february Journal

[Gary R]

Runs have been slow. I've collected 113 gal. of sap over the week. I've made 1 5/8 gal of syrup. Sugar content from the reds has been low. Looking for things to improve soon.

The new rig is working great. Boiling rate is what I expected. My preheater is not keeping up now with the amount of sap I'm flowing to the pan. I may work on a parallel flow preheater during this cold spell. It keeps going on and on and on

[Jeff E]

Finished putting together the west pump house, and ran wire and 1.5" line for vacuum to it, and wire and 1" line for sap transfer. Connected the big lines to the vacuum pump.
Also ran wire for 1 of 5 mainlines I still want to get in before March 1. This week is a busy one at work, but I am hoping to get the releaser and tank down to the pump house and mainlines runs.
Next week the laterals and connections, then put in the drops and tap at the same time.
I am wondering THERON, do you think hyper concentrating your sap to over 20% jammed up the RO filter? I am hoping to go to 12-15% on one pass through the RO, and match the output volume from the RO to the evap rate of the 3x12.

[jrthe3]

got about 500 taped today got another 500 or so to do tomorrow my new 100 taps coming from maple pro are on back order with no sign in site so it looks like i will be not putting out the other 100 buckets i will have plenty with what i got

[PATheron]

Jeff- I know it jammed it up. We didnt really do it the right way when we did it. I thought it was maybe not quite right overall becouse after washing it it still wouldnt perform and I had reason to believe it wasnt good to start with. It came back from CDL this year and the paperwork said it was 80%. All I could figure was must be I didnt wash it right so I just took it in stride and figured it was my fault and told them to send me another one. Then I got a call and they said there was a paper work screw up and it was 110%. So by this point I wasnt really sure what to think. So when we did it I figured if it was bad cant really hurt it, that kind of thing so we played around with it. The way we did the first stuff was we recirced a long time bringing everything up. Well, we had 4000 gallons and it ran a long time. Then we pinched it down hard and put it up in the head tank at that high percent. That did clog things up. Well after being mean to it like that it really needed a serious wash not the way I was doing it. Jerry showed me how to really wash it so it was clean and when Jerry did it we had 5000 gallons. We recirced that till it was pretty sweet and did a really really good wash. We also rinsed it every 4 hours. Then we went back to recirculating it and fired up the evap and as I needed some concentrate we would shoot some up there but we would leave it at the recirc settings. Like half and half. So we were not jumping it way up when we put it to the head tank just putting it in at the same level. We would get a little ahead of the evap and send it back to the tank again to recirc. After a little while everything in the recirc tank became so sweet that you could put it all to the head tank and when you did you still didnt have to pinch it down hard. So when we did it that time we never probly concentrated as hard as I would have even if I single shot it just to 8%. Most that whole day running like that the R.O. either exceeded the rating of the machine or at least matched it. At the very end as everything became so sweet I think it dropped to 480 and that was after a good long time of doing it. That batch leveled out at the end to be going in the headtank at 15% and I think that is the magic number for my machine and setup. Thats about as good as I can get with my rig without hurting it. I think the only way you could go higher would be with a bigger machine which I wish I had but I dont so thats that for now. At the 15% I couldnt tell any taste difference what so ever. I think the 22% stuff tasted lighter like light beer compared to a lager or something like that. It tasted good but not as flavorfull to me but that was our first syrup too so who really knows. I know maple grove considered it just as valuable to them as the stuff I did at 15%. I wish I had more rig and make it all to 22%. Less wood, less time, more profit, what the heck. If the customers happy Im happy. Theyll mix it with everything under the sun anyway and if I send them stuff done to 8% theyre not offering me a premium or anything. Anyway thats the story. Should have put it in the RO section but maybe others will like the info. Theron

[802maple]

Hi Jeff
It wasn't anything to do with 22% sap, It was more that no one ever told Theron how to do proper washing and rinsing. We ran 22-24 percent sap at our woods for 7 years and never missed a stroke and all 6 membranes were still over 100%. That was after they had processed 30,000 gallons of syrup.
Even at 5 % you need to wash and rinse the right way. This is not Theron's fault either as he was never told how to do a proper wash and rinse. I don't think he is going to have much problem's now, I would certainly head for 22% sap again with his unit just as long as he keeps on the 4 hour max and then rinse and do a good cleaning at the end of every day. No matter how much you concentrate to a clean RO is a happy RO

