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Thread: have you tapped for 2022?

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Thetford, VT
    Posts
    450

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    We are finishing a 400' mainline replacement, need to finish 200' of a new 1400' mainline install, repair two vacuum line/pump line damages from trees, and then we'll start tapping. It will still be a week or so before trees start running.

    Mike
    Tapping since 1985 (four generations back to early to mid 1900s). 200-250 taps on buckets and then tubing in the mid 90s. 2013- 275 taps w/sap puller 25 gal. 2014-295 taps w/sap puller 55 ga. (re-tapped to vacuum theory) 2015-330 taps full vac. 65 gal, 2016-400 taps 105 gal, 2017-400 taps 95 gal. 2018-additional 800' mainline and maybe 400 new taps for a total near 800 taps. 2x6 Leader WSE (last year on it) supported by a 250 gph RO.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Aug 2020
    Location
    Randolph, VT
    Posts
    18

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    Well, we lost a lot of snow this past week. Up at the sugarbush it is always deeper than at the house, but I am starting to be able to see the base of the trees just a little. I bet there is still a foot of snow, but the trees have holes around them now. Looks like there is a decent chance of a run starting tomorrow. Monday through Wednesday looks like textbook sugaring weather. It's still a week ahead of my plan, but I might just try to tap a couple hundred trees for a "shakedown cruise".
    I cut a tree that was laying on the big 1.5" pump line yesterday, and got the line dug up out of the snow and ice. I used the opportunity to tighten up some saggy sections that I had been meaning to improve. I pump sap up from the low place 1500 feet to the sugarhouse, and a line that size gets pretty heavy when it is completely full of sap! It shows me exactly where I didn't tighten up the side ties well enough. When I built this line last year, the first time I pumped sap it stayed in a bunch of low places and froze. I was stuck for days before it got enough sun to thaw the line.
    I lost a couple of days of work on my 3/16 tubing this week when I broke my tubing tool. I'm still hoping the folks at CDL will replace it (definitely a manufacturing flaw), but while we are waiting for word on that, my man Dave at Miles Supply were nice enough to weld on a "splint" for the broken arm to get me back to work. I could have done the same myself, but I wouldn't have been as quick. Thanks Dave!
    Now I just have the eternal list of little things left to do before everything gets crazy. If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done! I know, I say that a lot.
    March 2020- got a Half Pint when the world ended.
    12 taps and 3 gallons of syrup later, caught the bug.
    July 2020- got a used Leader 3x12 raised flue- go big or go home!
    2021- 350 taps on 3/16 gravity. Not much of a year, made maybe 35 gallons.
    2022- 450 taps on 3/16, made about 70 gallons.
    2023- Life got busy again, only 250ish taps so far.

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