Hop Kiln Road 2015

[Hop Kiln Road]

Back in the High Life Again

We'll have ourselves a time, And we'll dance 'til the morning sun, And we'll let the good times come in, And we won't stop 'til we're done.

Gotta catch my breath. A lot's been happening around here. The boys got us a new TV for Christmas. Now my Vermont friends are going to find this hard to believe, but it is flat as a pancake and hangs on the wall like a picture! I'm serious. Well maybe more like a window that doesn't open and all the TV shows come from Outer Space! And I speak not of Hollywood, I'm talking U-F-O Deep Worm Hole Space! More channels than stars. Then tonight M got home a wee bit early and I was just finishing up channeling an episode of Brazil Butt Lift on 347 - don't want to give away the plot in case guys have been out early tapping and missed a couple episodes - and she makes me a Steady Winston Churchill, we just call 'em Winnies, and after awhile she turns off the magic waffle and says, "Treat, why don't you dance your little Brazil out back and put the squeeze to your trees before you turn into a Jet Setter."Oh my. Not! I've seen those snow boarder dudes over to Vermont who can't even wear a hat on channel 218 and been extra careful not to doze off down to Super Cuts. But she's right, as usual, why risk some major life event at my age when I can be out back tapping!

[cropseyvillemark]

I look forward to this thread every year. Now I know its time to go sugarin. Thanks Bruce!

[Russell Lampron]

Hey Bruce you getting any sap down there in Bow? I'm not getting much here in Loudon yet but it should be a good week.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Boys, dust off the dictionary. Run: when sap flows more than a gallon per tap per day for more than 3 sequential days. Also see, Squirt: Less than a run, and, Peak Flow: three or more day surge of uncontrollable sap flow often resulting in operator fatigue and damage to local infrastructure. Sap pumps all fired up. Membranes loaded. Evaporator idling. 400+ gal from 500+ taps over two days, but no run, yet. Oh, and be sure and test your sugar!

[Amber Gold]

Thanks for clarifying. I never knew there was a difference. You almost got enough to boil before things slow down.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Probably have to chase around town to find the missing buckets. May not get above 32 until the weekend. Got the feed tank sitting above the RO room so the line shouldn't freeze. But I decided to leave 80 gal of 10% in case I needed it Saturday; jury's out on that one. Only other vulnerable points are the permeate tank valves. Thawed out the canner and evaporator last night. Had a real episode with the filter press. Geez, here I am over challenged at 110% just to glue together a couple of RO valves while making monthly payments on my building permit tab and now Red Roof is operating his entire stump to jug system in a heated chair with joysticks. A guy just can't catch a break! I'm seriously considering buying that used 707 cockpit off Ebay and bolting it to the side of the sugar house. Hang up is getting the building permit and waiting for the right time to bring M onboard.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Another .5gpt today but sugar dropped to 2.4%. Partial day flows because of the weather. Course last year Red Roof added that fancy Visitors Center to his complex. Heard Maple Weekend he had to doddledbug up the tourists from his leased overflow parking down to the track. So after I finished the Chicken Spa I decide to put in a "RO Control and Command Center." Well, bite off more than I can chew again. Ended up with valves everywhere and now duck pipes all over the place! Don't know how the big guys do it. Started worrying I was courting disaster cause it looks an awful lot like a Chernobyl beehive and those drones ended up bulldozing everything for miles. But then for Valentines Day, M & I were knocking Humpty Dumptys off the kitchen counter and it hit me. Back around the holidays M thought I needed a thymus cleanse. I was probably a tad overdue but I don't like the medicine. So there we were shooting egg white with Curacao, Jagermeister, Chartreuse by christmas treeing Red, Yellow, Green, Go! Well from the bottom up, but Red, Yellow, Green? Wash, Rinse, Go! Hey, color code the control room valves. No wash water in the flue pan meltdowns for me. Nix the evacuation siren!

[Hop Kiln Road]

Slow start cause its cold and the snow is pretty but deep. I oughta know. Decided to use dad's old army holster to hold my drill. Wasn't a great fit and what with all the other stuff couldn't keep the new belt up so I found a pair of suspenders. After all the gear, put on a sweatshirt over the suspenders and a jacket, gaiters and snowshoes, and headed up the Line Road mainline. Snow was fine and granular, sank in every step and broke more a sweat than trail. Had to stop to catch my breath, twice. Right about when I reach the top of the last lateral, I had to take an urgent call from mother nature about my last cup of coffee! Took awhile to figure it out, big new belt, suspenders and bibs under the sweatshirt, but finally got all reassembled to kick off the season! Shoed over to the first tap...yikes, no drill in the holster! Tramped around for awhile to no avail and finally decide to use a snowshoe to dig a grid search. Now I'm no stranger to this technique, still got my Aiguille du Midi powder straps kicking around somewhere, over the garage I think. Decided to limit my search depth to three feet, I mean how far could it sink? About an hour later, establish the median snow depth in the area about 5 feet, no drill. Had to knock down some of the sidewall so I could shoe out of the cellar hole. Real tired and decided only to visually search my track in. Nada. Concluded high life is very good and time for a new drill anyway. Took off all my gear and packed it in the back of the truck. Get in and, of course, sitting on the passenger seat is my drill. If I can get my fork to my mouth going back at it hard first thing tomorrow!

[Parker]

Ha ha ha livin the dream!

[Russell Lampron]

I hate it when that happens. I lost my tubing cutters the 2nd day of tapping. I know where I used them last and I know where I tried to use them again but no luck finding them. So trudge back out to the 4 wheeler, take off the snowshoes and go back to the sugar house for another pair. Fortunately I wasn't too far from the 4 wheeler and was able to get back to tapping without losing much time.