Nothing to do so I went visitin'

[BryanEx]

Everything has been frozen up solid for most of the week and through the weekend so with nothing to do Merna and I decided to go visiting. Made the 3 hour drive to go visit Ennis Maple Products (http://www.ennismaple.com/) just North of Perth, Ontario and wow, what a difference from our tiny operation. Marty introduced us to "The Beast"... his 14' Force 5 evaporator and I have to say the nick name is appropriate. I feed my 2 x 4 pretty much split kindling - he feeds The Beast half trees. My entire evaporator would fit in his fire box and he can draw off in an hour almost what I make in a season. It was also very interesting to learn how various friends and family are involved to allow for running a larger operation as a part time / seasonal business.

Marty... I know you were busy on the weekend doing a tear down and clean up to prepare for the heavy flows coming this week but Merna and I really appreciated your time and the chance to see how "the other half" do things.

- Bryan

[Yellzee]

I too went a visiting at a spot a few miles down the road that I didn't even know existing. Not sure the size of the evaporator but it's a monster compared to my little home made thing.

Great hospitality and information sharing from Dan and his wife!

If we could just get 2 more degrees out of these days we'd be swamped in sap

[BryanEx]

I'm thinking it would be great to do this every season... go visit other Maple Traders in the Eastern Ontario / Western Quebec region just to see how they do things. I'd love to visit folks running homemade rigs right up to the large commercial operations. Even though Ennis Maple is not even close to being in the same hobbyist league as me I still managed to pick up good ideas and advice that will make things easier or more professional for my own business. Rockwood & cheesegenie... you guys open to visitors next season? :D

[cvmaple]

I would be open to that idea, sounds like fun, I am about 12 miles south of Yellzee. I love seeing other operations and we can always learn from each other eh!!

[BryanEx]

The only catch to this idea is that if the producer you want to visit is boiling... you are likely boiling too. I just happened to luck out (in a weird sort of way) to have everything frozen up solid. That being said, I still would be willing to miss a day of boiling to visit other Maple Traders... just not every weekend. ;)

[CBOYER]

Or you burn more fuel whit your car and visit ones that enough far away that will be sugaring up to end of april if we look at temp. we got now...:rolleyes:
photo take this wk end:
3216:

[jmayerl]

Bryan-
One of my friends 2 miles up the road has a 5'x14' intensofire and he wanted me to stop in and check out his new RO. Well holy crap, I didnt realize he could put 10" round logs in his fire box! not to mention there not even dried. Just about then his auto draw pulled off a few gallons. we sat and drank beer for 3 hours and in that time he filled 2 55 gallon drums. In 1 week he has made more syrup than I collected sap off 250 taps. moral of the story is that when we left the wife looked at me and just said "No"

[BryanEx]

Or you burn more fuel whit your car and visit ones that enough far away that will be sugaring up to end of april if we look at temp.
Maybe let me know when you can see at least some grass CBOYER... I'll be in the pool waiting for your phone call. :D


Moral of the story is that when we left the wife looked at me and just said "No"
:lol: Funny... I was told the exact same thing on the way home from Ennis Maple.

On another note and seeing as jmayerl is from WI... we passed through several areas during our trip that had many dairy farm operations. Many of them had life sized plastic cows near their driveways. I have been wondering ever since where one buys a life sized plastic cow? Is there a cow store somewhere? Can you buy other animals? What would shipping cost on a plastic life sized cow? Do they light up at night? What's the advantage of a life sized plastic cow over a concrete cow because I saw those too? I have seen many lions at the end of driveways which is a Greek tradition to show the mortgage is paid. I have some local East Indians that have concrete elephants in their yard which is for good luck I believe. Where do plastic cows for dairy farms come from? It was quit a good trip on Saturday both to meet a fellow "Trader" and talk maple but also to see relatively local communities I hadn't seen in a long time.

[Yellzee]

If we have a few quebecers we can visit I'm up for a road trip once our season ends... (from the look of things this week).

From the sugaring off parties I hit when I lived in Montreal they have way more fun at it than we do as well.

[ennismaple]

Everything has been frozen up solid for most of the week and through the weekend so with nothing to do Merna and I decided to go visiting. Made the 3 hour drive to go visit Ennis Maple Products (http://www.ennismaple.com/) just North of Perth, Ontario and wow, what a difference from our tiny operation. Marty introduced us to "The Beast"... his 14' Force 5 evaporator and I have to say the nick name is appropriate. I feed my 2 x 4 pretty much split kindling - he feeds The Beast half trees. My entire evaporator would fit in his fire box and he can draw off in an hour almost what I make in a season. It was also very interesting to learn how various friends and family are involved to allow for running a larger operation as a part time / seasonal business.

Marty... I know you were busy on the weekend doing a tear down and clean up to prepare for the heavy flows coming this week but Merna and I really appreciated your time and the chance to see how "the other half" do things.

- Bryan

Bryan - It was my pleasure and it was nice to meet and talk with you and Merna. I'd have given you a more complete tour of the entire operation had I not been in the middle of giving The Beast a bath. It's always nice to meet other maple syrup producers, share ideas and swap stories.

I hope you have a great 2nd half to your season and make enough syrup to fill all your orders!

Marty