October Journal

[3rdgen.maple]

Sapman not yet I have been checking the UVM website. Wilmots articles he writes in Farming is not linked there yet. Been waiting to read it though. If you got a link to it let me know. I still wondering if Im wasting my time or not, but I will try almost anything once. So far the weather is not cooperating but it is early yet I am hoping mid november it kicks in. I have been hunting my but off to fill the freezer and have done well so far. Hopefully by the time it starts to run it will be out of my system.

[3rdgen.maple]

Okay maple maniacs another auction who's going? http://www.auctionzip.com/cgi-bin/au...302&category=0 There is a picture of an old evaporator in there.

[3rdgen.maple]

Happy Halloween to all the maple kids.

Tough day today. I have been cuting wood along the river bottom and got the last load cut and loaded from that area and while heading out the wethole that I have driven through a thousand times decided to swallow me up. Tractor was in mud up to the X and so was the wood trailer. After alot of messing around and unloading the trailer to get the weight off it I got her home. I actually like the color of the tractor now. BROWN ha ha alot nicer than that green.

[KenWP]

Well just about the end of October and I finally got started big time on the new evaporator. Broke down and rented a greenlee punch since I had to be in the town where I could rent one yesterday and punched all the holes I needed in a couple of hours useing a electric impact wrench. Sort of looks funney to see a nice SS pan full of 1 1/4 inch holes. Now to either buy a welder or solder in the drop tubes. Should be a experience to solder that many holes.
Pretty good weather so far this fall. Deer season opens tomorrow so should hear a few bangs out back from the deer hunters. These guys take deer season pretty seriously they built a new little house to sit in to replace the old one the wind caught one day and tore the roof off of. Carrots and apples are piled up by the truck load also.

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
Man! new evaporators going in, new tubing systems being set up , new sugar bushes being evaluated, evaporators being improved. Deer being harvested, vandalism being resisted.
You guys are a busy bunch.
Great to live in this country where we can do all these things.

As I write this we have a wood fire going in the house to take off the chill of the raw, wet weather. We have 5 sticks of venison kielbasi cooking in the oven, (Eric arrowed an real nice 9 point {160 lb} on Monday morning) He will be making jerky tonight also. We still enjoy the work of processing our own deer and it allows us to work together on a project.

The 5 foot hand brake is back in the shop for redesign and rework.

Canned some goldenrod honey last night.

Cheryl is not real happy about the upcoming surgery.

Have a great Halloween,
Regards,
Chris

[KenWP]

Take me years to get used to the way you guys count points on a deer around here. Out west a 9 point whitetail would be a weird deer. Of course I am still getting used to haveing to use glass to even see the horns on the deer around here. Owell time will tell if I learn or not.

[Sugarmaker]

Ken,
NW PA white tail rules: must have 4 points on one side to be legal for us old hunters ( kids can shoot about anything). This buck had 5 points on one side and 4 on the other. Hang in there, we are still learning the rules as they change them too

The venison kielbasi was great on a Ritz cracker with some Colby cheese and a little maple BBQ! Yummm.

Chris

[tuckermtn]

sitting here making drops as my girls count their halloween loot. Finally got the rest of my sugar wood in today. Met with a landowner we have tapped in the past and talked to them about adding more tubing and tapping some of their reds- I would guess another 40-50 taps there. Picking up three of Parkers smaller bushes - so we should be close to 1000 taps by the time the season starts.

Spent most of this morning replacing all the braided poly line on the RO and trying to figure out how to get into the room in the barn- 2'6 door and a 40" wide machine...

Picked up a filter press on Thursday- getting geared up for BIGSAP here in Andover...four months left and still a tons to get done...

cheers-

eRic