Addiction.

[Sandersyrup]

At what stage of maple addicted are you? Sometimes I feel like I'm losing my mind.

I can't drive anywhere even on the Interstate without being distracted by maple trees. I see them everywhere. I try to identify them, "nice red, enormous silver, just a Norway ohh darn an ash, woah a huge sugar!"and try not wreck my car.

I haven't shaved in weeks. "Maple beard".

My wife is referring to herself as the "maple widow".

Always on the lookout and strategizing for materials and ways to build my first shack, haul sap and pass PA regulations.

Constantly checking this forum.

I've got it bad.

Help!

[wnybassman]

I'm complicating spending thousands of dollars building a shack and buying a real evaporator to save $100 or $200 a year in syrup. lol Somebody smack me!

[PerryW]

my dream is that, someday, they will finally come with a name for this disease so that people won't just think we are crazy.

[Super Sapper]

my dream is that, someday, they will finally come with a name for this disease so that people won't just think we are crazy.

It should be covered under health insurance with time off of work and equipment should be covered under therapy costs. There is no cure so you will have it for life.

[3GoatHill]

This is my second year. Last year I had three taps and a turkey fryer. I stood outside boiling for a few twelve hour days to make a little more than three quarts. This year I'm increasing to 24 taps and bought a used Algiers 2x3. I get excited when I see samaras on the ground on my property that are not Norways. Every time I lift the lid on a bucket, it feels like Christmas morning. "They" say that you can get addicted to something the very first time you try it. I suspect this time "They" might be right.

[Spolcik]

I feel the same way! But lately I feel like I'm on the nauty list when I check the woods there's nothing in the buckets :(
It's usually a sad walk back to the truck. I don't sell my syrup but I figure with what I have spent on equipment and the time put in its the equivelant of about $100 a gallon! Feels like it anyway lol. Definitely an addiction but I must be part crazy too! The family has fun so it makes it all worth it.


Have a great year everyone!

[Sandersyrup]

I try to convince my wife.. the that my hobby is like any other hobby the average American husband has. Motorcycles, golf, cars... except my hobby has the benefit of providing the family with something useful.. SYRUP and maybe even CASH (someday)! I'd like to see what a Harley in the garage provides the rest of the family besides a smaller bank account! I like to think this makes the expenses a little easier to swallow. (pun intended) ;)

[Evets]

I am a sick sick man.:lol:

[Sugarmaker]

At what stage am I at in the addiction? I had not thought about it in that light.
Lets see, what are the stages and how many are there?
playing with fire
tasting all the maple sweet sap and syrup you can stand
staying up late or all night boiling on flat pans.
Making medium and dark syrup for years
building a arch that Dad never was able to get done.
building a sugarhouse
finding the sugarbush
searching for trees
tweeking equipment
retail and wholesale syrup
developing maple products
entertaining 300 to 400 folks that want to learn about syrup
Winning best of show syrup syrup at local fair.
educating and mentoring folks that want to make syrup for the first time.
Trying to answer syrup questions
Learning new things about maple.
Being actively involved in local Maple Syrup association, even president a couple times.
listening to other producers want to help the maple industry continue to grow and supporting projects like LEME
Having granddaughter setting in front of her great grandfathers arch warming her hands against a little fire.
second guessing the weather forecaster about when the next run will happen?

I guess I have progressed through these stages maybe many more.
Currently I like to have family, friends and neighbors drop in and set in the sugarhouse and visit, while we are making syrup.
Maybe I am getting near the final stages????
Still having fun but still addicted. If there are 10 stages I may be at 7?? :)

Regards,
Chris

[VTmaplehobby]

Built my first homemade arch out of a barrel last week. Got a single 12"x20" steam pan with a 12"x10" preheater. Have never boiled sap in it...

That said, I have already purchased the stainless sheets, drawn up plans for a new custom pan, started on a new arch, and located a perfect spot
for a shack to contain all of it.

I'm only $500 +/- in at this point, but I see this "addiction" getting very serious very fast...

