October Journal

Looks like we're asleep at the switch - it's been October for 19 hours and nobody started the new thread!!!

I've got 25 tons of 3/4" clear stone coming tomorrow afternoon. Saturday we tear apart the rest of the old building, prepare the base to the right elevation and put down a foot of stone. We also plan to get 4 hydro poles planted as the supports for our new evaporator feed tank. Sunday my cousin will help us with the forms so we can pour concrete in a couple weeks.

Also on the to-do list this weekend is to get the steam stack for the Force 5 installed, Frankenstein and install a sleeve with ceramic insulation blanket around the smokestack to protect the rafters, tighten up all the fittings on the Force 5 and give the Force 5 a wash. If there's spare time I might go duck and/or deer hunting!

In Ther-Inevercrywolf-on's words there's a BIIIIG SAAAAAAAAAAAP warning in the forecast and only 5 months until I need to be ready to tap!

Marty

Oh yeah!!!! hey happy October to all!!!

I just got in from outside. With school and work at home sometimes takes awhile to check out things. It's been wet here lately and it's a good thing I got wood hauled in already as who knows if it will dry out again before it get's cold out.
October is that time of the year when you wish summer would not end and for fall to get it over with a freeze us up and we can go on with winter.

Ummmm where the heck did september go? Man I gotta get my but in gear. So much left to do before snow flies and so much hunting to get in the way. This rain is hurting me bad. I guess I either sit in the house and sing the rain rain go away song or clean the sugarhouse the next few days of rain in the forecast. Quarter end and Im on call 24 7 for the next 10 days and that does not help the cause when it comes to maple stuff getting done and finishing up the firewood for the house. Did I mention hunting. Man I love the fall but it puts me in panick mode every year.

Frankenstein Ennis. I like it seems to fit that monster evaporator nicely. Good luck with it the thing looks mean in a good way.:evil:

My work is done except for just a few things. Nothing but nothing stands in the way of my hunting. When hunting starts everything else stops around here. I just got a few more hours of brush clearing to pickup another 30 taps or so. There is always lots to do but a man has to hunt sometime. I killed 9 deer last year(brag,brag). Some of the guys I hunt with are not very good shots.

I need to get a deer this year. I haven't got a deer in..uh..uh..well since my daughter was born some 7 years ago. I used to be good 2-5 deer a year. But I haven't been able to spend enough time in the woods. I passed up a few little ones, (yes a hunter with a heart) but this year I am gettin' one.

But I haven't been with venison!!!

2 years ago I was coming home from work and I passed a guy stand by a hit deer but it was still alive so he called the police they came and put it down and I took it. I have a chevy Tahoe and cop said you want to put it in there your gonna get blood in it. I said oh I have a bag I could put over its head....he said,"oh is that your date truck!!!" :lol: anyway he said we have another dead one just an hour ago about 1 mile away, said sure what the heck. not to much lost meat they were in good shape. Thats my redneck story for the day!!!

I started mapping out my new sugarbush, but I'm still to busy with the farmers markets to give it all my attention. I'm itching to get out and string some tubing.

I went up to the woodlot yesterday and got a surprise. The leaves were amazing. This is the second harvest of the year for us maple sugarers.

Foliage must be near peak here this weekend.

Here's the foliage webcam from Proctor Maple Research Center in Vermont:

http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/PMRCCAM.html

few pics of the new sugarhouse

The colors are eally starting to pop here too. still alot of green oaks around but alot of the maples are gold and red.

Colors on the trees? I got color on the ground been raining 5 days straight with no end in sight. Rain and wind is knocking the leaves off faster than they are turning color. We have not reached peak yet so hope to get some nice days to enjoy it myself. Deer hunting has literly been a wash 5 days into the bow season. Have managed to sneak out between rain storms which is brief and it has proved to be a good time as the deer are moving as well. Seen 13 deer in about 3 times out.

My school today took all the foreign students out to a apple orchard to pick apples. Was sort of fun and the trees are just getting into the color mode. that and fresh apples are good for the colon also.
I am actually starting to get some work at home done. Changed my medication and am not so tired when I get home from school now and can do a few hours work instead of sitting down reading a book. Will see what I can make out of my evaporator now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 3rdgen.maple

Colors on the trees? I got color on the ground been raining 5 days straight with no end in sight. Rain and wind is knocking the leaves off faster than they are turning color. We have not reached peak yet so hope to get some nice days to enjoy it myself. Deer hunting has literly been a wash 5 days into the bow season. Have managed to sneak out between rain storms which is brief and it has proved to be a good time as the deer are moving as well. Seen 13 deer in about 3 times out.

---

You better be out there hunting in the rain because the deer have learn that when it rains the white man goes inside. I use to use tree stands but now I use ground blinds,waterproof also. Get them out early so the deer get use to seeing them.Good luck.

got another 3 split into the woodshed yesterday

just got back from waterloo QC. went to see my new 5 by14 thunderbolt and get some idea's has to how it is going to fit in my sugar house. glad i did not get a bigger rig. would not fit!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by maplecrest

just got back from waterloo QC. went to see my new 5 by14 thunderbolt and get some idea's has to how it is going to fit in my sugar house. glad i did not get a bigger rig. would not fit!!

