August Journal

[Farmboy]

You guys are slacking its a few days into the month.

[Parker]

Havent turned the computer on in months......I got a 4 foot wood splitter that I hooked into the hydraulic system of my yard crane...saw the wood 4' and hold it with the bucket in the splitter,,,,still have to finish the splitting with the 4 footer behind the tractor but the peices are smaller (lighter) to be put by hand on the splitter,,,,,got premission to tap another 800 @ rte.11............stay cool!

[Amber Gold]

And the legend lives!

[red maples]

I try not to put the computer on but email is my stream of comunication for alot of people!!!! and I always get sucking to to viewing my fav. sites.

First batch of meat birds done...
second batch on order...
chicken house projects done.

Eliminated 2 ground hogs so far this summer. no serious damage to gardens!!!

pulled of 70lbs of honey so far and with this rain as of late hoping there is bunch more in there but at the same time can't really get into the hives with the weather as is.
need a good dry day to get in there and powder sugar dust for mights too.

getting used to running the chain saw for a few hours a day I cut trees down back in april/may now time to get them cut up back is a little stiff and forearms sore but getting better.
start hauling out and getting things split and stacked.

Maple sales steadily slow right now but picking up a little more so thats good.

Need to get a plan together and possibly take a trip out west(bascom's and maple guys) for tubing and supplies. Gotta see how much money I can budget for upcoming projects that I haven't even started on!!!

but its only august so as long as I get the wood done and stcked etc. the other stuff I can do when its cold out thats fine its better that way anyway the bugs are gone!!!!
.

[christopherh]

Finally got some much needed rain for the crops. Started on the the woodshed, it'll be 16X24 attached to the Sugarhouse. I'll load some pictures soon. Produce stand and syrup sales are doing well. I've had many vacationers buy lots of syrup, one was taking a bunch back to Martha's Vineyard, were I hear it's pretty pricy. Wood is all cut for next sugaring season, I'm still working on the woodpile to heat the house. Is that backwards or what?

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

Well, I've been working on wood and all that while getting permission to tap on another property with 100+ taps and waiting to hear from another 2 owners. probably be close to 300 taps this season. I am patiently awaiting the delivery of our materials for the new sap house. Just sold the hood from the half pint today to a fellow member of this site. Thats about it for me.
almost forgot, I ordered a Lapierre 16x16 canner/filterer and a scoop as well.

[220 maple]

Fellow Traders,
Haven't posted much this summer, I've had to work too many days in a row on my real job. Normal schedule is two days on two days off, three day weekend every other weekend. Been working 12 days in a row before getting two days off, doing this since mid April. Hopefully going back to normal schedule next week.
Maple Candy and Maple Coated Nuts along with syrup has been selling real good. Just called the stores and found out that I need to make candy plus jug some syrup.

Mark 220 Maple

[Tithis]

Went out today and began marking trees for tapping next year. I made a little system to help me count taps without keeping track of them in the field. Brought a box of red, yellow and green thumb tacks and counted how many there were in the box before I left. Each tree I found was marked with a red one and depending on its size also got a yellow or green one. Yellow meant they were big enough for 2 taps and green meant they were big enough for 3. Figured red would be the most visible in winter.

Its a 1 acre lot and I counted 30 trees and 39 taps reasonably close to the road going across the northern edge of the property. I know of trees along the southern edge of the property but they are less accessible and I have more than enough as is. There were also some other trees close and big enough to tap but didn't look healthy (large section of bark missing, hallowed holes, insect damage etc.)

Now I only have 20 actual tap spiles and even that is going to be pushing whats reasonable with how I'll be boiling. So during the first few days of the season I'm not going to focus so much on collecting sap as I will be on testing the sugar content of the sap. For the rest of the season I'll just tap the ones with the sweetest sap, try to make the best use of my resources.

Around 10 or so of the trees were sugar maples, mostly being concentrated in the eastern part of the property bordering the road. The other 20 or so trees were red maples mostly in the western half. The sugars tended to be larger than the reds with most of my multi-tap trees being the sugar maples.

[Paddymountain]

Spent all day yesterday getting the ceiling up in my sugarshack. I need to put the steam hood back up and close it into the cupola. Hopefully I'll soon be able to cut a little more wood, as I have 150 more taps for next spring. I have all my syrup sold, last year it took until almost sugar season to move the same amount.

