Will the addiction ever be satisfied??

[Sugarmaker]

Ok, will try to put mu spin on this addiction to maple thing. Started helping on 100 bucket farm operation when a young kid. in my teens helped Dad tap 250 rented roadside maples. Had a team of ponies I was going to gather with. That didnt happen and I soon was driving the pickup gathering with friends. We boiled on a antique 3 x 10 Warren wood arch converted to fuel oil burner.
I continued to help tap and gather till our evaporator arch got bad and someone burnt the pans up. We hauled sap to neighbors to have boiled on shares. I took syrup to work to sell for the first time in about 97 I think. Might have sold several hundred dollars of syrup. Dad passed away I I thought I was done making syrup. Helped a neighbor tap and make syrup and then the bug came back and I decided to make some syrup on a small scale. Found the old busted up arch Dad had bought in 84 setting where we unloaded it in the weeds, and began a couple year restoration with a old set of used pans. Decided we needed a sugarhouse to hold this rig. and 20 years ago boiled our first syrup in it. Still learning about making syrup. Just a few hundered taps but it keeps me out of trouble, and I enjoy mentoring others. I like to poke my head in other sugarhouses too. I also try to get everthing I can from the system i run. Usually average near a quart per tap. The old rig has been tuned up to boil about 120 gallons of raw sap per hour. I like building and improving but at some point its good enough, just run it!
When will it end? Not sure? Do I want to expand? No I went from 300 taps, to 400 buckets. Then moved over to tubing and have around 600 taps on 30 simple gravity systems. Still doing road side trees just like Dad. He wanted a string of cows. I wanted a string of maples!
Regards,
Chris

[Hkb82]

That’s the kinda stuff I was looking for thanks for sharing. I bet your dad was looking down with the biggest grin on his face wile you were bringing his old arch back to life.

[BnSmaple]

The addiction never ends for most. I started out tapping 30 with a homemade barrel evaporator about 12 years ago now I’m at around 8000. I keep telling myself once I hit a certain number I’m done but every time I do it seems like some new opportunity pops up that I just can’t say no to. My current cutoff is at 20k

[blissville maples]

There are two things that will have me up at 5 in the morning; 1. An intense morning of fishing for salmon or striped Bass 2. A sap run that has gone thru the night and the excitement that comes with it.

For me it's like a kid on Christmas morning. Last weekend I had to lay in bed for half an hour at 5am before realizing just get up. And at 9 pm I still can't wind down if there's something to do that pertains to sugaring, and of course being self employed drives that mechanism.

It's a disease that's the best way to explain it..I can't even begin to explain the intensity someone who is addicted to maple brings. Most would get tired watching some of us for half an hr.

One thing that really drives people to do things they like is dopamine. Joggers, weight lifters, body builders, bicyclists all get dopamine highs from working out, and more so the feelings of accomplishment and working the body and mind. I do believe someone as I gets the same effect from the intensity of doing maple. There's deffinantly a physchological aspect to the addiction of more and bigger that the human mind posses(atleast 90% of us, some could care less)

[Ultimatetreehugger]

I've been at this since 2016 but I am a 3rd generation Christmas tree farmer. We have about 80,000 trees. So I started helping a friend in the sugar woods during college and saw a pile of buckets in his barn. I started with 10 buckets at the beginning of the season and had 50 by the end. I was hooked.
The next spring I was in a new relationship and my girlfriend bought me a roll of 3/16 tubing (I tell her it's all her fault) so I ran 50 taps into a cage tank under my friends support. It was the coolest thing in the world. I'd get more sap out of those 50 taps than I did my 100 buckets and made 30 gallons that year.
In the winter of my third year my friend passed. He was a father to me and that's when I decided to take this hobby seriously. His dream was to make his farm self sustained financially without buying more land and using his property to the fullest. So that's what I am working to do in his memory. I don't want to get bigger than 10,000. My rule is to not be bigger that myself and one other person can handle. I love it, I love the work, and hope to enjoy it for years to come.

[Hkb82]

I’m sure your buddy would be happy your keeping it going. Keep at it and happy sapping.

[TheNamelessPoet]

OK so I'll chime in here.
Yes I want MOAR! I only have 19 taps at the moment but I started 30+ years ago. My grandfather just dug out the photo's on my request of when we did it with 2 MAYBE 3 trees at his mothers house in the late 80's.

Fast-forward to the late 2010's and I am looking to buy a house with my wife and young daughter. I wanted a house with good shade, I hate the heat lol. Well the 1st thing I noticed when I pulled in the 1st time I looked the house we eventually bought, was the giant maple (silver not sugar, I didn't know at the time). I spent 30 minutes wandering around in the yard looking at the trees in the spring trying to figure out what I could tap. 2019 I tapped for the 1st time on my own... and now I need an intervention! The 1st year I had 14 taps... I came home every day at lunch to see what I had in my buckets lol. My grandfather has a place in Main that I have kept my eye on... some day... I am going to build a sugarhouse on it and tape the hundreds of trees... Natural grade down to the house from the trees... I'm getting excited just thinking about it!

But then I will have to buy the neighbor's farm's on both sides... In Maine they have "unorganized territories" that are owned by the logging companies. 2 Miles by 3 Miles IIRC... Imagine the trees I could tap... then once you get that set (and profitable...) you can get buy the one next to it... and then the next one and the next one... It's like the game Risk, but I won't have to fight... ill just keep buying... one day 20 taps... some day... THE WORLD!!!




BTW... I think I might have a problem...

Hi my name is Kevin... and I am a Sugar-haulic...

[Danielb]

It is definately an addiction. No question. I started 2 years ago with 11 buckets and a couple canning pots on a wood stove. I just finished tapping today, with 505 taps on 3/16, and adding mechanical vacuum tomorrow to make sure i get everything i can.... My 2x6 raised flue evaporator is going to be busy, i hope.
I know there is no such thing as "enough" and have accepted that. I already have the next 300-400 taps planned out for next year, and the properties i want to see about leasing after that...

[eagle lake sugar]

For me it's all about how many I can comfortably do all by myself. I bought my own property, built all the buildings and installed all of the tubing myself and am currently at 4500 taps. I could probably have around 8000 if I tapped all of them way out back, I'm not sure when I'll stop. When you have to hire help, that's another headache to deal with.

[ecp]

Okay I guess I went the wrong direction here.

For me the addiction will stop when I am dead. My wife is an 8th generation sugar maker on the same property so for us it is a heritage thing that with any luck our kids will take over (although if they were smart they would move out of Vermont haha).