Spring Harvest 2021

[Amber Gold]

Started tapping trees on February 20th and got about 370 done on Saturday and another 320 on Sunday. Monday, we left work early and were able to finish the 3rd big mainline and get a 4th mainline tapped. Only one, smaller mainline left, and it’s in a cold spot anyways, so it got tapped Saturday morning (February 27th)

Tuesday and Wednesday 23/24 , spent time in the woods while working around work. Got the vac. pump and releaser going and the lines were thawed out enough to check for major leaks. Also, cleaned the clutter out of the sugarhouse (never ending battle) and flushed the RO out.

Thursday, sap ran pretty well. Brought home 1138 gal of sap…tested the sugar at 1.4%...uggh. Sap was pretty cloudy too. Boiled it Saturday night and couldn’t even get a draw out of it. Got it to 215F before I ran out of concentrate. First boil is always an adventure. Forgot to put a clamp on the float box fitting, so leaked concentrate out for a while. Forgot out how much defoamer you need on the first boil and had a geyser of foam come out of the hood when I opened it…never seen it erupt this bad…and I was just looking in the hood 30 sec before and all was calm and serene.

Boiled again Sunday night and made syrup. SSC is up to 1.6%. Brought home 607 gal and brought over 673 gal from GZ…also at 1.6%. Everything went pretty well. A lot of niter in the syrup this year. Plugged the press up pretty early and had to break it down to reset it.

Trying out a MES membrane this season. It processes sap…not sure if it’s any better/worse than the other companies. We’ll see how it does this year. This season, I am using Memprotech’s biomebrane liquid RO soap.

I’ve been able to spend an hour or two here and there in the woods to walk the lines, and as of last night, it’s 27.5” at the releaser and 26.5” at the end of the lines. I have one line that’s leak(s) on it I can’t find. Most vacuum leaks are from many squirrel chews and micro leaks on drop line tees. Usually I’ll find a couple here and there, but this year, I’ve 20-30 tees I’ve needed to fix.. Not sure if it’s because the laterals are 10 seasons old, or if it’s because after 5 years, the lateral tubing loosens up on the tees. If I maintain my 5-year drop line rotation, next season, I’ll need to swap out all the drop lines. Maybe I replace all the laterals too?? We'll see.

Sap ran well overnight and brought a load home this morning. Sap cleared up.

[red maples]

Sounds like the usual start to the boiling... I had the same thing lots of foam on the First boil didnt have a foam explosions but same here Low sugar, no draw off and clutter in the sugarhouse!!!

Glad to hear you off to a pretty good start though!

[Amber Gold]

Good night Monday night. About 1350 gal from us, 550 from GZ, and 45 from JP. Why is it seems to run well when we get these cold, windy fronts blowing through?? It made for a chilly night, and long night, with the amount of sap to process. Didn’t start the evap until 9, but was done at 11:30 and made about 35 gal of syrup. Not sure what I brought the concentrate to, but it must’ve been pretty high.

The woods is hovering around 27”. I walked two mainlines and fixed nuisance leaks. The field mainline has something going on, but I can’t find it.

Out collecting sap, and I saw a skunk crossing the street in the next town over…I thought it was too early/cold for that. Well, mid-boil my dog was sprayed by a skunk…awesome. Skunks get around faster than I think they do, or he called his buddy up. It added some excitement to the night, along with the wind.

Thanks Red. Things are going pretty well so far.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm glad to see that you're getting some sap and that you're off to a good start. It's either been sunny and too cold to run or cloudy and warm enough to run but not warm enough for the trees to thaw here. I boiled for the first time last night and it looks like it will be another week, maybe more before I boil again.

Good luck with 2021!

[Amber Gold]

Vac. pump's been on through this freeze up and gained a bit of sap some days. Got about 400 gal in the tank, so it paid the electric bill and then some.

