November Journal

Jeeez Jim,
More hours, more vacation days, more sick days (this is a sickness)....
No doubt about it, it's time to expand!!!!

Governor- I wish you and Matt and Gravel Pitt and I all lived close together. Id get those boys workin and wed get a whole mountainside and make some serious syrup. Boo is good at making those drops. Ill be darned if yesterday he put a fitting on without even the tool. Tough little crap. I told mom that I was thinking of putting a 100 buckets out nearby and let them run their own little bush. Shes giving me all kinds of flack about them trucking sap down the road with the fourwheeler. I told her no prob Ill just tell Boo to tell the officer to send the fines to the house and hit the bricks Dad needs this sap now! Shes all confused. Keith- I was thinking the same thing. Im going to try to make as good syrup as I can becouse this pricing thing will be temporary I think but the first stuff goes in the barrell and it is whatever it is. Theres a good market for commercial and its a maple product so what the heck. Im not sure about cleaning lines for thousands of taps. I have Matts cleaner setup but holy cow. Maybe its easier than I think. Maybe If I get done in time Ill try it. I pulled the taps under vac and I think that got rid of most of it. Be honest with you I just want to get as many taps in as possable by season with these prices. If I get more money Im buying more line. Untill that sap starts running Im LAYING OUT BLUE!!! I think Im putting in the Booy and Brother bush too. Those ankle biters are gonna have to step up to the plate. We need that sap NOW officer. "You do what you need to do officer but Im not messing with dad on the sap thing!".

Keith I save every drop at the beginning of the season and I usually start out with very light medium. I rinse my tubing at the end of the season when I pull taps and wash all of the tanks and pans. The tanks and evaporator get a rinse before I start too. As soon as there is enough sap to boil it is off to the races. Don't waste a drop, $4.00 per lb is a good down payment on an RO machine.

Had a family meeting this morning with the men. We did a little dollar cost analysis and once they fully understood what that sap is worth they seemed to be totally on board. They told me that the sap WILL be at the sugarhouse and not to worry about how it gets there. Even if they have to do it under the cover of darkness Dukes of Hazard style no worries. Their gonna see if they can get some buckets from the caffeteria today. Im just kidding about the trucking, I mean I was good with it and they were good with it but Mom isnt so what you gonna do. Ive got a bush where there are two spots with like 200 taps right together so Im thinking Ill put a couple dumping stations and let it run out to the road and itll be super easy to gather that way. Itll be fun to see them doing those buckets. Bigzar

I don't know if we'd all be able to row the same boat? being there was a democrat in the boat with an independant/not sure what party VVS stands for i think Dem. and RM=I think he free spirit and an independent??

On the other hand we'd all be in the same party.

Theron-Can't you get a tractor plate for the wheelers? I believe in most states you can if they have a factory trailer hitch=NH you can,,I had a tractor plate for mine when i was about 18 and went down the road to a friends house/strapped a bale of hay on the back and i was legal=heading for the farm. They didn't have cows but we did. :)

Cooking my own meals wouldn't bother me as much as no fir pounding and having to do my own laundry LOL.

If that solar panel is operating correctly, the meals might be the minor problem

Theron- We can't be forcing some to do child labor as the goverment would shaft us/like they should do to others.

Governor- No forcing going on here. Theyre loving it. They want to know if they can do 200. Just think the sap I can run in a couple years. Those kids are lookin for some GREEN! If I can do that tractor sign its game on. If Boo does a good job with the wheeler well get him a big 80 horse Jonny so he can haul some real sap. Zar

Hey Theron how far do they have to go to get to the bush? Around here people just run up and down the road for miles, but we have no local police either, only staties and they are 15 miles away, and they very rarly go on township roads.

I don't have a wheeler but didn't they pass a law a few years back to require a registartion for wheelers that you use off your property? would that be all that is required to run up the road to the bush. Next question is, is this concidered Ag? My feeling is throw a orange triangle on the back and tell them that you are checking out the "other Feild". Farmers down here have trucks that are farm vehicles that are about to fall apart and they run them everywhere also. Just a thought, I am not a 100% sure of all the regs.


Anyway it is great to hear that you are getting the boys involved with the op. Our daughter is still a little too young but I will be having her up there when I'm boiling.