Red Roof Maples

[Russell Lampron]

Boiled again last Saturday night and haven't had enough sap to boil again yet. I am only at 8 gallons so far with orders coming in for a lot more. I hope that the BIGSAP gets here soon. It has been too cold and I would rather have that than too warm.

Had a pretty tough weekend spending most of Saturday shoveling out the tractors trying to gather the sap in my parents woods. Then we had a power outage for most of the day on Sunday that took some work to keep things from freezing up.

The grandchildren and I hung the buckets at my house Sunday but the sap hasn't run enough to gather from them yet. The vacuum has been pulling in a little sap and I should have enough to boil again tomorrow night.

Russ

[TapME]

Russ, It has been a little cold here in the Falls for sap to run. Looking forward to next week and hanging buckets with the sap-hauler. Hope the sap runs hard and fast for all the sugar makers. Lou

[Russell Lampron]

It was another busy weekend at Red Roof Maples. Matt (royalmaple) and Lou (TAPME) came over from Maine and we made the trip to The Governors to tap his trees. We had a good time and got a lot work done. We checked out Daves (3% Solution) sugar house and the EEU, nice for homemade.

Matt, Lou and I stopped in at Parkers on the way home and got to see Mighty Marvin swallow up wood and make steam. It was hard to see Parker on the other side of the evaporator.

Matt and Lou spent the night and we concentrated some sap and made some Quality Product Saturday night. The final tally was 10 gallons and a pint after I finished boiling in what we didn't finish Saturday AM. Matt and Lou were fading fast after midnight.

Got some vacuum leaks and tubing repairs made today and things are looking good for some BIGSAP this week. Got word that Theron was upset that he couldn't make it up here to join in on the work at The Governors and that he missed seeing Mighty Marvin in action.

Russ

[TapME]

I want to say it was a pleasure to meet the owners of red roof maple. It was great to help in the production of some quality product. It sure makes the making of syrup a breeze when you start with 8%, makes one think of doing the same. Best that we can do is pray the trees run really sweet this year. Hope all get some fantastic runs of sap this week.

[Russell Lampron]

I was hoping for a BIGSAP Monday on St Patrick's day but ended up with a BIGSAP Tuesday instead. We collected 210 gallons of sap on Monday and 440 gallons yesterday. Got the evaporator lit at 5:30 and ran out of sap at 12:30 am.

The boiling sodas were going down good as we made about 15 gallons of quality product. This was the biggest run I have had in 2 years. It felt strange boiling past 9:30 but it also felt good to be able to process 650 gallons of sap in that amount of time with a 2x6.

When I get a final tally I should be in the range of 40 gallons for the season and I have only used a little more than 1/2 a cord of wood. I am sure glad that I have an RO machine.

Russ

[TapME]

Great to see that you having some good runs, now Royalmaple needs to get in on it don't you think.

[Russell Lampron]

Lou,

I felt bad calling Matt to tell him about my BIGSAP and finding out that he only got about 100 gallons. But that was only for a minute as I was starting to draw off some quality product. The BIGSAP will come for you and Matt and I will be sitting here drinking a boiling soda with dry taps.

[royalmaple]

Don't feel bad. I'm delighted for anyone with lots of sap to report. I guess I'll just keep thinking my turn for big sap is just around the corner. Until we get to June and I've only made 1/2 pint per tap then I might get a little pissy.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Don't feel bad for Matt, he will be boiling creek water in May when you are riding your Harley.

[Russell Lampron]

I wasn't feeling all that bad. It was more the let down in his voice when I called all excited telling him of my BIGSAP and my surprise when he said that only got about 100 gallons. I boiled in another 430 gallons last night which puts me pretty close to 50 gallons of syrup for the year.