Willow Creek Sugarhouse 2020

[red maples]

Yeah russ that would be good hoping to come up saturday morning. Will be nice to see you, been a little while.

Nasty out this morning, jeez...

Had about 600+ gallons to process. (I need to get a bigger water meter mine is only a 3/4 inch and now have a 1-1/4 line coming in so don't want to restrict that flow from the releaser so it will be a guest for this year I like exact numbers though) thats since monday 12:00 noon.

definitely not the high sugar sap from last year I will tell you that. last year was average 2+ almost all season this sap started at 1.25 and went to 1%. so a little longer through the RO. went through 2 pre-filters I am using the MES prefilters I just bought a few to try I have to say I don't think I like them. they have that plastic mesh on the inside so the actual filtering is not as thick. I don't know. we'll see.

Vac is still running between 26.75" and actually 27.5" this morning. very low pressure and thawing trees. and with the new electric releaser its a constant vac pressure. steadier flow of sap coming in!! should have more sap this year.

First boil last night lots of defoamer!!! but that was expected on the first boil. everything went very smooth made about 3 gallons but but didn't filter it. looks about mid line dark but expected that too.

Was thinking back to the days of sweetening the pans before RO. just sitting there trying to stay awake and just load after load after load of wood going in to evap!!!

[BlueberryHill]

Sap is at 1.1% here in Raymond's coldest north facing sugar bush. So you are not alone. I'm hoping that the season just has not kicked in quite yet.

[Russell Lampron]

Low sugar content here in Loudon too. I did my first boil with 500 gallons of sap and didn't get a draw off. I didn't check the sugar content before I started so I don't know how bad it really was. Normally starting with that much sap I get the pans sweetened and have 3 or 4 gallons in the finisher.

Brad let me know what time you'll be here so that I'll be home. I'm only planning a dump run so any time is good.

[red maples]

yeah sure I will let you know I have to stop at sunnyside and windswept then I will be over. I will message you on FB when I get to Sunnyside. usually get talking a little with whom ever.

[red maples]

Did my Ice Carvings for the sea Dog on Thursday and Friday. they came out pretty good. they are gonna do it again next year. I want to do a full Ice Bar for next year!!!

went up to sunnyside Saturday morning then stopped off at windswept to say Hi, talked with larry a bit. they have been tapped in for a while but just paying utilities to run the vac pumps because they haven't got much sap yet. I was a little worried because there have been so many warmer days in the last few weeks but they always followed very cold temps.

Then went to have a morning boiling soda with Russ from Red roof Maples couldn't pass that up. Very nice visit. finally got to see the bubblemaster 2000.

Well Still playing catch up but getting there!!!

Finally go the 75 taps across the street online this afternoon. Sap is coming in just OK now. took all day but after that freeze up and cloudy today even though it was warm probably only getting sap out of the warm trees.

Put a small bathroom vent fan in the vac/releaser room. need more air flow.

had about 350 gallons, boiled that out on Sunday. but syrup went right to very dark... dam. low sugar short boils. awesome flavor though. nice buttery flavor haven't had that in a few years. got the filter press all hooked up not used to the new pump yet. man its strong I might need to put in an adjustable speed switch. I blew a little syrup right out of the plates!!!

tomorrow I will finally get the bucket/ bags tapped and hung although I am down to about 30 of those. 2 properties were sold over the years and lost a bunch of bucket road side taps. the new owners didn't want me to tap their trees. Oh well their loss. The sugar is good in those but I hate collecting buckets anyway!!!

[Russell Lampron]

I thought that my syrup might grade at amber but reheating it made it grade at dark. It does have a nice robust maple flavor to match the color.

What do you have for a filter press and pump?

The sap didn't run very good here today either but it's looking like it will.

It's good that you are getting caught up, it makes maple season a lot more fun when you're not constantly trying to get caught up. One of the things that helped me was getting rid of the buckets.

