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Randy dont be sorry at all. I just had to throw the coydog thing out there and show you guys how smart I am. lol Okay so maybe Im not all that bright:lol:
I found out that there is still some hope with some of our youth. I had a young man (16) show up at my house last night and asked me for my permission if he could date my 16 year old daughter. I was set back a bit and was rather amazed and impressed that such things still happen. We had a nice talk and laid down some ground rules and sent him home with a quart of maple syrup and let him know if he liked maple syrup he would have my blessings. My daughter thought that was rather funny. Hey I got to make sure he likes real maple syrup right. Only a sugarmaker could understand.
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Well rifle season has ended here. No big buck for me this year only two doe. Maple related: the drains around the new sugar house are in and rebar set. Last week of finals this week and then Christmas break. Hopefully the shack will be done and the evaporator in and running by the start of the spring semester.
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Nice sugarhouse on the way, Wayside! We fixed up some of the tubing that was knocked down, chewed, etc. We added a few more taps and checked out the sugarbush. Now is the time, because around here we only have about an inch of snow and the ground is frozen. It was fun to get out there again and get ready for next season.
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Finally got a deer yesterday, 112 lb doe (muzzleloader). Looks like I'll have venison sausage for sugaring season this year!
Got the vacuum pump wired today with a 1/2hp farm motor had that old massport dairy pump pegged out with the valve shut and she never got hot. Better yet got the oil recliamer setup finished too.
Also finally got the new (to me) 2x6 raised flue in place. It takes some finagling to get a fully bricked arch moved around in a gravel floor sugarhouse. Ended up rolling her on pipes.
Only 50 more taps to finish setting up and I'll have reached my 2011 goal of 225 on vacuum, and 75 on buckets
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Brokermike,
Congratulations on the deer with the muzzle loader. And deer harvested with that weapon is a trophy! I will be out with the smoke pole (TC Hawkin 50 cal.) after Christmas.
Regards,
Chris
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pouring here most of the day. good day for inside projects.
Spent a few hours swapping out one of the contactors on the RO- if the hour meter is correct on my machine, that contactor/breaker lasted for more than 3,000 hrs and almost 30 years. hope that this doesn't mean the rest of them are getting ready to fail....
logging the first half of the week then back in to the woods to finish running the new 5/16 over on Putney Rd.
still tons to do in order to be ready by early Feb.
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Not a productive weekend with the rain today and stuff going on yesterday. I did get a new mainline tool fabbed on Friday and got to use it. I took a wire stretcher, a couple of vice grips, and a split conduit coupling and made a tool...say $60 in material. It worked great. It was able to pull the mainline about 6-8" to get it onto the fitting. I clamped and released it and everything held...we'll see what happens when we get a cold snap. If anybody's interested, I can post some pics of it.
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Stretched about 2500 feet of tubing on Saturday - an easy half day. No need to kill myself trying to stretch 6,000 feet in a day if I don't have to. I've probably got another full day to finish up stretching before we replace another 1500 5/16 spiles with stubbies.
Lots of freezing rain and straight rain today so I stayed out of the bush. I managed to rig up a syrup pump to drain 35 gallon drums. Direct coupled a gear pump to a 3/4hp 110V electric motor with a switch to turn it on and off. It worked well but I still need to make a few modifications to avoid losing the prime. Once it's fine tuned I should be able to drain an entire drum in about 4 minutes!
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Took down the old stack from my barrel evaporator today. I also set up some staging so its easier to work on the cupola and putting up a new stack. Hopefully It will be water tight for this season. Way too much to do before February. If it stays cold out im probably not going to get a cement floor till after the season. I dont want to risk pouring cement on ground with frost in it and having the floor crack when it thaws.
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maple addict
i proved i am one saturday, i tapped the maple next to my house, in 2 hours on sat, i got a quart of sap, sunday i got another quart. and it was 2%. and for my 2 cents on forcasting, would not be supprised if we could be making syrup in jan.
