just curious

[crawflyer]

A question for all the 'old timers'. Did you make maple syrup during the last ice age?

[Haynes Forest Products]

Yes I did but I kept burning up my pans because they were made of wood.:mrgreen:

[maple flats]

The discovery of all products made from maple sap came only about 400-500 years ago, so us oldtimers were not boiling sap, we just made moonshine.

[Sugarmaker]

Hey I resemble that remark!
Sure feels like the ice age is just around the corner!:) Wife and I were just mentioning that today.
I just cant imagine (the old days) making large quantities of sap gathered in wooden hand made containers, into sugar (260 deg F) with hot rocks in a log! I am not about to try it either!:)
Winter just seems to be hanging on in the tundra of the great white north!
Gary,
Since you won't be boiling are you going to come to the sugarhouse over the weekend? You can fire the rig to stay warm! Maple BBQ glazed hot dog snacks too! Two new sugar-houses near by. Bring Chad and his partner and Aaron with you. Might as well share in the 2018 non season of syrup! Weather looks good into mid April for making syrup. The second season after this years ice age?
Regards,
Chris

[crawflyer]

Yes, planning to stop in to see you. Not sure yet what Chad and Arron are doing yet. How do you think the tap holes we drilled will hold up? Been a month or more for mine.

[Haynes Forest Products]

But seriously my first real evaporator was a 2 X 8 English tin lead soldered rig that I got with the building out of a farmers woods. Evap, building, 200, buckets, spiles, hydro cup, hydrometer, desk, chair, complete arch, scoop, screen scoop, and a book from the dept of Ag. with everything you ever wanted to know about making syrup. The farmer was a wealth of miss information but was helpful. He passed on how they would haul sap and cook all night to provide cheap sugar to the farm as a necessity. Back when it was sweet flavorful and dark as molasses and that's the way most old timers like it. DON'T BE BRINGING ME ANY OF THE FANCY CLEAR CRAP!!

[Sugarmaker]

Yes, planning to stop in to see you. Not sure yet what Chad and Arron are doing yet. How do you think the tap holes we drilled will hold up? Been a month or more for mine.

Gary,
I have this feeling I am about done. Taps are 6 weeks old today. I will be very surprised if we get a lot more sap. Although there should be a new season for those that have 2 week old taps. I was up half the night working on a concept for adding new taps while the others are still in place (tubing). Then I would need to cut more wood so it probably is not going to happen. The 80+ gallons looks like the crop for us. (about 50% of a normal year)
See you this weekend.
Regards,
Chris

[Tweegs]

A question for all the 'old timers'. Did you make maple syrup during the last ice age?

Why yes, yes we did, but not much.

Hard to get much sap with them dinosaurs always trampling or chewing up the lines.

Vacuum was a bit of a trick.
We didn’t have electricity or motors back then, so we’d plug in a sabre toothed tiger and give its tail a rousing spin. One thing to remember when you’ve got a sabre hooked up is to keep him pinned down… real good.
Ol’ Krum demonstrated what happens if you lose your grip. Took us weeks to patch him up.

Fire was cutting edge technology and we were just getting a grasp of it. We’d clear a path between the evaporator and the local watering hole because, inevitably, Krum would set his bush on fire. (We were all a little furrier back then, all of us that is, except for Krum.)

The pans were made of stone. Heavy and awkward. Usually took the whole season just to bring them to a boil. Krum never got the credit he deserved. You see, in those first few moments before totally losing his grip on that cat, Krum still had hold of its tail. Took a second or two for the cat to gain traction and the result was deep grooves being cut into the stone. And thus, the advent of the flue pan. Bet you didn’t know that.

Krum also discovered AUF. We found him sleeping next to the fire pit one morning. Upon awakening, his face grimaced, an awful noise followed, and instantly the pans were at a boil. We thought the noise scared him, but Krum came back a while later dripping wet. Apparently, he’d set his bush on fire again.

We didn’t understand the fermentation process or that sap would actually ferment…wait…do you suppose? I mean, we couldn’t get the pans up to a boil ‘til seasons end, and all that sap just laying around…fermenting…do you suppose he knew? And after all this time.

He lives next door, I’m gonna go ask.

[BAP]

Why yes, yes we did, but not much.

Hard to get much sap with them dinosaurs always trampling or chewing up the lines.

Vacuum was a bit of a trick.
We didn’t have electricity or motors back then, so we’d plug in a sabre toothed tiger and give its tail a rousing spin. One thing to remember when you’ve got a sabre hooked up is to keep him pinned down… real good.
Ol’ Krum demonstrated what happens if you lose your grip. Took us weeks to patch him up.

Fire was cutting edge technology and we were just getting a grasp of it. We’d clear a path between the evaporator and the local watering hole because, inevitably, Krum would set his bush on fire. (We were all a little furrier back then, all of us that is, except for Krum.)

The pans were made of stone. Heavy and awkward. Usually took the whole season just to bring them to a boil. Krum never got the credit he deserved. You see, in those first few moments before totally losing his grip on that cat, Krum still had hold of its tail. Took a second or two for the cat to gain traction and the result was deep grooves being cut into the stone. And thus, the advent of the flue pan. Bet you didn’t know that.

Krum also discovered AUF. We found him sleeping next to the fire pit one morning. Upon awakening, his face grimaced, an awful noise followed, and instantly the pans were at a boil. We thought the noise scared him, but Krum came back a while later dripping wet. Apparently, he’d set his bush on fire again.

We didn’t understand the fermentation process or that sap would actually ferment…wait…do you suppose? I mean, we couldn’t get the pans up to a boil ‘til seasons end, and all that sap just laying around…fermenting…do you suppose he knew? And after all this time.

He lives next door, I’m gonna go ask.
Now that is some funny stuff, I don’t care who you are.

[Woodsrover]

Why yes, yes we did, but not much.

Hard to get much sap with them dinosaurs always trampling or chewing up the lines.

Vacuum was a bit of a trick.
We didn’t have electricity or motors back then, so we’d plug in a sabre toothed tiger and give its tail a rousing spin. One thing to remember when you’ve got a sabre hooked up is to keep him pinned down… real good.
Ol’ Krum demonstrated what happens if you lose your grip. Took us weeks to patch him up.

Fire was cutting edge technology and we were just getting a grasp of it. We’d clear a path between the evaporator and the local watering hole because, inevitably, Krum would set his bush on fire. (We were all a little furrier back then, all of us that is, except for Krum.)

The pans were made of stone. Heavy and awkward. Usually took the whole season just to bring them to a boil. Krum never got the credit he deserved. You see, in those first few moments before totally losing his grip on that cat, Krum still had hold of its tail. Took a second or two for the cat to gain traction and the result was deep grooves being cut into the stone. And thus, the advent of the flue pan. Bet you didn’t know that.

Krum also discovered AUF. We found him sleeping next to the fire pit one morning. Upon awakening, his face grimaced, an awful noise followed, and instantly the pans were at a boil. We thought the noise scared him, but Krum came back a while later dripping wet. Apparently, he’d set his bush on fire again.

We didn’t understand the fermentation process or that sap would actually ferment…wait…do you suppose? I mean, we couldn’t get the pans up to a boil ‘til seasons end, and all that sap just laying around…fermenting…do you suppose he knew? And after all this time.

He lives next door, I’m gonna go ask.

That's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time!