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Maple syrup 2017

Started by celliott, January 20, 2017, 06:51:24 AM

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Plankton

What was supposed to be a day and a half of tapping turned into 5 days of tapping/walking vacuum for 4 different producers in so. Vt.  Lots of fun, cool to see how everyone does things.

Me and a buddy walked the whole woods at one guys place with 8000 taps. Got him up from 15 inches to 26 inches in 10 hrs. He was only runnin 35 amps on his pump so he is pretty tight.

Sap is running really good right now down here, everyone is concentrating and boiling every day. Supposed to be good all this week. A little on the warm side but hopefully not too much.

Chuck White

Boiled out 30 gallons of syrup yesterday, will be bottling it up shortly!
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

Corley5

We put the last of the drop lines in yesterday.  Ended up with 797 taps.  We're going to hook the laterals to the mains today.  Hasn't been syrup weather here.  We had some pretty intense thunder storms last night.  Looks like Tuesday for a run?  I think we'll be ready by then.  Maybe ;) ;D
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Woodhauler

I Put in another 60 or so taps today, boy and his buddy put more into! have around 200 or more in! Enough for first year!
2013 westernstar tri-axle with 2015 rotobec elite 80 loader!Sold 2000 westernstar tractor with stairs air ride trailer and a 1985 huskybrute 175 T/L loader!

celliott

We've been checking vacuum and trying to get everything ready to- pumps on, tanks on trucks, etc etc running around. First boil today, think we made about 500 gallons. Sap is testing low on sugar but coming up and also clearing up. Weather looks promising through next week. And we were supposed to install 1000 taps when it got cold. Ha!
Chris Elliott

Clark 666C cable skidder
Husqvarna and Jonsered pro saws
265rx clearing saw
Professional maple tubing installer and maple sugaring worker, part time logger

Woodhauler

Well not doing bad for a small operation, we have 200 taps in tops, Got 2 gallons made so far and will have a couple more today!
2013 westernstar tri-axle with 2015 rotobec elite 80 loader!Sold 2000 westernstar tractor with stairs air ride trailer and a 1985 huskybrute 175 T/L loader!

Chuck White

We have not been having good weather for sugaring.

Sugaring is at a STOP right now.

We're just over 60 gallons produced at this point, no sap on hand and no sap running!

In this area, sugaring could either FLIP or FLOP, who knows!
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

CJennings

From 15 buckets I got 7 half pint jars of syrup this past week. I had one great day followed by very little run because the nights were too warm and days too hot. It hit 70 at my cabin. Saturday I collected at most two gallons of sap and got 1/4 of a pint from it. The weather looks good for a couple days of good sap run this week, I hope.

Woodhauler

Well first year in the syrup business and I already see a problem!! We got to many taps out for our evaporator! The boy is already talking about a bigger one!
2013 westernstar tri-axle with 2015 rotobec elite 80 loader!Sold 2000 westernstar tractor with stairs air ride trailer and a 1985 huskybrute 175 T/L loader!

Joe Hillmann

Quote from: Woodhauler on February 27, 2017, 06:23:10 AM
Well first year in the syrup business and I already see a problem!! We got to many taps out for our evaporator! The boy is already talking about a bigger one!

What size is your pan?

repmma

I'm only at 20 taps and I've decided this hillbilly evaporator is just barely going to cut it for this year, never mind 200!  I can see this might end up as an expensive hobby if I don't watch it!


 
Thomas 8020, Timberjack 225C, Ford 5030 with Norse 450 winch, stihl saws and 142 acres to manage.

Chuck White

Lots of us started out like that!   ;)
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

GAB

Quote from: Chuck White on February 27, 2017, 10:13:00 PM
Lots of us started out like that!   ;)

The maple bug is just like the sawdust bug - no known cure.
Gerald
W-M LT40HDD34, SLR, JD 420, JD 950w/loader and Woods backhoe, V3507 Fransguard winch, Cordwood Saw, 18' flat bed trailer, and other toys.

celliott

Well a few days off is nice. We are froze up till next week. Last week we got the vacuum level tuned up real good at all our woods. Boss made 1000 gallons Thursday. Think we are over 3500-4000 so far. Not bad considering historically he makes the majority of his syrup in April.
Started a 1000 tap install yesterday, finish it up Monday.

