Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[randolphvt]

Still nothing running in Randolph VT. All buckets empty.

[DrTimPerkins]

Still nothing running in Randolph VT. All buckets empty.

It can take quite a while (days) for trees to thaw out after the deep freeze we had. Rain will help, but oftentimes the first run isn't great simply because the trees haven't recharged by taking up soil moisture yet. They can't give up sap they don't have it (yet).

[hogisland42]

Its 6 o'clock and it still hasn't warmed up here on the Canadian border

[tcross]

It can take quite a while (days) for trees to thaw out after the deep freeze we had. Rain will help, but oftentimes the first run isn't great simply because the trees haven't recharged by taking up soil moisture yet. They can't give up sap they don't have it (yet).

i have to remind myself of this with the first run or two of the season every year!

[ronewold]

Funny, I had a decent run the last two days. Very rough estimate 1 GPT which tested at 1.8 percent. That's up at 1700 feet elevation in Brookfield. I don't think things froze last night, and it is still super warm this morning, so the sap may still be running.
I wasn't quite ready, but it certainly got me moving. I only had maybe 200 trees tapped, and I hadn't gotten last year's sludge cleaned out of the big woods tank (the sludge was still frozen solid!). So this sap is actually being used to rinse the tank, and to find leaks in my 3/16 gravity tubing. It's hard to check for leaks in natural vacuum tubing without some liquid running through the lines.
I also have issues (as always) with my smokestack. A month or more ago, the wind moved it off the base on the evaporator, just an inch or so, but I have been having a heck of a time getting it back into place. The stack is by far the biggest problem I have faced as a new sugarmaker. 21 feet of 14 inch pipe on top of the 6 foot base out in the open air above the low-roofed woodshed and supported by a radio tower's worth of guy wires. It has been tough to keep it where I want it up on top of Bear Hill in the wind. It would be a lot easier if I had a proper sugarhouse roof to support it halfway up, but I haven't quite gotten there yet.
That's the long way of saying I have some work to do this week before I can boil (but after the wind settles down). I'm happy that the weather is going to stay cold for a week or so now.

[randolphvt]

Today is a disaster. buckets falling off everywhere-lines broken-taps coming out. ARRGGGGG Darn wind!!!!!

[randolphvt]

I suspect in a week or 2 will be really good runs. My trees have started to run but the sap is really dark in some buckets...

[randolphvt]

first test of my 15 gal after calibration is 3.2brix. Sugar maples only.

[VT_K9]

We tapped our original area in the woods which feeds one released yesterday and this morning. Then we chased leaks (including a slightly open end of line ball valve) for a few hours. Last year we replaced over 500’ line due to mostly squirrel chews. This year we replaced many drops for the same reason after the vacuum was turned on. We started at 16” of va and finished just over 27”. Tomorrow we’ll tap the newer section and then chase leaks. We replaced about 1000’ of 1” mainline. We added 1400’ but will likely hook up a sap pulled since the heated lifter hut from CDL hasn’t arrived yet.

Mike

[DrTimPerkins]

Ran fairly well Tuesday evening and Wed forenoon. 11,774 gal off 6,150 taps (averaging about 1.8 Brix right now), but you could tell it wasn't running hard...trees are just starting to thaw out -- the cores are still frozen solid. Vacuum at 21-27" Hg depending on the woods, so still more work to do there. The crew has been busy finalizing all the pumping stations, along with tapping. Power was just installed to the site about a month ago (don't ask). We used to truck sap from the lower site, but now it collects in one shed, is pumped across the road, then pumped from there (along with sap from another 1,000 taps) right up to the sugarhouse into our new 10,000 gal CDL sap silo. No more trucking (hopefully), except for some research sap (which we have to keep separated into sugar maple sap and red maple sap for Dr. Abby's research). Lots of changes, but everything was working well yesterday....except for the RO, which blew the fuse on the transformer when they fired it up. Power company came and replaced it quickly, and a new 100amp leg is being installed on Friday, so that should help. Will run the RO without the HyperBrix pump on until then, so can only concentrate to about 20 Brix for now (instead of our normal 35 Brix). In any case, not a bad start so far.