Back in the late 70's and thru the eighties, we made syrup on our woodstove in the living room. We made some every 2-3 years for our own use back then. We had 4 kids and they enjoyed helping. We rarely boiled the sap, it more sort of simmered, but then as it got close to syrup we boiled it on the gas stove to finish it. At that time we had 1 large sugar maple and 3 large box alders (also called an Ash Leaf maple.) We set out between 7 and 9 taps. and made between 5-8 qts. Then in the 90's life got in the way and I didn't make more until 2003 when I got into it enough to start selling some. That year I bought a used Half Pint and started by putting in 27 or 29 taps, not sure which. This time they were all in the woods where my current sugar house is. I then collected the sap and said, I can do more. It kept going like that until I had 70 taps at which point the sap REALLY started to flow. My half pint was set up on our patio, with a vender's tent over it. I had the stack sloped up at about 50-60 degrees with a double leg brace made out of some 1/2" EMT to support it. The stack then had about 12-15" clearance from the tent covering the evaporator. I was hooked. I made 10.5 gal, used 2 or 3 and sold the rest at work. (I drove school bus in my retirement and other drivers bought the syrup).
It was obvious that when the sap really flowed I could not keep up with a half pint. I then bought a used 2x6 and later a 3x8 as I got deeper into the addiction. That summer I cut enough hemlocks in my woods to get sawed into lumber to build the currant sugarhouse. That went ok to a point. I hauled the logs to a sawyer about 3 miles from me, with a cut list. The first (of 6 loads total) was ready in 1 week. By the time it came to the 5th load (I could only haul about 7-8 logs on my 16' trailer pulling it with an Olds Bravada, I was overloaded for sure). That 5th load took 6 weeks to get done. At that point I bought my own sawmill. That sawyer did a 6th load while I awaited to have my sawmill built and delivered. When my mill came in, I sawed everything still needed on my own sawmill.
We had a party (work party that is) on 12/31/03 when I had my first help and we set the trusses I had built. At that time I had no tractor with a loader nor my excavator, so I built a lift that I attached to the 3 point hitch on my little 20 HP compact diesel tractor. With that I was able to lift the trusses high enough to get them up on the 10' high walls and set them. During that week I put up the purlins spaced 8" apart and the next weekend my oldest son came and helped me put the steel roofing on. Had I known then how much it would "rain in the sugarhouse" I'd have put plywood down. I had lots of rain in there for the 2004 season, then I made a hood for 05 and the problem was solved.
Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.