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Thread: Spring Harvest 2021

  1. #11
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    Mar 2008
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    Not much to report. It’s either been too cold or too warm…generally too cold, so it takes a few days for the trees to start running well again. Only been boiling 2-3 times a week, which makes it hard to get into a rhythm. Also, by having sap sit around so much, even with as cold as it is, it gets cloudy, so making dark syrup all the time.

    Brought in about 1350 gal yesterday and made about 25 gal of syrup. SSC is 1.7%. JP brought in a load that’s 2.9%...I’m jealous. About 10,400 gal of sap through the sugarhouse, of which about 9000 gal is SHMF…that figures to 10gpt of sap, so a half crop.

    It ran well overnight. About 0.75gpt. Will hold today’s sap over and have a big boil tomorrow night.

    Still finding leaks where the lateral lines connect to drop line tees. Looks like next year I’ll need to swap out drops. It’s been 5 years, so that’s on schedule.

    Tap count is varying. I think we ended up with 897 taps at tap-in, but have lost a few due to pulling a few taps that were sucking air (i.e. hollow tree) or the heads breaking off the CV2’s (frustrating), which got us down to 893 taps. Over the weekend, we did some maintenance work to clean up some laterals and added in a new lateral. Added another 6 taps (I think), so we’re up to 899. I have a couple trees flagged I can add in, but at this point, I think I’ll hold off until next season.

  2. #12
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    May 2009
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    UVM Proctor Maple Research Center, Underhill Ctr, VT
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    Quote Originally Posted by Amber Gold View Post
    ... the heads breaking off the CV2’s...
    What do you use for a hammer? We found that those using a tapping hammer (lightweight, flat face) usually had no breakage, but those using a framing hammer (heavier, often with a slightly rounded face) tended to break spouts. That person also tended to seat the spouts deeper than is required.
    Dr. Tim Perkins
    UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
    http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
    https://mapleresearch.org
    Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu

  3. #13
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    Hi Dr. Tim. I forgot to check my post in a while. I use a small deadblow I got from Harbor freight...it's either the 1 or 2 lbs version. I find you get a solid hit with it, but not harsh like with a framing hammer. I hit the spouts until I get a solid "thunk" sound. It's random on those that break off. I usually get a few every year that do.

    https://www.harborfreight.com/1-lb-n...mer-41796.html
    Last edited by Amber Gold; 03-23-2021 at 11:08 AM.

  4. #14
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    Mar 2008
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    Boiled about 1500 gallons of 1.6% Sunday night. Sap was about 50F, so gained about 1.5 gph out of the RO machine with the warmer sap. Things went well, although it turned into a late night because I bottled syrup afterwards. Having boiled 2 nights in a row, the grade came back up…graded at 40% LT.

    I checked the concentrate for the first time this season and found I’ve been getting it to 20%+ on a 2 pass system. It wasn’t intentional, but it is nice having removed that much water.

    Hauled in a load of 1.5% yesterday afternoon and left 300 in the tank. Found the water meter at the sugarhouse was stuck, so now the readings don’t match the log spreadsheet. I had a meeting last night for work, so I couldn’t boil. I’ll need to haul a load out at lunch to make room in the woods tank. Tonight will be a busy night between my 2 days of sap, plus JD says he’s bringing a load or two over and JP’s buckets.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
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    Rock Creek, NC
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    Sounds like you've been busy Josh which is a good thing this time of year. How is the MES membrane working for you? Do you see any difference with it compared to the others you've used? This is the 3rd season on mine and they still meet the benchmark. I've never done an acid wash to them either.
    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. #16
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    Honestly, they're performing about the same as the CDL membrane. I'd have to read through last year's posts to see what my flow rates were. With sap temp's in the upper 30's, I run it at 2C/6P @ 350 psi. With sap at low 50's, it's running 2C/7.5P @ 350psi, but then after a few hours it's down to 6.5P because of the high quality sap I ran through it yesterday.

    One difference this year is using the Memprotech liquid wash soap. I wash after every concentrate cycle and benchmark it every time. Permeate flow maxed at 12.8gpm, but has settled in around 12.2-12.4gpm. Problem I'm having with the warm sap is the pressure valve is closed all the way, so I can't quite get to my benchmark pressure. I extrapolated a bit with my figures to close the gap.

