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Thread: Hop Kiln Road 2021

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Bow, NH
    Posts
    622

    Default Hop Kiln Road 2021

    The Point of the Spear

    Been having a real bad problem with my hearing aids and couldn't hear M too good lately. Haven't been sleeping neither cause the inside of my skull sounds like ole Miss McClain on her chalkboard and that thought alone is a nightmare. Whole issue has been sloping me off the edge cause new fangled hearing aids cost more than a used pickup. Don't get me started. Anyway, got real, real bad at supper last night. Couldn't sit still. Figured one of them must have broken off but when M finally found HER eyebrow tweezers on MY fly tying bench - gawd another issue - to fish it out of my ear canal...my goodness if it weren't a pair of them young fireflies looking for someplace private, like in total rut! M said Treat it's a sign to tap and I could hear her loud and clear!
    Bruce Treat
    825 Sugar Maple Taps
    3/16 w/ DSD .225 Spiles
    H2O RO
    H2O 2.5 X 8
    Bow, New Hampshire

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Bow, NH
    Posts
    622

    Default Twist Hill

    Yup, getting the bugs out of my systems too. Retubed my last orchard with 3/16 when the going was pretty good in January. Orchard has great slope. I think parts of it have been tapped for 200 years. Took 8,000' and had to reposition some mainline. I'm thinking of running mainline across the top of the ridge so I can Zappit load all the laterals downhill. Put on some .172 DSD Stars, used them a couple years ago when there was a shortage of .225s, but the 11/64 bits snap pretty easy. The orchard was seriously damaged by a previous operator. He abandoned the woods saying the trees no longer produced any sap. I took it over 5 years later and found with the extend of cluster tapping it was easy to conclude he certainly wasn't drilling much white wood. But with thinning, fertilization and conservative tapping the sap yields and SC are rising but still 25% below the other orchards. Noticeable improvement in bark quality, some improvement in tap closure and crown growth, and there is going to be some nice ingrowth.
    Bruce Treat
    825 Sugar Maple Taps
    3/16 w/ DSD .225 Spiles
    H2O RO
    H2O 2.5 X 8
    Bow, New Hampshire

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

    Default

    Hey Good to see someone else getting their thread going!!! Sorry to hear about your hearing hope that gets straightened!!! I see people all the time ruining trees tapping the same area every year small trees and over tapping trees its one thing if its a cull tree(although I have been tapping a few cull trees for several years). Sad really. but it takes time to fix the woods when someone ruins them. kinda like many things these days. Anyway, good luck this year.
    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. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Bow, NH
    Posts
    622

    Default Breezy

    Got 500 in and both shurflos up and running with low vacuum. Hope to get the rest in this PM if the wind dies down. Trees are pretty cold so not much sap. Pretty interesting 30 day forecast.
    Bruce Treat
    825 Sugar Maple Taps
    3/16 w/ DSD .225 Spiles
    H2O RO
    H2O 2.5 X 8
    Bow, New Hampshire

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    Rock Creek, NC
    Posts
    5,807

    Default

    Hey Bruce it's good to see that you're getting some taps in. I got all of mine in on Tuesday and Wednesday. I spent the day today chasing vacuum leaks. I found and fixed the big ones and got some of the small ones fixed too. Good luck this season.
    Russ

    "Red Roof Maples" Where the term "boiling soda" was first introduced to the maple world!

    1930 Ford Model AA Doodlebug tractor
    A couple of Honda 4 wheelers
    Four chainsaws and no chickens!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Harrisville, New Hampshire, United States
    Posts
    208

    Default

    Hey Bruce, I'm with ya on the hearing aids!I have to have my youngest son(27) check my woods for leaks!
    Two years boiling on a Leader half pint
    2011 100 buckets,12 gallons made
    2013 120 on tubeing 20 buckets 27 gallons made
    2014 Leader King 2 x 6 Working on 400 + on tubeing
    goal: 70 gallons

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Bow, NH
    Posts
    622

    Default Big Leak

    Could figure out why I was merrily pumping sap on one side of the swamp and nothing was going into the road tank at the other. Until... I found the wired 1/2" line had been shredded and mangled out in the middle of the swamp, five feet off the ground. Suspect the neighbor, a dentist, had gotten into the gas and tested out some of his new handy work. If I hadn't gotten water in my boots falling through a couple times I would have gone over and given Dr Smiles a piece of my mind.
    Last edited by Hop Kiln Road; 02-26-2021 at 05:45 AM.
    Bruce Treat
    825 Sugar Maple Taps
    3/16 w/ DSD .225 Spiles
    H2O RO
    H2O 2.5 X 8
    Bow, New Hampshire

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Bow, NH
    Posts
    622

    Default Addition to the Repertoire

    Wild first boil Monday. Trucked in 500 gal Sunday afternoon, loaded the RO membranes and assembled the evaporator. All set to go. Woke up to find it 34F and everything had run all night. First, one of the RO membranes had failed in storage over the summer. Pressures and flows weren't right but it took awhile to figure it out, but the clue was the storage container was only half full of liquid. Fortunately I had a spare but had to wash and rinse all over again. Back in business. While the 200 GPH was squeezing, brought in another 1,000 gal. I run a 2 pass system so everything was backing up. As I was pumping the field tanks, the sap was flying in as the temps climbed all day.
    Got the evaporator started and boiled 9% for about three hours and did a good draw. Stack temp 1100. Second draw, my front float ran dry, checked the flue float and it was NOT asking for sap but the head tank was low. Look inside the hood, steamy, but could see down the flues!!! A Chernobyl moment. Over rode the flue float, killed the blower, opened the doors, stopped the draw. Checked back inside the hood, sap gushing in but still see down the flues...until finally... it fills. The pipe between the flue pan float box and the flue plan, which controls the level of the flue float, had a wasp nest in it, unseen by an external visual inspection and had broken loose after a couple hours and choked off the float box leaving it full while the flue pan boiled off. Oh my. Fortunately no scorch, I think inside the hood was just steamy enough, the sugar content just low enough and the reaction just fast enough that nothing stuck to the metal. Just, just, just maybe by a minute or so.
    So the run was 3 gpt. Averaged 2% which is a low. Got everything buttoned up last night. Drained the RO and turned on the heater. Got the finisher half full of syrup, 200 gal of 5% which I haven't checked on yet. And blocks of ice in all the field tanks. A little dicey but a great ending considering the possibilities. Cold and breezy this morning.
    Bruce Treat
    825 Sugar Maple Taps
    3/16 w/ DSD .225 Spiles
    H2O RO
    H2O 2.5 X 8
    Bow, New Hampshire

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Barrington, NH
    Posts
    2,762

    Default

    Hey Bruce, always enjoy reading your posts. Good luck this season.

    One maple weekend, chatting it up with a visitor, look over at the site glass, and no sap. Look inside the hood and sure enough, there's only a couple inches of sap in the bottom of the flue! I forgot what the issue was, but got it rectified in short order with no issues to the pan. I don't get it, but not arguing with her.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2019
    Location
    Nashville, MI
    Posts
    939

    Default

    Whew, Bruce.
    Glad you got all that rectified before disaster struck. That could have been really bad. Happy sugaring.
    2004 - 2012 2x3 flat pan 25 to 60 taps
    2012 2x3 new divided pan w/draw off 55 taps
    2018 - didn't boil surgery - bought new evaporator
    2019 new SML 2x4 raised flue high output evap. 65 taps
    made 17 gal. syrup
    2020 - only put out 53 taps - made 16.25 ga.l syrup
    2021 - Didn't work out
    2022 - 25 taps on bags / 8 taps on 3/16's line - late start

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