Your Perfect Times

[adk1]

Ok, lets hear it. I have read where alot of you enjoy the sap collecting the most and others who like the boiling work the most and of course those who like everything equal..But this is only a small portion of everyone out there. so lets hear your story and reasons why.

[Ausable]

Also - Lets hear from the new Members from Countries other then Canada and the United States. Why they have joined and what their interest is in Maple Syrup making. If You make syrup from trees other than Maple and Birch - lets hear about it. It would be interesting -------

[ennismaple]

Of all the tasks related to making syrup I love planning and running tubing the most. There's no better feeling than the workout from running hills stretching 5/16 or mainline on a cool October or November day.

[TF Maple]

My son and I like collecting from the wild and using it for whatever, but we only hunted until we started syrup last year. Now we collect sap, make fire wood and dig some wild leeks, besides hunting. All of that is more fun than boiling for us. Boiling sap is just a necessary process to make something from it, but using the wood we collected makes it more enjoyable for us. I guess that means we wouldn't like switching to oil.

[C.Wilcox]

I have to say I enjoy all of it, but if I had to try to narrow it down I'd say that I like collecting pails best when there's still snow on the ground. I just like the way the whole scene looks with the pails hanging on the trees against the white background. That being said, I also really enjoy the planning and build up of the equipment during the rest of the year. By the time the season comes around I'm fairly buried in sketches of various pieces of equipment or modifications to existing equipment.

[Russell Lampron]

I like all of it but the clean up at the end of the season. That part of it is the worst by far.

Taking advantage of the modern technologies has to be my favorite part. Tweaking the adjustments on the RO to get maximum flow rates, tinkering with the damper on the blower to get the boil just right and where would I get the sap to do this without the vacuum system. I think I like playing with all of that stuff the best.

Tapping is fun as well as boiling and drawing off pails full of syrup but you can't beat that first taste of the new syrup followed by a boiling soda.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I like the equipment side of the hobby. I have always liked motors, pumps shinny things so as soon as I made my first syrup and the season was over I was working on getting the next step up and running. I would rather get in the truck with the kids and do some late night sap collecting while someone else runs the rig. I think thats why Im always trying to complicate a simple prosess:lol: Wait till you see the releaser im building YIKES

[ADKMAPLE]

Great posts and it seems as though the collecting of sap is winning as the most liked part of it. I also can imagine that that will be one of my most enjoyable aspects since I am constantly taking walks in the woods because I enjoy it

[lpakiz]

I too, enjoyed planning and running the tubing. The tree-cutting and brush cutting were a LOT of work, but it looks so good after it's done, and also have such good access to all the laterals and mainlines now.

[Ausable]

Making Maple Syrup is Lots of work in cold weather. But - Now that I'm older - it gives me another reason for being, something to look forward to, exercise, thankful that I can still do it and that I'm able to make something that people want and are glad to get.......also for this site and the ability to exchange ideas with a great bunch of people who also enjoy making maple syrup...........

[SPILEDRIVER]

i like it all---really like tapping....but for some reason I LOVE running the evap/boiling,i love seeing how much of a boil i can get and stokeing the fire,i have no intrest in anything but a wood eater.....ive thought about oil but what fun would that be?

[driske]

Walking in our sugar bush is like a spiritual tour of a cathedral. Stately majestic maples offer shelter, sap, and serenity in a hectic world. Doesn't matter much what the particular activity is, I love being surrounded by our Maple trees.
It is my sincere hope and prayer that our country remains stable for the next generations. Perhaps some of my offspring will then share the benefits of a maple woodlot nourished by their forefathers.
In paricular, firing the arch soothes my achy old bones. There's no where to buy that deep penetrating heat.

[Rhino]

When everything is gathered and in the tanks, and everything is running smoothly in the sugarhouse is the best time for us. My brothers and i between fireing up times, talk about improvements that can be made in the syrup shed and in the woods. And thats when i take the time to sit down and eat a good meal.

[Sugarmaker]

- Enjoying family and friends visiting in the sugar house while boiling.
- Also the crowd that visits on our maple weekend.
- Gathering is generally a good time because its a surprise at every stop.
- I like to build things too, so the mechanical portion of making maple allows me to design and build some new equipment.
-Watching the weather forecast, knowing that a hard frost in the evening will produce a good run the next day.

Chris

[stoweski]

Walking through the sugarbush at dusk and hearing the rhythmic tapping of the sap hitting the bottom of the buckets.

The look on a kid's face when he tastes the warm, sweet syrup that was recently drawn off.

Yes there are plenty of other joys of the hobby but those are my favorite.

[PerryW]

Hey Stoweski,

You mean like this?

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y235/perryW/?action=view&current=MapleSapDripBucket.flv

[Father & Son]

I agree with most, I enjoy everything but the cleanup. If I had to pick the most enjoyable I would have to say the absolute best is the very first time you draw off at the beginning of the season. Those first few drops coming out indicates that all the hard work that has been done since the previous season has been worth every minute.