[red maples]

WOW... I think this is my single highest 24 hr run. over 700 gallons of sap since yesterday about 3:00. and missed out on a little more have to add a second tank across the street. stopped over to check it this morning and there are alot of sugars over there. was full dam. had to shut it down. thats a 150 gallon tank so tomorrow I will add another one over there. I never got good runs over there because my releaser would fail!!! the big oneis awesome.

go in 1/2 the buckets. still about 15 or so to go.

grabbing a bite and then heading out to start boiling!!! hope youall got on the swimmies because its a lot of sap!!! I hope it keeps up!!!

[red maples]

processed all the sap, was a bit under 700 probably more like 650. no meter this year so have to guess a little. I miss the meter. anyway got everything processed and started boiling when it was about 11% and finished about 16%. ended with about 9.5 gallons of just into dark #26 on the syrup grader thing. but excellent flavor. been slowing creeping back up. was as low as #11 last one was #18 so huge comeback so far. cleaned out front pan last night lost of build up already. and filtered that. gonna filter the back pan and rinse that before the next boil that should brings things way up into dark. and is usually much easier filtering as well.

vac is down a bit from last week to 25.5 to 26" hoping I an get a out a bit and see if I can bring it back up.

sap across the street was about 1.5% my woods still a weak 1%. got another 200 on the over night and that was about it. only got about 150 gallons of sap all day today. Guessing the wind was a big factor in that. Can't boil tonight. Have to go to a fund raiser... yay... no... but its for my daughter's project prom blah blah blah... She's graduating this year. so its all good. but can still get some stuff in for now.

[red maples]

pumping sap into the releaser on Wednesday afternoon before the fundraiser and the pump had been getting slower and slower. I wired everything the way the directions came from MES but it did say that if you have issues to switch the wires. sure enough they wired the pump backwards. (they also wired the toggle switch backwards too) so changed the wires and its like a new pump. it was spinning backwards!!! this releaser is rated for up to 3000 taps I thought from when I first hooked it up no way could this handle 3000 taps.

had about 700+ gallons to boil out yesterday. not bad since we hadn't had a good freeze in some time. it did get to 30* but it was only for a few hours.

filtered back pan and rinsed it out. and cleaned front pan with vinegar so nice and clean much easier boil but much different weather pressure system then the last few boils big adjustments on the draw off thermometer. filtering was better until the last batch I blew a paper. never had that happen before just a little hole but enough to reck 8 gallons of syrup so have to he-heat and refilter it all. my syrup pan is super sweet so I will get a big draw off on the start of the next boil.

looks like the syrup is back way up in dark closer to amber.( hard to tell since its full of niter) Cleaning the pans helped that I am sure.

ROing taking a bit longer than last year I can tell you that. with lack of freezing nights and obviously no ice in the ground the sap is coming with some of the best runs I ever had but low sugar lots of water. thank goodness for RO would rather pay alittle more in electricity then cutting and splitting wood and super long boiling times.

was hoping for a little more sap today good freeze last night got down to 24* but it became overcast pretty quickly this morning and only got about <.5 gpt. been pretty close to .75 to 1 gpt. another freeze tonight and tomorrow then looks like another long stretch with a freeze hope it changes. need a little more consistent colder nights.

[red maples]

sap slowing to a craw if that... hit 70* here yesterday!!! saw he early budder tree( the one that ALWAYS buds before anything) else swell yesterday. I pull taps on that one early because it buds so early don't know why. hope we get some cold soon. Getting a little concerned since I am barely at 1/2 crop. anymore days like yesterday and we are trouble. luckily its supposed to be pretty over cast and some rain this afternoon and evening or whatever.

My son had a Basketball game last night so I couldn't boil, so ROed 800 gallons 3/4 of the way last night and finished this morning.

the weld on my float rod connection broke at the end of the boil on Sunday(thankfully it was at the end!!! ) so had to break out the welder and fix that this morning. a little rusty, no pun intended, not the prettiest of welds but its a lot stronger than it was. I knew it was weak it was just a matter of time before it broke.