New house for 2013

[chasesugarbush]

Started the construction on my new sugar house!
Floor laid and the studs milled (chainsaw mill)
6601

[chasesugarbush]

Walls going up 6602
Had to get the trusses out to the new site!6603
Got the steel on ready for the siding!

[chasesugarbush]

6604
Starting to come together one board at a time.

[chasesugarbush]

Ripped all the baten strips burned out my table saw had to finish with my skill saw.
All part of the fun.6605

[chasesugarbush]

Finished the siding and the cupla.
Windows are cut and screwed in place(need to get hinges) for now snow coming tonight!!6606
I made a four foot porch to hold our drums. Gets wet it will be nice not to have to walk through the mud!!

[chasesugarbush]

A pic of the inside and our oil tank evaporator.6607

[chasesugarbush]

We put the lights in(leds) no power going to run them off a battery. Fiber blanket came in the mail, this weekend installing that with the fire brick.
last year we burned with no blanket or bricks with lanterns6608 in a tarp shack got over 100 degrees inside hope the bricks and blanket help with that.
All of this is a huge improvement from last year. Hoping for a better run but will take what ever is brought on to us.

[maple flats]

Wow, you built the whole thing in 1 day!!! It took me a few months. Nice job.

[Dennis H.]

I love how you used small logs to frame the walls.
Very nice looking sugarhouse, Well done.

[Pete S]

NICE! How sweet it must be to actually have enclosed walls!

[jmayerl]

Nice to see other people from the area on here. I will have to come visit sometime. Looks like things are coming together quickly for you. Don't worry, with all the snow we got lately, I'm sure this will be a more normal season, like st paddy day tapping.

[chasesugarbush]

I didnt actualy build the shack in one day it took about 3 weekends with help from family and friends. It did go up fairly fast though I did cut all the trees down early summer and peeled all the bark off with a draw knife (that wasnt fun).
Sat we are going to weld a shelf on the barrel to slide the pan off, put the blanket and bricks in get the rest of gear out there while the ground is froze! when the frost comes out it gets very muddy hoping i can get back there with my jeep this year. In the past the only way to get back to the sugar shack was by atv.
last year we started with 50 taps and finished with 80 this year i think we are going to go to 100 hope it isnt too much for our 30 '' by 4' flat pan We finished off the season in2012 with 8 gal of the sweet stuff hoping to do 12 to 15 this year im down to my last jar.

[chasesugarbush]

I did a test boil last weekend more to stay warm while we did the wiring but i was impressed that the shack didnt fill up with steem seeing it was -4 out when we fired up. It was a bit windy so we played around with the cupla doors and cracking windows got it up to 50 inside and didnt get totaly soaked! 6615
may have to put somthing on the perlins to help with the condensation but will find out more as we are going to do at least a couple more test boils before the taps! trial and error is part of all the fun in our shack you sure learn a lot!

[unc23win]

Pretty nice looking good job man. I like the logs for the framing as well its a nice touch.

[chasesugarbush]

I have a cupla quistion if it is windy do you open up the side that is into the wind or the other? Just wondering since i have never used a cupla before.

[chasesugarbush]

Got the evaporator insolated and bricked, started a fire to set the mortor.
Seems that the draft is finaly right. with the blanket and bricks in it lifted our grate up a lot, so our holes in the barrel to let natural air in are now below the grate.
I was happy with the short time that i had it going.
wondering now if it is going to be important to keep the ash cleaned out to keep that air flow under the fire? 6705

[Pete S]

Not looking to "Mother" you but how far is your evaporator stack from the wood wall/framing?

It just looks a bit close in the photo.

[chasesugarbush]

it is 16 inches from the back wall.
I had the same conserns as well, I have some inso blanket left over that i may if nessesary to put in that area.
I am going to be watching that closly on our first boil down.
we had two test boils so far one with it insolated and one without i had a thermometer sitting back there and both times it read 50 deg now thats not 16 hours of boiling eather.
do you think that is going to be a problam?

[Pete S]

I'm in WI and our 1&2 Family building code requires 18" clearance to combustibles. Your photo just made it look CLOSE!

Rather than insulation, and "air space" created by a non-combustible would be the best. Spacing out 1" air space with a 24 ga metal for example would allow a safe clearance of then 6" for a wall clearance application.

SPS 323.045(d) Table https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/sps/safety_and_buildings_and_environment/320_325/323.pdf#page=12

There is a chart that depicts various senarios and air space protected by a non-combustible appears to be the best bang for buck.

I just wanted to mention the clearance thing as it would be terrible if something happened, as well if you can protect it, you won't have to worry about that issue when you're operating your evaporator.

[chasesugarbush]

thanks for keeping a look out for me i do appreciat it we have a cover for our barrel that we put on when we take the pan off I will put that behind the stack while we are boiling. Iwill still keep an eye on the heat in that back corner!

[chasesugarbush]

6881Did some tinkering out at the sugar shack this weekend built a table and chair out of some of the left over parts and pieces from the build.
Also got the head tank up and plumbed.
Cut and split about 2 cords of wood for next year. A bit cold up here -15 sunday morning hope thats the end of that for this year!!