My season was a total bust this year. I got 775 of my 900 taps in and made zero syrup. Only went about about $8k in the hole. I had a really hard time with it at first, but I tried as hard as I could. I think this is the hardest thing I've ever went through, short of someone dying. We had 3 floods, all of which kept me from getting to half of my sap- the first, I had to move my collection tanks up the hill from the end of the mainline so they didn't float off. I got sick- thought I had Covid- but it was a sinus infection. Got hurt- slipped walking around the hillside, grabbed a little beech tree and my shoulder wasn't quite expecting the 225 lbs of me and 50 lbs of clothes, tools, a roll of tubing and the backpack & toolbelt I was carrying. When I finally got some sap, my new RO upgrade failed miserably. Blew the end cap off a post at only 150 PSI, torqued it down and blew it off again at only 175. Over nighted a new vessel, it took 3 days to get here. On a plus note, my 660 procon fed by a HF drummond pump was pushing 720 gph though my RO, instead of the 475 or so I was expecting. I was gettin Permeate without even closing off the needle valve. I got my pans sweet and drew off a little syrup. Got the RO back together and my procon 660 sounded like a meat grinder. Took it off and tried to get the RO running off the original Procon 330, ran out of HP tubing, my hands were so sore from arthritis and doin all that plumbing I couldn't tie my shoes. Then we had some warm days and my tubing slimed up for good. I ended up pulling my top taps last weekend to let the sap drain out of the laterals. Hopefully I'll get everything flushed out with disinfectant this coming week and button up my tubing for the year. I took a lot of notes and learned a lot. Tapped some silvers for the first time this year-89 taps on 2 laterals, pulled them with a shurflo averaged 2 gpt/day and 1.6% sugar, they were sweeter than my sugar maples. Next year, my plan is to tap about 200 silvers around the first of Dec to have a few weeks of silver maple syrup to sell for Christmas gifts, then tap the sugars regular time, around mid Jan. I'm goin to ditch the 4 40" posts on the RO and go with one 8x40. The recirculation I ran with the 300 worked ok, but instead of coming in after the main pump feed, I'm going to feed INTO it, this will reduce the time it takes to empty the main tank, but will concentrate to a higher % in the first pass. I also added a third 100 watt panel to my shurflo set ups this year, and they ran 24/7 without me having to hand hump batteries down to the woods every three days or so when I only had 200 watts. Shurflos with a strainer will not get damaged by ice, The screen stops the ice as it freezes and protects the diaphragms. Once it starts warming up, the screens have to be changed sometimes 2x a day. Lastly, the one batch of syrup i did get boiled off, I had to throw out, I bought the defoamer cup from Roth, talked to the guy on the phone about how to set it up before I bought it. Glad I did because it didn't come with instruction. I set it so the top of the cup was about 2" higher than my sap level, which is 3" higher than the flues in my raised flue. He said to put it in where the raw sap or concentrate enters, which is the front of my flue pan, as I have a 2" pipe coming from the float box. Well that's the place where the most violent boil is and it over flowed a weeks worth of defoamer in one batch. tasted like crap. I guess I'll not be lazy next year and put a few drops of liquid defoamer in every time i draw off. I thought the auto would be better since we added a steam hood last year. Cost me near $2k in one night. Been hard, but its done & over now, I'm over it and thankful for what I've learned, and that I'm not dead, I'm down but not out. Will be back next year rip roarin & ready to go.
'12 15 jugs - Steam pans
'17 125 3/16 - 18" x 72" drop flue on homemade arch
'18 240 3/16 - Deer Run 125
'19 450 3/16 - Converted RO to electric/added a membrane
'20 600 3/16 - Maple Pro 2x6 Raised Flue, added AOF/AUF
'21 570 3/16 - Built steam hood, Smoky Lake filter press
'22 800 3/16 - Upgraded RO to 4 4x40
'23 500 3/16 - Re-plumbed RO, new "Guzzler"
'24 500 3/16 - Steam Away, DIY 8x40 RO