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Maple sugaring 2021

Started by celliott, December 23, 2020, 07:50:25 PM

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celliott

I know 2021 isn't here yet and most of you guys aren't thinking about sap for another 3 months anyways but it's time to start this thread.

I'll have to add pictures later. Newborn baby and I gotta be up at 3:30 maybe sooner, I'm in bed in 15 minutes lol

We started tapping last Thursday the 15th. We currently have about 24,000 tapped. We also set ourselves up so we could better isolate sections of our system with valves, and we have been leak checking the last few days for what we had tapped. Even though it's frozen and no sap, if the gauge isn't pegged, there's leaks we can find. Gets a big jump start on it when sap actually starts, we'll already be at a higher level of vacuum and get to peak quicker, maximizing production earlier in the season. So we got our 18,000 tap D system that runs to the sugarhouse checked once over and up to 27.5". We've tapped a little on our 23,000 tap B system and have that checked too.

We're getting a steam evaporater this year. It should be set up before the end of the year although we will get some sap tomorrow and Christmas. We can RO and chill it.
Steam pan is a 6x10, and will do more GPH than both the 7x20 rigs. 400hp boiler, we'll get a 2nd 6x10 pan eventually and that'll do probably close to 200,000 taps if we ever get that many.

Busy busy, I've drilled about 3600 so far. No snowshoes is sweet.
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

doc henderson

what i have read is we can start in mid Jan. in Ks.  so can you start in the fall, or is the sugar better at the end of winter? 
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

celliott

We start in December not hoping for any sap till February. Simply out of necessity to get it all done by early February. Some tap in the fall and make syrup, sugar is much lower however.
A brand new spout each year, proper vacuum management (once sap starts never shut the vacuum pump off) and high, high vacuum keeps tapholes viable for a long time. Last year we had trees drilled December 14th that ran April 20th.
Gravity or buckets, open air, about 4-6 weeks is tops. The bacteria starts to signal the tree that it has a wound and needs to heal. All the steps we take are to prevent bacteria as much as possible.
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

SwampDonkey

That'll keep a man and his crew busy. :)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

stavebuyer

Fascinating. Very diverse group here!

moodnacreek

Anybody doing cedar oil or tan bark?

doc henderson

we got our bourbon barrel syrup on Monday and it was great.  made waffles just cause we wanted to try it!
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

Corley5

  Over the holiday I need to inventory my fittings, valves, etc. and put together an order.  We'll need more 5/16" but I want to use up what we've got before I order more of it.  1 1/4" for the wet/dry extension is needed but it's a short piece at the far end of the system and I'm going to source black line from HD.  There's more than enough 3/4" to do the five new main lines that are brushed and have wire tensioned ready to hang the tubing.  That's what I'm thinking will happen Saturday.  Zach has almost all the new spiles installed in the existing 1250 taps so all that needs doing there is tapping.  Still have to order the oil burner for the arch and build a plate to replace the door and other things related to switching to fuel oil from wood.  We're going with a Carlin 601 burner.
  Not sure how many taps are in the new addition.  I was thinking 700-800 but there are more than a few ripe veneer quality trees that we'll tap around.  That'll reduce the number of taps.  
I'm thinking we'll tap the middle of February.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

mike_belben

How does one decide when to tap and how many taps one tree can support?
Praise The Lord

celliott

Quote from: mike_belben on December 24, 2020, 01:12:03 PM
How does one decide when to tap and how many taps one tree can support?
Typically the when part is a guess on when your first run will be, and need to be done a little before that. Historically the first run dates average out. Ours is typically mid to late February but the biggest part of our season is April. One year we made 3/4 of our yearly crop in 2.5 weeks in April. 
Need to factor time needed and available help into the equation. We hopefully will get done around the first week of February. Ideally we would wait longer but with so many to do it's just not possible. If we get a huge snowstorm our daily production drops significantly.

Tapping guidelines vary but in general you want the tree to be able to sustainably heal the stained unproductive wood and still leave fresh wood to tap. A good rule of thumb is 10" minimum, much smaller and you'll run out of tappable wood after a few years. We put two on 24"+ trees or multi stem trees. Never 3 anymore. 5/16 holes, heal way faster than old 7/16 bucket spouts.
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

celliott

Just some random pics from work.

The hound likes to come along. Plenty of exercise for him.
New 6x6, nothing else works for us like these buggy's do. Workhorses.


We started using a different color dropline tubing for our end trees. Might not seem like much but helps positively identify the end of the line and helps to prevent a dead end tee from being cut in where it shouldn't. 
Yellow spouts this year, no confusion in case a red one from last year was missed.


Edge of our system, looking towards Lowell wind towers


Tap tap tap




Electro fusion saddle and valve off our 3" airline to run a vacuum line to a small 2800 tap lift station.




The big road crossing. Snowing before Halloween.








Brought 3 1"x1000ft coils, probably 120lbs each, 100lb coil of wire, fittings, two guys, probably 700lbs of stuff. Steep hill. Workhorse.




22 rolls of 5/16




We tap those hills




The real workhorses of the show. High brix RO's capable of taking 2% sap to 30% at over 100gpm permeate, 6 gpm 30% concentrate. We're getting a third one this year.




Filtered liquid gold




The two 7x20's. These will be replaced by a 6x10 steam pan that will do more than the two combined!




Fueling the upper station 




28.5" is darn near perfect vacuum for a tubing system 




Nice section of woods




Skandic loaded up 




Fusion saddles to tie in a small system




2" pipe uncoiled and ready to be pulled into place.




