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Maple Syrup 2019

Started by Chuck White, February 05, 2019, 04:56:23 PM

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Plankton

Sitting around with the day off because of rain and warm weather no need to tap and were tight as can be. So here are some pictures I found of a fun little tubing install me and 2 friends did this December 160 taps in one day brushing to drops in so made some money but boy was she steep. Me in first pic.












Stephen1

Great pictures Celliott. 
Nice work Plakton, it is steep
Who is using the 3/16 self vacuuming lines yet?
IDRY Vacum Kiln, LT40HDWide, BMS250 sharpener/setter 742b Bobcat, TCM forklift, Sthil 026,038, 461. 1952 TEA Fergusan Tractor

Chuck White

Lots of people around here are removing the 3/16 lines and going back to the 5/16!

The 5/16 will create a vacuum also, as long as it has enough sap to satisfy it!

Certain setups will run really well with the 3/16, but not all of them!

It also makes a difference if the line is "gravity" or if it's "vacuum"
~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!

Ed_K

 I still rebuilding the new sugar house after the old one's rotted frame and rock foundation started falling in last sugar season. Here's some picts of the new one.


 
 My home made rafter's.


 
 First rafter up I used the tractor and grapple holding a cordwood pole to put them up.


 
 It's coming along but needs a lot more before I tap any trees.
Ed K

Chuck White

Looking really nice, Ed!  8)
~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!

Old Greenhorn

Nice work Ed! I like the trusses, that isn't going anywhere. You are in Mass and I see n snow, you lucky dog. My cousin started his in late summer in spare time and got it closed in early October, now still doing finish work. Hope you get it done in time, that's a big'un!
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

Chuck White

A few have tapped in this area now!
~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!

Stephen1

Looking good Ed, not much snow on the ground. When will your season start?
IDRY Vacum Kiln, LT40HDWide, BMS250 sharpener/setter 742b Bobcat, TCM forklift, Sthil 026,038, 461. 1952 TEA Fergusan Tractor

51cub

Beautiful pictures everybody, thanks for posting! I haven't been in a sugarhouse for 3 or 4 years
 I'm hoping for a move soon that will be easier for me to get out helping again
I believe in the hereafter, because every time I take two steps into the tool crib to get something I wonder " what did I come in here after"

If nothing else I'm always a good last resort or the guy to hold up as a bad example

Ed_K

 I should be tapping end of next week. Still have a lot of setting up to do to the arch an pans. Or I'd be tapping this week.
Ed K

Plankton

Nice looking sugar house! How many taps do you run over there?

Ed_K

 Small operation running 400 taps on 10 ac. I've got to thin it out according to the management plan I developed with my forester. Planned on logging this winter but it's sugar season and I cut maybe 10 trees. It's just plain hard to cut a maple ;D.
Ed K

maple flats

I'm not tapped yet. Looking at our long range forecast we won't get more than a tease amount until March 11. We are now just fixing lines and changing drops. We will have between 900-1000 taps if we finish it all. We are changing my lease woods to get more vacuum. For years it has been on a vacuum tank and I regulated the vacuum down to 19". This year I'm changing to a bigger pump (Alamo 100 with after market oil drippers) and using a double vertical releaser, hope to get 24-25". Maybe next year get a better pump to get max. possible vacuum at the lease. At the sugarhouse my old BB4 gives me 26-27". Not likely to invest in a better pump there for maybe 1" or so gain.
logging small time for years but just learning how,  2012 36 HP Mahindra tractor, 3point log arch, 8000# class excavator, lifts 2500# and sets logs on mill precisely where needed, Woodland Mills HM130Max , maple syrup a hobby that consumes my time. looking to learn blacksmithing.

maple flats

Even maples need thinning to open the canopy which then fills in for higher sap sugar %. Maples make good fuel too, if it's not lumber quality.
logging small time for years but just learning how,  2012 36 HP Mahindra tractor, 3point log arch, 8000# class excavator, lifts 2500# and sets logs on mill precisely where needed, Woodland Mills HM130Max , maple syrup a hobby that consumes my time. looking to learn blacksmithing.

Chuck White

We went up to the sugarhouse today and flushed the cleaner out of the RO.

Tomorrow we will drain that rinse and then we'll be ready to go!

We haven't tapped yet, maybe another week!

We'll have a little over 1,200 taps again this year, next year we should have 1,500! 
~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!

Plankton

Quote from: Ed_K on February 14, 2019, 08:20:43 AM
Small operation running 400 taps on 10 ac. I've got to thin it out according to the management plan I developed with my forester. Planned on logging this winter but it's sugar season and I cut maybe 10 trees. It's just plain hard to cut a maple ;D.