Might be another long season!
Chris Elliott

Clark 666C cable skidder
Husqvarna and Jonsered pro saws
265rx clearing saw
Professional maple tubing installer and maple sugaring worker, part time logger

Gearbox

For us we should get enough today to check vacuum . We are at 18 inches now and will check for bites , breaks and misses . First to the woods to get another load of firewood .
A bunch of chainsaws a BT6870 processer , TC 5 International track skidder and not near enough time

Don_Papenburg

I pulled my taps today , the trees are starting to bud out .  Some of the sap was real cloudy some was clear.  Weather has been too warm but will cool a bit this week  with snow showers and rain .  I am 20 gallon short of last year.  I should be able to make a gallon of walnut syrup  this year.
Thanks for the advise you all gave . I might get big in this game , maybe 3 gallons next year.
Frick saw mill  '58   820 John Deere power. Diamond T trucks

Gearbox

Looks like first cook today . Dumped the first run yesterday to clean the lines .To the woods first to get one more load of firewood out of the swamp .
A bunch of chainsaws a BT6870 processer , TC 5 International track skidder and not near enough time

millwright

First boil today, going to be real cold for a couple days. Sap was running real good

cbla

Hope to boil tomorrow, should have about 70 gallons of sap. the weather has been up and down like crazy here.

Chuck White

We gathered 500 gallons yesterday and boiled until depleted and made 10.5 gallons of syrup.

The evaporator is still full, so we'll drain the back pan into barrels and fill the pan with perm water and finish off the boil with just the front pans.

It's a lot of fuss, but with the freeze-up coming, it's the best idea.

So, we'll have the evaporator completely drained at the end of the day, then we'll have a few days off, sort of!  ::)
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

Ford_man

We had real high winds yesterday that blew a lot of trees down. I drove past a woods that has a lot of blue tubing that was a real mess . the  down trees had knocked down a lot of the tubing. :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

Chuck White

We were lucky, we had 1 limb that came down on a main-line but did no damage.
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

Joe Hillmann

We just bottled 5 gallons of syrup yesterday. Last year we bottled it in beer bottles with crimp on caps.  This year we got a couple hundred 16 oz flip top Grolsch bottles so that is what we are using until they run out.

Here's a couple pictures of our syrup house and evaporator.  The main syrup house is an 8x12 iceshack on skids made this winter out of live edge siding I cut on the mill.  Even with the evaporator halfway in there we couldn't keep it warm so we put an addition around the back of the evaporator using last years ice shack minus the roof.  The evaporator is a 2x3 pan made out of mild steal and the arch is a 275 gallon fuel oil barrel lined with silo staves and railroad tie plates for insulation.  The silver square on the side of the arch is the door from a stainless fridge to add a bit of extra insulation so a person can stand there to stir the pan and test the syrup without getting burned.



  

  

  

  

 

78NHTFY

Nice set up!!  I've had the fuel tank for years but need to cut it up and do what you did....  How do you load your wood?  Does the front door swing down?  Must be tough to have to drink all that Grolsch so that you have bottles for your syrup.   8) 8)  All the best, Rob
If you have time, you win....

Joe Hillmann

Quote from: 78NHTFY on March 10, 2017, 06:07:51 PM
Nice set up!!  I've had the fuel tank for years but need to cut it up and do what you did....  How do you load your wood?  Does the front door swing down?  Must be tough to have to drink all that Grolsch so that you have bottles for your syrup.   8) 8)  All the best, Rob

The front door swings up.  I didn't drink the beer to empty the bottles.  I'm not rich enough to drink that brand.  I got them from a recycling bin across the road from my house.  I soak them in bleach water than boil them and fill them hot so they should be plenty clean.

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