Getting ready

[HAHA I 1]

Been cutting wood for a bit now. We have a decent pile (still working remnants from Hurricane Ike and the following ice storm), but need a lot more to make it all the way through the season. I am also finally building a sugar shack (well, a room anyway) off of my barn. It will house our operations for a couple of years until we get our big sugar shack built in the woods. It is only 8'x10', but it will be better than boiling out in the open (and having to quit when it rains). I acquired (for free) some new fire bricks over the summer and will be putting them in the evaporator this winter. I have a few modifications to make to my smoke stack, and will be going with an 8" instead of the 6" that I have now. Lastly, we are looking at getting a 275gal container to collect the sap.

The kids and I have also mapped out about 30 more maples we want to tap. We did 71 taps last year and want to hit 120 this year. We should be able to hit at least 100 without any trouble, and there are about 150 more trees that are fairly easy to get to if we need them.

I love this time of year......I used to hate winters.

Anyone else getting ready?

[Ausable]

The time for tapping is coming up quick -- middle of December already. I have to get out in the Shack and get things reorganized. Was out there yesterday and was amazed at how much stuff was stored that really dosen't belong there and just in the way. Right now - it is more like a garden shed than a Sugar Shack... But -- We will get-er-done.. Hey - best of luck this coming sugarin season and have a very Merry Christmas -- Mike

[Groves]

Tapping Time always catches me off guard. I hope not this year. I've been doing milk jugs, but I want to go with some bigger buckets this year hopefully.

[HAHA I 1]

Yeah, it usually catches me by surprise a little, but it seems this year I am getting ready a LITTLE bit earlier.

[ahowes]

It really caught me off guard last year. I didn't even know I wanted to do maple syrup until less than a month before it ran, so I had to scramble to learn what to do.
This year, I'm going to be ready - I got my block arch 1/3 done today and am buying some steam tray pans for use this year (going to get custom pans next year).
I'll be ready with dry wood, a year's worth of research, forethought, and enthusiasm. It's almost like waiting for deer season :D

[HAHA I 1]

Princeton, huh? I have a coworker that lives there. He has thought of tapping a few trees just to see what it is like.

[HAHA I 1]

Just finished the evaporating room (hesitate calling it a sugar shack just yet) off the barn. Its an 8' x 10' area with a nice steam-vent cupola and a weather vane on top for looks. My evaporator is already sitting in it, and we are hooking up our new chimney materials. All the buckets are clean and taps are ready. I still need to gather more firewood, but that will be taken care of over the next few weeks. Just need to purchase my tubing.

REALLY wish I would have tapped 2 weeks ago. We have had perfect weather, but I just wasn't ready yet.

[HAHA I 1]

If the weather holds, we will be putting out about 70 taps this coming weekend. Gotta get moving on the firewood!! Luckily I work at home so I can go out at lunch and cut/split for an hour. My evaporator is within view of my office window, so I can keep an eye on it easily once we start boiling.

[ericjeeper]

I was gun ho like you last year. tapped early.. then the big freeze hit.
I feed my arch every 8-10 minutes.I have a forced draft setup. I consume mass amounts of wood.. But I get a good hard boil. How will you have time to work in the office?lol

[HAHA I 1]

Its a toss-up, I tell ya: do I boil sap or make a living?

I am only about 40ft from the boiler, so I can keep an eye on it. I go out about every 45 minutes to check on it, sometimes while I am on mute on a conference call. I usually add wood and some sap from the preheater. All told each trip takes about 5 minutes, but I start work early anyway so it all washes out.

We had such a low output last year and if we had started a week earlier we would have hit a big early run. We sold out in April and ran out of our personal stash about a month ago, so we want to make sure we have plenty this year.

[ahowes]

I hadn't thought about boiling on days with long conference calls :lol:

Unfortunately, I'm usually the one leading them but when I'm not, I suppose I can have a list of ready-made excuses if they wonder where I've been. (To the bathroom, urgent business need on the other line, walk-in business, had the phone on mute and didn't realize it...)

[HAHA I 1]

I have at least one conf call per day, so whenever there is sap to boil, I just put the phone on mute and try to pay attention. It helps that one of the guys that works for me makes syrup, too, so he understands when I tell him I have to take a "maple break."

[HAHA I 1]

Finished the stack/chimney at lunch today - its not beautiful, but it works. I will make it more aesthetically pleasing this summer. Then I poured some water in the pans to test everything and check for major leaks. Everything looks good! We will tap 10 trees today just to see if anything runs when it hits 40 tomorrow. Then we will probably tap a few more based on the outcome. Its a little early, but we are anxious.