That Time Of Year Again
 

After a wild night of 40+ MPH winds and lots of rain, the barometer shot up, and we collected first thing. Made about 5 gallons of Light Amber. Not much sleep for the next 4 weeks.

do you ever have any extra for sale ... charlie

Now I won't be able to get that '70's song out of my head... thanks Eggar!!

*There's a crazy little sha-ack along the track..* :cuss:


Maple squeezin's and some Tennesee nectar - Jack Daniel's Old No. 7, Mm-m!

mmmmm,

i do miss my maple trees,

it was a hard job, split the wood - gather sap- boil - skim -filter,

then my son ( very young back then ) would pour a water glass of hard earned syrup to drink with a peanut butter sandwich when I wasn't looking

took me a while to find out why it would just disapear :clap:

Charley, years ago I would make between 70 and 100 gallons a season, but as I get olde, and no one helping out, I just do what I can do. This will be my 28th year doing it, having only missed last year when I was in and out of the hospital. The year before, I did 75 gallons by myself and between all the wood preparation, which starts right after we finish boiling for the season (end of March, roughly) and all the night of boiling, I was about done in. I have always sold the syrup locally. My wife is my best salesperson and she blackmails everyone in her office, and all throughout her other offices. I've gotten a few others started on their own operations, and one of the PGCA's newest members is one of my former trainees. He collected over 500 gallons of sap today, and all I can do is smile. That's the difference 25 years makes.
I set out in the Land Rover (after bleeding the clutch, adjusting the brakes and drying the ignition) and collect 200 gallons from my 150 taps. I lit off at 10 this morning and came in at 7, boiling off everything I collected. I'll sleep soundly tonight (I'd better, I have to do it all over again tomorrow) but Keith will be boiling all night and well into tomorrow, before he even heads out to collect again.
My biggest issue with selling outside of my area is that postage is so damn high for even a pint.
It's now just after 11pm, and I still have to go out, kill any remaining fire, and close up the sugar house, as it's going to be cold tonight. Freeze ups are a big problem.

................................:violin:

Edgar, I applaud you! old habits die hard, keep doing it as long as you can. As we age things do not get done as fast, but they get done never the less! Gary

:whistle:

Yup, I've done that, in snowshoes, carrying 2 five gallon pails of sap.
I wised up eventually and put about 100 of the taps on that steep hill, onto tubing.

Very nice timber frame "shack" !! Nice evaporator and auto draw off unit. What is the radio in the back? I wouldn't mind seeing a few more pics of your evaporator set up.

Too cold in MI to be putting out taps, been 18 F since I got up this AM. No warm up in the 10 day forecast. Working on the old Grimm 2x6 today. Over the summer we poured concrete and enclosed the lean to. I added a lot of windows for light. Moved the evaporator back in there last weekend. Heaters are going so I can mortar the fire bricks. If I have time I would like to build a parallel flow pre-heater and a sealed hood. Probably not going to happen this year.

Good luck with your sugaring,
Kurt

Last years set up....

Hey Eggar, I magnified your map on the back wall and I can see Saboomook from here :cool:

Kurt, the sugar house is a true post & beam 12x16. I used to do post & beam but all those mortise joints took out my shoulder. I cheated and used 1" oak dowels for my pegs.
My arch is the same as yours but 4 years ago I bought a new set of stainless pans, drop flue.
The radio is a spare ART-13. I have one upstairs in the sugar house, with an SX28A receiver. I don't do AM anymore, it's just collecting dust. My other "shack" is all Collins, in the house.(an S-line, and a KWM380) I have a late KWM2-A up in Maine.

Glad to see your eyes haven't failed you, even if your mind has.

Kiddin' me? Eyesight is about the third or fourth thing tp go.

My sympathies to Kathy on the loss of the first three.
Kurt, here's a shot when I was building the frame for the sugar house. It took 30 days from when the timbers were dropped off till the last door was hung.
The drawoff controller is my own design. I use a Marcland valve, but that's where the similarity ends. It's much more versatile than the Marcland, and uses an Omega microprocessor. I've made a half dozen for the guys around here.

Hey spence...tell em the one about when you used to tap those trees down at the whore house.

I always meant to ask you; how did you know it was a whore house?

You said that doing your own mortices and joints wrecked your shoulder... did you order the posts and beams pre-mortised? And how did you "cheat" by using oak dowels? Most morticed post & beam structures used oak dowels didn't they?

No pre-cut stuff here. I cut the hemlock and pine on my land, took it to the sawmill at the end of the road and picked it up when he finally got to sawing them for me. The storm braces and rafters are hemlock, and the posts and beams are white pine. The design and measurements were all in my head. The mortises are 2 1/2" So all the pockets were roughed first with a 2" Forstner bit, then 2" slick and 1x1" corner chisel. Pegs are supposed to be tapered, so that they can be driven as they shrink, Pins through the mortises are supposed to be about 1/4" in of the holes through the tenons so the joints are pulled tight as they pegs are driven in. I cheated there too; boring straight thru and pegging. Nothing has moved a fraction, as the linear shrinkages keeps it all tight.

You are a rare breed Mr. Spencer and from what I know about your family history, you come from a long line of Connecticut Yankee "rare breeds".

My hat's off to you sir!!

Yes, I am. I predate planned parenthood.

