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Maple Sugar 2022

Started by Corley5, November 23, 2021, 11:59:22 AM

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Lebel Logging

Thanks for the info ! :)
I hope to have some rain soon, it will start them good.

Stephen1

We have made 35 gallons so far. We had a great run this last week. Looks like we will get a final run today and tomorrow and then temps go up and stay up for the rest of the week, but the weatherman has been wrong before. No snow left in the bush and to us that is the best sign it is almost over. We tap mainly red maples and so it does not take for the trees to bud and turn the flavour. 
IDRY Vacum Kiln, LT40HDWide, BMS250 sharpener/setter 742b Bobcat, TCM forklift, Sthil 026,038, 461. 1952 TEA Fergusan Tractor

Corley5

Been a trying season but it's gotten back on track now that it may be over :) :)   The submersible pump in the vac. releaser failed and cost us some lost production but we improved the system.  It had a 120v 10 gpm Grundfos three wire pump with control box.  Nowhere to source that on a Sunday in Northern Michigan so we switched stuff around and now have a 2-wire pump with the same specs that TSC has on the shelf  ;) ;D :)  In the process we had a vacuum leak on the power cables going into the releaser cannister.  Zach was working on it, it was late and he left it for morning when we were fresh.  Unfortunately he didn't get the pump house door latched.  It froze that night and the venturi effect from the vac leak froze things up solid.  The float switch  froze in the ice at the top and kept the pump cycling until it cooked.  A second one from TSC was required :( :(.  We lost the better part of a two day run in addition to buying two new pumps :)  We're farming now :D ;D :D :)  We got 416 gallon packaged.  We've got about three warm days now but cold sap weather for several days the end of the week.  We'll see how the buds do.  It could be the end or we may make syrup through the 22nd.  
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

SwampDonkey

Sounds just like farming, that's for sure. One step ahead and 2 backwards stumbling. Good luck from here on out. ;)

I think the sapping is about over in my area, but to the east it is like another world and they will sap out there until the end of May. The snow has been melting like crazy around here. The small maple grove beside the road is bare now. And another near it must be pretty bare to except the windward side. This place was all covered in white a week ago, up to 2 feet, gone. The softwood, the mixed wood ground and the wind drifted areas are where the snow is at now.

Frick'n ground hog has been playing in the woodpile. :D
"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)))

Lebel Logging

Quote from: SwampDonkey on April 12, 2022, 05:26:04 AM
Sounds just like farming, that's for sure. One step ahead and 2 backwards stumbling. Good luck from here on out. ;)

I think the sapping is about over in my area, but to the east it is like another world and they will sap out there until the end of May. The snow has been melting like crazy around here. The small maple grove beside the road is bare now. And another near it must be pretty bare to except the windward side. This place was all covered in white a week ago, up to 2 feet, gone. The softwood, the mixed wood ground and the wind drifted areas are where the snow is at now.

Frick'n ground hog has been playing in the woodpile. :D
There is still near 3 feet in the wood here. It melt a bit when we had rain lately but not so much, its still cold. 
We have average sap run since a few days. It will get better, we are in the good and clear syrup. Around 700 gallons made on a near 4000 average production. 

Chuck White

Sugaring is over for us this year, our grand total is 195 gallons.

Now we're right on average for production.

It sure got warm quick in this area, within a week or so, people will be mowing their lawns!

~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!

Chuck White

We flushed all of our saplines and pulled the spouts yesterday.

All we have to do to get ready for next year is to refill the woodshed.

This season we burned 6½ cords of 28-inch firewood and made 195 gallons of syrup.

We averaged 30 gallons of syrup to 1 cord of firewood.
~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

Nice Numbers Chuck. what is ratio of syrup to taps?
We are all done, we pulled our tanks friday and cleaned up. Next friday we will flush our lines and inject alcohol into the taps. We still need to work on Firewood, but I have 25 piles of sawmill slabs bundled ready to cut up and store under cover. 
We did 48 gallons of syrup give or take. Canadian we did 180 liters of syrup. If we get over 125 liters we are happy. 
IDRY Vacum Kiln, LT40HDWide, BMS250 sharpener/setter 742b Bobcat, TCM forklift, Sthil 026,038, 461. 1952 TEA Fergusan Tractor

SwampDonkey

Yeah cousin boiled his last a few days ago and he said it's over for this year. Came and went fast here.

