Western NH

[Bill'sSugarShack]

Taped my 15 taps yesterday (3-3-08) in Newport NH.
kinda felt early but these trees are in a sunny area. They were running abit...will see.

Old timers used to say to tap on town meeting day....well i was a day early...lol

[3% Solution]

I guess your a new guy!
Welcome aboard.
This kind of a neat place. folks are always willing to help each other.
Why don't you go up above and introduce yourself.
Those are some fine trees you have there!!

Dave

[Bill'sSugarShack]

New to the forum perhaps, but not to back yard sugaring...been doing it for 30 yrs in different locations.

[Mac_Muz]

Hi I am pretty new here too. I am over inn Tamworth rather a bit east of you.

Like you I have just 15 taps out now, and the sap is very slow. I had out 2 test taps about 2 weeks now and placed the rest Sunday before last.

I had the idea some days might be warmer and then we got wacked with this current weather.

I have looked in my buckets but collected none.

I at finishing touches to a new barrel stove, and a new just made mild steel pan set up. For kicks I added 2 pan dividers to see what they might do.

My set up costs are just under 100 dollars.. I had to buy a trash can for storage, a bin to transport, the steel to make a pan of, 15 taps, and some paper filters, a 20 qt stainless pot for a pre heater, smoke pipe, misc bolts, and a candy thermometer.

Now I need some sap.

Around here these guys have hundreds to several thousand taps out, so trying to keep up with the Jone's, I made my barrel stove on skis, that can adjust 3" to level. My rig moves to the wood pile, rather than bring the wood to it. :-)

[Bill'sSugarShack]

Finished off 4 1/2 quarts so far...good run Sat. Best so far in 08.

[Mac_Muz]

I hope in two days i will have enough sap to fire off and boil. I might have 25 gallons of sap now. Only one tree is running well yet.

As soon as I have 45 gallons I think I can fire the pan. This seems to be about what you started with if my guess is correct.

[Bill'sSugarShack]

I hope in two days i will have enough sap to fire off and boil. I might have 25 gallons of sap now. Only one tree is running well yet.

As soon as I have 45 gallons I think I can fire the pan. This seems to be about what you started with if my guess is correct.

My 1st boil i had 20 gal of sap...was more just to test the new set up out.

from here on out i'll boil with 20 gal or more/less...fit it in amoungst other things going on...lol
Once good runs begin it'll only be about 2 hrs a day of boiling. Have it set up so i can get it going,load it with wood, then come in n get super cooking...go back out n load/check...come in n eat...go back out...lol

[Mac_Muz]

yeah I have to fit in other things too at time, like since I wasn't planning ahead to do this, Probably today I will have repaired the BobCat for the last little things it needs since it broke, and dig up the slab wood, maybe cut some stove length.

Between boiling and cuttting wood at the same time I should get a little work out.

My pan is close to yours and new to me. 21" x 33" and 3/4" long. I made an error measuring and might be better off if the pan had just been 33".

The question is How many gallon does it seem to take in your opinion to cover the bottom of the pan 1" deep?

How deep do you fill your pan

I had a rig like this one with a 24 x 24 inch pan, but it has been a long time and I seem to have CRS these days.


With that pan I think I dumped 3 gallons to coaver the bottom, adding more as it boiled.

I don't know how this stove/evap will work sonce I just built all this stuff at the time i thought I would be into sap hard.

So far one tree runs hard , but no others. I gathered yesterday, and that tree produced about 2.5 gallons of sap in 48 hours. With that gather, I think I have apx 20 gallons.

Today is looking up and I ghear tommow should be good, but then we get the gray's fot the next 2 days, so thar's no tellin'.

I don't want to lift the pan from a hot fire because i have no sap.

[lpakiz]

Hi Mac,
There is 231 cubic inches in a gallon, and your dimensions were 21 by 33. That works out to exactly 3 gallons per inch of depth.
Larry

[Bill'sSugarShack]

I normally run pan about 1 1/2 inches deep...just to give me a bit of working room if i run out to soon or something screws up