Tapping in Western PA

[Gary R]

Went to the neighbors yesterday. They boiled over 8 hours and made some syrup. A little dark because the pan got too low trying to finish and as normal had to filter out the mortar that falls down the chimneyDan's rig.jpg.

[Evets]

Went to the neighbors yesterday. They boiled over 8 hours and made some syrup. A little dark because the pan got too low trying to finish and as normal had to filter out the mortar that falls down the chimneyAttachment 17627.

Hope there's no asbestos in that mortar. If so, just filter asbestos you can!

[helptheold]

Hope there's no asbestos in that mortar. If so, just filter asbestos you can!

Oh that's bad

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
Remove the plastic tank and hose and I would think the picture was take about 150 years ago! Wow!
Between yesterday and today I gathered about 450 gallons of sap, about 1.8%, and made 9.5 gallons of slightly darker syrup. ( Dark Robust ).
Just keep squeezing them! Puts us at about 30 gallon this spring. Not setting the world on fire but plugging along.
Oh yea the jeans comment reminded me that the inside of my truck is usually trashed during this time of the year too! Mud and sticky sap.
Hey that tank raising system works pretty darn nice in the truck. One of those " why didnt I do that a long time ago" things?
Regards,
Chris

[Gary R]

Those guys are 4H leaders and having all the kids over tomorrow for a boiling demonstration. I've still got 70 gallons of sap in barrels for them to boil. The buckets have not run well. The 4H has been to my place, but I still think they would have been better off boiling at my place.new rig copy.jpg

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
I agree! Man your rig looks sharp!
We did gather 115 gallons of 1.8% sap and boiled it in to the rig. Just got everything cleaned up before the freeze last night. Looks like several good days this week.
Regards,
Chris

[ehausinfrats]

Glad I took a few hours vacation today. I collected 415 gallons of sap. Also glad to get my first boil of the year screw ups out of the way. Was drawing syrup in less than 3 hours and wasn't ready. My draw off showed 222 before I got a pot to draw off into. Also forgot to shut off the valve on my bulk tank when I was changing pumps. At least 50 gallons of that sap went on the ground At least I'll be done boiling in an hour and have about 1 1/2 gal. of syrup!

I have a saying when that happens. “ there’s no use crying over spilled sap”

Eric

[sbedilion]

Had my biggest final product yet...3.5gallons and started boiling another 100 gallons (of 1% sap..boooo). Ran out of firewood and had to head to the farm to get more.

Looks like we will have a couple HOT days this wk but then drops back down for some great maple weather. Hope all is well with everyone.

IMG_0137.jpg

[sbedilion]

stress'n over today's awesome weather. ha. I have about 150 gallons boiled down to a concentrate of about 40 gallons...with an additional 80 gallons of sap from yesterdays collection sitting in the back of my truck. Its 73 now....and will hit 76 today. I won't get the fire started until about 5:30. I'd hate to have to dump everything. Thoughts? I don't think I've ever had sap sitting out on such a warm day.

[helptheold]

Not really sure!

I just checked all my buckets. Most were cloudy, a few were yellow. I saved some to see how it smelled when I boil it but I'm going to get my older stuff done first. I'm guessing I'll be dumping most everything that collects in the next few days.