    I've had the RO now for I think 6 years. During the off-season, I may send it to H2O Innovation to have them go over it and do any maintenance work that's needed. They may see something I'm not.

  7. #17
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    Brought in another truck load afternoon of 3/23. JD dropped off ~250 and JP 80. Almost an 1800 gal night. Got out of work late, plus had some things to take care of, so didn’t fired the evap up until about 9pm and shut down at midnight. Made 30+ gallons. Grade held at 40% LT which was shocking considering how warm it was.

    Boiled again night of 3/24. Two truckloads for me and ~170 from JD. My SSC dropped to 1.5%, but maintaining grade. I don’t get how it turns to summer and I’m still holding grade. Syrup tested at 42% LT.

    Bottling syrup Sunday before (3/21), and on the canner, one of the soldered fittings fell off before the ball valve…oops. Fortunately, I was holding onto it when it did fall off, or syrup would’ve gone everywhere. I took some electrical tape and held it on their for the rest of the bottling session. Soldering isn’t a strong point, but I think I did a better job when I fixed it.

    Hauled in a load Thursday/Friday (3/24-3/25) each with no freeze, that’s 0.75gpt. SSC is 1.3%, so continuing to drop…expected.

    Sunday had 1000 gal in the tank since Friday. Took a load out and will boil tonight. Didn’t test SSC. Sap is down to ~0.5gpt.

    To date, we’ve processed ~18,300 gal of sap, of which almost 15,200 gallons is ours (16.8 gpt of sap), and have produced ~300 gal of syrup. We need to make another 100 gal to have an average year…assuming 0.4gpt of syrup…maybe we can get there??

  8. #18
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    Mar 2008
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    Barrington, NH
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    I'd post more often, but having problems actually submitting a post from my phone. I can write it, but when I hit submit, I get an error message. Rewrite, hit submit, and same thing. I did this a few times and gave up.

  9. #19
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
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    Rock Creek, NC
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    Quote Originally Posted by Amber Gold View Post
    I'd post more often, but having problems actually submitting a post from my phone. I can write it, but when I hit submit, I get an error message. Rewrite, hit submit, and same thing. I did this a few times and gave up.
    I had that problem a couple of times and just continued to exit out of the thread. When I went back in and checked the message was there. I'm using a Samsung tablet.
    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!

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    Barrington, NH
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    Thanks Russ. I was able to post from my phone the other day on another thread. Not sure why it was working before.

    Monday was a day of all days. Huge windstorm knocks out power to the woods around noon. Late afternoon appointment to get new summer tires. Find out rear spring is broken and making a day trip to the Cape on Tuesday for work. Track down a set of springs and need to get them installed that night. Stop at the sugarhouse, start RO, and leave to get a load of sap. Breaker pops while I’m gone and only processed 200 gal of sap. Restart RO and fine the rest of the night…bad breaker?? Dump sap, shoot home, eat dinner, and go to my friend’s garage to install rear springs. Spend an hour trying to use the spring compressor, had an epiphany, undid the lower shock bolt which dropped mounting plate, install spring, jack mounting plate up, rebolt shock and done. Got both sides done in 10 min. Go to the sugarhouse and find I left both the perm and sap tank valves open, so the RO wasn’t doing a whole lot. At that point, it was 9:30, and sap was questionable anyways, so I dumped 1400 gal of 1.2% sap. At the woods, power came back on middle of the night.

    Before leaving for Cape, stop at the woods. Vac pump running and releaser pump can cycle on. Cross my fingers and leave for Cape. Check camera around 10 and no vac…assumed releaser pump didn’t cycle and moisture trap filled up. Get back around 9pm and that’s what happened. Dump moisture trap and turn things back on. Sap’s running and lines are clearing out. Releaser cycles fine, so not sure what happened this morning. Good thing, is it gave me a chance to clean the releaser…because of the VFD issue, I didn’t want to shut the pump down for maintenance. It was pretty slimey in there, but all good now. The cold and releaser cleaning cleared the sap up. Hopefully, we can make good syrup for another week or so. Weather seems generally favorable with some good freezes.

    This morning, sap flow into the releaser looks to be in the 0.5gpt range. Maybe it'll get better, maybe it won't.

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