Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[spud]

Sap ran well yesterday. I got 1 gpt but only testing 1.2%. I just shut the pump off this morning. Starting tomorrow, it looks like sap everyday for a while. I still have a few leaks to chase down but I am running 25 inches of vacuum.

Spud

[PARKER MAPLE]

You need to return the favor and feast on the squirrels. I hear they taste good if you use enough syrup on them.

I will stick to chicken 😂

[VT_K9]

We are all tapped in. Having some challenges this year with leaks. We have one pump with two releasers. One is a mechanical. The other we upgraded from mechanical to electric. When the vacuum is sent only to the releasers it is 26-27 (I stopped waiting and moved on to supplying the woods lines but I belive there was more to go as it was slowly increasing). When sent to the woods I started at the side which showed less vacuum throughout (we are using the CDL monitoring system and have sensors on the major mainlines). I shut one side (on the mechanical releaser) down to one mainline and began to walk it...found a heck of a chew by coyotes. Fixed it and that run and the other on that side seemed to retun to 26" with a slow climb so I moved to the other releaser (electric). I found one sensor about .5" less so I started there and found another big chew and whole drop gone.

Now the whole system is within .5" through all sensors. We have about 750 taps 1/3 to one releaser and 2/3 to the other releaser. The challenge is the vacuum does not get much over 22". As this evening rolls on and the temps drop I am seeing more fluctuations from sensor to sensor. I have three zones I plan to walk tomorrow. It seems like they are small leaks and are freezing first. It seems like they are out on the sap lines vs at the mainline except one run (which shows a 0" for the sensor).

What does everyone else have for thoughts about this? Am I looking at it from the right angle or am I missing something.

Thank you,

Mike