Casbohm Maple and Honey 2020 and beyond......

[maple flats]

If anyone looks up the 4200 weed badger, and looks at the video, those automatic fingers to trip the retract and extend were not suggested for blueberries, mine is operated by a joy stick control, manually.

[Sugarmaker]

Dave,
Sure sounds like you found a good tool to do the cultivating!
Folks,
Just a few shots of my other new project. Man I hope this works out!

So this area is the proposed spot for a new building, this area is the island between the house and the sugarhouse.


Five trees were taken down which would have been in the way. These ended up here as potential wood for woods stove or maybe even syrup production. Soft maple, elm and ash. I thought I was out of the wood splittin business?


I dropped the Ash logs at the mill for them to custom saw into lumber. estimated to be 175 to 200 board feet?


and brought home two bundles of red oak slabs for making syrup:


Cheryl helped me get these into the woodshed.
Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
While at the miil waiting to get slabs loaded I could not resist these big logs. I believe they are red oak? But I am not a good judge? Counted the rings and it looks to be 100 years old.


Pressed the little Ford into service with the buzz saw.




Cheryl doing the off bearing from the buzz rig, sure helped get through this syrup wood!


I did get a letter that local syrup buyer is accepting syrup this Saturday. Social distancing will be in affect Folks will remain in there cars till ready to move there syrup into his building.

Thanks for checking on me!
Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
Slowly the sugarshed is getting full. I may go with five rows this year as I had to beg wood to get through this sping's good late runs.



On another wood related project. We had a ash tree taken down and these are the boards from the two logs. There was about 218 board feet of 1 inch thick lumber. Cheryl halped me sticker it up. Hope to make something for her and the grandkids someday.




Oh and the slabs from these logs came home too, they will make some syrup.
Regards,
Chris

Regards,
Chris

[Pdiamond]

Chris,
How long of a piece of wood can you put into your evaporator? How many slabs do you place into it at once? And finally do you have to split anything down before hand or can you throw in the whole chunk? The only reason I am asking is I may have access to a bunch of free slab wood through a family member and want to know how much work I was going to get myself into, besides having to cut, split, and stack.

[maple flats]

From my experience (I have my own sawmill) I cut to 21'- 24" even though the arch will take 30". I only split if over 2" thick or over 5-6" wide. I mix my wood going in, generally 2/3-3/4 hardwood and the rest softwood regardless of whether it is slab wood or processed from whole rounds. I only fill my firebox each time to about 6"-8" from the top.

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
My arch has a 3 foot long fire box. So 24 to 30 inches long material works well for me. I dont split any thing I am lazy. If it fits in the door it gets burned. Yes it may slow down the boil but I try to throw a big piece on the side opposite I am drawing off from. With AOF and AUF it seems to burn most of it up every 8 to 10 minutes.
Lots of folks don't like slabs. I will have a bunch of work into getting them, cutting, stacking, loading and firing. Actual cost per gallon about $1.50 ish.
Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
Some pictures as the new building made progress:
Dirt:


More dirt:


Holes and poles (July 20th) Me in the orange, doing what I do best, watching someone else work!:




Regards,
Chris

[DrTimPerkins]

Looking great Chris.

[Sugarmaker]

Dr. Tim, Folks,
Currently we are working on trim details on exterior. Progressing slowly!


Regards,
Chris