your weather underground app doesn't show you the temperature you want so you open up one of the other two weather apps on your phone to see if they show the "correct" temperature.
your weather underground app doesn't show you the temperature you want so you open up one of the other two weather apps on your phone to see if they show the "correct" temperature.
Pete Nightingale
Lisbon, NH
3 Teenage sap haulers & Plenty of friends and family to restock the beer fridge
2012 1 tap and a pot
2013 10 taps, oil tank evap, 2 gallons of slightly too thin syrup
2014 48 taps improved oil tank evap 3.5 gallons, ouch??
2015 88 taps 78 5/16" and 10 3/16" nat vac 40"x 48" Homemade Arch 13.25 Gallons
2016 100 taps 65 on 3/16 & 35 buckets 17 gallons + unknown amount of maple / Jack Daniels testers
you lick your plate to get all the syrup off.
150 on 3/16 gravity 2018 and 120 sap sacks
14 x 20 sugar shack
2014 New custom 2x6 arch "The Firestorm" w/ preheater, AUF & AOF
Smokey Lake pans and water jacket bottler
2024 new 2x8 set of drop flue pans and hood from Smoky Lake. Lengthen our arch.
Just a hobby but seems like more work every
year
3 generations working together
Wife that guards our syrup
43.74° N
Not being a religious man, start going to church on Sunday to pray for the weather to break!
FIRST GENERATION SUGARMAKER
First boil 2/22/2012! Went Pefect!
3,500' of laterals
1,000' of mainline
2012 - 105 taps on gravity, 12 sap sacks.
2013 - 175 taps on gravity, 25 on sacks = 200 taps for 2013! Second year.
2014 - 250 taps on gravity, 25 on sacks
Tapped on February 16, 2014
2015 - adding vac sap puller no more gravity for me!
275 gallon holding tank for 2014
20'x30' Sugarhouse
You evaluate potential houses based on the number of tappable trees, slope of the land, and direction it faces. Who cares about 2.5 baths? I want 250 tappable trees and a south facing slope.
Big_Eddy
Eastern Ontario (Quinte)
20+ years on a 2x3 block arch,
Homemade 20"x64" drop flue since 2011
Build a Block Arch
Build a Flat Pan
Build a Flue Pan
Sweetening the Pans
Build a Bending Brake
Using a Hydrotherm
How much Sap to Sweeten?
There's more chrome in your saphouse than on your truck.
Jeff
470 taps
Torr Vac TV40D High Vac with Lapierre Horizontal releaser
Leader 2x6 Patriot raised flue
Leader 2x4 Steamaway
Wildfire arch
MES Dolly 300 3 post RO
DG 7" 5 bank filter press
and still lookin to get bigger
150 on 3/16 gravity 2018 and 120 sap sacks
14 x 20 sugar shack
2014 New custom 2x6 arch "The Firestorm" w/ preheater, AUF & AOF
Smokey Lake pans and water jacket bottler
2024 new 2x8 set of drop flue pans and hood from Smoky Lake. Lengthen our arch.
Just a hobby but seems like more work every
year
3 generations working together
Wife that guards our syrup
43.74° N
You spend every dollar you can towards equipment or supplies so you can get "rich" making and selling syrup.
Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.
Convince yourself that getting a little bigger will make things easier.
2010 40 buckets- 4 gals finished
2011 80 buckets- 14 gals finished
2012 105 buckets- 8 gals finished
2013 maxed at 130 buckets- 24 gals finished
2014 new max at 240 buckets- 18 gals finished
2015 newest max 240 buckets-+48 taps on 3/16 gravity- 22.5 gals finished
2016 150 taps on 3/16 gravity- 23 gals finished
2020 250 taps on 3/16 gravity- 22 gals finished
2021 385 taps on 3/16 gravity 25 gals finished
2022 385 taps on 3/16 gravity- 26 gals finished
....you see a torn old bumper sticker inside an abandoned sugar shack, and know instantly what it said when it was still intact: Old....jpg
AND -
...you dream of someday having an operation big enough to warrant firing up the ol' Grimm evaporator that can, it is said, handle 400 GPH...Grimm400.jpg
Been tapping since 2008.
2018 - 17 taps/7 trees...819l sap, approx 28l syrup
2019 - 18 taps/8 trees...585l sap, 28l syrup...21:1 ratio
2020 - 18 taps/8 trees...890.04l sap...gave away about 170l, 30l snafu'd....23l total for me from approx 690l
2021 - 18 taps/8 trees...395l sap, 12 l syrup
2022 - 18 taps/8 trees....7 sugars 1 red due to #2 having surgery so had the season off....582l sap, 18.5l syrup
2023 - 18 taps/8 trees...all sugars again. 807l sap, so far approx 14l syrup
You are 74, Cold and standing in two plus feet of snow with drill in hand and thinking - Nope - Not gonna do it this year - This is Insane at my age. But - You do it anyway. Being insane make it a little easier. LOL
Mike
2x5 F.O. Tank Arch/Wood Fired
2x5 Mark/Josh Custom Pans
12 x 14 Sugar Shack
55 Sure Taps - 100 Unsure Taps