February journal

[steam maker]

well we got the platform built for my permeate tank today, ran line from tank into sugarhouse. started the vaccum shed.busy day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! opened up the last 5 gal. keg of syrup. just as nice as when it went in, hate to bring it to bascoms tommorow but oh well trade it in for some parts.. probly shoulda called sugar joe instead of goin to bascoms. its gettin close to go time im gettin real nervous

[CaseysSugarHouse]

heading in the woods in the morning to get alot of stuff done putting in 16 valves,lifter line booster that has to be 20ft in the air Yippie get to do that tomorow get the lines all hooked up to the booster. and then into my lifter which i hope to get all plumbed in sunday. and get my lifter bush ready to tap. then off the the next sugarbush to cut trees off my mainlines. got a good 2 days of work on my 1000 tap bush and that should be ready to be tapped. I plan to tap my newest tubing first and oldest last. lots and lots of work to do and a short period of time. TIME TO KICK IT IN HIGH GEAR!!!!!!


NATE

[3rdgen.maple]

Tomarrow I will be shoveling out mainlines, sunday I will be shoveling out the laterals, monday I will be shoveling out the drops, Tuesday I will start shoveling out the bucket trees, wednesday ahhh never mind. Guess what I have in the forecast this weekend? Bet nobody can figure it out.

[Farmboy]

Got mt home made roof jack in place today. I need to cut the mettal roofing and put it back up tommorow. I finished retinning my evaporator friday. After I finish the roof jack the evaporator is going in the sugar shack. Then I need to brick it. I dont think the bricks are going to get cemented in this year because im going to take the evaporator out after the season to pour concrete. My dads buddy is coming over to look at my pans sunday so he can figure out what parts he needs then hes going to weld thermometer ports on it monday or tuesday. I worked on making one sap pump out of the 2 I have but there just not working and I dont have the time. Looks like Im going to go to tractor supply tomorrow and get a new pump and a tank for my neibors bush. Hopefully I will be ready to tap wednesday and boil by saturday.

[BoarsNest]

Fired up the arch with water yesterday and tried out the preheater tank. Seemed to work pretty good, but the steam hood idea didn't work out to well. The steam just rolled around the outside. Oh well, maybe some modification will help. We opened all the trails with the snowblower, but it is going to be a lot of work to get to the trees with all the snow on the ground. I am going to wait until next weekend and see what the weather looks like. The temps look warm for a few days, but not the freeze thaw that the book says is best.

[Dennis H.]

I am amazed with waht those darn tree rats will chew on! The other day when I tapped my trees that are on tubing I found alot of chew marks on the stubbies at the end of the drops. They were not all the way thru but they have to be close. It looks like I will have to start controlling the tree rat population soon!

[Fishgill]

Walked the woods today making paths so I can get the tubeing up tomorrow and Tuesday. The snow was waist deep in some spots .Cleaned out a bunch of buckets and the storage tank. It's go time!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I am amazed with waht those darn tree rats will chew on! The other day when I tapped my trees that are on tubing I found alot of chew marks on the stubbies at the end of the drops. They were not all the way thru but they have to be close. It looks like I will have to start controlling the tree rat population soon!

I only have Leader and Lapierre health spouts in the woods and amazing how many of them have been chewed on by the squirrels.

[danno]

150 taps in today - we've started. Got some mailine work to do tomorrow after finding a section down this afternoon.

Scary incident last night. While out riding snowmobiles with my buddies last night, about midnight, the guy who was leading took what looked to be 185-200lb. deer right in the chest at 65 mph. Amazingly, he walked away from it. His snowmobile did not fare so well. After he got up, he took out his buck, walked out to the deer who had sustained bad injuries and put her down. Very sureal night. Nothing good happens after midnight.

[Tweegs]

Glad your bud is OK there Danno, that had to suck.



All trees on tubing are tapped, only about 20 taps left to put out on buckets.

Sap started running good about 4 this afternoon, had a high of 46 today. Tonight is only supposed to flirt with freezing, mid to upper 30’s tomorrow. Expecting a good run.

Everything is ready to go, cleaned out, set up, repaired, checked out and ready to rock…

Bring on the sap!!