Introduce yourselves....

[220 maple]

I have enjoyed this site for two years now, finally decided to register.
I am printer by trade and work for the worlds largest printer at one of the many manufacturing plants. Here in Harrisonburg,Va., we print books. (Harry Potters, Tom Clancy. John Grisham, Stephen Kings) just to name a few. We avg. 150 millions books a year at this location. I've worked there 25 years.
I'm married and have two sons both are in College. Thomas at Eastern Mennonite here in Harrisonburg, John at Mary Washington University at Frederickburg, Va.
My wife Debbie and I have been married for 24 years. She is the best because she lets me drive 60 plus miles to my sugar camp in WV and play sugarmaker. 1500 taps this year 2000 last year. 1100 on Vacuum. All on tubing. Seven beef cows, the ones that get free advertising.(Angus)
No chickens, 1989 yamaha four wheeler. A truck load of Misc. junk....

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

220,

Where is your sugarcamp in WV?? Sounds like a big operation to drive that far?? Mine is 30 minutes away in Greenbrier county.

[220 maple]

Brandon,
I'm located in Grant County near the Pendleton County line. On US 220, hence the name 220 maple. I work a 4 star shift which is 12hrs two days on two days off, Every other weekend I,m off Fri.,Sat., Sunday. I stay with my mother when I go to the camp It is located in her backyard. My dad start making syrup after he retired in 1998. With my help and other family he expanded over 1000 taps. He passed away in the Fall of 2002.
Last season I had 2000 taps. I like making Syrup. One thing I've noticed is every sugarmaker I've met is a good person. I have heard of some bad eggs but have not met them personally.

Mark 220 maple[/quote]

[Banjo]

Hello everyone,
I was pointed to this site last fall, read and registered then. Have been reading up on evaporators over the past few days.

I've made syrup a few times from maples in our backyard and started again when we bought the farm here 15 months ago. Unfortunately our "Sugar Bush" is only these four trees in the front yard:

Last year I tapped with buckets and made several litres of syrup, with much more success when I re-drilled the tap holes a bit deeper.
This year I went to these mini pipelines, which I thought I'd invented but it turns out that lots of other people seem to have too .

They have worked a charm, the sap is crystal clear, no problems with bugs, rain or wind (at least after I put the brick on top of each pail ops.
All told I have 11 "health" spiles and have managed to get about 13 litres or so of syrup so far this year. This is just for our own use, Christmas presents, and my mum who uses it for her bread.
I've been doing all my boiling on a propane burner and a 14" pot and am on my fourth tank of propane now! I finish in a pan on the stove inside. This year I'm working on trying to figure out when to stop boiling. I thought I was stopping too early ... which was fine for us as we don't have a very sweet tooth and the syrup was tasty. I managed to test some of this years crop at a larger operation near here (who bought some hay from me) and it was all 71-72.5%! I just finished the last sap tonight and hopefully got this batch "right".

I'm thinking of a larger evaporator for next year, and probably going to wood firing as there is lots of wood around here that needs to be cleaned and cleared up. I have to have the propane burner going pretty much all day to keep up with what I've got. I'd like to be able to do a quick boil up in a few hours instead and/or have room for more taps if I can find more trees. I've been scouring the posts here for info and likely will start asking questions soon. I like to make my own stuff so that's my first plan of attack.

We haven't explored all the corners of our 135 acres yet, but there don't seem to be more mature maples that we've found so far. There is one stand of smaller ones, that we're going to try to manage, so that they can grow faster. I'll probably try transplanting some more from my parents too (a good use for the backhoe I made :wink.

Well, that's probably a long winded intro. Thanks for all the good info that people have posted already. And you're all right ... maple sugaring is another of those "magic" pastimes.

cheers, Andrew

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Andrew,

Welcome and great job! As far as getting the syrup right, you can get a hydrometer for around $ 15 and you can make you up a small test cup. There are lots of forums to post questions on and just about any question you can ask has already been asked and answered many times. Not too discourage you from asking them, but there are hours and hours of good information that you can go back thru if you have the time to read!

[lharris1]

Andrew: With the handle "Banjo" are you a banjo player?

[Banjo]

Branden, been doing lots of reading, both before and after the post . Was reading till after the computer told me the hour had changed last nigh . Lots of good info here. Still looking to see if some other questions have been answered before I start askin'

Larry, yup I've been known to play the banjo. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have happened much in the past few months (well ... actually at all ops: ).

Just going to head out and see if anything ran at all today. It was just below freezing for a few hours last night and warm all day.

cheers, Andrew

[Mike]

Andrew, Welcome to the site......Like the rest of us you'll grow quicker than you think....Sounds like you have the trees for a good size operation....Its a fever.......................... 8O 8O .......Welcome to the rest of the new people............Mike

[Mike]

Andrew, Welcome to the site......Like the rest of us you'll grow quicker than you think....Sounds like you have the trees for a good size operation....Its a fever.......................... 8O 8O .......Welcome to the rest of the new people............Mike

[Pete33Vt]

My name is Pete, I joined earlier this winter, havn't had much time to introduce myself. I have been sugaring for about 20 yrs, started with my grandfather, at age 10. Been helping out others for quite a few years, everything from setting up tubing to boiling. I have a great wife that I have been with for 10 yrs this November, Three step-sons 10-14-17, and one daughter 14. This year I have finally said its time for US which means I got my pencil and paper out and getting my list together. Going to start our own sugaring operation. That way its the way I want. Have the taps about lined up hopping for about 350-400 to start. Looking for a 3x10, and the list goes on.
Wishing you all a great summer, and congrats on the site, its great.