ahead a few days and it says high 40's and sun you get pumped up. Then once that day actually arrives, it ends up being 35 degrees and cloudy....

[COMSTOCK MAPLES]

Took my rig apart today cleaned syrup pan out and pulled some firebrick out. Then I took out the grate and cut it apart and went from 1/2 inch spacing to 1 inch spacing,and welded it out. Hope this will solve my ash build up after 5 hrs of boiling. I always have issues after about 5 hrs and the only thing that changes is the grates fill up with ashes. Hope this will fix that problem. Sap was running good today. It's here finally

[adk1]

I use a wood poker that cleans the grates out to allow for better airflow with the blower. I rake it about ever 6th firing. Makes a difference

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Took my rig apart today cleaned syrup pan out and pulled some firebrick out. Then I took out the grate and cut it apart and went from 1/2 inch spacing to 1 inch spacing,and welded it out. Hope this will solve my ash build up after 5 hrs of boiling. I always have issues after about 5 hrs and the only thing that changes is the grates fill up with ashes. Hope this will fix that problem. Sap was running good today. It's here finally

if i understand your problem correctly during your boil the spaces between the grates fill with embers and dont fall into the ash pit below?
If this is the case every time i fire i have a piece of 1/2 emt conduit i slide it up under all the wood in fire box and jiggle the whole stack at several different angles. this lets the embers that would be blocking the air from coming up under neath the fire fall down. Some times half way through my 5 minute fire times I will open door quickly and do it. it makes a huge difference for me.

[lakeview maple]

Ive never had ash build up at all, maybe I have the auf going a little too strong and Im blowing the ash up the stack , but she sure boils like crazy. I run the blower at about 3/4 , it seems to me that it is dialed in right at that point, nice even boil , fire ever 7 minutes . Now you got me wondering Flats? Hope you all are having a somewhat descent start to the season. Im at the 21 gallon mark, the Maple weekend was a bust up until today when I took the front pans off to clean and filter the sweets and have 5 cars of people show up in the course of 3 hours. So here I am covered in soot and grime and I have to play host , it was great. Al