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Absolutely, I would LOVE to get to the place of tapping everything around. I drive quite a bit with work, and 80 miles from home I go by a ridge full of maples, and in the 5 seconds I see it I start laying out the tubing set up, and get frustrated that there may be a wedge at the base I would have a hard time getting tubes too....
I GOT IT BAD
Jeff- I feel the same way everyday too. Id love to do it for a living but boy I think it would be a hard way to make a living. I think I better keep going to work. Everyones allowed to dream. Theron
I am pateintly waiting for any kind of sap. Another month to go they say.
6 weeks brings you to april I dont know about you but here by then we are all done. we will have 4500 taps in by sunday and the wait is over....
FULL STEAM AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You Go Colt!!!
Theron,
you think sugaring is a hard way to make a living? It is not that tuff. with the trees hooked to lines and vacuum pumps . Then there is the RO thing. That is easy all you need is some guts to take a chance. Hard way to make a living is crawling on your hands an knees with a 3ft ceiling mining coal during the great depression, like my Grandfather did. Thats a hard way to make a living! If you want to be a full time sugarmaker you will do it. If not you wont!
Theron,
With the amount of maple in your area, it would be easy to make a living!
Your right about that being a hard way to make a living. A lot has changed in the last 100 years. What I meant was its easier to go to town and get a paycheck in some regards. Sugaring is expensive to get into, speculative, (vulnerable to the market in price, vulnerable to the weather for production), high tech with a lot to learn depending on the level of technology your running at, relatively tough to make a lot of money at in my opinion. I do think it could be done, and I believe I could do it, just a matter like you said of how bad you WANNNNN IT. Sure seems like it would be fun though. If Im ever out of work Ill definitely do it. Just add a few more bushes. Thats the nice thing about working your way up. Tough part is working full time and then trying to do a lot of sugaring too. Im not complaining though I love doing it it just is what it is. Stuff can go wrong and usually does. Im still just learning though. Theron
Theron, Where are you located? I'm in Daleville, between Tobyhanna and Moscow. I have lots of maples around hear and don't see anyone else tapping them. What a shame!
Zman- Im in Mansfield Pa in the northeast corner pretty close to the New York state line. We do have a lot of maple here too. Sounds like your the only one hitting them in your area. We have quite a few people around here that do it but not very many large producers. Theres a handfull but mostly its folks that have always done it on the farm, that kind of thing. Kind of a dying thing. Theron