Red Roof Maples 2016

[Russell Lampron]

Almost forgot to mention that I hung up my new sign today!

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[Amber Gold]

Nice looking sign Russ. I'll have to get me one of those.

It's going to run all night, so we should have plenty to boil tomorrow night. This week's forecast has some cold nights, but I think we'll be making syrup most days...sweet!

[wokeupthisam]

Tapped in today, from the looks of the temps should run all night, maybe the first boil tomorrow afternoon. Tapped 14 days earlier than 2015, hopefully it's a long sweet season this year!

[Russell Lampron]

Nice looking sign Russ. I'll have to get me one of those.

It's going to run all night, so we should have plenty to boil tomorrow night. This week's forecast has some cold nights, but I think we'll be making syrup most days...sweet!

I'm hoping to find a big surprise when I go down to the tank this morning. My forecast for this week looks to be barely above freezing Monday and Tuesday with runs on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday than cold again for the weekend. I'm boiling again this afternoon and probably again Friday night. Good luck with your first boil.

[Russell Lampron]

Tapped in today, from the looks of the temps should run all night, maybe the first boil tomorrow afternoon. Tapped 14 days earlier than 2015, hopefully it's a long sweet season this year!

Good luck with your season too. This season is a tough one to call. I'm hoping that it doesn't turn out to be like 2012 when it was 80* the 3rd week in March.

[Russell Lampron]

I found 325 gallons in the tank when I went down this morning. I got about 50 gallons more from the time I started pumping the tank until I was done. I got the RO going and went out and fixed more vacuum leaks. The system is pretty tight now. I'm maintaining 25 1/2" at the releaser now and the regulator at the pump is set at 26". Every mainline has been walked at least once and some of them 2 or 3 times. I'm slowly but surely getting the Lapierre fittings out of my woods. The CDL and Leader fittings are much higher quality and don't leak past the barbs like the Lapierre fittings do. I don't know how Donald Lapierre maintains vacuum if he is using his own fittings in his woods.

I boiled in 675 gallons of sap this afternoon in 2 1/2 hours thanks to the RO. The sugar content was 2% when I checked it this morning and was 14% going into the evaporator. I made 10 gallons of great tasting Amber/Rich. Had a customer stop in this afternoon to buy 4 gallons which I jugged up tonight. 2016 is off to a good start.

[wokeupthisam]

I found 325 gallons in the tank when I went down this morning. I got about 50 gallons more from the time I started pumping the tank until I was done. I got the RO going and went out and fixed more vacuum leaks. The system is pretty tight now. I'm maintaining 25 1/2" at the releaser now and the regulator at the pump is set at 26". Every mainline has been walked at least once and some of them 2 or 3 times. I'm slowly but surely getting the Lapierre fittings out of my woods. The CDL and Leader fittings are much higher quality and don't leak past the barbs like the Lapierre fittings do. I don't know how Donald Lapierre maintains vacuum if he is using his own fittings in his woods.

I boiled in 675 gallons of sap this afternoon in 2 1/2 hours thanks to the RO. The sugar content was 2% when I checked it this morning and was 14% going into the evaporator. I made 10 gallons of great tasting Amber/Rich. Had a customer stop in this afternoon to buy 4 gallons which I jugged up tonight. 2016 is off to a good start.

Sounds like a Great start, let's hope it keeps rolling right through March. Had 50 gals from 20 taps in the 20 hours since tapping yesterday, boiled today yielded a gal of amber rich. Was good to smell the steam in the sugarhouse

[Russell Lampron]

Things have been going great here so far this season. The temp wasn't supposed to get above freezing here today but went into the mid 30's. I came home at lunch time to turn on the vacuum pump and to see how much sap was in the woods tank from Sunday. To my surprise there was 325 gallons in the tank. I went back to work and when I came home and checked the tank again it had 450 gallons in it. While I was pumping it out another 50 gallons came in for a total of 500 gallons of sap. Another surprise I got was seeing 26" on the vacuum gauge! I had 25" yesterday when I was done fixing leaks and gained an inch with the freeze and thaw. There will be steam at Red Roof Maples tomorrow night!

[Russell Lampron]

Had another good night in the sugarhouse and made 6 gallons of amber. The sugarhouse sure smelled good with the low laying steam filling the air. The syrup tastes as good as the steam smelled. Originally I thought that I wouldn't be boiling again until Friday but I boiled tonight and may be boiling again Thursday. Had issues with frozen pipes today but was able to get the RO going and the permeate flowing where I wanted it to without to much trouble.

With the lack of natural refrigeration this season I moved my boiling soda fridge into my RO room. Now the sugarhouse is complete. Things have been going pretty smooth in the sugarhouse since I did the remodel a couple of seasons ago. It's a lot more user friendly now and the boiling soda fridge makes it that much nicer.

[Greyfox]

Hi Russ. Glad to hear that things are going well for you this year. The new deal with me this year is that I'm partnering my operation with a buddy of mine down the road. He's over 80 and has a hard time getting around, and I can't be both places at once so I'll be boiling his sap and mine on his evaporator this season. He only got tapped in late Sunday, but we got enough to sweeten the pans yesterday. MIGHT be time to invest in an RO.