AUGUST JOURNAL

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

It's August, well at least tommorrow. :D :D Hard to believe it is only 2 months from hunting season and I have so too much to do. I am spending the weekend with family in Cincinnati, OH. Went to a Reds game last night that had 3 rain delays and was finally stopped. We are heading to the zoo today, but wish I was installing tubing.

Speaking of tubing, I have been hard at trying to get it installed. I have almost finished up one bush that will have aprox 130 taps and all of it on tubing except about a dozen.

I have two more bushes to do that both have 125 + taps in them, but thanks to a 2 handed tubing tool I got from Leader this week, I hope I can go a lot faster and get the other two knocked out quickly. Just over 6 months till syrup season starts, so I got to get on the ball. Spoke with Leader yesterday to hurry them up and get my insulated air tight front finished so I can it installed on my evaporator. I am also waiting on my hood system to get finished so I can go and get it also when I pick up my blower and airtight front.

Good luck to all and the leaves will be turning soon.

Hope everyone is having a great summer and let's hear some progress.

[Brian]

I built a new sugar house this summer it is 16x20. Talked to Glenn Goodrich and my 4x12 arch should be here by the middle of sep.
Some one broke in to his sugar house and stole his cash register last sat or sun. It had about 200.00 in the register I guess.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Run aprox 75 taps on lateral lines today. I still have to go back and install the drops on about half of them, but thanks to the new 2 handed tubing tool, it is a snap. There are tons of trees and I could have tons of taps, but 400 is plenty for my little operation. I am hoping to have off Weds during the season so I can boil on Wed and Sat. I think I can easily knock off 750 gallon each day if needed and that translates into 15 gallon of syrup each day.

Hope everyone is having a great summer. It got down in the low 40's last night and the sun was shining all day today and it didn't get past 70. Only in the 60's yesterday and low 40's again tonight. Can't wait as fall is getting close and the bucks should be getting ripe! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Al]

Well finally got the road done to the back corner and now can get to 30-40 more maples. :D Even got a little extra wood to boot. Were can I find a decent tape on sugaring or a site that go's step by step in laymans terms? Have a buddy in Australia who's never heard of it and wants to know more. Thought it would be easier to show him a tape instead of all that typing. Starting my 10x12 addition in September. Need more room for the boys so they won't be near the evaporator all the time. :D Buying 60 more King buckets instead of doing my electrical work this summer. Can't make a product without sap. Extension cords worked last year so there good for at least another year or two.
For you hunters. Ever since I put the road in there's been new deer tracks on it every morning. :D
Take care

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Al,

Sounds like the expansion is going great. 30 or 40 more trees it tremendous. At the rate you are going, soon you will be the largest producer in VT! 8O :lol: :lol: :lol:

Have fun with it!!! :D :D Like that is an issue! :lol: :lol: :lol:

[forester1]

I was going to buy a steamaway for my birthday but after checking my wallet decided to buy a fire poker instead. My old one was too short for my 4x12 so I had a local blacksmith make me one 4 1/2 feet long. He did such a nice job I wanted to post it here. I can't seem to get the picture posted so I linked to the photo on the yahoo server. It sure will look spiffy on the sugarhouse wall.
http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mindokwin/detail?.dir=/31c0&.dnm=d3bf.jpg

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jerry,

Sure is a swell looking poker. Might get rich selling those things! :lol: :lol: :lol: You might want to post the link to your photos in your profile so other people can enjoy your setup; it sure is nice. :D :D

One question I have, are you not concerned about a possible forest fire since the trees are so close to the sugarhouse or is that something you never deal with up north??

[WF MASON]

Jerry , thats the nicest looking Poker I've ever seen!!!! You An't REALLY gonna stick that in the fire box ar ya??? Its a work of art.

Steamaway , Poker , Steamaway , Poker,,,, you made the right choice..

[forester1]

Yep WF, can't wait to stick it in and start rearranging the fire. It will be a while though. Brandon, posted my photo link like yours to my signature. These are last years photos. Since then, I added a 16x24 woodshed off the front, a sink, and now I'm working on a platform for the head tank, which should should be done in another couple weekends. I'm not worried about forest fire in the hardwoods, at least not a crown fire. Very rare. That don't mean what I did was smart, just cheap. All the site prep was done with a shovel along with mixing the concrete for the arch foundation and floor. I was saving up my money for a fire poker.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jerry,

We will be waiting to see the pics of the updated setup and all the additions and upgrades. By the way, how much syrup did you end up making last year??

