Red Roof Maples 2020

[Russell Lampron]

You realize you can't sugar in NC...right? It's a shame you're only going to get 1 season as a retiree. Sugaring should be a breeze this year.

I sold it, but I forget what I got for it. It was a while ago. I don't think there's much money in them because of the 300gph hobby machines are pretty cheap...sorry, cost effective.

The hobby RO's and the homemade RO's are cutting into the 250 professional RO market for sure. You are right, they are pretty cheap!

Russ, I may be interested in that RO when you’re ready to sell it. Let me know if you don’t have others in mind already. And congrats on retirement, enjoy the time off!

I'll keep you in mind.

[Russell Lampron]

It's a beautiful day here with plenty of sun and it's currently 42*. The sap is trying to run but trees need time to thaw before it will run good. I started out with 19" of vacuum and was able to fix some leaks and it's now at 25". I've still got to find about 2 more inches but the sap wasn't running good enough for that. It looks like it should run for most of the week. Hopefully it will good enough to find some leaks tomorrow.

[raptorfan85]

Same here Russ. 40 and sunny most of the day. The trees are still frozen though. The releaser dumped twice I think... Hopefully it runs this week.

[Russell Lampron]

Same here Russ. 40 and sunny most of the day. The trees are still frozen though. The releaser dumped twice I think... Hopefully it runs this week.

It looks like it should run this week. It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow and Monday and it's not supposed to be as cold overnight tonight. I think my releaser might have dumped twice too.

[Russell Lampron]

It was another beautiful day yesterday but the sap flow was still weak. I went out late yesterday afternoon in hopes of finding some leaks. Most of the trees in the section of woods that I really need to check still weren't giving a drop. It looks like things are finally starting to let loose and I should get some sap today.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap finally started to run today and I collected 250 gallons tonight. Sap was coming into the releaser from all of the lines, even the cold woods which hadn't started running as of yesterday. The vacuum is holding at 25.5", hopefully it will stay there when things finally get completely thawed. I may be boiling Wednesday night if I can get enough sap tomorrow.

[Russell Lampron]

I collected another 250 gallons of sap tonight. Slightly better than the previous 24 hours but not great. I'm planning to do my first boil tomorrow night. The vacuum is holding at 25.5", I'll take it!

[Russell Lampron]

Well my first and second boils of the season are done. For the first boil I had 500 gallons of sap and never got a draw off. The temperature only got up to 3* over boiling. I didn't check it but there had to be almost no sugar in the first run. Normally with that much sap I would get the pans sweetened and have a 3 or 4 gallons of syrup in my finisher.

For the second boil I had 650 gallons of sap and now have 10 gallons of heavy syrup in my finisher and still need to correct the density. I couldn't do that because when I turned on the thermometer on my Accu Cup the battery was dead. My ph tester takes the same batteries and it was working so I tried the batteries out of that. The thermometer would only turn on then go dim and shut off. I really wanted to try out my new filter press too.

It's going to be cold this weekend then if the forecast is anywhere near correct the sap will start flowing again on Monday and continue through the week.

One week and one day until retirement!

[buckeye gold]

I hope you'll see the same thing I did. My season started out the same way then the dam broke and it was a flood. My season is over now and it was my best in 10 years. If things transfer North east you better get your rest now.

[BAP]

Keep our fingers crossed for next week Russ. Looks a little iffy on wether it freezes the first few nights next week.