Tapping Pennsylvania 2019

[HowardR]

Had to put my sap dog down yesterday. 4 year old pup that walks the lines every day with me. Even though wearing a flea and tick collar and had the Lyme disease vaccine, she got a bad case of Lyme disease that sent her straight into renal failure. Walking the lines today alone was really rough, but got through it. ��

Here's what I put on my line checking clothing to protect myself from Lyme Disease: https://www.amazon.com/Sawyer-Produc.../dp/B001ANQVYU

[Paddymountain]

Our tour went well yesterday! We had 23 people! I left a young girl drill a hole for a bucket tap
and a young lad put in the tap. Had sap flow immediately, which was great to see. They were there
almost 1 1/2 hours. My friend said it was the biggest event ever signed up for at the library.
I just boiled water with a little sap in the syrup pan for the smell. All in all, I think everyone
learned something and enjoyed the tour. Only about 2 or 3 people raised there hand when I asked them
if they had ever been to a sugar shack before.
I have the evaporator cleaned out good and ready to go. I don't think it ran real well here yesterday,
it took until about 2:00 for my vacuum here at the house to thaw out. I wasn't away from the house, so
not sure of my trees out on the road. This week looks like the deluge will be coming, hopefully
we will be able to keep up!

[Sugarmaker]

iby,
Not a good day when you lose a dog!
Regards,
Chris

[Skeller001]

Very true our dogs are like family members. Try to concentrate on all of the good memories

Just finished boiling, and it was a quick boil. Ended with a dismal 1.5 pints. That takes me to 2 gallons for the year. This is a fair amount of work but I enjoy it. I need to implement a better boiling strategy for next year. The turkey fryer and 6” steam pan are my weak link.

[Sugarmaker]

Steve,
Continuous Improvement Project.
I just finished boiling too. Resting! Gathered about 420 gallons of sap, plus the 60 gallon from yesterday. Finished up making 15 gallons of syrup today.
Getting colder. Might freeze?
Regards,
Chris

[KV Sappers]

Collected 28 gal of sap today. Boiled and got 3 pints syrup today. Sap tested at 2% today.

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
Just a glimpse of our sugarhouse.



Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
I took some pictures Friday of the ribbon cutting at the new sugarhouse built for the FFA and the school to use for educating kids about making maple syrup. Northwestern School district. We are proud to have this in our school district!
They are boiling on a Leader 2 x 4. and have a RO processing sap.



FFA teacher Mr Honeycutt


In the evaporator room:




Regards,
Chris

[Skeller001]

Sugar maker... nice operation!!!

The FFAsetup isn’t bad either

[iby]

Thanks all for the comments. She will be hard to replace, but never forgotten

450 gallons since the start yesterday. Got 4 gallons of syrup... I’m a slow boiler. :/. Still a lot left to boil. Tomorrow is another day though

-brian