Maplwrks Blog

[maplwrks]

After Tapping On The 23rd And 24th Of February,things Have Started To Let Go Here A Little. We Had Ok Runs On The 4th, 5th, 6th,of March, The Vacuum Pump Was Running On Those Days At 18" With No Problems. Today We Had A Hard Run And The Pump Would Only Pull 14". Sap Was Pouring In And All I Could Think About Was How Much Sap I Was Missing By Not Having Higher Vacuum. Regardless We Pulled 2500 Gallons Of Sap Today. We Had Our 1st Boil Of The Year Today. I Processed 1500 Gallons Of Sap To 22% And Boiled It In. From The Time I Started Til The Time I Stopped Was Roughly 3 Hours. Lots Of Company Stopped By,no Sales, The Syrup Was Too Light For Most That Stopped! Still Tasted **** Good!! We Got The Pans Real Sweet And Made 17 1/2 Gallons Of Fancy. I Think We Will Boil Again Tomorrow, As I Still Have 1000 Gallons Of Sap And It's Still Running At This Time. We Are Expecting A Lot Of Rain Here This Weekend, With A Little Sleet And Freezing Rain Thrown In For Fun.

[maplwrks]

Plenty To Do Today---i Just Got New Vanes For My Vacuum Pump,gotta Rebuilt That Today. The Wife And I Will Ride Up To 802 Maples' Today To Get A Load Of Syrup Barrels. I Will Probably Boil Late This Afternoon. We Have Enough Sap To Make Maybe Another 20-25 Gallons Of Syrup. Looks Like We Have A Freeze Up Coming Our Way For A Couple Of Days. This Will Be Welcomed As We Have A Few Little Things To Get Caught Up With.

[802maple]

It was good seeing you bring the boss with you yesterday and the future line runner. Sheila talked about him most of the day. Did you have much ice damage? I bet I know where you were last night and maybe today too, overtime will keep your sugaring going. LOL

[maplwrks]

I Was Boiling When I Got The Call. I Had To Turn The Boiling Chores Over To The Wife. She Did A Great Job---she Made 12 Gallons Of Fancy! I Spent The Entire Night At Work And All Of Sunday Night Also. I'll Take The Day On Monday To Check My Lines. After Talking To Some Of The Lineworkers That Were In The Area Of My Woods,they Said It Didn't Get Hit All That Bad Whew!!

[802maple]

Now that she has done it alone, you've got it made. The biggest job you are going to have to do is go back and forth to the bank and order the beer. Tomorrow I get to destroy Steves R.O. I will let you know how that turns out. I think it is going to be nice to have his panel out beside his evaporator though and all of his pumps hanging on the wall for easy access. He said he was going to keep his frame in case he ever wanted to sell the unit we would reassemble it.

[maplwrks]

I Got My Pump Rebuilt Today And Took Some Time To Walk Through The Woods. What I Saw After This Ice Storm Was That A Lot Of The Branch Tips Were All Broken Off. To Me, It Appeared To Be Like All Of Last Years Growth. The Snow Was Really Hard And Very Icy.
No Sap Today, And It Will Start To Warm Up Tomorrow. Looks Like Weds. And Thurs. Will Be Pretty Good Days.

[802maple]

Everything worked out fine with Steves R.O. This is what the companies should be doing as it really makes everything easily accessible. We could change yours over very easily and you also pick up alot of room with all of the pumps and columns on the wall and the panel out beside the evaporator without the unit sitting in the middle of the room. With yours it would be very nice with the wall being so close to the evaporator. Drawing off with one hand and adjusting the R.O. with the other.

[maplwrks]

I'll Need To Get Up To Steves' To Look At His RO. I'm Very Interested In Moving The Panel Of My RO Out Onto The Wall By The Evaporator.This Would Free Up A Lot Of Room For A Tank Of UVO To Sit In!

[802maple]

I welded up brackets for the high pressure pump to mount to the wall and was able to put the feed pump right under the high pressure pump so that got rid of the frame. Steve had some beams to work around so it was out in the room alittle, but with yours it would only be 10-11 inches out in the room and it would make a lot of space. It took about 5 hours for the whole change over. About 2 hours into the project with parts all over the floor it looked like a mess but it all came together.

[maplwrks]

The Past Couple Days Have Tested My Patience Pretty Good. The Vacuum Pump That I Rebuilt Is Shot! We Had A Decent Run On Friday And I Had No Vacuum. Did A Lot Of Soul Searching On Friday Night,(I Found It At The Bottom Of A Labatts Blue Bottle)and Decided To Make The Plunge. I Called Glen Goodrich And Bought A New Atlantic Fluids Pump. Gotta Hook It Up Tomorrow And Get That Thing Suckin'!!