My only hope is that my wife sticks to the aforementioned "maple widow" role and doesn't jump straight off the "maple divorcee" cliff.

[maplestudent]

We may be an addicted bunch here.....but this addiction requires hard work, a commitment of time, and creativity, among other things. And for me its rewards include more time enjoying the outdoors, the satisfaction of making something from the land I live on, and sharing both unique moments and the yearly harvest with family and friends.

My only regret is not indulging in this addiction when my kids were younger.

[backyard sugaring]

My wife says I make the mosy expensive Maple syrup in the world. We were leaving Bascoms one day after spending $700 and my wife looked at me and said we do this as a family it is worth it. As I said in previous post the sugar shack is a magical place during the sugaring season. The good times, good conversations, and food make it priceless. Lee

[maplestudent]

My wife says I make the mosy expensive Maple syrup in the world. We were leaving Bascoms one day after spending $700 and my wife looked at me and said we do this as a family it is worth it. As I said in previous post the sugar shack is a magical place during the sugaring season. The good times, good conversations, and food make it priceless. Lee

I need a sugar shack

[Sandersyrup]

"I need a sugar shack"


Me too!

[Plungerke]

Last year my neighbor (Bernie) brought me to his sugar bush to help stomp snow and prepare for the coming sugar season, after a few hours he had me convinced that this activity should be part of my life. The next week I bought 50 taps on Ebay and 5 gallon buckets form the local Subway to get started. I also joined Maple Trader and began reading every chance I could, this site is a god sent to beginners. Now Bernie was a Old Timer (80 I believe) and gave me plenty of guidance to start up but Maple Trader members gave me technical details to build an arch and purchase the proper equipment to make Maple GOLD.

The same year Bernie started me making Syrup the local outdoors show did a three part segment on making Maple syrup, well worth your time to watch:
Episode ONE: http://youtu.be/zoT4tQsvc_o
Episode TWO: http://youtu.be/Tal5EsVus1Y
Episode THREE: http://youtu.be/MqzAd-eDtME
Unfortunately Bernie passed away this fall but my mentor will never be forgotten.

So we started tapping trees and collecting sap, before we knew it we had 80 gallons and it was time to boil except we had no arch! Thanks to the help of some friends with a fab shop I had a wonderful 24x30 arch and a stainless pan. A friend of mine was a beer maker and he came out with his beer tools along with my brother-in-law to start the boil. Knowing only what I read and had picked up from Bernie we made our first batch of syrup. On that Very day I knew this was going to be part of my life until they shovel dirt upon my cold dead body. I have always been an outdoors man either fishing or hunting every chance I could get but no outdoor activity I had done brought more people together in a social environment that only US sugar makers understand. My wife and four children along with siblings, nephews, neighbors and friends make this the most enjoyable activity of the year, I tell anyone that wants some syrup just come and join me at the sugar bush and together we will make syrup for them to enjoy.

Year two we are adding more taps and building a sugar shack! I feel like a kid on Christmas morning waiting for these trees to start dripping, OVER THE TOP addicted in the UP of Michigan.

Wishing all my Maple Trader family the best on the 2014 Season!!

[Poor Farmer]

After a thirty year hiatus, now affectionally referred to as the good years, I put in three taps and boiled on the wood stove for a couple days until my wife sent me and the pot packing to the backyard to seek our fortune. The season ended with twenty taps and me feeding the eternal flame. Now just two years later, I will need to make twenty gallons of syrup just to maintain my twice retail plus my time production cost for the syrup I give away, but I have learned a lot. For instance, as a welder, I make a great comedienne. While I remain my mother's least favorite son, she doesn't bring it up as much if I keep her in syrup. It is however all worth it because my adult children return on the weekends to help me. Someday they can tell their incredulous future grandchildren that when they were younger, their father made them carry heavy sap buckets for miles! uphill! through the snow! Sure this probably ends with me homeless, in an alley, passed out next to a dumpster, with an empty maple-leaf shaped bottle in brown paper bag, but do we really need to call it an addiction.