steaming drill bits in Andover, NH

[tuckermtn]

set the vacuum system up on Monday and gave it a shot...about 4 hrs later the landower called and the said the pump was making an awful noise and it had tripped the breaker...spent yesterday morning switching pump motors (old 1/3Hp elect. motor) and then looking for leaks. Most the little sapsucker was able to pull was about 5"...but some vacuum is better than no vacuum.

the strnagest thing about yesterday was that it was 37-38 deg out and blowing 20-30 mph but the sap was running like crazy...

150+/- gallons of 2.5% sap thought the evap. by 11:30pm. didn't get to 100 of the roadside buckets...will check this afternoon.

seems like it might run today...but yesterday proves that you never know...

thanks to Parker for all his vacuum help...

-tuckermtn

[Parker]

I cant be that much help if your pulling 5" ........I was wondering if you could run another line up into the woods to transfer more vacuum to the taps?? Good luck, looks like we will be busy for a littel bit,,,,,

[tuckermtn]

got to about 60 deg this afternoon so I was thinking the trees were going to shut down...but I was wrong once again...started gathering at 4:30pm and most of the buckets that I had emptied last night had between 2 and 2.5 gal. each. best run of the year to date...

450 gallons total with everything still running- boiled off 150 tonight and am planning on stockpiling some sap for the open house weekend.

hope everyone else got slammed as well as I did...

-tuckermtn

[tuckermtn]

Gathered 300 gallons on Thursday afternoon and another 200+ yesterday afternoon...I had some buckets that were emptied at 7pm on thrusday and by 6pm friday had 4 gallons in them. Got pretty warm in the afternoon and only about 1/2 of the taps were still running.

Made 6 gal of light amber thursday but I would guess fridays is going to be darker- the sap we got thursday afternoon was getting cloudy by friday 2pm when we fired up.

today is supposed to be perfect sugaring weather (got down to 25 here last night) , but we have been having really good runs on less than ideal days its hard to tell.

Our first shot at an open house for Maple Weekend...hopefully all goes well. we'll run the evap. at less than full tilt to make the sap last longer...have only about 220 gallons in reserve..

good luck to all

-tuckermtn

[tuckermtn]

Maple weekend seemed to work out pretty well for us...seemed like half of the folks were friends, the other have off the street. I think our total was 135 vitistors- more on saturday than sunday.

Sap ran prettwell Saturday, but almost not at all on sunday...

boiled each day from 11am till around 4, at about 3/4 fire. Syrup seems darker with the longer fireing.

I think our season total so far is 28 gal, plus about 6-7 gallons in the finisher now...

need to go out antd tweak the sapsucker to try nad get the most out of these upcoming runs.

-tuckermtn

[tuckermtn]

Sap ran better than expected for us today...got the sapsucker running around 9:30am ish...overcast, rain and 38-39 deg. gathered 165 +/- but lost 20gal because we forgot to close the valve in the bulk tank after washing it yesterday...felt like an idiot...

heading out to bottle sundays boil and get geared up for Vickie Smith from the state dept of Ag coming over in the morning...

not supposed to get below freezing till wednesday night so well see what happens to the sap quality...

-tuckermtn

[tuckermtn]

Sap ran well yesterday and was running a bit today. No run Wednesday, Gathered 200 gal this morning and boiled it all throught...had my daughter's pre-school here for a tour in the am. nice to have some sap to show then something. Getting more cloudy sap, but still making dark amber so I'll keep at it.

cleaned front pan and tanks today...shame there is no market for niter since I must have pulled a few pounds off my front pan...

season total is 45 gal...hoping to make 55+ with some grade B in the coming
days...

-tuckermtn

[tuckermtn]

Gathered late in the day yesterday- had about 225 gal...woods trees are doing better than the roadsides- will probably pull some roadsides today depending on if we get a run or not...got down to about 26 here last night supposed to be 50 and no wind here today..

canned another 2.75 gal of dark...have about 4 gal sitting in canner

sap is running about 1.8-2.0 so no complaints..


my goal is to be boiling while listing to opening day of the Red Sox season...might actually happen this year...

best of luck...

-tuckermtn

[Parker]

Eric- Thought I could see you boiling from Rte.11 as I was collecting yesterday?? Have been lucky enough to catch the sox playing in florida a couple of time this season from the sugarhouse,,,,get a good run yesterday?

[tuckermtn]

Got a decent run- 200 gal- yesterday (sunday) and fired up the evaporator at 6:30pm...some roadsides were in the 1.5 to 2 gal per 24 hr. Parker- I should look sometime, but I think you probably can just see the sugarhouse as you round the turn on Rt. 11 by Henderson's yellow house...

Was surprised that the sugarbush on sapsucker didn't really produce as much as I expected..will consider a real vac (Delaval or Surge?) for next year. move the sapsucker over to our smaller bush next year...

haven't graded most recent batch of syrup yet, but planning on firing up the canner while listening to Joe and Jerry on WEEI tonight for for first time since October...Red Sox Maple Nation...maybee I should move to the NEK of Vt so I could catch more Sox games during sugaring season.

-tuckermtn