Maple Emotions

[BryanEx]

I was chatting with my wife about all the different emotions I experience during the maple season and thought I'd share a few. Feel free to add to the list.


Envy - Producers with way more equipment and taps than I have.
Frustration - Burned another $%#& pan or broke another hydrometer.
Satisfaction - Tasting that perfect batch.
Astonishment - People in the city are willing to pay twice the going rate because I made it and deliver to their desk.
Bewilderment - How the hell do people afford RO's and filter presses?
Satisfaction - Seeing a finish pot full of syrup ready for bottling.
Pride - Not everyone makes maple syrup!

[adk1]

Maybe I will experience those someday!

[BryanEx]

Maybe I will experience those someday!

Guaranteed adk1... as soon as you start drilling holes in the spring. :D

[stoweski]

Maybe I will experience those someday!

May I remind you of post #16 on this thread...

http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?t=12130&page=2

:D


It'll haunt you until August!

[Haynes Forest Products]

BryanX The bigger you get the list will get bigger also. I go thru the many you have listed. This year is bringing new challenges. Fuel cost of $3.44 per gallon and I went thru $1098.00 to make 100 gallons of syrup:cry: I keep telling myself that I'm having fun I have spent $300.00 in gas for the pump and sap hauler. I ran out of fuel on Sunday and have 1400 gallons of sap in every tank I can find and its still coming in as we speak. I just cant bring myself to shut them down. Its 34 degrees and raining and both releaser's are tripping every 5 minuets. Having a 3rd finish pan has brought new chalenges. The new drawoff has made life easer and the auto shut down has worked flawlessly..YUP saved me a pan the other day:emb: Every improvement brings new worries and needs hang in and enjoy.

[BryanEx]

Too funny! Love it stoweski ... rub it in a little more. :D

[BryanEx]

BryanX The bigger you get the list will get bigger also.
No doubt... and part of what I'm asking about. I managed to burn two pans within days of each other this year. Felt like ripping the buckets all down and saying "screw it!". That and a little red wine got me chatting with wifey which started the whole maple emotion thing.

[CBOYER]

Wonder: another thing we could have from nature.

[Haynes Forest Products]

There are days that you hang your head and wonder why you ever decided to drill all those holes...Why I put so much emotions into this crazy sport..but then some folks show up and marvel at the rig and how cool it is and all of a sudden life is good:)

[CBOYER]

everyone talk about a hobby, first time someone said sport...sometimes it is:rolleyes:

[3rdgen.maple]

How about pissed off. LOL Im using the mild version of the way I felt since I woke up this morning. Even the dog has been hiding in the corner of the sugarhouse all day. Wished I never tapped this year the way I felt all day.

[SilverLeaf]

I'd add "overwhelmed" to that list. As in, "how the $#@!#$ am I going to be able to carry all those buckets of sap?..."

[Maplebrook]

BryanEx,
Good topic!!! To your 2 satisfactions and 1 pride, I'd like to add:

Cheerfulness - what kids bring to the camp when I make a batch of sugar on snow
Optimism - when days go by and you think there should be sap but nothing is running
Relief - see optimism above!
Affection - when I take a damp cloth and polish the stainless on the evaporator
Contentment - leaving the camp this past Saturday night only to have the full Sugar Moon coming up through the trees!

[Flat47]

everyone talk about a hobby, first time someone said sport...sometimes it is:rolleyes:

Contact sport, too. I've got the scars to prove it.

There is definately at great sense of self pride and self suffeciency in sugaring. From working in the woods to promote stand health, to collecting near-water and turning it into syrup - making it all come together into a final product is a great feeling of acomplishment.

There is also a primal sense to it. Collecting sap and boiling it into syrup is just what the natives did. We've refined the process, but we still collect sap and gather around a boiling pot or pan (hopefully not a dug-out tree trunk) like what was done years and years ago.

[maplecrest]

after maple open house this weekend and a great crowd both days, my other half mary went to the house. as the freeze was setting in and i was at the main releaser i said hello hello to her thru the baby monitor that is next to it . she said she caught her self sayin hello hello thru the base station back knowing that i could not hear her. we keep baby monitors on the r/o and releasers with in range. so the few minutes i am home i know what it going on. also if someone walks in the sugar house. we try to have fun even when dog tired!

[Dill]

Cell phones have replaced the leaning out the door and yelling to the sugarhouse for us.
Half the time Cathy answered her phone, "Yes sugarhouse, this is the house, go ahead with your transmission".

[Tithis]

Frustration: Trouble getting the fire going or hot enough to get the sap really boiling.
Disappointment: How little syrup I got from the sap.
Panic: Oh god I have 30 gallons of sap, all my coolers are full, the trees are leaking like crazy and I have no time to boil!
Envy: All those guys with sugar houses who don't have to lay on the the cold ground to tend their fires.
Satisfaction: When I take the first taste of a batch of finished syrup.
Pride: Taking part of an age old tradition unique to this part of the world. Knowing that I took something from nature and though a lot of effort created something truly special.

[BryanEx]

Cheerfulness - Optimism - Relief - Affection - Contentment
Great additions and I know there's more otherwise 1,000's of us wouldn't be addicted in the first place. :)

[highlandcattle]

Glad to hear how others feel. We had our friend over this am.He's the one we started this venture with years ago..have pics of the stupid set ups.. got a good laugh. Now no more laughing, Cost us alot, but will be worth it. Nice little sugar shed,(13'x20') a brand new custom 2'x8' wood fired CDL evaporator, tubing and vac. and the best tasting syrup around. We have suffered and agonized over all of this, now it's finally coming together. Boiled all day 230 gallons, cleaned up and some in the tank for tomorrow. Nice to hear someone say"Oh, my God, that's what maple syrup tastes like!" Have fun everyone...

[ennismaple]

So far this year anxiety is a common theme. Every day I wake up I wonder: "What the heck am I going to break and have to fix today!". When soemthing does break anxiety turns to panic!

The list includes:

- 2x clear hoses on the RO (they don't like it when both valves on the concentrate line to the tank are closed!)
- Tractor: the transmission locked up yesterday with 4500 gallons of sap left to gather. This was followed by panic - who can I steal a tractor from for the day! Luckily, it was an easy fix today.
- Vacuum pump: I almost threw up when I hear our Delaval vacuum pump rev up and then die when we were checking lines for leaks. Luckily, it was just a blown fuse. That pump now has a vacuum regulator on it so it shouldn't happen again.
- RO temperature probe: the fittings on the temperature probe that sticks into the supply pump cracked on us (no good reason why) and it's taken 4 days to get a whole new assembly sent (its still not here). In the meantime we've been leaking sap all over the RO room floor.

Hopefully our luck will improve soon!

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Maybe I will experience those someday!

Start planning on beng excited and it will come

Excitement like a 4 yr old on Christmas morning

[stoweski]

Disappointed: Watching the 7 day forecast on Saturday and seeing 'the perfect storm' for sap. Then the past two mornings waking up to 36 degree weather.

Pity: For ADK1. 'nuff said. :D

[michiganfarmer2]

There are days that you hang your head and wonder why you ever decided to drill all those holes...Why I put so much emotions into this crazy sport..but then some folks show up and marvel at the rig and how cool it is and all of a sudden life is good:)

LOL. Thats for certain.

[sapbrush]

hey there iwas raised in holyoke went to high school there,now i live in belchertown, never new anyone that did syrup in holyoke, thats cool this year i havent been able to do it cause of a couple messed up disks in my neck, keep it up and enjoy the addiction, cause it will get to ya jim