February Journal THE COUNTDOWN!!!

[Dan W]

I picked up a propane stove to use for bottling over the weekend. Got it all piped in and set up today. Sure will beat using the kitchen and being in you know who's way. All I have to do is pick up my bottles and filter press and I am good to go. Just saw it might get up to 34 on sunday WHOO HOO!! It's only a matter of time now. Supposed to get another 4-8 inches of snow by tommorrow noonish. I don't care; my snowshoes will be here by friday! Can't wait to get in the full swing!!!!

[Gary R]

Yesterday I put both of my stacks up. I also plowed out all of my roads to collect. Planning on tapping regardless of temps this weekend. It will be only 5 1/2 weeks until April. Whats really weird is guys in Maine and NH are talking about tapping because of good weather.

[jrthe3]

gary i with ya i tapping friday weather permitting

[Farmboy]

Today I finished putting up the metal roofing on the sugar shack. I still need to put up some flashing. This snow coming isn't going to help me. Hopefully I will be able to take my tractor through the woods tomorrow and set up trails for gathering. I still need 2 weld my evaporator. I want to get some slab wood cut up too.

[Dennis H.]

Bob- my 2 benders are located in different places. The way the land falls here 1/2 my trees flow down to the sugarshack to one Bender and the rest flow down to the 2nd Bender into a 50gal tote which I will pump out daily.

They are working quite well so far. I had to make a few adjustments to them to make them work better but nothing major.

I was going to pick up a few SS nuts large ones as weights if needed. Thnaks for the tips.

[red maples]

Planning to tap about 100 today and the remainding tomorrow! 40's for wed, thurs, fri, and mid to upper 30's from there on out after snow today. OOHHH MMAAANNN

[mapleman3]

The Wife and I put up 4000 ft of 5/16ths yesterday in out leased woods, about 1000 feet left to do then do some repairs... we should be tapping last weekend of feb unless the weather forces us to tap early.

still some things to do int the sugarhouse too... finish up with the new draw off, run the evap and do a good final cleaning... some plumbing beacause I moved the feed tank again! seems like I am never happy with where it is, but I thinks it found its permanent spot.

Oh and just went through 275 new registrations and happy to say about 40% were good ones, Welcome new members, sorry I took so long but it's crunch time and signing up new members not the top of my list right now!

[dano2840]

The Wife and I put up 4000 ft of 5/16ths yesterday in out leased woods, about 1000 feet left to do then do some repairs... we should be tapping last weekend of feb unless the weather forces us to tap early.

still some things to do int the sugarhouse too... finish up with the new draw off, run the evap and do a good final cleaning... some plumbing beacause I moved the feed tank again! seems like I am never happy with where it is, but I thinks it found its permanent spot.

Oh and just went through 275 new registrations and happy to say about 40% were good ones, Welcome new members, sorry I took so long but it's crunch time and signing up new members not the top of my list right now!

hah i need to move my tank also, you duck under it to get into the sugar house and im sick of it, if i dont find some help its going to be me my self and i moving that 1000 gal with a come a long. just talked to a guy going to buy a 1000 gal tank for a 100 bucks good to have a spare

[gator330]

The past two days it was above freezing, still not enough for this area. Went right back to being cold again. One more weekend to condition the team. Big sleigh ride this weekend maybe 20 friends and kids. To bad I don't have a few thousand pal out to pick up with that kind of help. Only thing is there only here for the one day. Getting snow again today last year it was the 26th when we tapped, shooting for the 27th this year. If the forcast is faverable if not the next weekend is in March. Not that I can't tap during the week if I need to. Ready when the weather is!!!

[ennismaple]

We got a bunch of work done over the long weekend and have only about 1 day's more work to be ready to tap.

- picked up and installed steam hood for front pans, including installing roof jack
- my cousin finished building our new feed tank building. It looks like a really cool 8x8 tree house! It still needs to be plumbed and connected to the Force 5 but that won't take too long.
- connected the new releaser to the mainlines and put the flood oil pump back together. All that's left is to hook up the vacuum line from the humidity trap to the releaser and put the valve and quick connect on the tank.
- connected the relocated 800 gallon Zero tank to the SP-22 and the mainline in our Upper Bush
- replaced the old 5/16 spouts on the Old Camp Hill with stubbies so we can try out the check valve adapters. We removed about 50 droplines from that bush because it was too heavily tapped when the lines were put up 8 years ago. This should help the health of the trees.
- cut firewood for Mom's house

We've done so much since last season that it's nice to be almost ready with a few weeks left until we tap.