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Maple Syrup 2019

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

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Chuck White

Good to see some of us are getting into it already!

Talked a little with a guy from VT a few weeks ago and was surprised that in his area they had been tapping since early January.

We'll be setting up our evaporator in about another week or so!


NOTE:  I saw that @Plankton had made a post in the Maple Syrup 2018 thread, then Stephen1 suggested a 2019 thread, so here's the start!

Good luck to all for a GOOD 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!

TreeStandHunter

Just about finished with my old oil drum evaporator. Now to make the pan, I am in Michigan and will probably start tapping by the end of the month

 
In the process of building my own mill.

Old Greenhorn

My young cousin Dan is building a new sugar house (not sure if it's the second or third one he's built) over in Marlboro, VT. I was thinking I might head over for a weekend to help him boil. I haven't done that since Dan's Dad and I were about 10 years old. He is doing a fine job, can't wait to see it finished. 


 
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.

millwright

Hope to have a better year than last year, weather wise. We had a lot of snow, then it got too warm real fast. Good luck to everyone.

TreeStandHunter

Quote from: Old Greenhorn on February 05, 2019, 07:44:46 PM
My young cousin Dan is building a new sugar house (not sure if it's the second or third one he's built) over in Marlboro, VT. I was thinking I might head over for a weekend to help him boil. I haven't done that since Dan's Dad and I were about 10 years old. He is doing a fine job, can't wait to see it finished.



Now that is beautiful. 
In the process of building my own mill.

Old Greenhorn

You guys got me thinking (and maybe a little excited) so I contacted my cousin Dan to see what the local conditions were like, He is just 2 hours northeast of us. He says that some of the lowland guys with lots of trees have been tapping for a while, but not getting much, they just have to start early to get all the lines run. He is in the hills and figures noting much will be happening until middle of March. He runs a route with a bunch of his own trees, and trees on family acreage around the area, and some contracts he has. 1/2 mile back in the woods behind his new shed is one that was built by his Great Grandmother's family, it is still there, but largely collapsed. I used to play in there when I was a little kid and believe I still have a sap bucket I snuck out of there as a treasure.


 
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.

Old Greenhorn

Quote from: TreeStandHunter on February 05, 2019, 08:07:18 PM

Now that is beautiful.
I could post a lot of photos of the inside which is still a mess during construction, not quite done yet, but I don't want to overdo it. If you are interested, I have some, but as I said, they don't make a lot of sense yet. He is milling all his lumber and building as he goes. Making wall partitions, counters, and getting the evaporator set in place right around now. Also doing the soffits on the outside, adding windows and such as the weather and time permits. Its a fine setup all built on a slab so it's nice and clean.
Here's a shot of his Uncle Don, my 1st cousin, sugaring at that old shack in 1946-7 with some of the family. Don is on the right and was a Junior in High School that year:


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.

TreeStandHunter

That's awesome. Is it timber framed 
In the process of building my own mill.

Old Greenhorn

Quote from: TreeStandHunter on February 05, 2019, 08:55:12 PM
That's awesome. Is it timber framed
Nope, it's stick built. He is doing it in spare time outside his regular job, timber would take too long. 

 
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.

WWright

 We are all tapped here. Should have first boil later today. The last couple years I tapped around the first of January, decided to hold off till February this year. Sap was running strong as we finished tapping

 Nice pictures Old Greenhorn!

TreeStandHunter

That's a nice looking sugar house. Sure beats boiling out in the open. I'm gonna be making my pan today, my first time doing it so we'll see how it goes
In the process of building my own mill.

petefrom bearswamp

Best wishes for a good season everyone.
I havent boiled since 1977 on my former place.
Could have a 6 - 7 thousand tap operation here but refuse to put holes in my veneer maple.
Plus I am way too old for another enterprise.
Kubota 8540 tractor, FEL bucket and forks, Farmi winch
Kubota 900 RTV
Polaris 570 Sportsman ATV
3 Huskies 1 gas Echo 1 cordless Echo vintage Homelite super xl12
57 acres of woodland

Chuck White

Well, we got a jump on things, weather was too windy and cold to skid firewood so we puttered around in the sugarhouse!

