How's your Summer going?

[DonMcJr]

I saw my Evaporator sitting there all lonely and wished it was Maple Season again!

I have my Deer Food Plots going, My Garden, My 1st Beehive will soon be 3 Beehives because a new beekeeper closeby found out he's deathly allergic to bee stings. I think we will soon see him here cause I planted the Maple Syrup Bug since he was dissappointed he couldn't keep bee's and make honey!

So I'm pretty busy but still can't wait for Maple Syrup Season!

How is everyone else's Summer Going?

[Maplehobbyist]

Hot.

Thank God for the swimming pool. Without it I'm sure either I'd be dead or my wife would be (she having decided that was easier than listening to my complaints about the heat).

Any "old-timers" remember three consecutive days of over 100 degree weather in Michigan prior to this July? I heard somebody at work mention 1988 as a possibility. (I was stationed elsewhere at that time so have no direct knowledge.)

Don, I wish you were close enough so your deer food plots kept the deer/ground hogs out of my garden. I always heard that animals didn't care for tomato leaves because of the taste but we have something that's eating them, so I guess that must be wrong. And no it's not tomato worms. We get those and this is a different kind of damage. Where the heck is Columbus anyway? Do you mind if I send the deer your way?

I looked at my pans over the weekend and they're full of spiders. Oh well, I get laid off at the end of this week so I'll have time to make some modifications to both the shack and the evaporator. I got about 16 quarts of syrup (well, 16 jars, since each jar is actually only about 28oz.) out of 16 taps and I'm looking to tap more but only if I can increase my boiling rate. Four or five hours of boiling each and every night takes the fun out of it after a while.

[DonMcJr]

I remember when I was a 12 I think...1984...we had a room air conditioner and slept on my parents floor for days in a row so maybe it was way back then...

Columbus is south of Port huron about 20 miles... If you can ship the deer this far I'll take them! LMAO!

[twofer]

I've said it before and I say it again, this maple syrup deal is trying to kill me.

I'm currently bottling maple syrup in the sugarhouse and I have no idea what temperature it is in here but I'm sure the devil is laughing at me. Gat dayum this heat.

[maple flats]

Yea, but you don't need to pre-heat the glass!

[DonMcJr]

Our summer was supposed to include an Addition to the house, 18x23 so I can move the Laundry Room Upstairs, make the Kitchen bigger and a bigger 2nd Bathroom for the wife (and me a bit) and the 11x12 of it a sitting room with a doorwall to a nice deck for my BBQ, all to be completed by September when my stepson goes back to school...

Well get this...my 7 acres is Zoned Agriculture, my house was built in 1915 and it's 26.6 from the property line. "New" rules say in AG Zone houses gottta be 75 Feet from property lines. So we had to file for a Varience ($250) and wait 22 days for a board meeting that they said "It will most likey be approved but we gotta follow State Law and put it in the paper and notify everyone within 300 feet of your property."

So...we had the contractor doing the foundation and shell ready to go last week now we gotta wait til the 24th.

Mind you, you have to have 2 acres to build and the property next to line in question isn't even 1.25 acres. We are only going straight back from exsisting house and not getting any closer to the property line than the house already is...to top it off EVERY house within a 3 mile radius would have the same issue if they want to add anything to their house or property... Houses across the street are only about 5 feet from the property line!

Ok I vented...but I don't feel much better LOL!