Maple sugaring 2021

Corley5 · February 26, 2021, 04:18:41 PM

We're better than half done tapping. We'll get it done tomorrow. Didn't run enough today to say it did. It was pretty cold last night and even though it was in the very low 40s today the wind is stiff and trees are frozen hard. Not as cold tonight and low pressure moving in and 40 tomorrow and Sunday. Maybe we'll get the rig sweet Sunday night

mike_belben · February 26, 2021, 08:55:49 PM

What does it mean to get the rig sweet?

Yesterdays heat turned it off.. I rounded up about 3gal total and for lack of refrigeration it spoiled. Which im okay with for now. Few too many other hot irons to juggle this week.

Corley5 · February 26, 2021, 09:03:15 PM

With a continuous draw evaporator you don't empty it of "sweet". Liquid stays in the pans. A rig is sweet once it's a had it's first draw of finished syrup. The "sweet" stays in the pans until the next round of boiling. We need about a 1,000 gallons of raw sap before we draw any syrup. After that initial boil three hundred gallons is about the least amount I'll fire the rig for.

mike_belben · February 27, 2021, 03:34:39 AM

Gotcha. Whatre the general rules for shutting down for the night and leaving sap in? How long before it spoils?

Chuck White · February 27, 2021, 08:25:22 AM

MAKE SURE that the fire is OUT before you leave, also close the feed valve that allows flow into the evaporator!

If you have concentrate (sap that has been run through the RO) in the evaporator, do not leave it more than a day or so without finishing it off!
If left approx. three days or more, bacteria will grow and when you fire it up, the back pan will rise up like a loaf of bread.

If this happens, Kill the fire and dilute the back pan!

NOTE: Best to leave raw sap in the back pan rather than concentrate!

mudfarmer · February 27, 2021, 09:18:30 AM

Picked up supplies yesterday for repairs and enough to add another 100 taps, should bump me to around 250.

Got the worst string patched up and the 30 there tapped, sap was flowing even pretty late in the day. Nice drop overnight and super fast warmup, it is flowing good already. Some cold in the forecast, will get shut down for a few days but sounds like a lot of folks locally are missing some good runs because they did not want to tap in the deep snow. BSing at the shop I said I was behind the game had to get going, they said no worries tons of folks not tapped. Sleep in your snowshoes boys there is work to be done ;D If you normally burn the candle from both ends, syrup season is the time to carve some wax outta the middle and light the wick there too

mike_belben · February 27, 2021, 10:39:23 AM

Thanks for the explanation chuck. Ive got a batch of dark nearup in the fridge waiting for a finish. How long you reckon thatll last?

And is there any harm in adding fresh clear sap to this when i do my finish boil.. Just to run it all at once?

mudfarmer · February 27, 2021, 11:04:26 AM

If it is close to syrup should keep quite a while in the fridge. Nothing wrong with adding raw sap at finish just will take a lot longer to boil off that extra water.

It is pouring rain in the woods and I am hunkered down in an old shack... :

mudfarmer · February 28, 2021, 04:15:11 PM

Don't laugh(too much), this is my poor man's tubing tool. $6 for the cheapest knock off vice grips money can buy and the rest scrap. Has been going good for 5 years and have even loaned it out to some poor souls down on their luck

Got my tanks all cleaned and 105 taps in, sap has been running since Friday

A long drop to the tank from here, about 100ft and a real chore to snowshoe in this wet heavy snow!

snowmountain · February 28, 2021, 06:59:54 PM

Finished tapping in Western Mass today. Had the boy helping.

900 taps on 3/16". Steep in places, 200' from top to bottom. MudFarmer you are right...the snow has been tough. 2-3' in my woods and the snowshoes really not working well this year.
Have a double diaphragm pump but too many chews to make vacuum yet. Found about 40 today (10-12 fox or coyote and the rest squirrel).
Should start running good. About 1000 gallons in the last 48 hours.
Have fun out there folks.
Jack

Corley5 · February 28, 2021, 09:23:51 PM

Finished tapping yesterday and got the vacuum tightened up. DanG squirrels >:( >:( There's more than 1550 and less than 1600 taps. Ran 500+ gallons yesterday. We've got 6 275 gallon totes full now and pumping into a 7th. There's talk of a flash freeze in a couple hours and cold for a couple days. We redid our head tank set up today, got the filter press assembled, membranes in the RO, general sugar house clean up, plus ran about three cords of firewood for the operation. We're 10 days or two weeks early. I've got to hook the RO plumbing up in the morning and do a wash and rinse. Hope to be making steam before 1PM.

mike_belben · March 01, 2021, 12:18:39 AM

@mudfarmer

Whatd you weld into the jaws? Split alltread coupler? I have a valve stem seal puller i made that way. Duckbilled vice grips and a slidehammer welded on back.

