Sunapee

[3% Solution]

Mark,
If you guys are boiling tonight, I may stop by.
I think we need to go to 1 Mile West for supper.

Dave

[Mark-NH]

Dave,

If it runs today we will boil tonight. I had 20 this morning at 7:30 and forecast is for 40's so it SHOULD run. We needed that cold night to recharge the trees.

[Amber Gold]

What are you running for stack temps?

At 1400 I get a good boil and 1500 is better than 60 gph.

[Mark-NH]

Last boil tonight. Had a couple hundred gallons of surprise sap as of yesterday and it may have run a little today. Will use it to push through what we have in the syrup pan.

I have to remember to bottle whatever is in the caner before adding any syrup tonight. There is good B in there now and I don't want to ruin it by introducing C tonight.

We'll turn the tanks over and pull buckets as we go. By doing this we can clean as we go tonight and never reconsider.

[Mark-NH]

Collected 200 gallons yesterday and would not have believed it if I had not seen it. Have not had a good freeze here in 5+ days. Sap was a little cloudy but no smell. Could not get a good boil going to save our lives last night. Wet wood, wet air, syrup in the flue pan............

OK so tonight will be the last boil. I promise.

Josh, we ran about 500 on our magnetic thermometer. I have no idea what that translates to for internal temps. 80 gph as a rule. Need to work on the arch configuration to make sure we retain draft but get as much of the heat up into the flue pan as possible. Scratching my head over a couple options.

[Mark-NH]

Still have to can up the last draws but we made right about 100 gallons (107 last year) off 470 taps on vacuum. I figured 100 would be my goal to qualify as a great season so I am happy.

We also have 100 buckets around the sugar house but after running vacuum for a couple years, and seeing the difference between it and gravity I hesitate to count them as taps. A bunch of the buckets are on reds to boot. If it weren't fun to collect them with the tractor and trailer I wouldn't even bother.

Positives for the year:
Upgrading to the 3 x 8 evaporator was a huge success. 80 gph vs 40 gps with the old 2 1/2' x 6 1/2'

Refined one of the vacuum systems by adding a dry line and suspending the main line.

Wish list for next year:
add 120 taps to existing lines to get us to 600 taps on vacuum.
add canning room to the sugar house.
refine baffle system in arch to get all the heat up into the raised flues.
Would like to find a 600 gallon stainless holding tank.

Now to the fun part-----clean up-------. Gotta make some kind of tubing washer. Have fun all.

[Amber Gold]

Sounds like you had a great season. Also looking to further expand my existing sugarbush and should be able to add another 50-75 taps. I'm also going to tinker with my arch and get my numbers up. Hopefully get 75-80 gph out of it.

Not sure how you fit the 3x8 in your sugarhouse. It looked pretty tight with the 2.5x6.5. Mapleman3 is getting about 100 gph out of his 3x8, but it has a preheater. It looks like there's room for improvement.

I heard there's a 600 gal bulk tank in the Market Bulletin.

There's a recent thread I started about it. Simple manifold with an air compressor and hose connection. It works great.

[tuckermtn]

the market bulleten tank is sold...not sure to whom, but I called today and they said it was long gone...

-eRic