Saturday, doing some maintenance work on the vac. system, so shut the pump off for maybe 15 min. Go to turn it back on a VFD has an internal fault code on it. Mess with it a bunch and nothing. Call Clayton and get a new one lined up for pickup, give the VFD one last shot, and it works. No idea, no explanation. Same exact thing happened last year...pump shot off for a short duration, go to turn it back on and internal fault, so I got a new VFD. Since this year's VFD started working again, I'm wondering if last year's VFD is still good...worth reconnecting it and see if it does. It'd give me a backup VFD.

Today, trees started running again. Vac was down to 20", walked the woods and found a drop line off the spout. Fixed and walked the sugar mainline looking for leaks. Got it up to 26.5" at the end of mainline and almost 28" at the releaser.

[Russell Lampron]

Do you really want to turn the vacuum off again and take the chance that it may not restart just to test the old VFD? I'd wait for a long enough break between runs to get another VFD if both turn out to be faulty.

Have you heard from Alden this year?

[Amber Gold]

No I really don't. That's the plan after the season ends. I'm not touching it for nothin'. Shame too because the drain cap on my releaser is letting in a bubble of air, so I can't take it off to re-tape it.

Alden's doing pretty good. Dealing with typical early season issues. He's boiled once I think.

[Amber Gold]

Brought in 1430 gal of sap Wednesday. First load was from the little that trickled in during the freeze-up in which mostly the sugars run…SSC 2.2%. Second load was from Wednesday's actual run when the reds were in the bunch…SSC 1.7%. Also got some sap from JD and JP, and their trees run ~2.5%. Boiled and made about 35 gal of syrup. Grade came up during the boil and ended around 47% LT. Since I hadn’t boiled in 10 days, the sap was pretty cloudy.

Yesterday's temps were in the 60's...great day for a run, not so much for sap flow. Only hauled out 700 gal of sap (0.75gpt) of 1.7%...thinking SSC isn't going to get any better than that. That load is sitting at the sugarhouse for boiling tonight. Sap ran all night and have about 700 gal in the tank.

I think I tracked down the big vac leak on the field line. The ball valve at the booster is leaking, so will swap that out tomorrow and hopefully it fixes the problem. If this isn't the source of the leak, I don't know what is...I've walked the lines a few times, and all the laterals are tight. I can't get the vac. above 26.5" when the trees are running.

[red maples]

I assume you have the same VFD as my releaser(from MES) ? that goes on and off all day all night... knock on wood 2nd season no issues. thats Strange that you are having issues with a second one. I have a ball valve between my releaser and the vac pump so if there are issues with the releaser I can just close it off with out shutting off the vac pump.

I wanted that same pump you have but no money this year. besides the VFD issues, sounds like its running good if you are getting 28" at the releaser.

As far as your fluctuation in the vacuum maybe a leak thats causing ice to form in the line at colder temps? I don;t know just a thought. Also when its as warm as it has been the past couple of days I noticed that I have lost about an inch of vacuum. it was at 27" but has been down to 26" the last 2 days. wondering if the trees are just giving extra air? Just guessing. I'll see once we are closer to 40*F again.

[Amber Gold]

Hey Brad, been lax updating my thread...and it's my thread...

Yes, it's the Lenze VFD. Frustrating because has never seen it before, and I've gotten it twice. Shut the switch off, do some stuff, turn it back on 5 min later and I get the fault. I forget the code, but it means an internal fault. Last summer, I called Lenze and they said it could be a number of things and the only way to figure it out is to send it in. Having now had this issue 2 seasons in a row, I like your idea of adding an inline valve, so I can leave the pump running and maintain the releaser.

I found the other leak on that line. I had a saddle that was leaking. vac, is now up to 28" with the woods running...27" at the end of mainlines...woohoo!

I do like the pump. It'll deadhead at 29"+ and when things are froze up, it'll report 28.5"+ at the releaser...I think I have some microscopic leaks in the releaser. For next season, I need to rebuild my pump shed, so I'll take the releaser out and see if I can track down any leaks.