[waysidemaple]

Tomorrow begins the last semester of my college career. Can't wait to be done! Spent all summer hitting the woods pretty hard. I think at this point I've added somewhere between 1200 and 1400 taps. Still have about a third of this wood lot to get tubed by season and I think it will be doable. Should hit 3000 taps this season pretty easily maybe a few more. Picked up a 1600 GPH lapierre RO last week. Looking forward to getting that set up and online. All in all a good summer and only 4 more days until my weekend begins (no friday classes). I did manage to sneek 3 rolls of 5/16 and tees to make drops while Im sitting in the apartment at night. Hope everyone else is ending the summer with some fun! Season is just around the corner!!

Scott

[Dennis H.]

Well it sounds like it is picking up around here.

I myself am in full swing working on sugar'in stuff.
I now have a nice hood and preheater lift setup. I made it so that I can remove the ropes and pulleys when not in use and would take all of 2 minutes to put back up when the hood needs lifting. I didn't clean the flue pan as often as I should have last season. I just didn't have an easy way of lifting the hood for access. Well I now have no excuses.

I am now splitting wood, it is all cut and in a big pile, just needs split. It is up at the cabin where I will be running tubing so I split enough to fill the trailer and bring it home another day back up splitting and bring another load home. I know I have way more than I need for the coming season. I cleaned up the woods in the area of the tubing and I just didn't want the wood laying there and rotting.

I counted trees there and I can get about 210 taps really easy and on vac that ends right at the driveway.
I also have to walk a stand of maples at a friends place, It will be on gravity this year but I am planning on putting vac there. He got a part of the woods logged off this year and the landing is at a perfect location for the tank. It will be a straight shoot of mainline and about 150-200 taps there. It looks like a real easy stand of trees to tube. I hope anyway.

I plan on redoing some of the tubing here at the house I want to try and have it all goto one tank and releaser instead of two seperate tanks. It might mean that I loose a few trees in the process but with the other two sugarbushes and one less tank and releaer to not worry about I think it will be a good move.

[red maples]

I aint into the sugaring list yet still havesting and processing stuff out of the garden. Fall batch of meat birds are amost 2 weeks old and soon ready to go out into the coupe which I have to repair a little on. once the wood is split for the house then I will onto sugarin' stuff its a long list as usual but I will get it done. Now the kids are back in school today I will have a some time to get some stuff done.

Winter project for this year is making over the down stairs barthroom!!! shouldn't be too bad. kids are getting bigger we need another shower!!!! (hopefully this one will be mine!!! :) ) Alittle plumbing adding in a shower, new sink and vanity, new walls stained wood 1/2 way up the drywall the rest of the way with a chair rail, ceiling exhaust fan and a new window. take a few weeks I would say a few days but it never takes a few days!!! ;/

Got my 3rd wood chuck, ground hog.....what ever yesterday. good shot if I do say so myself. snuck around the side of the chicken coupe. took off my shoes so I could seak through the rocks and leaves with scaring it off and pop....down she went biggun...WOW. I think it was the momma of the 2 I got earlier in the year. she wiped out my last 2 pumpkins and most of my gourds but she wouldn't go in the darn trap!!!

Now as long as I can stay off the computer for a while I can get some work done!!!

[220 maple]

As I was warming up a gallon of syrup to make a batch of candy decided to total up what I have made so far this year. 470 4oz bags of coated nuts( Pecan,Almonds
and English Walnuts). 1475 packages of Candy, (one large leaf, two med. leafs or 4 small leafs per package.) My number one store has bought 781 packages of candy and 200 bags of coated nuts. I need to check my records for the last two years but I believe they doing as good as the previous two years. They have two month left in the tourist season.

Mark 220 Maple

[twobears1224]

the last week of june and all of july it was so hot i didn,t do much of anything.i was on summer vacation from my bus driving job and desided to do nothing.here lately tho i,ve been into the maple stuff.i have 500 taps i,am setting up plus,i have 50 plus on my own land already tapped.the 500 taps are about a half mile back in the woods up on a flat topped hill.i,am running a 1 inch line all the way out to my sugarhouse.right now i,ve set 11 posts to get acrossed a feild.i either had to go around another hil or over it..i desided to go over it.the mainline is around 13 feet off the ground acrossed the feild.i saved alot of line by doing that.i did finish my homebuilt flat syrup strainer.i,ll get a pic sometime and post it.