OMG-almost disaster:(

[stewardsdairy]

Done early tonight, not because of lack of sap but because the rafters near the chimney caught fire. My friend who was running evaporator got water on it from a bucket! All cooled down and will work on repair and prevention tomorrow.

[Waynehere]

Welcome to the oopsie of almost burning your shack down. I did that 2 years ago myself. Was lucky I have have a water hydrant and was able to put it out quickly. I had a roof jack of proper size made for the next year. No problems now. But I was sweating bullets when it happened.... :(

[Bruce L]

Had a close call like that maybe 10 years ago. Tree right beside the sugarhouse had a branch across the top of the chimney, maybe 6 feet above?, but anyway with the heat and sparks coming out, the branch decided to go on fire. I had shut down, watching everything cool, loading syrup to head home when I noticed leaves on fire beside sugarhouse, There is a swamp short distance away so I grabbed a pail of water and threw it on it, problem solved Loaded more syrup and another fire had started, then I noticed a red ember dropping in the leaves beside me. I looked up and saw sparks dropping out of the branch. After several more trips of bailing water onto the leaves, I figured I needed help, so I rushed home , got help, back down and climbed up on the roof with a length of 3/4 hose and started up the pump to put the branch out with sap. Since then the branch is of course gone, and the leaves get raked away from the sugarhouse once the snow disappears
On another note, how do you like the vortex and steamaway, what kind of evaporation rate are you getting?

[stewardsdairy]

When I'm not trying to burn down the place I get around 250 gallons per hour of sap. Spent the day doing preventive maintenance and didn't get fired up until 7:30 this evening and am a day behind in sap. Playing catch up til the late hours tonight.