Thomson Tree Farm, It is comments like "Your Grandfather would be proud of what you are doing in the woods" that makes the decisions worthwhile. When I bought a new evaporator last season I suprised my dad and gave it to him as a christmas present. Well it was for both of us as an upgrade and it was my way of keeping him involved. When we fired it up for the first boil he looked at me teary eyed and said " I wish your grandfather was here to see this". You gotta love the joys in life when you get responses like that from your family for carrying on a tradition.
Maple Rookie, enjoy it, take things as they come. Walk the lines make the changes in the bush, test boil and fix what needs to get you functional for the first year. Then upgrade from there. You will be succesful if you have the drive and determination. I think if you jump in with big changes not knowing all the in's and out's first you might have wanted to do things differently after the fact. Good luck