Bigsap Warning 2010

[PATheron]

Tim- I hadnt heard of that. Whats wrong with the R.O. you have? Theron

[sapman]

I'm only getting like 450gph through it on startup, slowing to 300-325 after a couple hours sometimes. That's total, not just permeate. Permeate benchmarks only get to 420. Guess I need to send it for cleaning and see if it is the membrane, or if the pump is compromised.

[PATheron]

Tim - Was it performing good last year when you started? If it did your just at the same point most everyone else is by the end of the year. Just send it in and have it professionally cleaned and it will be perfect. Thats one problem Im going to try to resolve this year too. Im going to try to get as perfect a proceedure to keep my membranes performing good all season as possable. Theron

[sapman]

Theron, I don't think it has performed like it should for at least the past couple seasons. Yeah, I definitely better send it in. To be honest, I just learned that the benchmark is only looking at permeat side, not adding both sides together. Therefore I really can't tell where I stood previous seasons. The prior owner gave me no records, but CDL cleaned it and it was 92 or 97% the last time they did it. I agree, gotta get more efficient for next season. I used a LOT of electricity recirculating because of poor flow rates.

Tim

[PATheron]

BIGSAP RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!!!!! ALMOST SEASON!!!!! Been working steady down here in BIGSAP country. Been finetuning some of my older woods and working in the sugarhouse. Got the new evaperator in the shed as of today. Looks kind of like a Clidesdale horse in a dog coop. It did turn out nice but wow what a unit. Really looking foreward to season this year. Sounds like everyone is getting lots of work done. Theron

[Dennis H.]

Holy Cow Theron is still alive and still living in up state PA!!

I thought he moved so he could work at the 7-11 where Elvis and Micheal Jackson now work!!

Good to hear that you could shoe horn that new rig into the sugarhouse, one of these days I need to make a trip up north to see this new baby.

[PATheron]

Sounds good Dennis- Ive got to get down and check on your operation too. Anything happening with the two spots you were eyeing up down the road? Theron

[ennismaple]

BIGSAP RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!!!!! ALMOST SEASON!!!!! Been working steady down here in BIGSAP country. Been finetuning some of my older woods and working in the sugarhouse. Got the new evaperator in the shed as of today. Looks kind of like a Clidesdale horse in a dog coop. It did turn out nice but wow what a unit. Really looking foreward to season this year. Sounds like everyone is getting lots of work done. Theron

I was wondering how long it would take you to get fired back up again! Glad to hear you're continuing to improve things.

Lapierre sent a technician to tweak our Force 5 last week. I can't wait to see how it performs next spring! I continue to be very impressed by their customer service.

My brother and I plan to hit the bush this weekend to get started on our "To Do" list. We've got a lot of improvements planned and many have to get done before the snow flies because we can't get to certain areas of the bush with a vehicle in winter.

I found a good way to handle our hot water condensate from the steam hood. I bought a 55 gallon rain barrel and will put it up on a platform beside the evaporator. It comes with a drain on the bottom that will take a garden hose and will be great for washing misc things or filling a wash bucket. It also has an overflow drain that will help keep me from cursing as hot water floods the back of the sugar camp! It should help make life easier around the camp.

Sales have been strong recently and hopefully we can move the rest of the barrels out of the basement by Christmas! I hope everyone else is getting towards the end of their stock too.

[PATheron]

Dennis- Maybe you will have to run your pump up to your dads. Might not be too bad if you dont have a ton of sap to haul. Still a pain though. When you go to work are you overlooking anything along the way like big roadsides somewhere something like that. Other thing is it only takes a 300$ honda engine and you can put that pump anywhere. Marty- What are you hoping to get out of the force five once you get it all dialed in? Ive been working real steady down here most of the summer. Im hoping the shed will be more or less ready to rock and roll in a couple of weeks then I can go back to the woods and stay there. Having fun getting everything all tuned up. I wish I had time to put more taps out but Ive opted to just keep getting my stuff better and better. With my buddys taps we should have a little over 6000 taps coming to my shed and that is enough to make a lot of syrup if we do a good job. Cant wait. Dennis- Other thing Ive thought of that could work for you when you drive to town is there a place like a park or somewhere you could put a bunch of buckets on big trees that might do pretty good just gravity some days right along the road? Theron