Aha! So you were a surprise! Just as we thought!! You surprise us too :whistle:

No, I wasn't a surprise. In fact, my grandfather asked for a grandson for his birthday, and my mother delivered (hehe) right to the day. It's just that they didn't have a test back then, so I wasn't a surprise, until I was actually born. My mother is the originator of the popular expression 'WTF?"

[QUOTE=edgarspencer;95178] I wasn't a surprise, until I was actually born. [QUOTE]


I'll bet it was the first time a doctor ever slapped the mother instead of the baby... :rotf:

Edgar: Having grown up in Connecticut (now live in Texas), I have fond memories of going to a sugar shack in Southbury every spring (I think in April) to buy several pints of fresh-made syrup. It was kind of a ritual of spring and something I looked foward to not just for the delicious maple syrup, but also for the knowledge that warmer weather was just around the corner after months of cold winter.

Thanks for posting. Is that receiver in the background a HAM radio? I'd imagine it helps pass the time when you're boiling the sap all night.

Bob

[QUOTE=Dean Romig;95181][QUOTE=edgarspencer;95178] I wasn't a surprise, until I was actually born. I don't know if the Doctor did, but I'm pretty sure my grandfather did.

Bob, It's an old military transmitter; spare to another set, up in the loft with an appropriate vintage Hallicrafters receiver. I haven't used it in years, but never when I'm boiling, as that takes all my attention, not to burn the pans.

When thinking of Maple Syrup, people usually think of Vermont, But New Hampshire produces nearly as much as Vermont. The supply house in NH, where I get stuff from also produces maple sugar, and syrup. They put in over 50,000 taps, and boil off upwards of 100,000 gallons of sap per day. I think my best SEASON was about 3500 gallons of sap. Wisconsin, Michigan and West Virginia produce more than VT, but their sap is much lower in sugar content, so their syrup is darker. The maple sap in CT has, in past years, had a very high sugar content, and as a result, our very small production is considered a very high quality. In previous years, the sugar content has been close to 3% at the beginning of the season, requiring only about 35 gallons of sap to boil down to one gallon of syrup. This drops off rapidly, towards 2%, requiring 50 gallons of sap. I'm pretty concerned, as yesterdays production figures out to be less than 2% sugar. Syrup will most likely be darker this year. No thanks to Al Gore, but climate change has clearly had an effect of the maple trees. Our season was pretty predictably started around Lincoln's birthday, and went till the end of March. It's begun progressively sooner each year, and each years season is a bit shorter than the one before.
Between the Eastern Long Horned Beetle and the climate changes, I have serious concerns for the long term viability of making syrup in CT

To say nothing of the "Winter (or Snow) Moth" which feed voraciously on maple leaves.

Well Mr Spencer.. every time you came back from collecting sap there you reaked of cheap perfume and your pockets were turned out with no money left to buy coffee! Just an observation of course... besides weren't you the one that told me it was?

Edgar: Thanks for the brief background on syrup production. I had no idea it was so involved. I always knew that it took a lot of sap to make a gallon. Is that 35:1 ration pretty standard? Also didn't know that the sugar content fluctuates year-to-year, and is also different by region. I'm curious... do you have a device that measures the sugar content of the sap? I'm sad to think about the possibility that syrup production could be a thing of the past in Connecticut and I didn't even think about the affects of climate change and insects on the maples. Thanks for clarifying my question on the radio.

Best,

Bob

I know you think your funny. Sad really. It isn't why we're here.

Bob, some guys carry a pocket refractometer that tells them the % of sugar. It's a bit more science. But in the end, you can't change a tree you've already tapped, so I just go with what the trees give me. It's just a hobby for me. For some, it's a competition and they have to call six times a day to tell me they just did what I did, 25 years ago.

Spence.. I actually asked you to tell that story as I thought it was a funny story...I guess I was the only one laughing. Sorry to bring such sadness

You're way too young to be so forgetful. It was you who told me it was a whorehouse, not the other way round. If it doesn't happen between here, and the road, I don't know about it. All I saw at that place was 20 more maples. The place had been empty for a year. You said it was Jeff's uncle who told you. Hmmm, I wonder how he knew?
Now you've called me Spence, you've completely confused the lot of them. I have heretofore been known as Terry, Teggar, Eggar and Edgar, not to mention the unspoken names. Now, what can we do to mess up your name, Eddie?
For those who haven't figured it out yet, Eddie (aka Keith) is my Grasshopper in the syrup making business. We're working on getting the IHOP contract.

Is that sorta like the "fly in the ointment"? :eek:

Tapping
 

Edgar we tap down here in the summer, It is a little hot and the ticks are out but what the hell! just thought you might like to see a tapping operation.

I'd sure like to sample some of that syrup!!

The only difference, Gary, is the local law actually pays me for mine. I'll swap you a pint of mine for a pint of yours.

Done!

I visited Eggar today and bought some of the Grade A Light Amber for a friend. I made the mistake of tasting it and now my friend won't get it.
I'm making pancakes tomorrow. I may even find a way to mix alcohol with it- its going to be a long blizzard here.....

I tried to trade this DHE 28 for syrup but Eggar said he would only take cash or moonshine.

George;
I've got 10 cases of syrup ready for shipment. I'll PM you with my address for shipment of the 28. I'm only doing this because you seem to be a nice guy. I'll be shooting it with Rich and his fancy gun at Drake's Landing if you would like to visit her.:bigbye: