Adirodack case guy maple syrup question?

JOCCO · Feb 21, 2016

You seem to use buckets you said 3000??? Question is how many of those do you lose due to holes, wind, theft etc. per year?? Do you do any tube system with vacuum pumps??

Adirondack case guy · Feb 21, 2016

Sap freezing in the buckets is our worst enemy as far as bucket life. We had to repair about 50 from lastyears short runs with then several days of freezing temps. We try to get them all emptied if it appeares a cold spell is coming, but that doesn't always work.
We did have a local Amishman "barrow" 150 buckets and I guess he forgot who he barrowed them from. The saphouse has locks on the doors now, if you get my gist.
There is no way pipeline or vacume will work in our sugar bush. It is spread out over 60A on flatrock, and the sugar house is a mile from the nearest powerline. We use a portable generator to provide power when the evaporators are runnung.
Back in the 60s Dad tried tubeing and 55gal barrels to gather sap from about 20 trees each. That turned out to be a total loss of time and effort. There is a lot of work involved in maintaining a tubing and pipeline system also.
Much the same as JD's post about technology and net gain. We have fun doing the hard work and it is a chanch for family and friends to get together and carry on a long standing family tradition.
Loren

JOCCO · Feb 21, 2016

I always wanted to rig up a 5 gallon pale and be able to put several taps on a bunch of maple. (haven't yet) I agree tubes can be a hassle to maintain. Like any of this stuff it works for some and for some operations not for all. EVEN USED THOSE BUCKETS ARE NOT CHEAP!!!!

Adirondack case guy · Feb 21, 2016

We made our last investment in buckets in the mid 70s when we were hanging 3500 of them. They were cheaper then. HeHe
During a good day run, 2 taps feeding a 5gal. will overflow it.
Loren

JOCCO · Feb 21, 2016

I ALWAYS LIKE IT TO FREEZE I take the ice out reduces boiling (baring aside hard freeze) Would have to be good run to get 5 gallon full. Last year was tough, hope its better this year.

Adirondack case guy · Feb 21, 2016

The frozen H20 dumped on the ground is a simple mans RO machine
Loren

Donald Lehman · Feb 22, 2016

Unlike Loren's sugarbush, we have about 2/3 of our trees are on slopes, so we can use tubing, if we ever get around to setting it up. However we are 100% buckets at this point in time, although nowhere near as many as Loren. We use mostly plastic buckets. They will stand a bit more freezing before cracking compared to the metal buckets. If we get a strong wind, we always walk the woods to recover any buckets that may have blown off the trees as soon as the wind quits. We may lose and average of a couple of plastic buckets a year to splitting from freezing. The last couple of years I haven't used any of my metal buckets because we had so blikin' much snow, and some of our roads are so bad we simply didn't want to fight the elements to get there, so no worries about freezing and splitting them.

Adirodack case guy maple syrup question?

JOCCO

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Adirondack case guy

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JOCCO

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Adirondack case guy

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JOCCO

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Adirondack case guy

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Donald Lehman

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