New December Journal

[PATheron]

Parker- Last year I think I tapped first week of feb so Im kind of going with that for now. Id tap in January If I was ready and we had a serious january thaw but Im not really hoping for it. Have to wait and see I guess. Im in full weather watch mode as of now. Probly Feb. youd love the lincoln right now. Got 300 drops and rolls of mainline in the back seat and all my tools. Were in full syrup mode now. Theron

[3% Solution]

Hey PA,
That's what real stuff is made of .......... "Dreams."
Someone dreamed of going to the moon and , well you know the rest of the story.
It's 7 here as I type.
I figure there's about 51 days before we start tapping.
Hope Santa was nice to everyone!!!

Dave

[Jeff E]

Isn't that what drives us? Last spring, I had the wife, 4 kids, a friend and I out with headlamps in early April, collecting sap from 350 buckets, 4 nights in a row, in the meantime, the 2x8 was running 14-18 hours a day for week, and when it wasn't running, I was at work.
This is the soil from which dreams sprout!!!
My new system is such that all the sap from every maple on my 40 is waiting from me in tanks in the sugar house, with the new RO just grinning at me, saying 'lets go!'.
Change from the 350 trees producing say 500 gallons of sap on a big day, taking 5-6 hours to collect it all, then 15 hours to process it. Please note this takes a total of 30 to 31 hours, for a 24 hour day!!!
New system goal is the 2000 taps produce 3200 gallons, delivered, (0 hours), with a 600gph RO/evap process, for 5-6 hour time. THE DREAM!!!
Of course working 20+ hours a week on the system all year long is there as well...

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Theron,

I would guess I lose a little sugar holding it as I do, but you have to do the best you can do and that's that. I have a Wedco whole house UV and was running all the sap thru that after I pumped it out of the tanks on the tractor but this year I am going to try to let it recirculate thru the UV while I gather vs just the single pass. I also freeze 3 to 5 of the aluminum sap buckets full of sap and throw that in every day. The sugarhouse stays very cool and most of the time, cooler than outside temps as it is on the north side of the hill and the 625 gallon milk tank works good at keeping it cool. I have 3 different people that help boil and they do the majority of the boiling while I am working during the day, but I don't have them start up the evaporator unless they have at least 500 gallon of sap. I would boil a lot less than that myself, but this relegates them to a full day of boiling which works out good.

[Haynes Forest Products]

JeffE I checked out your picks and I see that your sap ladder is very basic and thats what I want to copy. As I see it you DONT have any vents, valves, pin holes for air or hidden ways of making it work other than just the 5/16 tubes with stars?

[dano2840]

quick question, im new to the whole vac pump thing but i was wondering how much oil does a vac pump go through in a day? i finally found a container that would fit mine with some reducers and its a thousand island dressing bottle, is that gunna be big enough for 1 days use until i gather and can fill it again?

[maple flats]

Somewhere on this forum in another thread there was a producer or two who had 75 taps on a 5/16 line on a steep hill. They said it flowed with good pressure out the bottom. 90 might be a record, but it might be line friction that may slow it down if 90 is too many. There's only 1 way to find out!

[maple flats]

On the 24th I spent a few hours measuring and plotting my expansion for the needed mainline and branch lines. Today I installed the support wire, about 900 ft I think. Can't pick up tubing needed til Monday PM. Then on Tues I will start installing mainline and branch lines. On the 24th the snow was over 3' deep on the leeward side of the hill to the lee of the woods line, today it was only about 18-20" after some settling and melting. Didn't need snowshoes today but wished i had them 2 days ago but I left them at the sugarhouse and didn't go back to get them, at the end of about 4 hrs I realized it would havbe been smarter but I excell in doing things the hard way. Something about old dogs and new tricks!

[Dennis H.]

wow no one posted since yesterday, well I just had to change that!

I hope everyone is busy getting ready, for me it is just about 1 month to go-time.
I think I have everything ready to go. I just added a steel plate to the door of the evap to help keep the door from getting so darn hot. I picked up a few jugs for syrup and a few more spiles.

[PATheron]

Update from BIGSAP country. Worked all day across the road and should have all the laterals in and drops in this morning over there. Then all I have are the saddles and the tubing is done. That should be complete on thursday. Then both sides of the road are complete as far as everything Ive started. All that really leaves is hooking up the tanks and releaser over there and the tanks at the house. Talked to my other neighbor the other day and he said green light on tapping on him so its off to the races. I think I can get MAYBE 400 more taps in that way that will run into my setup. Thats it if I get them becouse itll be tapping time. Thinking it may be pretty likely that my house double releaser may not take it and so we may be doing something to help that out. I should be able to get some real good videos for you fellas this year. I think as soon as we hit Feb hopefully its frozen up and Im going to tap in. Then its just wait for the temp and hit the switch hopefully. I should have all my lines 100% and then I think I better do some more wood. Thats about it here. Fun to hear about all you guys talk about cranking up for season. Hope its a good one for everybody. Theron