Sugarhouse at Morningstar Farm 2016

[morningstarfarm]

well guys, it's time to get this ball rolling I guess..it's been a crazy off season so far this year...i've expanded to right around 6000 taps...spent a few weeks rerunning downed mains in another bush..had 16 trees down in that one...ugh...
waiting for Leader to deliver my new arch..she is a 4x12 reverse fired oil arch with max flu pans and a steam away..she is supposed to boil around 500 gph on low and 600 gph on high... I can't wait!!!...also got a new 450 gal head tank to feed the new beast....we might even look like we actually know what we are doing when someone walks in now...lol
now i just have to keep praying the oil prices stay this low..she is rated to burn 20 gph of oil...ouch!

In the woods, i've rerun pretty much every main we had in and double wired everything...it's amazing how much more solid the lines are now...not much of a sag anywhere...had a 12" birch come down on them in this last storm and it just bounced off..gotta love that!..it was a huge pain in the butt to redo everything, but well worth it in the end...
in my main bush we got rid of the reverse slope releaser and decided to pump the sap out instead..I hope this turns out to be the right move...as that whole bush is now running on a generator in the woods 1200' from the sugarhouse..it was several thousand dollars just for the wire to run power out there to run everything and like everyone of us now..I am suffering from EWS...(empty wallet syndrome)...

Still have a couple months worth of work left to get done in a few weeks..but that is normal every year..
still have a couple hundred saddles to cut in and the old 5x12 evap to remove this weekend..and..oh the list goes on and on...

On the positive side the season must be getting close...my drill appeared in the refrigerator this morning...darn kids must be trying to tell me something..like maybe i'm starting to act like a bear...I need to tap something!...even the palm trees were starting to look good in the D.R....LOL..that had to be the longest vaca trip I have ever had...came back with a few more gray hairs from worrying about the to do list...

well, back at it...peace all and happy new year...

[unc23win]

Sounds like some pretty good progress for you Chris. I have thought about double wire supports before, but have never tried them yet thanks for the insights. Congratulations on the new evaporator sounds like some pretty good numbers.

[morningstarfarm]

Spent the afternoon in the woods hanging the sap pump out line and was thrilled when I got to a maple I had to cut a branch off the other day and it was raining sap!...sat there for a few minutes and just enjoyed the drip drip drip...Got it all over my face trying to catch some in my mouth...lol...felt like a little kid.

[morningstarfarm]

WOOHOO!!!...got the drills all charged up....gonna start poking holes in the morning...with any luck I should have the first bush done and turned on by weds...wish me luck

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

I may pop 40 or so on Wednesday myself and see what happens, temps look good!

[Wingo87]

Anyone think it would be bad to tap this early? The temps look great for the next 2 weeks in my area, and their isn't much snow pack.

[morningstarfarm]

For only 60 taps I would half tap to get started...then tap the other half in later

[optionguru]

Don't do it. As soon as you guys down South start tapping I start getting an itchy trigger finger. Then every day when I log on I wonder how much sap I missed.

[morningstarfarm]

Sorry bud....too late...but it will take me a couple weeks to get them all in and ready to turn on...at least now I can start to flush lines...

[BlueberryHill]

I got 100 in today. Got to get the other 30 on the same line drilled tomorrow morning so I can plug in the pump. Ran out of daylight today.