[forester1]

I made very little, mostly just tested the setup. I still have to do a few things like get the head tank set up. Plus I want to get my land logged before I set up the tubing and the logger is not making my job a priority. Also I need more sap storage and I have to fill the woodshed so next year will be not much happening here either. This is mostly for after I retire from my regular job in four years.

[themapleking]

Some of the things I've been busy with.

Filled the wood shed ( **** thing sure does hold alot of wood ) Rebricked the arch. Painted the cast on the arch. Cleaned up all of the dead bugs in the shack again ! where do they all come from ? Built a little pump house, which will also be used from a hunting blind " heavy deer run in that spot " Redoing the lines over the creeks. And grading out the spot where the tank and pump house will go.

That's it for the maple projects. Have another list of all the non maple projects I've been busy with.

[mapleman3]

I was in the shack the other day.. Man your right the bugs!!! mostly spider webs across everything, big cleanup soon. I'm still thinking somehow going oil, I was going to go wood again this season.. but the more I think of the wood I need , the more I'm thinking oil!! unfortunately oil prices suck right now... but my sources(couple of large oil co.'s) say that around election time oil will come down unless there is a terrorist problem...soooo maybe things will be better for the oil fired guys

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

I'm too almost thinking of going to Oil someday??? I've still go to get 20 cord split up and hauled to the back of the sugarhouse this September..I've got about 30 cord mostly cut 4' on my landing and roughly 50 cord down in the woods that going to rot if i don't get it out soon and 125-150 cord that needs to be cut and skidded out from within the sugarbush. I figure right now that i should have bought a new 4wd 40hp Tractor last year instead of 2 new Harley's although the ole Farmall M still gets the job done with 2wd and a NFE doesn't cut it with a wet year that we have been having.Kevin

[WF MASON]

Oil is good , Its a hot constant heat, that many say gives you a better quality syrup then wood.(that can be debated) Many people use thier same arch, remove the doors and bolt on a plate with a hole for the burner, maybe add one layer of blanket inside.
No dirt or bugs from the wood.

[mapleman3]

True.. my thoughts exactly, I talked with steve from Algier and he sent me instructions on how to convert, the only thing I'm up in the air about is whether to take the bricks out of the firebox or leave them in for future conversion back to wood, I just don't want the arch to hold on to the heat much at shutdown, hopefully the ceramic board doesnt let much heat get to the bricks.

[gearpump]

I started out with bricks in my arch and right from the start I was having a lot of trouble with the burner nozzle plugging up after I shut down. I had a oil-tech look at it and the bricks held so much heat that after the blower shut down, the oil that was left in the nozzle was burning and sooting the hole. So with that I replaced all bricking with ceramic blanket. What a difference. Now we have can have a full boil within 10 minutes. I believe it took at least 20 to 30 minutes before, and after the burner is shut off I can drain the front pan after 15 minutes. I think your best bet would be to take the bricking out. Also with the constant heat the bricks do tend to crumble and become real brittle after time. If you are thinking about changing back this will save the cost of rebuying bricks.

Marty

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jim,

You might as well take the bricks out because once you convert to oil, you will never go back to wood anyway. I thought about converting but the price of oil is outrageous and getting higher by the day. Hate to think of what it will be in a few years. Two years ago Bruce Bascom bought a tractor trailer load for $.48 @ gallon. Last year it was $ 1.00+.

I would love to go to oil, but I have access to tons of wood and I sorta inherited a monster wood splitter this year that eats thru stuff, so I guess I will stick to the wood especially since I ordered a blower and air tight front. :D

[JohnM]

Finished laying concrete block for an arch to go under Brandon's 3x7 pan. More than a little sore from lifting and mixing.

Was wondering what a fair price is for insulation blanket to go inside, good place to buy.

Thanks!

[WF MASON]

The best price I've found for blanket is at ,Hal Roach Co. , contact Micheal
Roach , 205-956-8507 , I buy blanket from them every couple months.They also have a wed site.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

There are usually several different ones listed on ebay. Best to get the 1" thick and 2600 degree would be best, but 2300 degree would probably do ok, it just won't last as long.

I bought a roll off of ebay a couple of months ago for around $ 55.

Good luck with everything and send Jim(mapleman3) some pics so he can post them on his website. I am anxious to see how things are going. :D