Jim

[maplemark]

That first tap hole of the season ------- anticipation -------- then the sap drips out ,drip, drip . All the work till then has brought me to this moment , the fun is about to begin. Then it's sap running in my veins till the seasons over.

[adk1]

I guess all of these posts are indicators of the "MAPLE BUG"

[maple flats]

I like it all but a few things that are tops are driving up to a sap tank that is full, or considerably more than youi expected, and absolute tops is drawing the syrup. My goal is to run a continuous draw. The longest I have achieved so far is 45 minutes, but I keep trying to get smoother so hopefully someday I can run continuous for hours with only minor adjustments in the syrup flow. After that the best part is having fresh batch of pancakes/waffles/french toast with MY syrup.

[adk1]

well said maple flats. that is what I want, my syrup!

[Haynes Forest Products]

Maple Flats has it right when you back up to the tank and the kids 6 + 9 fight over who gets to look in the tank first. Seeing the kids riding the tailgate with friends from tank to tank:) Now the part I dont like is getting to a overflowing tank and the sap soaked ground where the sap has melted the snow for 5' all around the tank:mad:

[Brokermike]

Best quote ever!


Walking in our sugar bush is like a spiritual tour of a cathedral. Stately majestic maples offer shelter, sap, and serenity in a hectic world. Doesn't matter much what the particular activity is, I love being surrounded by our Maple trees.


I concur

[Hurry Hill Farm]

This is a fun thread to read. I always answer the questions "Why do you make syrup? or Why do you do all this work?" etc with
"Because you are here!"

What amazes me every season, are the surprises that nature provides simply because we are in the woods sugarin'. e.g.: the first tapping day a bird was balancing on the end of a broken branch drinking sap; or hearing honking and running outside the shack just in time to see a flock of snow geese fly through the steam, just above black tree tops; and lastly, this season, after waiting for 5 feet of snow to melt on sunny 75 degree days, realizing that is was NOT going to freeze and it was NOT going to run and deciding not to tap, admitting that the Inconvenient Truth was Mother Nature IS in Charge!

Our third president, Thomas Jefferson, sent a crew to the north to bring back and plant sugar maples at his home in Monticello VA. The last tree lived until c. 1992.
Jefferson's doctor had it right................sugarin' IS our general happiness.


"In contemplating the present opening prospects in human affairs, I am led to expect that a material part of the general happiness which heaven seems to have prepared for mankind, will be derived from the manufacture and general use of Maple Sugar."

Letter to Thomas Jefferson by Benjamin Rush, August 19, 1791

Janet Woods
Hurry Hill Farm
Edinboro PA

[3rdgen.maple]

There is alot but I think my favorite is watching my 4th generation maple producing daughter playing cards with my 2nd generation maple producing father while I am boiling away, all in the sugarhouse. I enjoy the tinkering and upgrades in the off season and then that first boil to see how all that work just comes together after months of preperation. Ahhh that first sap of the season. You can also call me nuts but I actually enjoy the cleanup and making everything shiny again. Lets not forget the first taste of the new seasons syrup. Oh almost forgot sharing stories and info with all you maple yahoooos.

[Bucket Head]

I've been called a lot of things over the years, but I've never been called a "maple yahoo" before! LOL!

Signed: Steve- A proud fellow Yahoo

[3rdgen.maple]

Yeah Buckethead my neighbors says we are a bunch of yahooos around here so I figured I must be a maple yahoo so I decided if Im one you guys must be too. lol

[Maplebrook]

Perfect times?
- Spending time in the woods with my family
- The smell of new syrup on the first boil of the season
- Family and good friends sharing another "shack supper" while the evaporator is running
- the peacefulness at the end of a boil when the fire is out and the pans quiet down. My time to reflect and thank the Good Lord for the ability to share all this with others.

[ADKMAPLE]

Spent a few hours over the weekend doin some more "planning" i.e. working in my future sugarbush. It aint easy that is for sure, preparing a sugarbush for the first time. But the way I see it, what I do now will be noticed later, probably much later though! The NA Maple Producers manual has been a great tool. My sugarbush is a mess as far as obstacles in the way, downed trees, branches etc mainly from the vast amount of hemlock in it. Alot of dead standing logs tha Iam knocking over and bucking up. Bascially just making piles here and piles there. Its all on a hill. Plan is to have it all done by end of summer. Then I can go though and really release some of the crowns and start thinning out alittle more. hope to work on that this fall.

[red maples]

I do like it all... but I really enjoy boiling the best.

1. you finally get to see some finished product from all the hard work.
2. love the shots of warm maple syrup with boiling sodas.
3. love to have the kids out there with me coloring in their maple coloring books and asking for samples!!! sometimes they bring their little dvd player and dit ad watch movies while I am working the evap.
4. And when the wife makes me dinner when I havea long night of boiling ahead.(usually I make dinner) (she has me trained well)
5. the only thing I don't like to see when I am boiling is the wood pile go away quickly!!!:)

[heus]

Brad,
I see in your website you are using bag liners in your buckets. How has that worked out for you?