I just blame the time change for everything that goes wrong this time of year.
I just blame the time change for everything that goes wrong this time of year.
30x40 Sugarhouse
975 taps here at home. Still have 3-400 to add in.
3x10 Cabin by the Creek evap with "steamaway"
CDL 600 RO
ebayed Sogevac S65
Agreed. I hate daylight savings...stupid. Particularly since it happens during maple season...that last thing I need.
Agreed also.
12x 20 sugarhouse
30"x 6' Lightning Raised Flue
1000ish taps 800 Gravity Tubing and 220 Buckets
Waterloo/ Seprotec 250 RO
Couldn't make syrup without family and friends
Like us on Facebook Quinn's Sugarhouse
Sugaring for 45+ years
New Sugarhouse 14'x32'
New to Me Algier 2'x8' wood fired evaporator
2022 added a used RB25 RO Bucket
250 mostly Sugar Maples, 15% Soft Maples. Currently,(110on 3/16" and 125 on Shurflo 4008 vacuum, 15 gravity), (16,000 before being disabled)
1947 Farmall H and Wagon with gathering tank
2012 Kubota with forks to move wood around
Russ
"Red Roof Maples" Where the term "boiling soda" was first introduced to the maple world!
1930 Ford Model AA Doodlebug tractor
A couple of Honda 4 wheelers
Four chainsaws and no chickens!
Thanks Russ.
I went into yesterday thinking it was going to be an epic, all nighter boil, but such is not the case, and in the end, it's a good thing because I was able to get to bed. Fortunately, RSS pump line froze and they couldn't get all the sap out of the woods, which made it easy for me to justify holding over the load I hauled out to today. This also allowed me to take a 200 gal load off Jim D's hands today. All in all, the 3000 gal I thought I was processing yesterday turned into about 1700 gal and I'm figuring at least 1400 gal tonight. I thought things were going to freeze up early last night, but I don't think it got below freezing until midnight or so. I may have another decent load out of my woods that I wasn't counting on.
Got the syrup pans swapped out and had to resweeten the syrup pan. Yesterday's burnt pan still had good syrup in it, but it needs to be boiled down more. I'm also making almost an Amber, so I didn't want to use the "burnt" syrup with the light syrup. For now, it's set aside in a pail. I made a keg, plus 14 gal (so close to filling another keg), and sweetened the pans. Good night overall.
Not sure what's changed, but last night, syrup temps were at 217.5. I've always drawn off at 219.5. Curious as to what it'll be tonight.
Also talked to Jim about my waaay heavy syrup, and he said the barometric pressure was very low Wednesday night...explains why the syrup came off so heavy. First time I've experience the air pressure making that much of a difference.
Burnt/nitered syrup pan with permeate water flowing through it from the RO drain and a metal spatula means very little work to make a pan look new again.
SapTapApps will tell you what the draw off temp will be at the time that you are boiling. You can get it at saptapapps.com and you can use it to log your sap collection times and amount of sap you gathered. You can have more than one sugar bush which is handy for guys like you that get sap from other people. It keeps a running total of how much sap you got for the season and how much sap per tap per run. It uses data from weather underground to make sap flow predictions too. I've got it on my tablet and phone and have been having some fun with it.
It froze up around 9:00 here last night and it looks like i won't get another run until Tuesday. Surprisingly I had 650 to boil last night and made 12 more gallons of Amber. Unlike you I want my color to go the other way. It would be nice to make some dark for maple Weekend but I don't think that it will happen.
Russ
"Red Roof Maples" Where the term "boiling soda" was first introduced to the maple world!
1930 Ford Model AA Doodlebug tractor
A couple of Honda 4 wheelers
Four chainsaws and no chickens!
Woah...you just opened a whole new world to me Russ...I had no idea this existed. I need to check this out!
It's pretty cool how little changes in so many things affects maple...production, temps, weather, grade etc.
Josh
2009 - 370 on vac. & 16 buckets
2010 - 377 on vac.
2011 - 590 on vac.
2012 - 620 on high vac., 170 buckets, 110 on gravity tubing
2013 - 830 mine + 800-1000 others
2014 - 870 mine + 800-1000 others
2017 - 920 mine + 500-700 others
2018 - 902 mine + 500-700 others
2019 - 902 mine + 700 others
2020 - 902 mine + ???? others
Atlas Copco Pump
2.5'x8' 802maple Special with Dallaire pans
H2O Innovation 600gph RO
Spring Harvest Website
Last edited by Russell Lampron; 03-16-2018 at 07:01 PM.
Russ
"Red Roof Maples" Where the term "boiling soda" was first introduced to the maple world!
1930 Ford Model AA Doodlebug tractor
A couple of Honda 4 wheelers
Four chainsaws and no chickens!