When the wood is worth more than the syrup

[ibby458]

I'm sure we've all had instances where the wood we burned was worth more than the syrup we made. I'm sure that will be the case for me for at least one boiling day. I was cutting standing dead hardwood for the sugar house, and dropped a large, dead black ash tree. It wasn't until after I had blocked it up did I notice that I could have gotten a 12 foot clear log from the butt. Sawed. dried & planed, I could have sold that lumber for several hundred dollars. OH well. It split right nice into fine chunks that'll make the evaporator roar.

[cheesegenie]

I think of that all the time. I figure the way I make syrup ,I use about
a cord of firewood per gallon of syrup. Firewood sells at $75. Also spend
most of a day doing it,expenses of filters, bottles, repairs, atv gas,
finishing stove propane. Will admit the evaporator wood is not the
best to sell, soft wood ,scrap lumber etc.But I love doing it . Also all
the pleasure from this site, where I also spend too much time.-10F
this morning, back to normal winter, usually start to tap around here
March 15.

[Fred Henderson]

-21.7 drg F here this AM. I know that what you say about wood & the labor that goes into syrup making is true, but once that maple bug bites us we are hooked.

[maple flats]

I have a sawmill and any good butt log gets sawed, I just burn the tops, scrap, poor quality, and slabs from the mill. I even mix in a little hemlock slab but not too much or I lose boil. I do it just to help get rid of some of it because otherwise I have slab all over the place (all softwood, the hardwood is always used up) According to the North American Maple Producer's Manual you should get about 25 gal / full cord (I assume this is solid and not punky, partially rotten wood)

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

25 cords per syrup is a joke unless you are using an evaporator 12 feet or longer. If you get under that, it isn't going to happen unless you are boiling 2.5 to 3 percent sugar content sap. :?

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Kevin,

I can probably get 15 to 17. I seldom ever fire up unless I am boiling all day or at least 6 hours. I have boiled off 1700 gallons of sap in three boils. :?

[brookledge]

When I had my 3X8 with no pre-heater or forced draft I was doing good to get 17 gal/cord. Now with my 3X12 with inferno arch and pre-heater I get 25 gal/cord.
Keith

[maple flats]

I never checked because I never had all of my wood stacked where i could measure it. I do this year and will test it out. I have a 2 x 6 with blower draft and flue pan hood, open syrup pan, and preheater in the hood with a damper on hood stack. Will let you know after the season. Right now i have wood for 125 gal according to the formula with 300 taps. Time will tell how close it is for my set-up

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[markcasper]

Just a comment...When I had my 3x10, I was using the same amount of wood that I am now on my 4x12. The 3x10 had only natural draft and if the wood was a touch tough at all, it'd slow you up a quite a bit.

I could only get about 65 gph with my 3x10. Last year, I gauged my 4x12 per an in-line sap meter over a 12 hour day/night of boiling. I averaged 162 gallons per hour, BUT, I had a big run and had to work that night. I methodically through wood in all night and had the forced air turned up the whole while so much that it was shooting a flame out the crack of the doors at times. Nothing to mention about the ash flying around. Yes, lots of wasted heat up the stack, but what else do you do when you get strickened with "tap-crazy disease." As my wife calls it.

[ibby458]

I've never had enough wood up before tapping to measure it. Some years, I didn't have any! We'd cut as much as we could on weekend mornings, hoping to get enough to boil in the evenings for the rest of the week. I've got a Woodmizer sawmill, but don't generate much slabs. (I get every bit of usable lumber out of the logs, and the slabs are mighty thin)

Our big saving grace was the beaver-flooded swamps out back. If I got going early, I could cut standing dead wood off them anywhere in the winter with the ATV and sled. Even after the ice got rotten, I'd cut along the edges, getting a lot of small cedar, tamarack and some hardwood. The Popple they felled and debarked was at least partially dry and burned fine.

Last year, I didn't cut a stick. A friend was paid to gut an old farmhouse back to the post & beam framework, and tear off some woodsheds, additions and a small barn. He dumped each load in front of the tractor shed where I was boiling, and I cut it up betweenn tending the arch. We made 44 gallons on our 2.5 x 5 flat pan with it. 100+ yr old boards & beams burned HOT. Nails were a pain, though.

This year, I had about 100 cord of dry pine slabs given to me for the hauling. That sawyer was working by the bd ft, and took BIG slabs. Most has to be split to fit in the arch. For now, we're concentrating on the 2" edging. I've got several cords of 2x2, 2x4, and 2x6 edgings cut to length and stacked under the large eaves. I'm hoping to get enough of the standing dead hardwood to mix 50-50 with the pine. I'm hoping that'll make an ideal mix. The standing dead hardwood has lost it's bark and is cracked clear thru to the center in most cases. Not bone dry, but close.