June journal

[jimsudz]

Welcome to June,where are the months going.Been busy with non-maple activities,work,kids ballgames,mowing lawn,and life in general.The weather in these parts have been excellent. Did put up some sugarwood , and I've been looking a buying a 14 acre wood lot. Have a great , and safe summer.

[lakeview maple]

Same here Jim , been working getting all the gardens planted and working on firewood for both the house and sugarhouse. I had a friend call this week with a dump truck full of hemlock slabs from his bandmill . He let me cut it right there to length and I stacked it on the truck, I love freebie sugar house wood. The wife and I have been touring on our bikes when we get the chance ,sad part is haven't put a fish line in the water yet. Take care all ,Al

[maple flats]

Sugar wood's done for 2015, some done for 2016. Been studying ideas to make sugarhouse more efficient. No real answers yet. While I won't be able to build my addition this year, I may do some preliminaries, remove 2 trees & stumps, maybe remove top soil and set poles. Then do other prep for the site. The Addition looks like it will need to wait til next year. Looking for a better vacuum pump for my bigger bush and will add 2 more mains.
Been working in blueberries and raspberries. Dropped a few trees that shaded one of our gardens in mid-late afternoon (they became sugarwood).

[western mainer]

Working on sugar wood over half done. Clearing out beech and oak out of another bush.Still wet in the woods.
Brian

[sjdoyon]

Going to go and test out an Argo next weekend. Need a piece of equipment capable of climbing steep terrain, traversing deep snow and capable of getting equipment up the mountain.

[Yellzee]

Ordered a new polaris ranger 570 and telling my wife we needed it for maple stuff!!! That's the closest thing to maple I have been up to.

[whitetail farms]

still recovering from acl surgery 3 weeks ago so wont be working much in the woods,so luckily I have a new evaporator to set up witch will probably take most of the month cause I have to put in a new stack,and a stack for the steam hood then get it all bricked,if there's anytime left ill probably start working on some wood this month too ,have a good summer everyone!!!!

[Rhino]

Busy May and June so far up in Northern Wis. Docks/boat lifts and pontoons all installed and launched and just finished planting the gardens. I tried a new thing for the markets and i wintered carrots by covering them with a foot of leaves and pine needles last fall. Turned out great and we have been digging and selling fresh carrots for the farmers markets. Syrup related work is cleaning up my brothers barn that collasped from the snow load. This barn was 100 years old and in bad shape to begin with. It was 20X60 with a concrete slab that is in perfect condition, we are going to get a 20X60 versatube steel building and have our sugar shack there instead of way back in the muddy woods roads. We have to fill in some of the gutters with concrete but other then that its pretty simple with the slip together versa tube structure. 20X40 of it will be for wood storage using the carport style frames and the evaporator/ro part will be a 20X20 enclosed steel frame.

[spud]

I have been putting off working in the woods due to lack of interest. There are things I need to do but they will have to wait until fall because I hate hot weather. I plan to add mainline and shorten some laterals. I really miss the Alaska summers but love being back in Vermont with family and friends. The apple trees are all planted and so is the garden and now i am left to just mow the lawn. My oldest son plays Legion baseball and will be traveling to Alaska for two weeks to play 11 games. I will be going to much of his games in Canada, New York and here in Vermont. I also have two girls playing summer softball so I will be watching some of their games also. I am also planning on building three shooting shacks for deer season. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and we all have a great 2015 sugaring season.

Spud

[GeneralStark]

Been busy here cutting firewood and cleaning up from winter building projects. Shopping for an RO. Got my application in for a NRCS grant but not sure if they will get the funding. Won't know until fall. If the funds come through likely going for a new CDL 500 gph machine and if not, will likely go for a used 250 or 600 machine.

Farmer's market season has been getting going and has been good so far. I'm selling products well this year so far. Need to get more taps set up for next season so I can make enough to not have to buy syrup. I just shipped out 4+ cases of sugar shakers and sugar in mason jars that is going to NYC on a barge and stopping at farmer's markets along the way.

[220 maple]

Candy making season, my number 1 tourist trap store called a day after I delivered them candy, Unless sales fall off completely they will be out over the weekend. Plus I got a order from the marketing specialist for Farm Credit of Virginias, they needed some candy on Tuesday the 10th, a luncheon for 25 congressmen? I guess they are the sub-committee in charge of their federal monies for loans?

Mark 220 Maple

[DrTimPerkins]

Happy National Donut Day to all!

[PerryFamily]

Have actually been pretty busy around here. Signing the lease this morning on a new bush just down the road. Was 1200 taps at one time but I think that could grow to 1500 fairly easily. Lots of one tap trees that have never been tapped.
Second half of the new Sugarhouse floor is prepped and waiting on concrete. A perfect example of doing something right the first time saves a lot of issues in the end. 97599759

[SDdave]

Well I'm spending June dealing with April's procrastination. April got real busy for me so I didn't finish my sweet to syrup, and hence didn't bottle. Figured I had more time in the summer. Ha Ha on me. Now with baseball and softball with the kids, work, family vacations, and extended family camping outings (yes I volunteered to bring the syrup). I thought it would be a good time to finish my syrup. Had 15 gallons of sweet in the freezer that needed to get down to about 10 to 12 finished. I guess you may know where I'm at with the process. Mr. All Thumbs dropped the only hydrometer...I think I'll order 3.

SDdave