We got the evaporator all set up and ready to go, in about another week or so we'll be tapping!
~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

Good work Chuck!
We are good month to 6 weeks out. we will start to open the yard the 1st week of march and then go from there. Our best runs always happen around Easter, Last week of March and 1st week of April.
good Tapping everyone!
IDRY Vacum Kiln, LT40HDWide, BMS250 sharpener/setter 742b Bobcat, TCM forklift, Sthil 026,038, 461. 1952 TEA Fergusan Tractor

TreeStandHunter

How do you guys recommend I insulate my arch? My wife is not going to be cool with me spending $200 on ceramic blankets and firebrick...I have a lot of old red brick lying around that I could use but from what i am reading that will only give me problems? Would it be ok for me to use the red brick than coat them with mortar? Our welder at work is going to make my pan for me these next few days, I want to be ready to tap next week. Thanks for any info!
In the process of building my own mill.

celliott

 Hey guys, been a busy year for us. We'll be tapping around 100,000 this year between two sugarhouses. Didn't get as much new installed in the Eden woods as we hoped. Lots of repairs from a November storm set us back a lot. Squirrels chewed and dropped 5k taps worth of tubing on the ground, trees and branches down everywhere. We spent all December repairing things when we should have been putting up new tubing. Oh well. Started tapping January 2nd, probably got almost 60,000 tapped so far.
Added a 3rd vacuum pump, another transfer pump and 3" pump line, a remote pump station with a diesel generator taking in about 15,000 taps, a second 7'x20' evaporator and RO, now we gotta make some syrup!

Here's some pics from the year.



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 
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

Here's some tapping pics and the two evaporators.



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 







 



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

Plankton

Nice pictures celliot, looks like fun. Never seen the ropes for mainline used before. How do you like them?

Is it possible for my post in the 2018 one to be moved to this thread?

Corley5

  We were planning/hoping to add another 800 to our existing 800 taps but haven't got there yet.  We got the posts set for the wet dry between the woodlots and then life got in the way.  I've got the steel for the ceiling in the sugar house laying in the garage and am going to start putting it up and tapping this weekend.  On nice days we'll work in the woods and in the building when it's nasty.  If we still have time once the existing taps are ready to go maybe we'll get some more plumbed in.  We did run a new water line to the sugar house and have a new water heater to install as well.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Plankton

Hope this works

Even though its 2019 I'll throw these on here. Been tapping since first week of January here in south vt.

Just some fun tapping pictures, gotta keep it fresh doing this for weeks straight. Also a random picture of a wheeler with my bags on it from a few weeks ago snow got a lot deeper so that one has tracks on it now.

Been perfect tapping weather this season kind of cold but that made for perfect drilling and the snow is nice and light so the going has been excellent. The first real run started yesterday but back to tapping this sat.





















Chuck White

celliot;  Just curious, how many MILES of mainline do you guys have!

Also, I forgot the size of your evaporators!

Thanks;  Chuck
~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!

celliott

We use the braided cable for bigger pipes. 1.5", 2" and sometimes 3" get 1/4" cable, 3" and 4" get 3/8" cable. It's very heavy but you can get it so much tighter than high tensile wire, and no worry about it breaking. Pulls very hard though. A whole new set of challenges with it we had to figure out- 3/8" cable can't anchor to trees, so we use ledge and boulders. Can't tie back them normally so we use wire tensioners.
It's amazing, we strung out 8000' continuous of 3/8" for our pump line. Tried tensioning with a 120hp tractor, didn't even budge the other end.

Chuck, we currently have about 150 miles of mainlines out at the big woods. When it's all said and done it'll be over 300 miles. Currently have about 500 miles of 5/16 tubing out. It's alot to keep up out of the snow!
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

We had one day this summer we set a company record- we put up 20,500ft of mainline in a day, nearly 4 miles. Two guys pulling, one guy keeping the pipe uncoiler spinning and swapping rolls of pipe. Wasn't even that late of a day, out of the woods by 4:30. Previously we had been getting about 10,000ft a day out.
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

Plankton

Interesting stuff, sounds like relearning to string pipe and wire. Sounds like fun though! It's all 9 guage down here but no ones running enough taps for 4" pipe.

nativewolf

Very interesting read.  Amazing amount of infrastructure going up into the forest.  
Liking Walnut

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