Maple sugaring

[Lawdwaz]

5 minutes ago, dinorocks said:

My wife and I hauled the last of our syruping stuff out to the sugar shack. All the trees are marked and ready to tap!  Got my “ice castle” built this afternoon at one of my sap storage outposts...those 8 inch thick ice blocks were challenging to lift out of water but I’m ready for the sap!  Not long now!

If I squint my eyes I can see a Dutch oven, laden with delicious lasagna in the dark of the evening.    Mmmmm good!

[ncountry]

1 hour ago, dinorocks said:

My wife and I hauled the last of our syruping stuff out to the sugar shack. All the trees are marked and ready to tap!  Got my “ice castle” built this afternoon at one of my sap storage outposts...those 8 inch thick ice blocks were challenging to lift out of water but I’m ready for the sap!  Not long now!

I probably missed it but why the ice house? With all this talk of maple syrup , I'm ready... I will be getting close to a hundred buckets hung in my woods this year.. 

[mowin]

2 hours ago, dinorocks said:

My wife and I hauled the last of our syruping stuff out to the sugar shack. All the trees are marked and ready to tap!  Got my “ice castle” built this afternoon at one of my sap storage outposts...those 8 inch thick ice blocks were challenging to lift out of water but I’m ready for the sap!  Not long now!

Your truly old school, and I'm loving it. 

[mowin]

Got 3 sides and the roof up. Picking up the evaporator tomorrow.  Once its set, we can close up the front wall.  This pic only shows the two walls and roof, but you get the idea. 

[dinorocks]

My wife and I got most of our trees tapped this afternoon...sap was flowing (dripping) on the sunny sides of the trees.  Great day to be in the woods!

[WNYBuckHunter]

I got my stuff out this year after a hiatus the last few years. I tapped One tree the other day and have been watching it. No sap yet. I’m thinking it should start in the next day or two with the temps fluctuating. 

[mowin]

Got the arch set and the stack up. Head tank is in place and plumbed into the preheater.  Tapping starts tomorrow.  

[dinorocks]

Looking good mowin!

[WNYBuckHunter]

Yesterday I put 3 more taps in, so now I’m at 2 taps in 2 trees, and one tree is starting to run today. Both of the trees are very large sugar maples, depending on how they do for the next week, I may pick up another 2 taps for a couple of other large sugar maples. Glad to have things finally start though. 

[mowin]

I'm officially old...  can't believe how sore I am. 3 of up spent 5 hrs on the Mt reparing lines and putting in 475 taps. By the time we got back to the holding tanks, it was flowing like a garden hose. Tank had 50 gal in it, unfortunately, that gets dumped as it has a bunch of nasties from the lines. 

Hopefully we can get our first boil in Sunday or Monday.  Need 300+ gal just to fire up. 

[Lomax]

Perhaps you could brand it Aunt Jemowin.  Kinda catchy don’t you think ha 
Seriously can’t wait to see more it looks like a ton of work but my guess is very fulfilling.  Final product is gonna be Sweet!  

[mowin]

12 minutes ago, Lomax said:

Perhaps you could brand it Aunt Jemowin.  Kinda catchy don’t you think ha 
Seriously can’t wait to see more it looks like a ton of work but my guess is very fulfilling.  Final product is gonna be Sweet!  

Lol. Aunt Jemowin.  What a label.   

[left field]

On 2/19/2021 at 6:33 PM, dinorocks said:

My wife and I hauled the last of our syruping stuff out to the sugar shack. All the trees are marked and ready to tap!  Got my “ice castle” built this afternoon at one of my sap storage outposts...those 8 inch thick ice blocks were challenging to lift out of water but I’m ready for the sap!  Not long now!

 

So many questions.

How is the ice cut? Chainsaw?

Do you hammer that handle in? I never would have thought of that.

Will the top and sides of the ice house be covered to keep the ice from melting?

[mowin]

Sap ran well yesterday.  Got 500 gallons. 

Fired up the evaporator for the first  time 

 

[Versatile_Hunter]

1 hour ago, left field said:

DP

On a Sunday??

[left field]

14 minutes ago, Versatile_Hunter said:

On a Sunday??

It's raining and I'm bored.

[mowin]

Pic of the evaporator.   Only boiled for a few hrs as a shakedown run.  Previous owner is coming by tomorrow afternoon to set the floats and hopefully we will get a draw so he can show us the filter press operation.  

Unfortunately,  I'm leaving for a ice fishing trip in Maine noon Tuesday - Sunday, so my buddy is on his own.  

[WNYBuckHunter]

Ordered some new taps the other day, decided to go with tube taps this time. Tapped 2 more trees this evening after the taps and tubing came in. They are both decent size trees, so I put 2 taps in each with tubes going to 5 gal buckets. I still Have a couple more trees I may End up tapping but I want To see how these do first. Last time I did Syrup I just Used the 4 bucket taps and ended up with more syrup than I knew What do do with. This time I’m going to make as much as I can And then make maple candy as well. Should have plenty to give to friends and family as well. 