Finished putting together the west pump house, and ran wire and 1.5" line for vacuum to it, and wire and 1" line for sap transfer. Connected the big lines to the vacuum pump.
Also ran wire for 1 of 5 mainlines I still want to get in before March 1. This week is a busy one at work, but I am hoping to get the releaser and tank down to the pump house and mainlines runs.
Next week the laterals and connections, then put in the drops and tap at the same time.
I am wondering THERON, do you think hyper concentrating your sap to over 20% jammed up the RO filter? I am hoping to go to 12-15% on one pass through the RO, and match the output volume from the RO to the evap rate of the 3x12.

[802maple]

I would also like to say that I had a great time down there to Therons making "Pennsylvannia Fancy", meeting some new people, sharing good stories about previous encounters, talking deer hunting and fishing, and best of all seeing what can happen to releaser when you force a flapper open under vacuum, I am just sorry I missed it. You can't say that I am not able to see into the future though as I just happened to bring another releaser with me.

[Sugarmaker]

Hung the last 20 taps on short run tubing north of Albion. Hope to tap the last 86 on Wednesday. Jim Bortles I did not use a inch of the tubing you gave me I ended up with 2 feet of tubing left from what I had laying around.

May go with Keith to check on tank he is going to look at tomorrow night.

Things are starting to look like syrup season. Temps may come up enough for a run mid week.

Doing paper work tonight making labels for jugs and glass.

Regards,
Chris

[Father & Son]

Chris,
Thanks with the help with the main line last night. Now I'm ready to string the laterals and hope everything flows the right way.
Hang on to that roll of tubing, it may come in handy for that next 100 taps you find. Spent today finding plugs for the poly tanks. Had some luck at the Western Reserve Co-op in Andover, Ohio. Fixed me up with what he could and sent me to a plumming supply store for the rest. Now my woods tanks are ready. Weather looks like one or two days of minimal run mid-week then another cold spell. Maybe I'll be tapping on my birthday instead of boiling.

Jim

[PATheron]

Dave y you crazy bucket dumper- Where the heck are you, we need a status update soon? Theron

[dano2840]

went and got my 450 gal tank that comes with my evap on sunday, me and my moms boyfriend got it out of the truck and over a snow bank, but just us alone werent going to get her up into the woods, we went back and got the pans for the evaporator and brought them home, i went back up that night and took the bricks out of the back part of the arch, went back up last night and decided we ought to take them out of the front to, i was going to leave them in and use a tractor to lift it into the truck because in the fire box of a 3x8 theres only like 200 lbs of bricks, but the mortar was loose in the bricks around the fire box so i took them out last night, (kindof funny the fire box bricks were fire brick and their mortar was loose but the bricks in the back were red brick and their mortar was rock solid, took about 2000 blows with the hammer to get those out) but i gues a slab for the evap is going in this week, maybe.... my moms boy friend is handleing that part so we will see, if its not in by friday im going to go get my arch and put it in the sugar house my way slab or no slab, then on sat i will brick it ( idont know how but im going to learn in a hurry, probably will just take some mortar and the bricks and just do it, shouldnt be to hard) i want the evap, set up and ready to go because i leave for FL on sunday morning and dont get back until 4pm march 1st ive got to get the carpenter back becasue the roof jack isnt the same pitch as my roof and he didnt build the jack up to match the pitch, so if i put the stack through it it would be slanted side ways, gotta clean the tanks and get them sittuated and plumbed gota move the materials pile out of the way of the door to the sugar house for the supposed cement truck, then gotta get some 1" and run it down to a drive way, i want to get that stuff DONE before i got, YES I HAVE LOTS MORE TO DO BUT THOSE ARE THE NECESSITIES before i go so i can process what ive got up, i will finish adding taps after i tap, when i get back i gues, lots of fine tuning and adjusting needs to be done, (i.e. fixing sags in the older lamb laterals, need to drive a couple of posts where my main line crosses my log road as thats not supported by wire so i can still use the road) and other stuff, got alot to do and i have found my self running through the woods with out knowing it, and moving faster than ever with out purposely trying to, hmmmmm maybe sugaring adrenaline?