February Journal THE COUNTDOWN!!!

[danno]

With or without snowshoes - nothing more exhausting than tapping in 2-3' of soft snow. Did that a few seasons ago - that was a workout. Hope that you get some warm/sun and tap the next cold morning when everything is firmed up.

[vtsnowedin]

I'm thinking its too windy to do the stack setup this morning.
So moving house wood into the wood shed. That needs to be filled before the season. My wife operates on the "magic woodshed principle". It just needs to magically have wood in there when she needs it. No idea how it happens.Maybe haul a couple more pickup loads of slabs. Don't know why I've been using the small saw, but the last load yesterday I brought the 372 and just cut all the way through the pile. Dropped loading time to 15 minutes or so.

What are you doing messin around with my wife? Got to be her . Can't be two just alike.

[DanE.]

I got the new tubing installed yesterday. 100 feet of main line and 500 feet of 5/16. I have another run of 5/16 line (10 taps) to be added to the end of the main line. I thought I would be done by noon but I spent from 8am to 5 pm putting this all in. This is my first year doing tubing, well doing it so it can stay up year round. anyways here is a picture of some of the new tubing. It is a work of art......

DSC02005S.JPG

I did mess up one of the main wire connections that will need to be fixed, I think it will have to wait until next year.

Dane.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Dan,

Looks like your on the right track!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

With or without snowshoes - nothing more exhausting than tapping in 2-3' of soft snow. Did that a few seasons ago - that was a workout. Hope that you get some warm/sun and tap the next cold morning when everything is firmed up.

At this point, I don't have a choice. Between 2 and 3 feet on the ground and a bunch more forecasted for tomorrow and Wed. I had already made syrup at this point last year and this year, not even sure when we will be able to tap. We so much snow and all my tanks are in remote locations in the woods, will have to plow out the roads/trails to even get to them and get the tanks set too. Crazy weather and next 10 days is not showing above freezing and mostly well below freezing.

[dano2840]

I hung eight hundred feet of mainline today. All wired up except the side ties. I think I'll let it set for a day or two to work the kinks out. In the last two days I have managed to cut myself twice. Once reaching down to pick up the two handed tool and ran a finger nail onto the tube cutter blade and today cutting a plastic pipe with my jack knife I managed to fold it's non locking blade onto my middle finger and cut to the meat. Bandaids on both hands and using a pair of pruning shears for all tube cutting. I don't know what to do about the two handed tool. The blade is looking at you at all times and very close to your fingers when you close the vise grips. Working in a foot of snow on steep slopes the unexpected can be expected.

on mine the blade swings down out of the way against a a gaurd, who maid your tool?

[dano2840]

well we went after some slab wood way up on the mountin, the road wasnt plowed but my moms bf tried it with the truck and barried it in the ice crystal snow so i went and drove the tractor 5 miles and plowed out the road all the way to the pile, we managed 2 4 wheel wagon loads before it got dark, and a load in the pick up, driving the tractor home in the dark i got frost bite on my fingers, forgoten just how much that hurts when your hands start to warm back up OUCH! missed first half of the super bowl, i was told the half time show wasnt that good any way, still about 3 more loads of slab all red pine, deffinetly enough to completely fill the wood shed. just gotta get it hope it dont snow too much im not in the mood to drive a tractor back up there!

[danno]

"missed first half of the super bowl, i was told the half time show wasnt that good any way,"


How dare you - I would say this may be an over/under 40 thing. Those over 40 loved it, those under 40 would rather have had Fergie. Maybe over/under 30? One can only hope. 40 is in my rear view mirror

[vtsnowedin]

on mine the blade swings down out of the way against a a gaurd, who maid your tool?

I bought it at Leader in Swanton. Page 7 in their catalog item 4791. The deluxe model 47705 does have a guard and costs $295 vs $134 for mine.

[sapman]

Lapierre or D&G have the same tool for $240 or $250. But Leader did drop their price considerably.