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Thread: Willow Creek Sugarhouse 2019

  1. #41
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    east kingston, nh
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    wow those are good temps for this time of year. not getting those here.

    Only had 250 gallons of sap last by last night so squeezed it and and boiled for a little bit. made another 4 gallons. puts me right about 65 gallons for the season. pretty bad. the syrup that I made the other night flavor got better as it sat. Its not bad.

    Just not enough cold nights to keep the sap flowing strong. tonight is the last cold night in the 20's and below freezing in the next 7-8 day forecast. So this will be the last hurrah. we'll keep the pumps on til the last drop comes in. actually got a 2 day 25 gallons of sap form the buckets too couldn't believe it. Sugar had dropped to 1% on vac even the bucket sugar has dropped to 1.5%. Trees are getting very red here. go a mile in any direction from my house and the reds are popped.

    funny though the grade had come up and has tested at 43 to 47 since maple weekend. mine seems to always for lighter at the end of the year has the last few years. especially when you would think it would go dark with higher bacteria in sap. go figure.

    Wow it was windy last night... hope there isn;t much damage in the woods. when it was windy vac gauge was reading 26" lowest of the season and is at 26.75 now. lower than usual. could be branches could be just more air with trees moving so much? I don;t know.
    Last edited by red maples; 04-04-2019 at 04:50 PM.
    may your sap be at 3%
    Brad

    www.willowcreeksugarhouse.com
    585 or so on Vacuum, about 35 on buckets/sap sacs
    Atlas Copco GVS 25A Rotary Vane vacuum pump
    MES horizontal electric releaser
    2x6 ss phaneuf Drop flue, Leader woodsaver blower, homemade hood
    300gph H2O RO
    husquvarna 562 XP
    Its Here!!! 2024 season is here get busy!!!

  2. #42
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    east kingston, nh
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    4,148

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    pumps are still going. got a freeze yesterday but it was a little short, got down to 28 but really need a couple days of those to get things going again. funny thing is there is still ice in the woods. but night temps just not cooperating. only managed about maybe 125 gallons yesterday. I have only turned the pumps off if things froze up here this year. just want to keep that sap column open. in past years when sap shut down I turned vac off then it seemed to take longer for sap to run on little runs after a big warmup.

    so I have 100 gallons of permeate saved. RO is washed right now. So need at least a total of 275 gallons of sap to have enough perm to rinse sugar and then do a final wash (which I usually do 2) and then 300 gallons for final rinse and preserve the membranes.

    so I need another 150 gallons of sap. there is no freeze in the forecast. sap is very cloud but still smells and tastes OK. fingers crossed with this warm up today 64* forcasted I just might get it. if not we dump it and finish out the evap tomorrow.

    it will be the worst crop for me since 2012. will end up at about 50-60% of a crop. temps just not cooperating for me this year.

    and the Red Sox are looking pretty bad too. !!! 2 and 7 and just lost last night 8 to 15 to the diamond backs. What happened to the pitching??? everyone just getting banged up hope they get out of this funk!!!
    may your sap be at 3%
    Brad

    www.willowcreeksugarhouse.com
    585 or so on Vacuum, about 35 on buckets/sap sacs
    Atlas Copco GVS 25A Rotary Vane vacuum pump
    MES horizontal electric releaser
    2x6 ss phaneuf Drop flue, Leader woodsaver blower, homemade hood
    300gph H2O RO
    husquvarna 562 XP
    Its Here!!! 2024 season is here get busy!!!

  3. #43
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    east kingston, nh
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    4,148

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    I guess thats a season!!! too many reds popped yesterday got up to 67* sap was actually coming in pretty good since it was that warm. but sap is pretty nasty now and is actually kinda milky still tastes OK but don;t want to chance ruining whats in the pans already. didn't quite get the amount I needed ended up with 165 gallons at the house and the P.O.S. releaser across the street backed up so not much over there. So thats it the end to a weird season.

    Funny how just about every season brings different things that make you scratch your head.

    last year was really good temps toward the end of the season but the sap wouldn't flow. this year it was temps that wouldn;t cooperate for me and the very thick ice in the woods. not just the swamp but the woods too which there is still ice even now. I wonder if some of my woods really even got going this year. I don't know. the mystery of mother nature I guess.

    this is my 9th year doing this hobby since moving form the back yard roasting pan and with exception of 2014 and 2015, every single year has been different from a crazy amount of rain combined with beavers blocking the culverts and flooding me out with my wood floating through out my yard and woods, water coming from with an inch of getting into the sugarhouse. the 2014 season which was kinda similar to this year where the first boil didn;t happen until march 15th and made 50% of a crop had nothing going into maple weekend to 2015 going the same route but made 125 gallons on just and had my biggest single day run ever and boiled well into April. made syrup in January one year. early february another year. and who can forget the 2012 season when we were done mid march from a week of beach weather. Oh mother nature, She is a fickle lady to say the least.
    may your sap be at 3%
    Brad

    www.willowcreeksugarhouse.com
    585 or so on Vacuum, about 35 on buckets/sap sacs
    Atlas Copco GVS 25A Rotary Vane vacuum pump
    MES horizontal electric releaser
    2x6 ss phaneuf Drop flue, Leader woodsaver blower, homemade hood
    300gph H2O RO
    husquvarna 562 XP
    Its Here!!! 2024 season is here get busy!!!

  4. #44
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    east kingston, nh
    Posts
    4,148

    Default

    ended up with about 72 gallons. not good usually finish with 110-125. puts me at about 60-65% of my normal crop. only boiled 12 times including startup and clean out. Weather just didn't go my way here. I think I hung on more than anyone else around me and it definitely paid off.

    anyhow. got my evap clean inside the pans anyway, gotta clean out all the ash and stuff out of the arch, all taps are pulled, 1 tank scrubbed. still have to get the relaser from across the street. get the membranes in preservative. RO. is clean just sitting in permeate for now. but should be finished by the end of the week then on to yard work, Bees, wood, and garden!!!

    Already looking forward to next season!!!

    See ya!!!
    may your sap be at 3%
    Brad

    www.willowcreeksugarhouse.com
    585 or so on Vacuum, about 35 on buckets/sap sacs
    Atlas Copco GVS 25A Rotary Vane vacuum pump
    MES horizontal electric releaser
    2x6 ss phaneuf Drop flue, Leader woodsaver blower, homemade hood
    300gph H2O RO
    husquvarna 562 XP
    Its Here!!! 2024 season is here get busy!!!

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