spousal negativity

[PATheron]

:confused: Guys- What do you do when you really need support from your family and your JUST NOT GETTING IT? Im trying to make a go of this maple syrup hobby thing and the other night I tried to talk to my wife about a little expansion and got nothing but negative. What I was thinking was I need a bigger sugarshack and got to looking at our home and Im really seeing some serious potential. Its a 6 or 7 year old stick built home with a full basement and an oversized attached two bay garage. What I was thinking was take the basement and put all the tanks down there. Put the belly releaser for the house bush in the back living room. Run the lines through the wall real nice and neat and put it right next to the tv. The vac pump can stay outside. Then you could watch it running at all times, it would never freeze up and the dump hole could go right to a six inch pipe right through the floor and into one of the tanks. Put the R.O. down stairs. Lots of room for plenty of towers. Run the output to an elevated headtank into the attached garage. The garage has tons of room for a big fuel oil evap. Run the steam stacks and smoke stack through the roof of the garage. Dont want to make a mess in the house with all the steam. Draw off and press right into the drum. Concrete the driveway and turnaround. Get a forklift and presto. Back in the big trucks. Now whats wrong with that? Save a ton of money building a new shack. Wouldnt even have to get dressed in the night to rinse the R.O., releaser never freeze up, hardly any new expense. You guys see why she's so down on everything. All I got from her was that she thought I needed my medication adjusted. What are your thoughts? Thanks, Theron

[Dave Y]

Theron,
Iwould have to agree with your wife. You are a nut! dont be a cheap skate build onto you sugarhouse the everyone will be happy.

[gmcooper]

Theron,
Get a double dose of medication before she has you committed to a nice facility where everyone is wearing nice white lab coats and the sleaves on yours ties securely in the back! LOL

Tweak the system you've got and run it for a few years and put some money in the bank for the next 5,000 tap expansion in 2112!

Mark

[mountainvan]

Make a profit for a couple years with what you have then she "may" be a little more open to your big expansion. In my experience, sugaring 17 years, 5 fulltime, and still married, you got to know when you have it good and be happy with it. That said, I plan on expanding next year, 600 gal/hr membrane and another 500-1,000 taps. Same saphouse, evaporator, etc... a little at a time. Taking her to Aruba in the summer can't hurt either.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Theron,
You must have gotten caught up on sleep a little bit. You are evidently back to thinking outside the box. It does sound as if your house has some possibilities. I'll have to wait until I get down there to look the situation over before I decide if you should go for it. At the least, maybe you could take some of those ideas and adapt them to a new sugar facility. Hey with the hard surfaced driveway, loading facility and everything, maybe you could become a major buyer/distributor in Northern Pa

[maplecrest]

well here is my take on my visit. go for it!! my wife fought me every step of the way. after 20 years of that it was time for her to leave.over that 20 years a sugar bush of 10000 taps was for sale next door. no had to have a new house. so the sale price of the land of 90000 went to the house. after a few years could have built too houses.the land got logged off and sold for 225000 no trees.if i bought a roll of tubing where did you get the money for that.so for 20 years i made my 1000 gallons and fought to stay there.since she left i have gone from 1100 gals a year to 4000 gallon opertion. my girl friend is with me all the way. if i say we boil at midnight she is there running the press.got to love that. she is into maple just not as narrow minded as i am about it. so after seeing your set up. i would pipe everything in the basement put the r.o there if you are going to stay with a small one. i like my r/o right next to the evaperator. for i am running both at the same time. but if releaser is in basement wont freeze and you can pump to storage trailer out side. that feeds r/o . the r/o pumps sap to evap header tank. i would leave evap where it is. but you have no drum storage. if you put evap in garage you are still moving drums a long distance.or need to add on for drum storage.put the oil tank in the wood shed and make that you drum storage too. just tweek that shed a. little fix a drive way to it to get a truck to it for easy loading of dums. leave the tanks where they are. build a pump station to pump the sap from the lower to the house. get a vac tank { no releaser to un freeze} and put a deep well pump in it with a float switch and have it pump to the house or straight to the tanker. no trucking a few of my thoughts

[Fred Henderson]

Some women just have no sense of humor.

[Homestead Maple]

Theron, I think you've really hit on something here. Consider putting your wife on the medication.

[chipa]

I am allowed to run my liquid ring pump in the basement ;never thought that it would be allowed when I suggested it. Its great . No worries about it freezing up.
I think Theron is onto something with his plans.

[KenWP]

And I thought I was bad when I got chicks the first year before I built the chicken house and had to keep them in the basement for a month. The turkeys were the real pain because they kept getting out.
I thought of putting the evaporator in the green house since it already had a smoke stack at one end not being used but never mentioned it tto she who must be obeyed and one night when boiling outside in the cold darned if she say why don't you put this inside the end of the greenhouse. It even has big fans for the steam right there also. DUH

[ennismaple]

Theron - We always though you might be crazy... now you've proved it. Just make sure you share whatever medication your doctor puts you on after the men in the white coats cart you away!!!

My wife has been surprisingly supportive this year. She's stepped up and taken over inventory control so we can make sure we've got enough syrup filled in various containers. She even knows how to run the refractometer! Friday night when I boiled until past 4:00 a.m. she was there with me until after 2:00 which surprised and impressed the heck out of me! Now all I have to do is teach her how to fire and maintain the levels in the pans while I have a nap.

I do like the idea of putting a liquid ring pump in the basement...

[bobsklarz]

Of course, she could always file for divorce, sell her half of the house, take half of your equipment, child support, spousal support, sell the car/truck!......Take the meds!!!!!

[Haynes Forest Products]

My 3rd wife is very supportive of my maple addiction :lol:

[briduhunt]

Third Wife ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????

[PATheron]

Guys- This is what Im afraid might happen, Ill be coming home from work one day and therell be semitrailers of maple logs comin down my road with blue tube hangin off draggin down the road. You know women, beautifull on the outside but the devil just under surface ready to pop out! I cant pick on her shes an angel sent from heaven just to put up with my shenanegans for this long. If she doesnt want me to turn her dream house into a sugar shack I guess I wont, I dont think. Theron

[Haynes Forest Products]

Yes I have always been a firm believer that things happen in threes. It gets worse I married my first wife in 72 divorced in 77 remarried her in 84 and divorced again in 92 I owned a tree service at the time and sold it. She married a guy that did tree work and both his and my first name is CHARLIE. I figured out that she liked the smell of Cottonwood and had a hard time with names. I got a great daughter out of the deal and my new wife doesnt try and burn the pans every day or two like me. All in all its working out great both Charlies will be walking my daughter down the isle in Oct so life is good.

[Russell Lampron]

Theron, Sara ( I hope I spelled it right) is a great woman. Don't do anything to mess that up. Add on to the present sugar house. You can make a bedroom out there while you are at it. She can sneak out on those lonely nights while the boys are sleeping to watch the belly releaser with you.

[wdchuck]

My wife has worked her way up to "grudging acceptance". And I had to get this maple business up to a decent little profit to accomplish that. I'll have to run with it, I guess.

[3% Solution]

PA,
You have definately been caught in a carbon arch blow down!!!
Does it hurt alot?

Dave