Ok, I'm just going to say it...

[deitzd]

My first year with 5/16 on gravity I bought a used stainless steel vat with a fitting in the bottom of one end. My calculations figured it held about 85 gallons. I put it in the snow at a low spot and leveled it with pieces of wood. I fashioned a tent over it with a blue tarp to keep the rain and snow out. I used a baitwell plug from the inside to keep sap out of the fitting to prevent frozen sap from cracking the elbow. I tied a stainless steel wire to the handle of the baitwell plug so I wouldn't have to reach into the sap to pull the plug and then I hooked the wire to the support for the tarp. One nice warm day we had a good run and the vat should have been full of sap but the snow had melted from under the vat putting tension on the wire and pulled the plug. I lost it all.

[18mile]

I forgot to close the valve on the opposite side of the flue pan. Ran 150 gallon of 12% on the floor. I was watching the float box and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t rising. I finally notice my feet were wet!

[SyncroScott]

So I was just reading this thread two days ago, and thinking to myself (since this is only my third season), "When am I going to dump something?" TA-DA!!! The answer is "Today!" Well, not quite just sap, but I had gotten done with a boil and had about a half gallon in my draw-off pot (as a hobbyist my draws are pretty small)....and it dumped over due to a bone-head maneuver. Oh well, had to happen sometime, right?! I'm mostly irked at the lost time and the stick floor than anything else! Haha. ;-)