---

When you get this big of an operation is it fun anymore or is it just an income thing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fred Henderson

You better be out there hunting in the rain because the deer have learn that when it rains the white man goes inside. I use to use tree stands but now I use ground blinds,waterproof also. Get them out early so the deer get use to seeing them.Good luck.

---

Around here everybody hunts in little house's on legs. They even have easy chairs and couch's set up in them. I could sit there all day with a book and watch for deer and be happy. They also spread apples and carrots and who knows what else out for bait. They sell carrots in 700 lb bags even for bait.

fred it is still fun as long as all the moving parts work.and i have too many pumps and moving parts with 4 releasers. and the r/o better work. almost over ran the r/o last year one night.the move for the new rig is for easier pan change and the pan washer.and welded pans.for faster and easier pan cleaning. more moving parts. as for income do not quit your day job.

The rain got here this weekend. It's pouring. It looks like fall mud season has arrived. I'm glad I did some wood gathering and cutting when it was drier. It would be a lot less fun in the rain. Everything I have now is green, so I'll cut it and stack it in the shack next year.

Just got off the phone with WF MASON, my new 2x6 raised flue pans are done. Leaving sunday 7 a.m. to pick them up. Going to stop in VT. to see my friends vv, the gov,peace, FOAMY, and tapme.

RICH

I just finished fine tuneing my Trigger finger. Every year just before big game season I shoot some sporting clays. I shoot and the wife loads and trips the thrower. However she is being to catch onto how that thrower works. She has now learned how to make them go right or left,high or low. But I would not want to go thru life without her, what a great asset to our sugaring operation she is.

Ogdon's Sugar Bush,
If you stop at Kevins house, he's just down the road from me, have him bring you up.
I'd like to check out your new toys.

Dave

3%
Give the GOV a call and hook up with him to meet everyone for breakfast friday morning and a board meeting at vv,s place in vt

RICH

It seems like more and more of us are getting back into the swing of sugaring making those needed changes and additions etc. Since fall is hear it won't be long before frost begins to go into the ground. I need to pour some concrete fpr the legs on my 1500 gal milk tank I bought and get some other things done before winter.
Keith

You better be out there hunting in the rain because the deer have learn that when it rains the white man goes inside. I use to use tree stands but now I use ground blinds,waterproof also. Get them out early so the deer get use to seeing them.Good luck.
Fred you better believe I have been hunting in the rain. I just HATE to bowhunt in the rain cause of tracking a shot deer. The chances of losing a blood trail increases way beyond the comfort factor. I have seen more deer in the woods hunting this year than I did all last bow season. I pheasant and grouse hunted today with the dog since it was almost 70 and sunny. She kept looking at me all week with sad eyes so I felt guilty and took her out not to mention I felt like a little bird hunting myself. Towards the end of the hunt she was not acting right but was hunting hard when I would tell her to find the birds but she would come back to quick. Brought her home and within the hour she was not walking on all 4's. Her paw is swollen pretty bad and after examining it she must have gotten stabbed in the foot pretty good. There is a nice hole clear from the bottom to just underside of the skin on top of her foot that is big enough to put a pencil in. I got the foot doctor kit for hunting dogs out and patched her up. Off to the vets on monday if things don't look better then. What a way to ruin her day. Gonna get some maple stuff done tomarrow weather forecast is looking good again.

- are you going to have your evaporator at the meeting? I need something to cook sweet corn in. See you there -SS

as i was taking nice big chunks of oak yesterday and turning them into wrist size pieces i relized this for every cord us sugarmakers split its like 3 cords of house wood for a normal chunk we wack it in to 3 ..so if yesterday i split and stacked 1/2 a cord the amount or the number of pieces if all where stove size would have made cord and a half lol



which then brought on this discussion with my old friend Joe
he sates that a stack of sugar wood split all to wrist size is less wood then a woodstove size split stack for in my stack theres more air space
i say bull a cords a cord but if anything i get more wood per cord cause i can stack it tighter

this comes from the guy who has to cut his house wood to beer can size to fit his stove and states 3 rows of wood for my stove is the same as a cord and i say cords a cord man

Peace,
If you were weighing it, a ton is a ton, but if you are splitting cord wood, a cord is not necessarily a cord. The smaller you split it, the bigger pile it will make. You may be able to pack it tight but not as tight as it was when it was a single piece. I didn't believe my Grandpa 50 years ago but he showed me....

It was said to me years ago by and old timer that you gain on wood per cord when you split it. Well of course he was right.

I hardly split my sugarhouse wood at all. It's all small enough to put right in the evaporator. We had a lot of pre-commercial thinnings we used the last couple of years, then when they cut our woodlot they brought "sticks" down on the skidder plow so we're using that small stuff. I also pick up a lot of wood at the town brush pile when I go with the trash and recycling.

