Red Roof Maples 2016

[Russell Lampron]

Like everyone else I have been busy here getting ready for maple season. Sadly my son in law moved so I don't have my right hand man next door anymore. He plans to come over and help but at this point I'm not sure how much he will be able to. Maintaining the vacuum system and running the RO are going to be the biggest problems because he used to start the vacuum pump when the temperature was right and run the RO while I was at work. He used to keep the vacuum leaks fixed too which will be hard for me to do during the week when I have to work. Good luck with the new season everyone.

[jcb]

Hope you have a great season I'm sure you will get through just fine

[red maples]

Yes I am now working so I will have to get things going before work. Good luck Russ.

[Russell Lampron]

I spent the day setting and positioning tanks and getting everything in the sugar house ready to go. I'm ordering a new membrane for my RO tomorrow. If I hadn't forgotten about that little detail I would have been tapping today. Well the sweet and permeate tanks are back in the woodshed, plumbed up and ready to go. The gathering tank is on the trailer and the doodlebug has a new set of used ice chains on her. Just got to tap the trees and bring the releaser down and set it up.

[Greyfox]

Hi Russ, good to hear form you again. Last year it was tapping in snowshoes, this year it's sneakers...MUCH nicer tapping. I tapped half mine on Sunday, got a pretty good flow, just a bit yesterday, and hoping for a good run today and tomorrow, and plan to boil on Thursday. I'm hoping that since I'm using seasonal CV's I can withstand a long freeze and won't pay the price at the end of the season for starting too early....fingers crossed. Best of luck to you Russ.

Doc

[Russell Lampron]

Good to hear from you again Doc and good luck to you. With the check valve spouts there is no down side to tapping early. It's the warm spells that will kill your season not the cold ones.

I played hooky from work yesterday so that I could set up my releaser and get some taps in. I got one mainline tapped and then turned on the vacuum and went on leak patrol. Found and fixed several squirrel chews and had 27" at the releaser when I was done. The sap was running pretty good and I am hoping for more of the same this weekend when I am going to put the rest of the taps in.

The new membrane that I ordered Monday should be here tomorrow or Friday. I was saddened and surprised to hear that Joe Pasulka at Atlantic RO had passed away. His nephew Dan Pasulka seems like a nice guy too and I will continue doing business with him and his company Eastern RO.

[Russell Lampron]

I got my new membrane today! I need to rinse the new membrane and the RO will be ready for sap. There are still a couple of little things to be done but the sugarhouse is pretty ready to go too. Now getting the tapping done is the highest priority.

[Russell Lampron]

Richard came over and we got another section of woods tapped and leak checked today. It was trying to run this afternoon and we were able to maintain 26" of vacuum after we were done fixing leaks. Got another 350 or so to go and the hardest sections are done. With any luck we should finish tapping tomorrow just in time for the freeze up.

[Russell Lampron]

It was a beautiful day to be in the woods today. I'm officially tapped in! I've got some leaks to find and fix but still pulling 22" of vacuum so there's nothing major. The sap ran enough to get the lines flushed out and when it warms up again it's game on!

[Amber Gold]

Glad to see you're tapped in. After seeing the long range forecast, I decided to hold out. I wasn't quite ready and decided the time was better spent getting the woods in better shape. Swapping drops this year and making some long needed repairs. But if I'd thought this Jan. warm-up was going to last this long, I probably would've tapped in a couple weeks ago.