Happy New Year to you too Russel.
Back when I lost my long time help, when all 3 graduated college in the same year, my plans also changed. I sold off one of my 2 leases, initially cut from 1320 taps down to 650. Then my brother-in-law (BIL) came on board. We are both retired but we are hoping to get between 900-1000 taps this year. Yesterday my oldest son, a good friend of his, a 10 yr old grandson, my BIL and I worked changing drops in my one lease. That was the first time for the first 3 to help in the woods, with the exception of my oldest son who helped me run my first ever mainline, on gravity, back in 2004.
All 4 of my kids are all quite local but 2 of the grandkids aren't. A granddaughter chooses to live in L.A. and a grandson chooses to live wherever the Navy chooses. He has 5 more years come next month if he doesn't decide to re-up.
With the kids so local and the fact that both my wife and I can't take hot weather we will not be moving south. The AC bill runs too much now because we need to keep the t-stat set at 65 all summer and 63 all winter.
I now hope to be able to keep doing maple into my early 80's, if the good lord allows. While my dad was not a syrup maker he did work in the woods most days until he was 86 or 87, cutting firewood for himself and my brother, both had outdoor wood boilers. My brother and I even bought him a hydraulic splitter but he preferred splitting with wedges and a maul.
Happy New Year to all the Maple Traders and it would be great to finally have the world at peace. To all a great maple season!
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.