November Journal

[DrTimPerkins]

The crew is finishing up some tubing projects in the woods, and starting to put out new spouts for the 2017 season.

Rebuilding the RO room and just put in a new pad outside the releaser room for tension posts for the mainline. Lots to do before the snow flies.

[jbuck]

Yes, the seasonal push before snow/deer season/holiday time. We're busy finishing up a pump station build (grid hook-up, tank, pump and releaser) and new equipment installation. Tubing install is in process as well. Wishing we has one more year of woods work to tidy up the sugarbush, but made the call to put the saws down and hang lines so we can make some syrup!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

The crew is finishing up some tubing projects in the woods, and starting to put out new spouts for the 2017 season.

Rebuilding the RO room and just put in a new pad outside the releaser room for tension posts for the mainline. Lots to do before the snow flies.

Dr Tim,

Does Proctor go ahead and put out new spouts now or when they tap??

[DrTimPerkins]

Does Proctor go ahead and put out new spouts now or when they tap??

We used to wait and put them out during tapping. Last year we tried putting them out earlier, in November, but after it had turned colder (freezing temperatures), and it didn't seem to hurt our production any. To clarify this....we mostly use new spouts (not stubby/adapters) and put them on the droplines early during late-fall and early-winter repairs, and then tap in January-February depending upon snow conditions and temperature. Keep in mind that we're pretty high up in the hills, so it is fairly cold up here through most of that time.

I hope to do some research sometime in the next couple of years on whether timing of putting spouts out has any impact on sanitation/yield in the following spring. I suspect it doesn't have much, as long as the spouts are put out late enough (when it is cold).

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Dr. Tim,

I think this would be a very valuable research subject and would be interesting to see the results.

We used to wait and put them out during tapping. Last year we tried putting them out earlier, in November, but after it had turned colder (freezing temperatures), and it didn't seem to hurt our production any. To clarify this....we mostly use new spouts (not stubby/adapters) and put them on the droplines early during late-fall and early-winter repairs, and then tap in January-February depending upon snow conditions and temperature. Keep in mind that we're pretty high up in the hills, so it is fairly cold up here through most of that time.

I hope to do some research sometime in the next couple of years on whether timing of putting spouts out has any impact on sanitation/yield in the following spring. I suspect it doesn't have much, as long as the spouts are put out late enough (when it is cold).

[wnybassman]

This past week we closed on a small 2.5 acre piece of land less than a 1/4 mile down the road. Good supply of maples and great slope. Biggest problem is it slopes away from the road, the same problem I have battled for years here at home. Oh well, it is close to home and how often does land come up for sale this close to home? For the first year or two we are going to tap the top most part of the land closest to the road, mainly to stay within the capability of my current pumping ability until I can upgrade pumps, tanks, etc.

Today I flagged trees that I hope to get to this initial tank location, and came up with 52-55. I feel as though this is about a 1/3rd of what this piece of land has to offer for total tap count.

[Wanabe1972]

Well most of the sheeting is up in the sugar house and should be able to paint on Thursday. Hopefully be able to start moving stuff back in by the weekend. Then i can final plumb the RO and Tanks. We ran 1600 feet of 3/16 tubing and cut in the drops. We are just waiting on another roll to complete the tails back to the tank. When the evaporator goes back in we are going to raise it 12 inchs for a little more comfort while loading wood into it. The cable company is coming next week to run a new line from the pole to my house to replace water damaged line and going to run one to the sugar house so i can watch my baseball while boiling this spring. The only project left would be installing the hot water tank in the heated RO closet. It sure will be nice having hot and cold running water and sink. Jeff

[ennismaple]

Yesterday I started thinking about what tubing had been put up in our woods and when. A good chunk of it is almost 10 years old! I still remember stretching it like it was yesterday.

Crap - we need a plan! How can I replace approximately 10% of our lateral tubing each year to cut down the cost and time involved and keep it on a 10-year logical cycle? An hour of figuring later and I came to the realization we need to replace 600 taps this year, 600 next year and then about 400 each of the following years until we get back to the tubing we just put up last season being 10 years old in 2027.

Time to go buy more tubing, tees and stubbies! I actually enjoy stretching replacement tubing because it allows me to fix the things I did 10 years ago that bug me every time I see them.

[maple2]

welcome to the club! Plus all the chainsaw work while the old tubing is down. We tend to get more tubing replaced on low snow years. should be working tubing,today, instead of making christmas wreaths!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Well most of the sheeting is up in the sugar house and should be able to paint on Thursday. Hopefully be able to start moving stuff back in by the weekend. Then i can final plumb the RO and Tanks. We ran 1600 feet of 3/16 tubing and cut in the drops. We are just waiting on another roll to complete the tails back to the tank. When the evaporator goes back in we are going to raise it 12 inchs for a little more comfort while loading wood into it. The cable company is coming next week to run a new line from the pole to my house to replace water damaged line and going to run one to the sugar house so i can watch my baseball while boiling this spring. The only project left would be installing the hot water tank in the heated RO closet. It sure will be nice having hot and cold running water and sink. Jeff

We are in the exact same boat as you, 10 year old tubing as of this year on the large operation we help with. I think we will do 1/4 of the bush (+/-1350 taps) at a time starting next year. We already do that with drops and taps so those are on a cycle. Gonna be a lot of work.......what else is new!