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Thread: Introduce yourselves....

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Southcentral Pennsylvania
    Posts
    169

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    Hello, My name is Matthew. I'm 23 and single, live at home yet with mom and dad. We live in south central Pennsylvania, in Somerset county, near and little town called Wellersburg.
    I am a 3rd generation sugar maker. It all stared with a great uncle who tapped 600 buckets. And when my dad was little he would go and help gather. Then in 1974 my dad purchased the equipment and took over sugaring at the age of 18.
    I have been invloved in sugaring since I was old enough to help. My father let me start to boil on my own at the age of 14, on our 3x12 oil fired evaporator. At that point we were tapping 4000. In 2000 I went out on my own and rented a woods to set up to tap and with the help of my father, set out 1600 taps on tubing and sold the water. Since then we lost one woods and now we haul the sap home from the woods I aquired in 2000. We are currenty running 4500, with 2300 on vac.
    We only own 6 trees of our own, and we rent the rest. My father and I both work for CSX transportation in the track mantaince dept. Luckily I get laid off every winter in Dec and usually get called back at the end of March. What luck!!!
    In the off season we like to fish and hunt. And go the Vermont Maplerama every summer to see old friends and make new ones.
    9500 on vaccum with 3½ x 14 Lapierre Turbo 2
    One very wonderful wife
    8 post CDL 20+
    4 little sugarmakers in training aging between 13 and 15 years old
    One nutty household

  2. #22
    Jay Guest

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    My name is Jay and I am married 4 yrs with 2 boys a 2.5 year old Sutton and a 3 month old Quinn, I am a NYC Police officer/ Detective for 12 years and live in Warwick,NY. 04 was my first year tapping I had 15 buckets on 8 trees with a pan I had made and some cinder blocks. This year I plan on having 20 taps and the wife bought me a Leader Half-Pint for X-Mas. My family owns about 500 acres up around Durham,NY that has been in the family since 1902, my Grandfather and my uncle made syrup and now my cousin taps some of it and sells the sap. I think if both sap bushes were up and running we would about 2000 or so taps. Besides my other job I also have a growing hay buisness that I started with my cousin. Down the road I plan on building a sap house up there and see if we can make that go. Thats about my story, thanks for such a great site!!!!

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Columbiana, Ohio
    Posts
    897

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    hello all. My name is Ron I am 42 years young and will be married in April. I now have between 600 - 700 taps. 300 of those right behind my property but I will lose those after this year do to timbering and possibly development. Ludkly I have 3-400 down the road with more than enough untapped to make up for those I will lose.
    I have been making for 8 years now and hven't done it 2 years the same yet. Presantly my father and I are making on a 3x8 Lapier evaporatore. We are fully on vacumm. The woods behind me pumps right to the sugar house and the one down the road we have to haul in a 500 gallon tank. Our sugar house was just enclosed this year. Before that we had a roof and wood shed but dropped tarps for sides.
    I hope one day to own my own woods and to maybe even show a profit .

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Poultney, Vermont
    Posts
    78

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    Hi everyone, my name is Greg. I'm 49 and been married to Paula for 17 years. Last year was my first year making syrup and now I'm hooked!! I am fortunate that I am allowed to tap at the college where I work. They have some huge maples on campus. Last year I had about 250 taps and hope to almost double that this year. About 270 of my taps will be on tubing with another 200 on buckets. We own 13+ acres with about 9 of them with trees, not all maple. We've made a lot of changes since last year, built a 16x24 sugarhouse that is half sugarhouse and half wood storage, added a steamaway, a forced draft, and ELECTRIC!!! For those of you that are interested the governor's tree tapping ceremony will be March 18th on the Green Mountain College campus. I hope to get lots of pics and maybe a video. If you aren't boiling come check it out, it is also Poultney's Maplefest weekend, lots of things going on.
    Leader 3x8 Inferno arch with Patriot pans
    Steamaway
    480 taps
    38 chickens

  5. #25
    dads hobby Guest

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    My real name is Yvon and i am up in the great white north in Verner witch is in Ontario Canada.It's a small community hafway betwen North Bay and Sudbury. I have been married to my wife Julie for 12 years come june, have thee great kids 9,4 and 3. I have been sugaring for 3 years now but have yet to master the art of making any money. Up until last year i was boilling with a barrel system that my father had made about ten year ago,but last year it just burnt out and my pan stated to leak to the point where it was not practical to reapair. I'm in the prosses of building a new system that hoppefuly will help me produce more in less time since i work full time and have only have weakendsto boil.


    Unfortunately i dont own my own trees but my sister and her neighbour have about 100 trees betheen then and allow me to tapp
    their trees. The only down side is i have to travel about 7 miles to collect and haul it home. every night after the kids are in bed. I am on buckets and have about 35 trees tapped and hopping to increas to 50 this year. I am also looking to purchase my own piece of heaven within the next few years.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Loudonville,Oh
    Posts
    66

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    My name is Terry and I live in north central Ohio.We tap about 400.We do it the old fashioned way,buckets,horses,and a plain wood fired evaporator.It is a 3X12 King,plenty big for the amount of taps we have but we also have a dairy farm so time is somewhat limited.I am a 4th generation producer and with the interest my children are showing now it is likely there will be a 5th.My dad is 83 and still boils for me.There is something about sugaring that makes the old feel young again.

