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Thread: December Journal 2018

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Bristol, VT
    Posts
    1,978

    Default December Journal 2018

    What no December Journal? Been real busy around here wrapping up the farmer's market season and putting the final touches on my sugarhouse addition. We had a great market season and have sold almost our whole record 2018 crop. Should have enough to get through the holiday shipping season but we'll see. We have a baby arriving any day now and I'm pretty excited to meet him or her. They'll be in the woods and sugarhouse with us this winter learning one of the family businesses. This is the first season in a while where we're just maintaining and not changing much. Already have a good coating of snow in the woods from the November storms. I was fortunately able to clear the lines of blow down before the snow but I suspect there may be more to do after how many limbs came down with the heavy snow. At this point I'm planning to tap in January again this season unless it stays real cold. I hope everyone else is enjoying the early onset of winter.
    About 750 taps on High Vac.
    2.5 x 8 Intens-O-Fire
    Airtech 3 hp LR Pump
    Springtech Elite 500 RO
    14 x 24 Timber Frame SugarHouse
    16 x 22 Sap Shed w/ 1500 gal. + 700 gal. tanks
    www.littlehogbackfarm.com

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Lanark, ON
    Posts
    2,387

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    We've been busy the last few weekends trying to get all our to do list items finished before the snow gets too deep and it's miserably cold.

    The 400+ taps we replaced (10-year old tubing) have been stretched and the droplines cut in. I probably ran close to 2x the lateral lines for the same number of taps so we probably average 4-5 taps per line now. I can't wait to see the tsunami of sap coming from that hill this year! We still have a bunch of saddle manifolds to get installed to hook them all up but that project is almost done.

    The 1200 feet of new mainline wire is up and tensioned and the vacuum line has been loosely run from the new pump to the remote releaser. This one needed to wait until we had ice on the beaver flood to allow us to run back and forth. All that is left is tensioning the mainline and wire tie it to the steel. We should get way more sap out of that woods on high vac this year compared to the dairy pump that was used before.

    We got 2 more drums emptied, reheated and filled for a couple of fundraising orders. With 6 of us helping out we managed to fill, cap and label a drum of mostly 250mL, 500mL and 1L glass in an hour! We had quite the assembly line rolling non stop. We should have enough syrup to get us through until March but that depends on when the sap actually starts to run.
    4,600 Taps on vacuum
    9,400 gallons storage
    3 tower CDL RO
    3.5'x14' Lapierre Force 5
    Twitter & Instagram: @ennismaple
    www.ennismaple.com

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Oneida NY
    Posts
    11,547

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    I'm still wondering if I'll run out before the new season. At this point I have just 3 barrels of Dark left. I have gone thru 11 out of 14 barrels of dark, but in the same time, less than 1 barrel of amber. My customers just like dark.
    With what is left (my barrels are 26.5 gal ea.). When I fill my next bourbon barrel that will use 10 gal leaving 2 barrels + 16.5 gal dark.
    My November sales were by far my best ever by about 30%. If I run out I don't think I'll buy more bulk, but I'm not sure. I certainly won't buy another barrel more Amber if that sells out, might consider a 5 gal jug if the taste is real close to mine. I was making my bourbon barrel aged syrup using Very Dark left from the 2017 season, I made no very dark in '18. Thus my next batch of BB syrup will be made using Dark.
    Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
    Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
    Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
    After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Middlebury Center, PA
    Posts
    1,391

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    Congratulations to you on the baby General!

    This is my first year relying on some help on the farm and it has been great. We got a late start on our expansion project (no thanks to all the rain) but we are now making some pretty good progress. I anticipate that we will be working on it right threw the season. I've been doing some excavating (back hoe) behind the sugarhouse making room for our new sap tank and leveling for an addition for the tanks whenever we get to it. Hoping to prep the side for an addition as well.

    Inside the sugarhouse we just about got the piggy back and new ro ready.
    Last edited by unc23win; 12-06-2018 at 08:10 AM.
    Jared

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Peru, Maine
    Posts
    1,044

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    Congrats on the newborn General!

    We are way behind in the big woods but fortunately the owner doesn't want to do as much as we have the past 3 years. This year is just maintaining and a bare minimum approach. All this snow in the woods won't help but we'll get it. Work on our operation is coming good, we'll be installing the hood soon for the evaporator and hooking up the oil/electrical lines.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Lawrence County Ohio
    Posts
    350

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    It's been a real wet year down here in Southern Ohio. We attended the KY Maple School last Saturday, came home with new knowledge and another 500' of mainline and enough tubing & taps for our 200+ expansion in 2019. Been rain/snow mix here since the weekend, been in the woods clearing wind falls, cutting brush, running new tubing and rearranging last years for better flow down the hill. Tap density is low in parts of my woods, hard to get more than 10 taps on some of my 3/16 laterals, but they all have a good drop over the bench down to the mainlines. Excited for January, even though I still have a ton of work to do to the sugar camp and setting up new collection tanks. We are shooting for 400+ this year.
    '12 15 jugs - Steam pans
    '17 125 3/16 - 18" x 72" drop flue on homemade arch
    '18 240 3/16 - Deer Run 125
    '19 450 3/16 - Converted RO to electric/added a membrane
    '20 600 3/16 - Maple Pro 2x6 Raised Flue, added AOF/AUF
    '21 570 3/16 - Built steam hood, Smoky Lake filter press
    '22 800 3/16 - Upgraded RO to 4 4x40
    '23 500 3/16 - Re-plumbed RO, new "Guzzler"
    '24 500 3/16 - Steam Away, DIY 8x40 RO

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Oneida NY
    Posts
    11,547

    Default

    If all goes according to plan I should have between 900 and 1000 taps. While I did 1320 a few years ago, whatever I end up with this year will likely be at or near the biggest I'll ever have again. I sold one lease but maximizing the other lease as well as around the sugarhouse. I think I'll have about 300 at the sugarhouse and about 700 on my lease. Also changing the vacuum pump at the lease. That was on a vacuum tank and held to 19" max. This year I'm adding a releaser, bigger pump and should be able to get 24-25" I hope. Then maybe next year get a real pump for the lease to get 27-28"+. The lease is at 1400' elevation at the tank
    Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
    Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
    Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
    After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    UVM Proctor Maple Research Center, Underhill Ctr, VT
    Posts
    6,391

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by maple flats View Post
    Then maybe next year get a real pump for the lease to get 27-28"+. The lease is at 1400' elevation at the tank

    27" might be doable -- 28" will be considerably tougher given your elevation, but you won't know until you try. Good luck!
    Dr. Tim Perkins
    UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
    http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
    https://mapleresearch.org
    Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Southern Ohio
    Posts
    1,349

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    Been working on Tubing and the evaporator. I replumbed the air manifold and added a variable speed control. I been fixing tubing every nice day. Man I have a ton of damage from blow downs and chews. I just pulled one line and ran it all new. I hope every year is not like this.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Oneida NY
    Posts
    11,547

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    My sugarhouse, which is at 450' elevation gets 27" if the leaks are in check. That is on an old BB4 pump. If it drops to 25" at the releaser I look for leaks
    Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
    Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
    Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
    After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.

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