[mowin]

30 minutes ago, WNYBuckHunter said:

Ordered some new taps the other day, decided to go with tube taps this time. Tapped 2 more trees this evening after the taps and tubing came in. They are both decent size trees, so I put 2 taps in each with tubes going to 5 gal buckets. I still Have a couple more trees I may End up tapping but I want To see how these do first. Last time I did Syrup I just Used the 4 bucket taps and ended up with more syrup than I knew What do do with. This time I’m going to make as much as I can And then make maple candy as well. Should have plenty to give to friends and family as well. 

I made maple candy once...... by accident.  

I was finishing a batch on the kitchen stove. There's very little forgiveness between syrup and WTF... wasn't paying attention, and in less then 1 minute things went from ok to not ok. The syrup got way too hot, and basically exploded. I had  Stalactites hanging from the ceiling in moms kitchen.  She wasn't impressed.  Took me hrs to to clean the mess.  So pay attention to what the bubbles are telling you, and do it outside, lol. 

[mowin]

Looking like the run is going to shut down for a day or two.  Bitter cold tonight into tomorrow.  Wednesday will be warming up, but sap might not run until late afternoon.  

[Dinsdale]

On 2/28/2021 at 6:56 PM, mowin said:

Pic of the evaporator.   Only boiled for a few hrs as a shakedown run.  Previous owner is coming by tomorrow afternoon to set the floats and hopefully we will get a draw so he can show us the filter press operation.  

Unfortunately,  I'm leaving for a ice fishing trip in Maine noon Tuesday - Sunday, so my buddy is on his own.  

Set up looks good, filter press is huge, wish I could justify one.

Plenty of season ahead of you to spend time boiling.

 

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Ok guys. total newbie question. I put out about 20 taps and tubed into 6 gallon pails.  what I had close access to was a mix of sugar, red and silver. I have two red maples that I tapped and they are massive trees that split into 3 trunks each that are easily over 15" each.  I placed a tap in each off shoot trunks and used splitter to dump into a single pail. One trunk in each was running very slow. Maybe 1" in the pail all day Saturday. The other two off shoots in each tree did not run at all. Is it possible to hit a spot with a tap that just doesn't run?  I'm using the plastic taps for tubing. 

Edited March 2, 2021 by Culvercreek hunt club

[WNYBuckHunter]

On 2/28/2021 at 8:53 PM, mowin said:

I made maple candy once...... by accident.  

I was finishing a batch on the kitchen stove. There's very little forgiveness between syrup and WTF... wasn't paying attention, and in less then 1 minute things went from ok to not ok. The syrup got way too hot, and basically exploded. I had  Stalactites hanging from the ceiling in moms kitchen.  She wasn't impressed.  Took me hrs to to clean the mess.  So pay attention to what the bubbles are telling you, and do it outside, lol. 

Yeah you have to get there slowly lol. That sounds like a real pain to clean up. 

[WNYBuckHunter]

56 minutes ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

Ok guys. total newbie question. I put out about 20 taps and tubed into 6 gallon pails.  what I had close access to was a mix of sugar, red and silver. I have two red maples that I tapped and they are massive trees that split into 3 trunks each that are easily over 15" each.  I placed a tap in each off shoot trunks and used splitter to dump into a single pail. One trunk in each was running very slow. Maybe 1" in the pail all day Saturday. The other two off shoots in each tree did not run at all. Is it possible to hit a spot with a tap that just doesn't run?  I'm using the plastic taps for tubing. 

I usually Don’t tap the split trunks, just the main one. This year I tapped Into one on one tree by my deck because it was easy to get to. It hasn’t run yet at all. 
 

with 20 taps, you ought to end up with a ton of syrup. The Silver maples will run like crazy, but the sugar content is lower, so the sap to syrup ratio is higher. Let me know if you need help with anything. Also let me know how the plastic taps work for you, I went With stainless ones that I ordered From Amazon and they are great so far. 

[WNYBuckHunter]

7 hours ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

Ok guys. total newbie question. I put out about 20 taps and tubed into 6 gallon pails.  what I had close access to was a mix of sugar, red and silver. I have two red maples that I tapped and they are massive trees that split into 3 trunks each that are easily over 15" each.  I placed a tap in each off shoot trunks and used splitter to dump into a single pail. One trunk in each was running very slow. Maybe 1" in the pail all day Saturday. The other two off shoots in each tree did not run at all. Is it possible to hit a spot with a tap that just doesn't run?  I'm using the plastic taps for tubing. 

Just checked the tap I have In the split trunk and it’s dripping. Just took longer than the main trunk taps. 
 

was the wood light or dark colored in this holes when you tapped them? I’ve read that dark indicates a spot that may not work.