September journal

[Gerryfamily5]

Went to our annual craft show today and of course it had to rain,hard! But this is our eigth year already,and in comparing,today wasn't to bad.Altough it seems the tight economy has forced people to buy smaller items.Hoping for good weather and a better than average Sunday.

[Parker]

Got 3 cords cut up and piled,,ready to split,,,the BALL IS ROLLING!!!

[mountainvan]

Spent last week getting wood, pinched a nerve in my arm so no wood cutting this week. Sales were double at the farmer markets this past weekend over what I did last year. Maybe things are looking up.

[Clan Delaney]

I've been thinking real hard about getting some clapboard sheathing on the shack. We'll see how long it is before that thought turns to action.

[stoweski]

The new sugarshack is almost complete (cupola doors and fascia/soffit left to build). The 1/2 pint was moved into place this weekend and 2 cord of wood have been cut and split over the past couple of weeks.

Oh yea, and since it's my first year my father in-law and I went out this past weekend and marked 180 red & sugar maples, approximately 90 of each, all 10" or more in size.

Next is the cleaning of my 55 gallon drums and building a shelf in the shack to hold two of the drums for feeding the evaporator. Thank God I started early!

Any other advise for a sugarin' virgin?

Keith

[3rdgen.maple]

The new sugarshack is almost complete (cupola doors and fascia/soffit left to build). The 1/2 pint was moved into place this weekend and 2 cord of wood have been cut and split over the past couple of weeks.

Oh yea, and since it's my first year my father in-law and I went out this past weekend and marked 180 red & sugar maples, approximately 90 of each, all 10" or more in size.

Next is the cleaning of my 55 gallon drums and building a shelf in the shack to hold two of the drums for feeding the evaporator. Thank God I started early!

Any other advise for a sugarin' virgin?

Keith

Holy cow you plan on 180 trees with a half pint? Are you insane? I think you would have to boil atleast 50 hours a day for like 6 months. That is alot of trees for a half pint. You might want to think about a 2x6.

[KenWP]

If he has trees like mine the half pint should work. I did 150 taps with a 16x18 inch pan and only had to boil 20 hours a day to get it all boiled so a hlf pint should do it.

[3rdgen.maple]

I think you both are crazy then

[BarrelBoiler]

stoweski my advice is as in all things, moderation! the guys on here have all sorts of numbers of what to expect from taps and boil times etc. your half pint is designed to handle a certain amount of taps based on studies conducted by the manufactor. How much further you push that window will be based on your time availiblity. the best i got out of an unmodifyed 2x3 with a preheat pan wasa 6-8 gph so when i started with 64 gals i was looking at 8-10hrs to get to the kitchen to finish off( which could wait ) let alone what was gathered during the boil and the big run if and when it hit. if you have that many trees and some are on the smallish side you have a good chance to work a rotation in your bush and give some trees a season off.

jusst my humble opinion

[stoweski]

I guess I should explain...

We live on 10 acres... all woods with the exception of a bit of a clearing for the house. I wanted to at least mark all of the maples on the property to get an idea of what I had available. We used a GPS to mark their locations. I'll be importing them into Google Earth one of these days.
I only want to tap the sugars and even with that I am only going to tap those that are 12" or more. There is no way that I'm going to tap 180 trees, especially when only using buckets (ie. no kids). My guess is more like 50 taps for this season. Now does that sound more reasonable for a 1/2 pint?

And, if all goes well I'll probably be one of those next year looking for a 2x6 since the sugarshack is 14x20 and there is plenty of room for it. I may even run some lines depending on how well this year goes.

Keith