Very cool! I live just a little west of you in charlemont. I agree it's hard to put a saw in maple trees but it does get you more sap when they recover and start growing hard.

I had a logging job for some guy and in addition to it he wanted me to cut a row of field edge sugars probably around 200 years old for his solar panels! If I didnt do it someone else would and I ended up buying the logs from him and getting them sawed so they wouldnt go to waste. But boy was that hard to set the saw in those old beauties.

Chuck White

If we don't get rained out today, we'll put our barrels out, and tap tomorrow and Saturday!
~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!

mitchstockdale

Does anyone still tap trees with just spiles and buckets? Understandably this would be just for personal use not commercial.

hamish

Quote from: mitchstockdale on February 21, 2019, 09:54:50 AM
Does anyone still tap trees with just spiles and buckets? Understandably this would be just for personal use not commercial.
I do every year, usually max out at 150 taps.
Norwood ML26, Jonsered 2152, Husqvarna 353, 346,555,372,576

mitchstockdale

Hamish,  How do you collect your buckets?  I have been looking for supplies but haven't been able to find any..

nativewolf

Quote from: Plankton on February 14, 2019, 06:55:08 PM
Quote from: Ed_K on February 14, 2019, 08:20:43 AM
Small operation running 400 taps on 10 ac. I've got to thin it out according to the management plan I developed with my forester. Planned on logging this winter but it's sugar season and I cut maybe 10 trees. It's just plain hard to cut a maple ;D.

Very cool! I live just a little west of you in charlemont. I agree it's hard to put a saw in maple trees but it does get you more sap when they recover and start growing hard.

I had a logging job for some guy and in addition to it he wanted me to cut a row of field edge sugars probably around 200 years old for his solar panels! If I didnt do it someone else would and I ended up buying the logs from him and getting them sawed so they wouldnt go to waste. But boy was that hard to set the saw in those old beauties.
So a general question.  Does a really old large sugar maple like that support several taps?  Or ?  I looked at a property not far from me and they had some big ol sugar maple yard trees, very unusual here.  Several young ones in the woods (12-20").  
Liking Walnut

Plankton

It all depends buckets,gravity or vacuum. Buckets nice big trees can take 3 to get the same amount of sap as one or two taps on high vacuum. The best set up woods I work on have one tap on trees up to around 30 dbh then 3 on the giant spreading old growth trees.

A tight and sterile system only need two holes In those big ones to get same amount of sap as mr.podunker down the road with sagging gravity tubing and 4 taps on a 20" tree and 6 on a big one.

They can take more taps and pump a lot more sap then small trees, but theres a limit to how many holes you want to put in a tree a year. I've worked in some woods that were or still are over tapped and you can see it in the trees. Lots of unhealed holes and dead or dying trees all throughout the bush. New tubing and way smaller drop count and the producers made more syrup then ever before on almost half the taps.

nativewolf

Quote from: Plankton on February 21, 2019, 07:43:13 PM
It all depends buckets,gravity or vacuum. Buckets nice big trees can take 3 to get the same amount of sap as one or two taps on high vacuum. The best set up woods I work on have one tap on trees up to around 30 dbh then 3 on the giant spreading old growth trees.

A tight and sterile system only need two holes In those big ones to get same amount of sap as mr.podunker down the road with sagging gravity tubing and 4 taps on a 20" tree and 6 on a big one.

They can take more taps and pump a lot more sap then small trees, but theres a limit to how many holes you want to put in a tree a year. I've worked in some woods that were or still are over tapped and you can see it in the trees. Lots of unhealed holes and dead or dying trees all throughout the bush. New tubing and way smaller drop count and the producers made more syrup then ever before on almost half the taps.
Ahh interesting.  I have always wanted to tap some trees and the whole business is fascinating.  Maybe next year i may be able to buy a small maple forest up your way.
Liking Walnut

Chuck White

We got our barrels in place on Thursday and yesterday and today, I'm under the weather, caught a cold and now I'm achy and have a constant drip!

Yesterday, my brother and his Son in law got over half of the taps done and will be working on the rest of them today!

I'm not even going to go out of the house today except to check the mail, and even that is a MAYBE!
~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!

Stephen1

My partner and I are both going away for a vacation. I am back on the 8th , he is back on the 20th of March.
We decided to tap on Thursday in the cold. 225 taps on tubing. Wneh I get back I will dig in the tanks and get the pump up and running. 
Our best runs have always been the last week of March and 1st week of April. 
We are hoping we do not miss to much by being away. 
IDRY Vacum Kiln, LT40HDWide, BMS250 sharpener/setter 742b Bobcat, TCM forklift, Sthil 026,038, 461. 1952 TEA Fergusan Tractor

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