I will have to make a tubing tool. been warming the end with a micro torch and pushing on by hand. Its a chore.

mike_belben · March 01, 2021, 12:20:16 AM

Today i discovered a splash of syrup in a glass of milk is a real treat.

Ed_K · March 01, 2021, 07:08:55 AM

I won't laugh mine looks like that with only one set of vicegrips. I find hot water works just as good tho. If the water gets to where it's not hot enough it;s time for us to take a coffee break.
Mike, split all-thrd worked for me.

mudfarmer · March 01, 2021, 07:11:58 AM

Quote from: mike_belben on March 01, 2021, 12:18:39 AM
@mudfarmer

Whatd you weld into the jaws? Split alltread coupler? I have a valve stem seal puller i made that way. Duckbilled vice grips and a slidehammer welded on back.

I will have to make a tubing tool. been warming the end with a micro torch and pushing on by hand. Its a chore.

Yup you nailed it. Drill out end of coupler so it fits tubing+fitting then split with grinder or bandsaw or whatever and smooth out the threads so they don't chew up the tubing like a squirrel

mike_belben · March 01, 2021, 07:48:42 AM

so you guys bring hot water out into the woods for tube slinging? in a thermos or something?

today the grass has some greener clumps and its pretty warm.. i think my season is over. i'll be better prepared next year.

mike_belben · March 01, 2021, 07:50:48 AM

are there any mechanical vacuum pumps/tanks out there or do they all take electricity?

I'm thinking a big weighted syringe sort of system would draw plenty until it hit bottom, then when lifted would transfer sap out and start over.

Stephen1 · March 01, 2021, 07:53:07 AM

A diaphram hand pump can work, ours just has an electric motor and a cam, and a check vavle on each side

mike_belben · March 01, 2021, 08:03:10 AM

you just gave me the lightbulb stephen. hand bilge pumps are $20 on eBay. with a valved vent line it can be a transfer pump and a vacuum pump that i don't have to worry about getting stolen. 8)

DeerMeadowFarm · March 01, 2021, 09:31:46 AM

Quote from: mike_belben on February 25, 2021, 03:45:57 PM@dmf how are you sucking the totes out?

Mike - Here are photos of how we get the sap out of the woods. Here my buddy is running the pump:

Then it gets pumped into a tote I keep on my back forks:

When that's full, I drive it back up to the sugar house and unload it into our stainless steel milk tank. We have a 400 gallon tank and just yesterday, we set up this "new" 600 gallon tank that we bought over the summer.

We also loaded up the sugar shack woodshed with wood and we ran water through the head tanks and evaporator to ensure all out floats were set correctly and that we had no leaks. We also gathered another 275 gallons yesterday so we have around 525 gallons of sap at the moment. We will probably have our first boil of the season this coming weekend.

sublime68charger · March 01, 2021, 10:17:46 AM

not as fancy as alot but we are only tapping 15 trees and run only on weekends

this is the stove setup for this year. in the back section will be a warming pan sitting on top of the stove pipe exit and will ladle the syrup over to the 2 pans sitting ontop of the fire box. Ran it yesterday with just water and seemed to work okay and Didn't have to eat alot of smoke to get this going.

mike_belben · March 01, 2021, 11:12:38 AM

that stove looks like it was made for steam pans sublime. 8)

@dmf.. thats awesome. i have contemplated putting a pto shaft coupler to a dead gas engine and check valving it for a sucker pump to pull collection vacuum off my tractor in the future but it may be a few years before i have that volume of sap. the quad is working fine to fetch and swap out buckets.

sublime68charger · March 01, 2021, 02:01:17 PM

This was the setup I ran last year which was my first year running sap,

Block stove did 95% of the work then finish off in the small barrel stove this year hoping to due it all on the wood stove and just finish off in round pots on top of stove when we get down to the final boil down. syrup had some smoke flavor so hoping to tone that down on this years run.