I'm starting to map out thinning for brush saw work Monday.
"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)))

Chuck White

Quote from: Stephen1 on April 17, 2022, 08:58:49 AM
Nice Numbers Chuck. what is ratio of syrup to taps?
We are all done, we pulled our tanks friday and cleaned up. Next friday we will flush our lines and inject alcohol into the taps. We still need to work on Firewood, but I have 25 piles of sawmill slabs bundled ready to cut up and store under cover.
We did 48 gallons of syrup give or take. Canadian we did 180 liters of syrup. If we get over 125 liters we are happy.
We have just over 1300 taps (maybe 1325), and made 195 gallons of syrup.
~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

  Done!!  Last boil last night.  Cleaned up the sap and chased the sweet out of the pans with water.  561 gallons packaged from 1575+- taps.  There's a couple gallons or so left in the canner yet.  Our pump issue cost us close to a 100 gallons of lost production.  Glad to have the season over.  We'll cleanup and pull taps the next few days.  Bulk prices sound promising.  Currently $2.55 a pound at Andersons for the top three grades.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

SwampDonkey

Cold day here, barely enough heat to thaw the ground. :D Maple bushes around here close are pretty dry of snow. But still snow on the mountain and lots in the maple woods east of hear a few miles. The river valley tends to be warmer climate.
"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)))

Stephen1

Those are nice numbers corley5, What does your vacuum run at?
We flushed our lines Friday and we will inject alcohol in the taps today  and seal the system for the summer. 
IDRY Vacum Kiln, LT40HDWide, BMS250 sharpener/setter 742b Bobcat, TCM forklift, Sthil 026,038, 461. 1952 TEA Fergusan Tractor

Corley5

  We try to keep it at 27.  It was a never-ending battle this year to keep it anywhere near that.  Leader mainline entrance fittings are terrible.  We don't have many left now.  Our plan was to get them all changed out to CDL or LaPierre before season but that didn't happen.  There will be none left for next year.  A strong breeze, stick bumping a lateral, just about any disturbance can break the seal.  They may not leak when you're checking but will when you're not looking.
  We're going to start pulling spiles tomorrow. 
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Lebel Logging

Season finally over here. Been a long and tough year between the cold, the heavy snow, the squirrel and the wind, we manage to make a good year after all. 
For some people around here its been their best season ever. For us its been a top 5 season. Now its time to untap and wash everything for next year  :)

Old Greenhorn

This article just came across my eyes today and I found it extremely interesting. Also, the fact that it was in Conesville caught my eye. It compares sugar of yield contents between Sugar Maple and Red Maple. I had no idea this was the case at all.
https://www.themaplenews.com/story/sugarmakers-testing-for-themselves-reds-vs-sugars/429/

 I was thinking @BargeMonkey  may find this of interest for different reasons.
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.

Lebel Logging

Nice article ! Around here we have always tap all type of maple we have, red and sugar, we dont have other species. Usually people says red give more sap but less sugar. This tend to prove there not much difference, a bit less sugar. I am eager to see the result of the Proctor Research center, I follow their search a lot Thanks for the share ! 

Chuck White

We have mostly Soft Maple, maybe as much as 3/4 of our taps are in Soft Maple.

Probably wouldn't bother if we were to only tap the Sugar Maple.
~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

We tap mostly red maple with a few sugar maple. I think the red maple tend to end the season earlier than sugar maple. What do others think who have sugar and red, does it end earlier with the red? Do the buds on the red come out sooner?
IDRY Vacum Kiln, LT40HDWide, BMS250 sharpener/setter 742b Bobcat, TCM forklift, Sthil 026,038, 461. 1952 TEA Fergusan Tractor

Corley5

No reds in our bush but they do bud earlier than sugars.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Chuck White

We get buds on the Soft Maple quite a bit earlier than on the Sugar Maple.
~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!

Lebel Logging

Yes reds maples buds earlier around here too

Ed_K

 I have found the same that my reds bud out earlier.
Ed K

celliott

Hi all, I found the 2022 thread lol
I'm all good. Made a post in the 2021 maple thread before I realized what year this was lol
We added a second 6x10 steam pan in the middle of the season. And a 4th high brix h20 RO. Got it plumbed up and operational right before some of our biggest runs of the year. We saw upwards of 200gpm of sap into our sugarhouse for an entire day. Wasn't taking long to go from tree to barrel. We now have the capacity to make 800gph of syrup on the two evaporators. We had plenty of trials and tribulations and breakdowns. Lost a 25hp vacuum pump on the first run. Was a mess. Got a good used one from a fellow sugar maker and it lived outside all year. Couldn't get the releaser pumps we needed so we cobbled something together for a 90k tap releaser lol it worked good!
Was the absolute coldest tapping season I've been through. So many single digit or below zero days. Let me tell you, if you are careful with a lightweight tapping hammer, and use a soft spout (nylon or thin wall polycarbonate) the risk of splitting a tree is very low. We drilled probably over 1/2 our taps at 10 degrees or less and made 6 pounds per tap. If that's not proof I don't know what is.
Personally I drilled over 22,000 this season, my best yet!
We ran out of barrels and had to get some loaners, good problem to have. We made a bit over 64,000 gallons of syrup and hit 6 pounds per tap, 0.56 gallons per tap off 117,000 taps! Our best year yet. Always trying to improve and maximize what we get with the weather we are given. This year was good weather for northern Vermont.
Also really enjoying being Dada!

















Had Covid in the middle of tapping. Took the hound dog to work with me and tapped alone, pretty good numbers for being sick. I was fortunate I didn't get it bad.




R&R


















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

Magicman

Thanks for the update Chris.  I wondered where you were and am glad to read that all is OK.  I love seeing your little partner.
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