don't forget about Dirty Jobs!!!!

I guess I never realized how smug and sarcastic Mike Rowe is. Its entertainment though.

Anybody have a thought as to the age of the arch they were using? Looked like it had seem some serious use. I'm assuming the bricks that were sitting on top of the other bricks at the back of the ramp were there to create air turbulence?

In regards to the drill, I believe that was a section of PVC designed to keep a person from overdrilling the hole. I thought it actually looked like a decent idea. I did cringe when Mike drilled the hole all crooked though. Should have had him help make firewood for an hour or two or had him come back and scrub out the pans at the end of the season. That would have given him plenty of activity. :)

He should come out to Pierce and Sons now and get the fast foreward version. He wouldnt be getting bored waiting for syrup to finish on my rig. I thought it was cool though too. Theron

There was a book published several years ago about maple sugaring in Somerset county. It talks all about the history of making syrup way back into the mid and late 1800's. There are a lot of old photos even of Wagners sugar camp. The book also talks about some of the terminology used such as keelers and spiles.
As far as Wagners Sugar camp goes, it was always a family run operation run by Sue that was on the show and her brother Dale who passed away several years ago. When he died, that Jerry went to work there and thats why he's only been there 5 years.

filteraid,never heard of it but Im not a big time producer,But I drink lots of
beer and Im still ticking.Whats in it anyway? I will say also, the folks at the suger shack seem like real nice people and hard workers. I think mike rowe just tries to make show amusing,he is in way better shape than me but he
always seems week or tired compared to some older out of shape guys

Filter aid is made of the left over bone and shells of tiney dead sea critters called diatoms which is why its proper name is diatomousous earth or something like that. It is used as a organic bug killer also as its so rough it casues the bugs to wear holes in there skins and die.
For filtering it seems to gather all the small particles into big ones so it dosn't plug up the filters so fast. We used to feed it to baby calves to stop scours also years ago. I haven't heard of anybody useing it in the last couple of years for that.

I just watched it and I wasn't really that impressed either. its really not that borring when your doing the work. hanging wire, stretching tubing, drilling holes and setting taps all day. loading the wood every 5 - 15 minutes. looked like it was pretty late in the season, no snow on the ground and looked like quite dark syrup and sap looked a bit cloudy. I think they said making syrup the old fashion way. but they didn't show the vac. or RO.

Man I get a little upset when I when I spill a drop of precious sap man he was spilling gallons!!!! those guys must of been biting their lip. oh well I guess its all about entertainment right!!! at least he got to brush the flues in the "furnace"

with three evaps sitting side by side, and using the one in the middle, that must have been the old r/o. i did not understand why they filtered it twice. i would finish on the rig and filter to the drum or draw into finisher then filter to the galv drum. who is watching the wood rig when in the finish room the charlott auto draw?my back got sore watching all the movement of syrup by bucket. all and all was great to see another maple operation

Like most of you I found it amusing but not really "dirty". The real nasty part is when you leave your evaporator full to let the bacteria work and clean it when it's 90 degrees in August and it has the consistency of snot, he should make another episode about that.....

What about cleaning tubing at the end of the season. That's the dirtiest job I have sugaring. And who still climbs into the evaporator to clean the flues? A long pole or cleanout doors by the stack. Riding on the back of a wagon to get sap, bad idea. I hope OSHA didn't see that show. Oh, and climbing hills, send him my way to climb some mountains! All in all I was not impressed by the operation or show.