Red Roof Maples 2021

[Russell Lampron]

Hi Bruce, If you do decide to replace your membranes get them from MES. I'm on my 3rd season with mine and they still flow like new. I haven't checked the price lately but when I bought mine they were just over $200 each.

Someone asked about Theron and Royal Maple the other day and I forgot to reply on that. Theron's too busy to be on the trader and in fact is nervous about the season. He's got his trees tapped but doesn't have any help to fix leaks and truck sap.

Royal Maple has been out of the maple business for a few years now. His main business now is honey. If you shop at Hannaford's look for Royal Bees honey. That's one of Matt's accts. Matt is heading to GA next week with bees.

There's probably something else that someone asked about that I have the answer for. I'll have to read through the thread again and get back to you.

[red maples]

yes royal maple was always "bees first" ... speaking of bees I have order mine this weekend.

I am gonna need new Membranes too. my flows are down as well taking a lot longer to get through the sap. this will be the last year on these ones glad to hear the MES ones are good and you put through more sap than I do.

looks like this season may be compacted hoping we get into April. The early forecasts always look good but I think they are more of an average too cold for sap now. next week is very warm.

My first boil of sap was very green as well I dumped about 100 gallons of the first sap on the ground it was really nasty. my prefilter didn't plug up but was a very pretty green.

[Russell Lampron]

The forecasted temperatures for my area are usually higher than what I actually get. The warm up at the end of the week is just what I need to get the sap flowing here. As long as we return to freeze, thaw cycles after the warm up we should get some decent flows. My forecast looks like it will but a week out is just a guess.

I need to be done with the season by April 5th for a planned trip to NC. I should be able to make enough syrup by then to suit my needs.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap ran a little bit here yesterday afternoon and I was able to check the only mainline that I hadn't walked yet for leaks. I was able to find and fix 2 leaks and am just under 25" now. Despite the warm temperatures today things are off to a slow start. I'm going out in a few minutes to see how it's running. Hopefully the trees are getting thawed and the sap is flowing better than it was an hour ago.

I was able to find the cause of the blockage in the valve from my flue pan the other night. It was full of acorns!!! It appears that a rodent brought them in and stashed them in one of the feed pipes in the flue pan. That was why everything looked good when I checked it before I filled the evaporator. It's all cleaned up now and ready to rock and roll.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap finally started to run a little better today and I have 475 gallons going through the RO now. The sap was flowing pretty good this afternoon and I hope that it gets better overnight.

The vacuum is at 26" now and I'm running out of leaks to find. It feels good to be able to stay on top of things like that unlike when I had to fit it in between work and other chores.

I'll be boiling again tomorrow and will finally make some syrup.

[Parker]

You can come up to my place and hunt leaks if you run out of them down there. Good to hear your ready to go. Good luck

[Pdiamond]

Russ, I officially retired thus year march 1. Whooo Hooo!!!!!!

[Russell Lampron]

I don't know if I will take you up on that offer Parker. My knees are pretty sore after walking my woods a few times. Found two more leaks today and am at 26" now. I may have a leak or two that I haven't found yet but things are pretty tight now.

Congratulations on the retirement pdiamond. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

I boiled again tonight and made 4 gallons. It's not much but it's a start.

[Russell Lampron]

It seems that as soon as I get something fixed something else breaks. I had everything fixed and all was good. Richard was riding one of my 4 wheelers when it died. That one was an easy fix, it was just a fouled spark plug. Then I went down to my releaser with my tractor and was bringing up a load of sap. The tractor broke the ice on my haul road and when it did the front of the tractor spun around and I hit a tree. That broke the yoke of off the bucket piston. I've still got to fix that. I went to turn off the vacuum valve at the pump and the handle broke off. Still need to fix that too. I just want to finish the season without having to rebuild everything!

[Russell Lampron]

I had to go get sugaring stuff done, now back to where I was. The tractor is 50 years old this year and has been pretty reliable. I had to replace the 5 year old battery recently and now the starter is dying. I've got to wonder what's next.

I boiled again yesterday and am at 17 gallons now. Now I've got something on the shelves for next weekend.

I got a call Thursday afternoon from a reporter at the Concord Monitor. She had seen that this was going to be my last year. She asked if it was because of covid and I told her no, end of conversation. She called again Friday morning and asked a few more questions and if she could send a photographer over. The photographer came over and he took pictures while I showed him around. When I showed him the evaporator I told him that I was going to be boiling yesterday afternoon and he came back for that. He was really impressed with my setup especially when I drew off 13 gallons of syrup in less than an hour. I have to call the reporter tomorrow to find out what day I'm going to be in the paper. I think she said Wednesday, I'll find out for sure.