Keeping track of taps
At the end of this season, and 4 days after I thought I had pulled all my taps, I found one more. When I walked into the woods to retrieve it, I realized that I had missed that tap for the last two thirds of the season. Once the snow melted, I started missing it on my rounds.
How do you guys keep track of taps and buckets during the season and so that you do not leave them in the tree till the following year? I only had 50 taps in this year! LOL
2013 15 Homemade Taps, Milk Jugs, Turkey Fryer, 3 Gallons Syrup
2014 Finishing my college degree, looked longingly at the Maples all spring
2015 26 1/2 Real taps, Milk Jugs, Homemade 20x25 pan on propane, 5+ Gallons Syrup
2016 50 Taps, Milk Jugs, Homemade 25x48 pan on propane block arch, 8 1/2 Gallons Syrup
2020 80 Taps, Milk Jugs, 25x48 pan on propane block arch w/preheater, 10 gallons syrup
Mine are all connected to blue tubing. I just follow the tubes. I do not jump from one line to another, even though it would mean less walking.
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.
We use sap sacks, but its a similar collection deal. Every tree, every time. First couple of seasons I did miss one or two occasionally. What we do now is for a particular area, the taps are all on the same side of the trees (rotated a bit every year) so that when you're collecting that area all the stuff is facing more or less the same direction and is visible as I go in. Haven't missed any since. Only thing I'd add is that when you take your buckets off at seasons end, do the taps at the same time. Very easy to not see just a tap later with nothing hanging on the tree. Or, tree marking paint works too for identifying tapped trees. A three inch round "dot" is visible from quite a ways away.
take care, Mark
I don't have that problem because if I take off my shoes I can count all my taps. But I'm thinking why don't you weigh your taps before and after. If your scale is a half way decent digital it would pick up a single tap difference..............I think? Jay
Zucker Lager
I hate to add that I actually missed the tap, with the milk jug still hanging from it! LOL
2013 15 Homemade Taps, Milk Jugs, Turkey Fryer, 3 Gallons Syrup
2014 Finishing my college degree, looked longingly at the Maples all spring
2015 26 1/2 Real taps, Milk Jugs, Homemade 20x25 pan on propane, 5+ Gallons Syrup
2016 50 Taps, Milk Jugs, Homemade 25x48 pan on propane block arch, 8 1/2 Gallons Syrup
2020 80 Taps, Milk Jugs, 25x48 pan on propane block arch w/preheater, 10 gallons syrup
Ha, ha. Good advice. I have to take mine down so, the first trip out is to cut the tap off and pull it from the tree to let the lines dry out. In one section, I went back to roll up the line and I saw that I had missed two taps clear as day right at eye level. I thought, how the heck did I miss those two?! Ah, because I jumped to the other lateral there. If I had followed the line like I should have, I would have had to cross over the stone wall a third time!Originally Posted by maple flats
Sean
Woodville Maples
www.woodvillemaples.com
www.facebook.com/woodvillemaples
Around 300 taps on tubing, 25+ on buckets if I put them out
Mix of natural and mechanical vac, S3 Controller from Mountain Maple
2x6 W.F. Mason with Phaneuf pans
Deer Run 250 RO
Ford F350
6+ hives of bees (if they make it through the winters)
Keeping the day job until I can start living the dream.
Too funny.
If a tap weighs, say, 1 ounce, and you tapped 3 trees and the scale says 2 ounces at the end, then do you still have to check all your trees for the missing tap? I pity the person with 1,000's of taps who comes up 1 ounce short.
It seems I miss a couple every year. I find a few when I pull the taps that were Never Put in for the year and then a few that never got pulled from the previous year. Jeff
2021 230 Taps on vacuum
Smokylake 2X6 pan set with auto drawoff
Homebuilt 2 4x40 membrane RO
Homebuilt filter press
Rebuilt arch with under and over the fire air we have named V 2.0
Smokylake steam bottler
Hoods and preheater
500 gallon vertical polytank to store sap for RO
Adding a laser eye to my bottler for autofill/stop
One tap, two taps, three taps, four, if I can find one more maple I can tap more
30x8 Leader revolution, wood fired blower, steamaway/hood. 903 taps all but 54 on pipeline and 3 vacuum systems. Hauling sap this year with a 99 F350 7.3 diesel dump and of course back up is the Honda 450 and trailer.
Nice, and that is why I have lost track of taps!!!! LOL Just one more maple, right over there, and quit out of the way!!!! LOL
2013 15 Homemade Taps, Milk Jugs, Turkey Fryer, 3 Gallons Syrup
2014 Finishing my college degree, looked longingly at the Maples all spring
2015 26 1/2 Real taps, Milk Jugs, Homemade 20x25 pan on propane, 5+ Gallons Syrup
2016 50 Taps, Milk Jugs, Homemade 25x48 pan on propane block arch, 8 1/2 Gallons Syrup
2020 80 Taps, Milk Jugs, 25x48 pan on propane block arch w/preheater, 10 gallons syrup
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