View Full Version : With great reluctance it's time to sell our sugaring operation.
We have decided (our wives have decided) that we are going to have to sell our sugaring operation. It's perfect for someone with a full time job, because it has the sap coming right into the sugarhouse and you can start boiling when you get there. It is about 20.1 acres which all slant towards the sugarhouse. Check out the vid below for more about it. We are going to list with a realtor, and get advice as to how to price it. My buddy is a professional forester so it's very well managed and there could be a cut done, since we did one about 10 years ago with growth of value trees in mind. It has the potential of more than 500 taps, and if vacuum was installed it would produce much more. We went with just gravity to be able to boil it all down on our schedule. The place is really charming, with a "warm room" in front and 30 trees near the sugarhouse for buckets. Kids love the place. With my kiddos gone now, it's time for others to enjoy it. Feel free to check it out. 1 Burrill Hill Road, Skowhegan. ( right at the Norridgewock line) There are Access With Permission Only signs, but if you are on Maple Trader you have my permission. There's a trail to the top of the hill, a woodyard and windows you can peek in. We'll be listing it soon, so we'll have a price figured out soon.
The sugarhouse is 12x28 with a 12 x 12 foot woodshed on the back. There is a mainline with 2 spur lines that goes to the top of the hill. It's about 1/3 of a mile long by 600 feet wide or so. The sugarhouse has metal roof, board and batten siding and a cupola.
Cider Hill Maple Farm
03-28-2016, 10:03 AM
Revi,
I've always enjoyed reading your posts, and for the first time, putting a face to your name at Maple Mania. I'm sorry to here you will be moving on, away from the business, but I can also understand. A bunch of time, and hard work spent away from the family, can be frustrating for them. Especially during the cold months, when they want to escape to somewhere warm for a spell. Maybe now, you can venture out on Maple Sunday and enjoy other sugarhouses.
Best to you Sir.
Shawn
Thanks! I think I'll tap about 20 trees behind my house and boil them in a small rig. I am a bit sad about it, but it's time to get ready for retirement now. I'm going to try to do that in 2 years, and it will be a process to sell things and get ready for another way of living. I plan on spending some time in Latin America, and it might be during the sugaring months when I am retired.
Revi I have watched your you tube video many times over the past several years. Its one of my favorites. I believe you are a teacher like myself, from reading past posts. Good luck
Paddymountain
03-28-2016, 02:30 PM
Sorry to hear you are moving on from syrup. Where in Lain America are you going? I've been going to Honduras for awhile and will be heading down this April for a week.
I've always enjoyed your posts!
Atgreene
03-28-2016, 02:58 PM
Sorry to hear. Wish you were closer, I'd like to expand a little.
I wish you the best. If I could give you a little advise it would be to NOT use a realtor. I have sold two homes and a few building lots just using Craigslist. The home I am in now and the lot I bought beside me were all bought direct from the owner. Attorney fees were about $1000. A realtor will be 7-10% on the sale price. Why give them your hard earned money? I have saved about $75,000 in the last 6 years using Craiglist. Craigslist is free. Good luck.
Spud
Sugarmaker
03-28-2016, 07:35 PM
Revi,
Good luck as you move on with other things in life. You can check in here and get some of your maple fix.
Regards,
Chris
Thanks! It is a hard decision to make, but it's time to move on. I think I might spend some time in Guatemala, as I used to live there in the Peace Corps back in the 80's. We are going to miss the sugaring a lot. It's so absorbing and I call it an adventure in your home town. I hope just boiling down 20 taps will do it for me...
We have been showing the sugaring operation to a few people, and have had some inquiries already, thanks to Maple Trader. It's a hard place to let go of, but we hope that whoever ends up buying it will use it for sugaring!
325abn
04-02-2016, 09:15 PM
Great video! What's the price on the land? Skidder come with it?
Mitchman
04-03-2016, 06:22 AM
Yes Great video Revi, I may check it out tomorrow while I'm in the area, OK? Had a great surprise visit from Hambone and his wife here in the Mts, they where checking their camp and going right by my driveway. So I showed them my modest operation and basically the whole property. I'm closing down, but still boiling for my younger brother. I went over my best, 8+ gallons. The sap is turning color and taste, I've been tapped since Jan 27th Enough!! I will post the break down in a day or so.
16 x 24 Sugar Shack
2 Turkey Burners
416 Cat Backhoe
2000? Artic Cat
Homemade R.O. and Vacuum System
84 Taps in all
Parker
04-03-2016, 06:33 AM
Get a diffrent wife and keep sugaring! Priorities!!!
SeanD
04-03-2016, 06:57 AM
How about you switch from sugarbush to coffee finca? We could set something up as an exchange like a sugar house - coffee house partnership!
I spent two summers in Xela. Enjoy your time in Guatemala and good luck with the sale. It sounds ideal.
