Getting ready

[raptorfan85]

This site is pretty helpful as well. It atomaticaly adjusts for elevation and barometric pressure

https://www.saptapapps.com/

[minehart gap]

Thanks guys. Very helpful. I do use saptapapp a lot and love the app. It helps me keep track of sap flow and sap forecast. I have used the syrup temperature application exclusively to this point but I always double check with a hydrometer and lately (after waiting for the syrup to reach the correct temperature) I have been drawing off a little early.

Please don't think that I am complaining about the ap. I just figure that I need to be able to calculate this by myself so that I am sure.

Also, thanks for the formula. I'll now be able to calculate syrup temperature from the sugar shack. I think that it is pretty cool how the boil will change as the pressure changes.

[minehart gap]

I hope that today is as beautiful everywhere in the sugaring world as it is right now in central PA. Have a great rest of your season everyone.

[minehart gap]

Received a draft copy of an energy audit that was compiled for my sugaring operation the other day. I have some improvements to make. First off will be a point of use hot water heater then a larger RO and new pans.

Finished building a woodshed about a week ago and my little wife and I finished up putting 4 chord of firewood in it today. It will hold 6 chord total but the pressure is off with 4 in the dry. Now it's on to planting a wildflower field (about an acre) and more invasive control. I have 1 tree of heaven that will not die.

A F2 tornado took out about 50 acres of trees on the state forest land beside my sugar bush. They want to sell a salvage cut using my right of way. I don't have any problem with that as long as they put the road back in passable condition and are not transporting logs while I am making syrup. If any of you have experience with this sort of thing, feel free to give me pointers.

[buckeye gold]

If the state forester is running the salvage job it should be fine. Just tell them you want a written agreement that they will maintain the road. They'll spend money a private logger won't and be conscious of land use. They are in the conservation business and making every dollars is not top priority. Still the work is only as good as the person doing it, thus the written agreement.

[maple flats]

A question, is the land to be logged only going to be hard enough to do it in the winter when things are frozen up? If not hard ground, getting them to do it before you are doing maple might be an issue. Getting them to fix any damage from using the ROW should be required, but they might be logging during maple season. If the ground is hard at other times they can most likely do it at another time of year.

[minehart gap]

The ground in the area of the tornado is fairly stable. Keep in mind that I say that and hundreds of trees just blew over so there are hundreds of pockets for water to accumulate where the root balls once were and that has a tendency to change things. A written agreement will be a must for the access. And in the agreement will be the condition of the road and exact specifications for it's surface and how surface water will be handled. The logging during sugar season is out of the question unless they want to buy my expected syrup for the year. I'm not standing to gain anything here, but I don't want to loose anything either.

Cleaning rocks out of my 1 acre field today so that I can disc it and plant a wildflower seeds mix. I had a conversation with the state forrester yesterday and he said that if I have a wildflower field, when the logger is finished with the salvage cut, that they would plant the log landing with wildflowers also. I'm hoping to have enough polinators to establish a bee hive or two but protecting them from bear will be a challenge. Next is to continue spice bush control.

[minehart gap]

So my wife and I sat down and did a lot of contemplating over the last few weeks. When I received my energy management plan, it seems that I could be doing a lot better energy wise and when I started looking into items that are recommend, I need electricity. Talking to the power company ($69k to install, that will not happen) and a few electricians, we concluded that it would be better if our sugar shack was relocated to our house property. I'm only coming up with 2 downfalls to this plan: 1. A lot of work to move it but that only will happen once and 2. I will have to truck sap. The up sides are convenience, available electric, hot water and heat, a lot easier to access oh and it will be a lot easier to convince the little lady to help if it's in the back yard instead of halfway up the mountain. I believe that I may have my summer's work lined up for me.

[mol1jb]

No option of solar at shack?

[maple flats]

Look into solar, I ran my sugarhouse on solar (and a generator) for 4 years before tying into the grid. PM me and I can give you some info. I started with 4 panels and grew as money was available, I now have 30 panels and I produce more power each year than I use, even though I now have an electric vacuum pump, and I converted my gaspowered RO to electric. I started with a 48V 240 AH Lead Acid battery bank, projected to last 7 years, it last 11 years.
I'm just now replacing that bank with a LiFePo4 battery bank. While using lead/acid is old school, the LiFePo4 is taking over. It has a comparable cost, if you assemble your oun battery, just buy prismatic cells online. If you buy ready assembled batteries, they cost 2-3x as much as doing it yourself. Watch some u-tube videos by a guy named Will Prowse, a young guy who knows the Lithium, Iron Phosphate batteries (LiFePo4). Advantages of those batteries are many, but I think the main 2 are that you can use far more of the power before they get hurt. A Lead Acid gets damaged if you use more than 50% of the energy stored in a fully charged battery, on the LiFePo4 they work well down to about 15%, and you can draw even more but it shortens their life. On lead acid a typical life is 500-800 cycles, on lithium if you only charge them to 90% and down to 15% you will get close to 4000-5000 cycles. When you charge (on solar) the lead acid they are about 80-85% efficient at storing the energy put to it, LiFePo4 is about 99% efficient. On lead acid you can't draw continuous high amps without damage, on LiFePo4 you can. The main thing you need with LiFePo4 is a battery management system (BMS) to keep all of the cells in balance, on lead acid you put an equalizing charge in (higher voltage for a hour or 2) to get the cells in balance.
Look into solar and maybe wind if you have a site where wind is good, according to the wind charts, not just what it seems to you.