I don't believe in burning really good hardwood in the evap. It would get spoiled. We burn anything except no nails, no paint and no pressure treated.

A couple of years ago my friend brought over a chair that he thought was great. It had a big split in the seat which pinched my butt, so the next time he came over he asked about the chair as I was feeding the last piece of it into the evaporator.

Peace, not only does it get bigger when split, but watch it as it dries the pile will shrink down. Putting all the sugar wood in the wood shed here and hope to have 2 cords stacked outside for the large BIG SAP FLOWS that we are going to have here. Still looking to make the century mark. See you Thursday.

We got a bunch of work done on the weekend. Saturday we planted 4 old hydro poles as the supports for our new tank platform to feed the Force 5. We can finish that construction in about a day some time over the winter. In the afternoon we demolished the rest of the old building, sub excavated over a foot of soil to get to grade and placed about 12 tons of clear stone as the base for the concrete slab.

Sunday we formed up the 8'x25' slab for the new building. It'll hopefully get poured this week. After that we need to form and pour the knee wall that makes up the grade difference on 2 sides of the building. We also got the roof jack installed for the steam stack and finished tightening all the fittings on the Force 5. It should be ready for the training session on Oct 17 that Lapierre is holding at our camp for about 13 producers who have also bought the Force 5. I can't wait to spark it up!

Got another 5 cords split into the woodshed yesterday

Adding an 8x10 addition to my 12 x 16 sugar house. It got pretty tight in there last year with the upgraded 3 x 8 evaporator. The feed tank, bottling counter and filter tank will all be in the addition along with shelves for finished product. It sure will be nice to get the bottles out of the evaporator room where the labels all get steamed off.

Floor and walls are up. Plan is to put the rafters and decking up Saturday. I should have it all done within the next couple weekends. I love working on barns and sugarhouses so much more than the house. I'm no carpenter so it is a lot more fun calling it close enough rather than trying to make it perfect.

I'm no carpenter so it is a lot more fun calling it close enough rather than trying to make it perfect.

My grandfather had a few favorite sayings when it came to being a carpenter.
1. Measure twice and cut in the middle
2. A good carpenter knows how to hide his mistakes
3. Good enough for who it's for
4. If you don't like it you should have built it yourself

Man I miss that man. Well it stopped raining today until I arrowed a buck tonight. I was pleased with my shot but the arrow hit the opposite shoulder and did not get a pass through. Watched the buck turn with just the fletchings sticking out it's side right were I wanted it to hit. Took my gear back to the house got the 4 wheeler and starting tracking and down came the stupid rain. Not a little rain but a whole lot of rain. Got dark quick and all I could do was walk grids with a flashlight. After about an hour I see headlights coming up the logging trail on my land. I thought maybe it was a 4 wheeler but it was the state troopers in a 4x4 with the neighbor in the passenger seat. In all my life I would never had expected that one. Neighbor was worried there was a poacher in the woods as he seen a light shining throught the woods. They insited on talking and talking and Im like I gotta find this deer and Im getting awfully wet so either get out and help or let me get back at it. Trooper said sure I ll help and drove through the woods with his spot light and then out to a field and spotlighted that. Well I yet to find the deer. Back at it in the morning. I hate rain and hate not finding a deer that I know is fatally hit. I have only had this happen once before and Im not happy. Sleepless night for me. I just should have cut wood. Did I mention I HATE RAIN.

This weekend I'm planing on going up to Dufuses Sugar House and geting myself one of those nice 275 gallon totes. It took him forever to call me back like 2 months but he is the cheapest around. It is a long weekend so hopefully I can get more wood split and stacked.

My saying is Close enough for the girl's I go with.
I can feel your pain 3rgen when it comes to hunting deer. Shot a deer once at about 50 feet while standing on a bank of dirt and I had to step down off of it to get to the deer and when I got there no deer. Only took my eyes off of it for 5 seconds and it disappeared.
Really have to get finished with other work pretty soon and get working on a evaporator pretty soon. This school is really driving me nuts and cutting into my time.

Well I will be the proud owner of a 200gal milk tank come Friday evening.
I ended up paying $1/gal so it sounds like I paid the average price for it.

He had a few larger ones but he wanted a lot more for them because the cooling works on them.

Did I ever tell you guys I hate rain. Well walked a grid this morning at first light in search of the deer. Found it about 80 stuffed in the thickest bunch of crap. Venison in the freezer. Now I gotta get working on more maple, well atleast until the 17 when southern tier bow opens.

well i sat bow hunted all weekend with my buddies but monday morning i got in my own stand, saw 7 squirells and chippys shot one with the bow 10 min later a doe came in and i was all ready to put her in the freezer when a spotted fawn came up beside her uhhhhhhhh no no no i said, so i turned my head the other way and pretended i didnt see them and let them go
When you use a buck grunt do you do one 2 sec. long grunt followed by 2-3 short ones or just one long grunt????