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Thread: Dad's Old Sketch

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Wind Lake, WI
    Posts
    520

    Default Dad's Old Sketch

    When I was a baby/toddler (I'm still a kid at 36 now), my dad was making syrup on the family farm. He'd procured an old steel shed from the mine he also worked at (yes, farming, mining, and sugaring) to be be out of the weather while boiling. His evaporator was a simple, but quite effective wood-fired unit. It just had a flat pan. Made the whole works himself.

    Once more kids came along and farming became the sole income for a while, sugaring was put aside.

    I remember seeing a sketch on the inside of the door of the shack when I was quite young, but it didn't mean much until I got bit by the bug when I was about 13 years old. I resurrected the old evaporator. Dad helped me get it set back up in the shack as the little shed had been repurposed after he stopped making syrup. During my first season making syrup on my own, I learned what the sketch was. Dad explained the divided pan etched in the door.

    It's still there. 30+ years later. He never got around to making it. Snapped this while there for Christmas.



    Fast forward several seasons of making syrup myself, but then moving away to college and all that fun stuff put a hold on that. Now I finally have a little woods of my own. I hope the Smoky Lake pan I bought for my homemade arch continues the bug to the next generation and maybe more. Dad thinks that pan is pretty cool Maybe he'll once again tap some trees after he retires in a couple years...
    42.82N
    2015 - Small operation. 25 buckets. One excited 5 year old and one 35 year old that feels 5 again.
    2016 - One year older. New Homemade 2x4 Arch, Smoky Lake Pan and looking at 52 maples, 17 box elders and 2 walnut trees.
    2017 - Shurflo 4008 hooked to 42 stingy silver maples and a few Norways. A couple buckets on sugars and Norways. 10 box elders.
    2018 - ...a few more taps.
    2019 - ...more taps on 3/16 gravity. This spiral is heading downward in a hurry.
    2020 - 4x400 RO - RB20 (uh-oh!)

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Putnam County, Ohio
    Posts
    377

    Default

    That's a great story Tapper - It's neat to hear stories that make another generation get the itch to boil some sap and make their own syrup. Good luck to you in 2016.
    RC Maple

    14X14 sugarhouse - new for 2012
    RO Bucket - RB10 - New for 2019
    2x3 barrel evaporator with continuous flow pan
    55 taps - most on buckets
    This is next year!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Northern Michigan
    Posts
    497

    Default

    Tapper that is a great story. Now you have a great idea for a retirement gift for your dad. Quite often people who work with someone who is retiring will want to go together and get a gift for a retiree and they will want to know of a gift idea, now you have one. Be specific and pick out one you would like in case your dad chooses not to get back into doing syrup.
    Gary

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Hoosick Falls
    Posts
    2,000

    Default

    Tapper, Keep the memories alive, traditions in tacked, and share the story often.

    Your roots are what made you who you are today.

    Pat your dad on the back and tell him I said great parenting job!

    I started when I was 5. My three sons enjoy parts of the operation and they all enjoy showing friends. The roots you are giving your 5 year old will teach him lessons you cant learn in school.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Wind Lake, WI
    Posts
    520

    Default

    Thanks everyone! Funny how as you age you realize how much influence your parents had on you. This is most certainly a positive case of that.
    42.82N
    2015 - Small operation. 25 buckets. One excited 5 year old and one 35 year old that feels 5 again.
    2016 - One year older. New Homemade 2x4 Arch, Smoky Lake Pan and looking at 52 maples, 17 box elders and 2 walnut trees.
    2017 - Shurflo 4008 hooked to 42 stingy silver maples and a few Norways. A couple buckets on sugars and Norways. 10 box elders.
    2018 - ...a few more taps.
    2019 - ...more taps on 3/16 gravity. This spiral is heading downward in a hurry.
    2020 - 4x400 RO - RB20 (uh-oh!)

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Chatham NH
    Posts
    1,309

    Default

    That's a great story. We used to have 4 generations at times in my Great Grandfather's sugar house, dirt floor & all , my mom used to tie me to a chair with baling twine. Wish I had a picture of that. Good luck this season. Get some more photos.
    Nate Hutchins
    Nate & Kate's Maple
    2022 1000 taps?
    3x10 Intensofire
    20x36 sugarhouse
    CDL 600gph RO
    A wife and 2 kids.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Wind Lake, WI
    Posts
    520

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by n8hutch View Post
    That's a great story. We used to have 4 generations at times in my Great Grandfather's sugar house, dirt floor & all , my mom used to tie me to a chair with baling twine. Wish I had a picture of that. Good luck this season. Get some more photos.
    Thanks! A pic of you tied up like that would be priceless.
    42.82N
    2015 - Small operation. 25 buckets. One excited 5 year old and one 35 year old that feels 5 again.
    2016 - One year older. New Homemade 2x4 Arch, Smoky Lake Pan and looking at 52 maples, 17 box elders and 2 walnut trees.
    2017 - Shurflo 4008 hooked to 42 stingy silver maples and a few Norways. A couple buckets on sugars and Norways. 10 box elders.
    2018 - ...a few more taps.
    2019 - ...more taps on 3/16 gravity. This spiral is heading downward in a hurry.
    2020 - 4x400 RO - RB20 (uh-oh!)

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Potsdam in far northern New York
    Posts
    775

    Default

    I keep a yellow legal pad with me all the time, in my truck and on the jobsite. There's always some new project being sketched out, and discussions about how to do such and such. When those notebooks are full, I drop them into a file drawer on the theory that i could look back at the why and wherefore of some past project. Flipping through them fires the memory most of the time, but every once in a while there's a drawing that just doesn't click. Sometimes I can look at such a thing for days before figuring out what it was, and then OH YEAH! got it.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Philadelphia
    Posts
    25

    Default

    Hi, i am jimmy grate story ,you have a great idea for a retirement gift for your dad.Good luck bro.

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