September journal

[3rdgen.maple]

Dave if you cannot get that building permit straightened out I will gladly help out another producer and just let you set it up at my place. Do you know why they cannot make the 3x8 in the force 5? Man that would be awesome if they could. I favor the drop flues as well just because of my holding tank height but that can be changed easy enough. Oh well some can dream can't they. I just want to slowly build up my operation as I get closer to retirement. I would love to take a trip down and see it run sometime, if Im thinking right you are in Pa correct?

[ennismaple]

I I had to guess I would say that the 3x12 is the smallest Force 5 rig because a shorter rig won't have time to burn all the gases and transfer the heat to the pans. The blowers would likely push all that heat up the stack. I'm sure they will figure out how to make it work sooner than later but for now they've made it easier by keeping the product offering small.

[Jeff E]

Dave- Ill send you an invite next year if you want. We always seem to have a lot of get togethers. Your probly better off without it though. Jeff- My problem was with the pump line up from the tanker trailer and the lower sugar bush last year. I just couldnt seem to get it to drain perfectly. What I had to do is just wait and pump the sap once everything was thawed out and make sure it was pumping before stuff started freezing. One other thing I learned was to go over the road instead of through a sluice with the pump line. I do run sap through the sluece pipe to the releaser and it works real good with a second dry line with it but the pump line didnt seem to work so good. This year Ill have it automatically pump up to the sugarhouse once things thaw out with a sump pump. I also graded the line this year so it pitches all the way back to the pump so I THINK it will work pretty good. Always need to be thinkin. Theron

Theeeron:

It is a similar set up to mine. I had trouble with the pump line freezing at the end of the days. There is a short window of time between the laterals freezing up and the mains and pump line freezing. Once my vac shuts off (set for when the laterals freeze) I have to hightail it to the pump house and drain my pump lines.
If I miss it and cant get them to drain I cant take the early sap the next morning untill my 1" pump lines open up.

My problem is that my releasers dump into a 100 gallon tank with a sump pump in them. and if the pump cant move the sap I had 1 of 2 things happen:
1. pressure build from the pump and a connection let loose. BIG MESS. Looked like a mini old faithful going off in the pump house. If nothing let loose, the pump would eventually overheat and shut itself off. The tank would flood the bottom of the releaser, so no vacuum, and overflow onto the floor. yup, another BIG MESS. Worse is lose of production.

At this point, it takes me about 20 minutes of running and 4 wheeling to get the lines drained, so I just let the evaporator slow down, get the wife or kid to make sure I dont overflow my syrup draw off tank.

I am considering adding a second pump line to use if you miss the drain time so I do not loose the early sap the next day.

[Sugarmaker]

Cheryl and I will be working the maple booth for the NWPA Association fund raiser tonight. The truck and tractor pulls will be going on in the background. The we will be preparing for the Albion fair where we are the official fair spectators.
Keeping busy mowing lawn and cutting some pallets.

Regards,
Chris

[PATheron]

Jeff- Sounds like you and I have pretty similar chores in the spring. Redundancy rules. I had enough problems with a remote releaser last year Ive actually considered running two of them and just valve it over in the morning on the way to work to the dry one and let the other one thaw. That releaser I will have power to this year so Im going to enclose it and throw a light bulb in it. That second pipe through the sluice pipe is a good trick though. Theron

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

OMG! I can't think of a single thing maple I did today.

[Russell Lampron]

It has been a while since the last time that I posted something here. I have been slowly but surely getting my wood for the outdoor furnace cut, split and stacked. The old 1930 doodlebug has been doing a fine job of twitching the logs and pulling the cordwood trailer between rain storms.

I won't be working on my tubing until the leaves are gone but have plans to add another 2 to 300 taps. I am replacing all of the drops in the oldest section of woods first though. I want to maximize the production of what I already have before I add more.

With all of the cold and rain that we have had this year the water is still running in the small streams that are usually dried up long before now. I hope the the trees got enough sun to make some sugar this summer. We only had 3 full days of sun in June.

[Dave Y]

Enis ,
you are correct about the force 5. 3rdgen the building permit will come hell or high water. I dont care if I have to sever it from the house. But thanks for the offer. I will let you know when the new rig is set up and I am doing a test boil .
you cna come down to Pa and watch.

[3rdgen.maple]

Dave thanks for the invite. Would love to see it if I find the time, hope the building comes together for you. Got the call from the state forester today about tapping the fishermans easement this fall. The verdict is nobody knows. Unfortunetly I opened a big can of beaurocratic worms. Guy says there is nothing in print that says yes or no. So it is gonna go through the chain of command and if it gets passed I have to fill out a bunch of paperwork. Bad news is that in the easement contract he noted that the landowner cannot block off any part of the area, and that he would consider tubing as such. Last little delima there is no motorized vehicles allowed on the easement at all. Does not matter that I own the land I cannot even drive a snowmobile on it.

[mtnmeadowmplfarm]

I have 8 out of 10 cord split and stacked at the sugarhouse. Called a couple friends last Sat. for some help with wood, got a good stroke of business done. Ordered a new 14" stack cover, getting a bit too much rain down the stack. I've been trying to hammer out a plan with the power company to run power into my lower sugar woods since May. Seems like every time any progress is made there is another roadblock. There appears to finally be light at the end of the tunnel though, should have electricity in a matter of weeks!

I start working for Goodrich this month doing tubing installations for the winter, should be quite an education. Pretty sure there is a 15000 tap installation on the list.