  7. #27
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Victor NY
    Posts
    609

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    Hello, My name is Chris and I live in Victor NY, just Southeast of Rochester. I have been making syrup since I was 6 years old with my grandfather. I got back into it 6 years ago with a flat pan on cinder blocks. Now I have a 2 by 6, sugar shack and put out about 225 taps (bucket brigade). We yield about 45 gallons of syrup per year.

    My main profession is teaching at Victor High School where I also coach football. I also own a pool installation company and do that in my summer months in between syrup, coaching and teaching.

    I have a wife (Joanna) who I have been married to for just over three years and we have 15 month old son (Avery). I am hoping that in a couple of years he will be able to help me out. He loves the syrup on his waffles.

    I am addicted to sugarin' and plan to expand the operation a little at a time as the years go by.

    Chris
    Chris
    18 X 20 sugar shack
    1300 taps all on vac.
    2 by 8 Lapierre all stanless evaporator
    Steam Hood
    Lapierre 250 Turbo R.O.
    Polaris Ranger
    30 years experience

  8. #28
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Fall Creek, WI Woods: Lincoln/Price Counties, WI
    Posts
    155

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    Mount View Sugar Bush is named after the road that we grew up on, which had a view of Rib Mountain near Wausau. My two brothers and I grew up on a small farm in central Wisconsin; when my youngest brother graduated high school, he looked for something to do during the day as he worked second shift. He tapped 400 trees in a neighbor's woods near our farm and sold the sap. He held back 40 gallons on the last day, and my two brothers cooked it down to about 1 gallon of syrup.

    We found an old arch and had some pans made. Unfortunately, the neighbor had the woods clear cut during the following winter, so we scrambled to find another woods, which we did in time to have our first syruping season.

    Over time we grew bigger and acquired better equipment. We finally moved to our uncle's 40 in an area known as the Newwood area, west of Merrill, WI. We tap in two 40s there, which is where our sugar shack is, plus in another 80 and 40 that we own located 13 miles away in Price county.

    Our woods crew consists of my two brothers and I, our Dad, our uncle, my two sons ( Nick, 10 and Nate, 8 ), my brother's neighbor, and our wives when they feel like it. Our mom helps with the bottling back in civilization. We sell our product at various Farmers' Markets, mom and dad's ice cream shop, and to our long list of repeat customers that we have developed over the years.

    I owe a lot of our success to my brother Ryan, who is the best engineer I have ever seen. He keeps us and the whole operation running. Every year we get a little bigger and a little smarter.
    Russell Berg
    Mount View Sugar Bush - Since 1989
    2004 5.5' x 18' Custom-built Stainless Evaporator w/ 7' Piggyback + Preheater
    4,000 - 5,000 taps vacuum/gravity/bags
    24' x 32' Sugar Shack

  9. #29
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    ashland, ny
    Posts
    42

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    Hi, my name is John Mattice. My father and I have been making syrup in Ashland , NY for the past seven years. We started out on small baking pans on a small wood stove. We then went to a small flat pan on a barrel stove...then to an 18x63 evaporator...then to a 2x6. We are now boiling on a 3x8 oil fired Grimm Lightening evaporator which we love. We also have a 16x32 gas finisher, a 16x16 canning unit, and added a filter press this year. we hope to make around 100 gallons this year on about 550 taps-500 on tubing.
    I am engaged to Lisa, the love of my life, and we are getting married this July 23.

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Cheshire County NH
    Posts
    50

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    Great idea. Like everyone else says, "it's really nice to read about everyone else"
    We live in Harrisville NH for about the past 3 years. (My wife and son(5))
    He loves to help dad with the evap and gathering. When we are not sugaring or something to prepare for it, we sell professional books to teachers in New England. I also am a voli fire fighter EMT-I in 2 towns. We used to live in Wilton and work on that Amb service as well. Worked with the Lyndeborough Fire Dept today on the house fire on Glass Factory rdb this am Sugaring started with my first taste if real syrup about 7 years ago. Then a buddy of mine started boiling in his driveway and I caught the sickness. A few years working with him was loads of fun. When he stopped, I started. What started out as a hobbie turned "bad".30-40 gallons/year. We are still pretty small (24"x66" ) but have 2x6 amount of fun ! People show up to "help" with boiling all the time.Although when the beer runs out or 1am rolls around,people seem to leave.
    I learn quite a bit from my two other friends who boil. There are three of us boiling now, each at his own place. But I have the best wife. She helps with wood, runs the evap, brings meals out to the sugarhouse, Wow The only thing she is missing is a fishing boat.
    She and the other wives call themselves the sugaring widows during March. Thanks for the new post.
    SW
    "It's a sickness."

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