Sean
Definitely, check it out! It's right on a paved road, so park and walk around if you want! 1 Burrill Hill Road, Skowhegan. Sorry, the skidder wasn't ours. We just had it parked there while we were doing a cut. There is a lot of good wood on the property, because the first cut 10 years ago was to get the junk out. The price is $83,000, which is a pretty good price considering the sum of the parts. 40 for the land, 25 for the shack, 5 for the evaporator and 13 grand worth of stumpage not counting maples. There a really nice woodyard. The maples have been lightly tapped, so it would yield a lot more than we have time for if a small vacuum was installed. There are over 500 taps possible now, and maybe more in the future.
Not a bad idea! I know some people who had a coffee finca near Purulha.
Get a diffrent wife and keep sugaring! Priorities!!!My wife is actually okay with it, but I'm retiring in 2 years, and my friend's wife doesn't like him being away so much this time of year. So we'll see. I caught myself looking at a lot and wondering how many maples were on it in the place we're moving to when we retire.
Peeper
04-04-2016, 06:50 PM
I met my neighbor and inspiring mentor, Froggy (Jim Freyenhagen - quite the character study in himself)14148, 19 years ago when he had been tapping the big sugar maples we had at our old farmhouse we had then (and producing well over 300 gallons of syrup from other properties as well & calling it an "awful bad" year!). At that time he had been doing it for quite a while when he was retired from the Coast Guard. He thought he was too old then - calling it a "labor of love", but he's still doing it today - 19 years later!
Who's "sadly" and "reluctantly" tossing in the towel?! You're far from retiring, if I'm reading you correctly,
My wife is actually okay with it, but I'm retiring in 2 years, and my friend's wife doesn't like him being away so much this time of year. So we'll see. I caught myself looking at a lot and wondering how many maples were on it in the place we're moving to when we retire.
Clarification please: is your wife ok with continued sugaring or getting a new wife?
My wife is okay with our sugaring. My friend and I started this venture as a partnership, and we have to agree on things, or it doesn't work.
We're advertising in Northern Woodlands and maybe Maine Farm Link as well.
We put it on Maine Farm Link, and here's the description there:
http://www.mainefarmlink.org/archives/9765
I went to one of their get- togethers and learned a lot about the process of selling farmland. Their goal is to get it to other farmers, which is exactly what we want to do.
It would be a shame if it was sold to someone who isn't into maple syruping at all.
We put it in Northern Woodlands and have has some inquiries already.
We now have dropped the price by 9000 and have it with a realtor. Check out this nifty painting of the sugarhouse done by a friend of ours:
http://mapletrader.com/traderclassifieds/land/p5203-201-acre-maple-sugaring-operation.html
It's on Maple Trader Classifieds and also on Maine Farm Link, which is part of the Maine Farmland Trust.
Check it out if you are in the neighborhood. There's a trail to the top of the lot right behind the sugarhouse.
Just say you saw it on Maple Trader and it's okay with the landowner to check it out.
We might even go co-op and sell quarter shares in the operation if people are interested. Talk to us. There would be 4 shares and each person would get 1/4 of the syrup and be able to cut 2 1/2 cords of firewood. We would make it into a legal co-op if people are into it.
Mark B
05-05-2017, 07:59 PM
Revi, any bites? I've driven that area several times in the last few years being from the Clinton area. Always admired the land back in the hills between Norridgewock and Skowhegan. Just started sugaring this year, but I'm not ready for even your scale. Lost my uncle a few months back and he sugared off property in Belmont. Trying to convince my family to keep his acreage in the family and allow me to continue working it. Figure I have access to enough trees, I might go with 150 taps.
We have had some interest, and have decided that we are open to a partnership as well. We have dropped the price to $73,900 already. If someone wants to buy half, I'll stay on. We may log the parcel next winter if it doesn't sell by then and drop the price a little. We'll see...
With great reluctance we dropped it to $69,900. We had a great season sugaring, so we're going out on a high note. Call Chris Perkins at 474-3303 at Whittemore's Realty if you want to take a tour. We'll be there on and off from now on. It was such a fun season I am hating the idea of selling now, but I guess change is inevitable! Feel free to check it out! (Bring your snowshoes for the next couple of weeks)
We got some offers, but we decided not to take them. We've taken it off the market for now. It's too fun sugaring!
Just got done cutting wood for next winter. It's great exercise! I think I could call it pilates with bugs in the mud! I think it could become the big exercise craze!
Cutting a bunch of trees that fell in the last two wind events. We cut two, but then found another 2 up the hill! It's going to be a workout!
DrTimPerkins
11-20-2019, 07:19 AM
Just got done cutting wood for next winter. It's great exercise! I think I could call it pilates with bugs in the mud! I think it could become the big exercise craze!
Given that "Goat Yoga" is a thing, you might be on to something. :lol:
Yes! We could even incorporate some goats into the exercise! Pulling on tubing is great stretching work also!
We're not selling until after next winter. Sugaring is too fun, and the wives are coming around. (hopefully)
I've been xc skiing a lot this winter, so that's been my exercise regimen, but cutting wood was good in the fall. Around the middle of February I'll switch back to snowshoes and start doing tubing! We had a bunch of trees down this fall and cutting them off the lines was what we did with a couple of weekends. One big mainline repair, and we did it with a metal junction, so that should last a while!
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