The big main system 




Pulling mainline pipe




Tracks for 6x6. Slow but goes through a lot of snow.


3" wet/dry system. Needs a lot of support.




My little man. Can't believe it's been 2 months already!




Yum pancakes 🥞 


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

btulloh

Very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to post those pics. 

Glad to see you know the right butter to pancake ratio. Some people think one little pat of butter is enough!
HM126

celliott

Quote from: btulloh on December 24, 2020, 06:02:45 PM
Very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to post those pics.

Glad to see you know the right butter to pancake ratio. Some people think one little pat of butter is enough!
And not enough people make their pancakes float in the syrup lol come on guys, we make enough, drench them flapjacks!
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

Walnut Beast

Pretty neat pictures of everything 👍

doc henderson

nice to see how the big boys do it.  we will do it as a novelty here, but I often get carried away with the whole "small" idea.
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

mike_belben

Praise The Lord

celliott

Quote from: doc henderson on December 24, 2020, 08:29:27 PM
nice to see how the big boys do it.  we will do it as a novelty here, but I often get carried away with the whole "small" idea.
Be careful Doc, that's how it starts. For some reason sugaring does that. Start out with a few buckets and a flat pan on the grill, next you get a 2x6 rig, start thinking vacuum pumps and RO's and bigger evaporater, then you need more taps to feed it, it's a vicious cycle lol
I believe we are currently the 6th or 7th biggest operation in the US, counting our other sugarhouse, we boil from this season 130,000 taps.
Our Eden facility I believe (not totally sure) is the biggest single operation that doesn't truck any sap. It all either runs direct or gets pumped to the sugarhouse. At peak capacity right now, we can receive over 170 gallons of sap per minute, if it's a hard run. We sustained 155gpm for about 5 hours one day last year. That was a hard running day.
I have fun, I like my job a lot.
I also started hanging a few milk jugs and boiling on the grill. Loved our annual visits to my great uncles sugarhouse, eating toast cooked in the fire with fresh syrup. Please don't let the scale of where I work overshadow any smaller or hobby operations from posting. I like to see your stuff too. I enjoy sharing my pictures and work experiences and enjoy reading about other peoples seasons, strategies, and setups. 
Remember we all make the same stuff. Delicious 100% pure maple syrup!
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

Walnut Beast

My only experience was I took a horse 🐎 trailer to Minnesota to a brother of a friend of mine with my 1947 Willy's 4wd Jeep truck. He had a place around Ottertail lake. Well he wasn't around but I stayed at his cabin with my German Shepherd Bruno. His hippie friend came over and said let's make some money and get some Maple 🍁 syrup. So John had a ton of 5 gallon buckets and taps and we put them out on all his trees. Put a big tank in my Willy's truck and filled up several times. Drove over to this guys that had the big cooker. We each got some cash and a bunch of maple syrup. The guy was always amazed that from Johns place he would get very neat looking crystals that would form in the bottom of the mason jars. I did remember that it needs to freeze and then get above freezing to get the sap to run. I think  (I'm no expert 😂) 

SwampDonkey

Great operation. Lots to keep busy at for sure with all that tubing and processing equipment. ;D

In comparison, Zak Hargrove at South Ridge Maple, And his father Gus at Canadian Organic Maple in Divide, NB tap 250,000 trees combined.  Zak and his father Gus are engineers. The two sites are not far from one another, basically from one ridge of hills to the other. I know they said they are working toward being the biggest single producer of maple syrup products.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

51cub

Thank you for the pictures! They do make me want to get more involved again though
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

Skip

Never would have imagined  :o Love it . :)

Chuck White

I was laid up with hip and knee problems the last half of the Summer, but my brother and his SIL plumbed in about another 75 taps on a bunch of trees that were between two runs, then plumbed them all to run to the lower run, so we'll likely have to have 2, maybe 3 barrels on the end of the line!

Shortly after the first of the year we'll set up the evaporator, then maybe tap at the end of the month and first part of Feb.

Best of luck to all for a good sugaring season!
~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!

mike_belben

So just a dumb question here, whats different between say now and february if the day to night temp swings are the same?  Here in TN we can have 40 days and 20 nights right now.  Would sap not be good now?
Praise The Lord

Bruno of NH

I grew up sugaring it's alot of work but lots of fun.
Doing it with family and friends memories I will never forget.
Chris your son is growing.
Hope your boss let's you take him in the woods when he's old enough.
Mike,
I think it has to do with the sugar content. 
Lt 40 wide with 38hp gas and command controls , F350 4x4 dump and lot of contracting tools

maple flats

I start shortly after Jan 1. I try to have all repairs finished and have my taps in by 2/15. Most years my best sap flow in the last 2 weeks in March, but sometimes I can get a nice run or 2 in Feb.

What's the difference you ask as to when you tap and when the sap flows. While I'm only a new B in comparison to many producers (my first year in modern times was 2003) Before that our family did 6-9 taps a few years, just in our yard. We evaporated it on the wood stove (didn't ever boil until we finished it on the gas stove). We made 5 qts up to 8 qts about every second or third year.
The difference is that the earlier taps often collect lower sap/sugar than later taps. The main reason is that each time there is a freeze thaw cycle, the sap gains more sugar. Thus the better sap/sugar% is often near the middle of the season. Seasons vary locale to locale, based on the local weather patterns. There are other factors for sap sugar % too, crown size, sun hours and intensity the summer before, adequate rainfall  and the health of the tree.
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.

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