Ye Old Garage

[drivesitfar]

I faintly hear a song that I’ve changed the words slightly to exchange sugar shack instead of the love one.

Tasty stuff when you’re done I’m guessing. Need any waffle or pancake recipes?

 

[sublime68charger]

Sure if you want to post them drives!

Been a down year so far on sap production. Last weekend was 2 buckets this weekend was 3 so I'm cooking what I get. Last weekend my uncle stopped by and was outside talking to him and burnt the syrup it got poured out in the chicken feed as ug tasted really really burnt. The chickens really liked it though there feed spot was all clean that night.

This is my strain scooper depth guage when sap is at top of strainer I don't leave the shack. Unless sap is not boiling and I need to get wood to refire stove.

Goal is to keep sap at 2" to 4" in the pans with a good Rollin boil going. When under the 2" you stay in shack to keep a eye on stuff.
Condense pans as needed when you run out of fresh sap.

 

[zanyad]

I faintly hear a song that I’ve changed the words slightly to exchange sugar shack instead of the love one.

What about this one?

 

[zanyad]

 

[drivesitfar]

Zan: yep somewhere in my memory I thought there was a sugar shack song but the love shack is in my brides workout play list so I hear it fairly often.

Here’s the Belgian waffle recipe and we just bought a new cuisinart waffle iron and love it. Our old 40 year old waffle iron was great til it wasn’t a year or so ago but this one makes amazing waffles and I think it was only $50.

Keep warm!!

 

[xtremek]

You guys aren't helping my waistline.

 

[sublime68charger]

You guys aren't helping my waistline.

If you got more stuff done at your place your waistline would be just fine! LOL!

Thanks for stopping in over here though

 

[drivesitfar]

Buttermilk pancakes might become your favorite and i'll post that recipe soon. I also make a Norwegian pancake that some call Dutch Baby or German that you cook for about 20 minutes in your oven and a great way to start of your day. the Norwegian tastes great with Lemon and powdered sugar and fresh fruit, but I bet your homemade sap (syrup) would taste just fine.

keep warm and I bet your spring and summer will show up soon.

 

[captain14]

Here’s the Belgian waffle recipe and we just bought a new cuisinart waffle iron and love it.

drives,

Not to steal the thread, it what’s the secret to keep the waffles not to stick to the iron when done. I’ve always had the issue of not releasing and sticking. I did use a nonstick spray prior to pouring the mix in.

TIA.

 

[drivesitfar]

My bride used butter in first waffle with this new cuisinart waffle maker and none after that and had zero issues. She says she probably wouldn’t need to use butter in the new waffle maker maybe cause there is butter in her mix. Good luck!!

Also I bet Sub doesn’t mind the conversations especially about good food so hijack away.

Speaking of hyjacking here’s a few more non diet recipes. The key to eating these is enjoy with berries and syrup or your favorite toppings (sugar shack drippings) and then get to moving and don’t sit down.

 

[xtremek]

If you got more stuff done at your place your waistline would be just fine! LOL!

Thanks for stopping in over here though

The truth hurts but you know I'm into pain.

 

[drivesitfar]

BTW for those of you that like fresh pancakes and not leftovers I usually cut the buttermilk pancake recipe in half if we are really hungry or 1/3 which really gets into math and fractions figuring but I’ve yet to have a bad tasting batch. Also on the crepes I usually ask for a double batch when my bride is making them cause we love them leftover.

I’m not sure when we started putting whipped cream on but not every time but when she makes it I’m usually happy she did.

 

[sublime68charger]

So In other going's on. My Wood Chop saw sent a nail at the back window of the topper.

Best way to clean the glass out of the gravel? Sweep it up onto a piece of cardboard? Shovel the area out good?
I tried a shop vac but it just picks up the gravel as well and plug's the hose.

Any Great thoughts or idea's to try I give a go.

 

[drivesitfar]

sorry for your loss. maybe put a wheelbarrow or two of new gravel over the broken glass or is it plexiglass?

 

[sublime68charger]

its broken glass but its tempered so there's no sharp edges on it per say. But still if you pick it up in a tire it can still work into the rubber and start a leak I bet. I think Im gonna just shovel that area out real good and put that gravel in a mud sink hole where I dont drive at all, or a bucket then take to the town dumpster in said bucket and it can go to a landfill. I don't want to be causing my own tire leaks I seem to stumble into a enough of them all on me own.

thanks for chimin in Drives!

 

[captain14]

I don’t think you’re ever going to get rid of the broken glass. Best thing to do is just complete the “Witness Relocation Program” . Shovel it up and dispose of it. I don’t know if your sinkhole will ever see bare feet…..

Good luck trying to find a replacement section of glass for the topped. Let us know what you find. I rescued a “back window section” like yours from a junk truck that we were going to cut up for a drill at work one day.

 

[xtremek]

I haven't had any issues with tempered glass and my tires. I usually pick up the most I can and let the rest go IF it's not in a walk way. If it's in an area where there will be barefoot traffic, I dig it out.

 

[M.Brane]

I did that to a work truck window once while weed whacking. Came back & thought "Hey I didn't leave the window down. WTF?. Doh!"

If you have trouble finding a replacement Lexan is an unbreakable option you just have to be careful about scratches/hazing. Always a trade-off.

 

[sublime68charger]

More sugar sappi n today 24 gallons of sap got cooking down. This on 20 trees tapped just not flowing sap good yet but cooking g what I got regardless

 

[Prospecter]

Love your sapping set up. Did you know that old Fisher stove is quite valuable? Painted up, I see them all the time around here for $800 - 1500. We have a twin of yours, and even have the bear feet.

 

[sublime68charger]

Love your sapping set up. Did you know that old Fisher stove is quite valuable? Painted up, I see them all the time around here for $800 - 1500. We have a twin of yours, and even have the bear feet.

thank you. It upscales or down as needed depending upon how much sap I have to cook down. At best I can due appx 8 gallons a hour. There is a home basement stove not in this picture that holds 2 steam pans plus I sit a pan outside on the stove pipe to warm sap up some. The fisher is the finish stove as If the syrup starts to foam up and boil over I can pull the pans off pretty quick. The Barrel stoves those pans get wedge in there and take a bit more to get them off the stove.

all in all for a 1 man sugar shack it works and I don't have much invested in this and able to cook in the warm regardless of outside weather and at night if needed.

 

[sublime68charger]

Heck I got the Fisher Stove for free and it sat outside on a pallet for 5 years before it got put into syrup production.

I did have a bucket over the smoke stack to keep water out of the stove when it was outside.

 

[sublime68charger]

More Sappin Pics.

Pic of my sapping firewood pile by the side of the shack that has half way fell over. I have some rope strung across to try and hold the firewood stack up to the side of the sugar shack.

Plus a pic of the inside the barrel stove after I pulled the pan to dump into the pan on the other stove. Can see where I stacked up bricks and such to help force the heat up to the sap pan.

 

[sublime68charger]

So I got this sweeper a while back and in the process of getting it back to working shape.

The Chain tension for the Brush drive was put together mess of things. I have working on revamping it and am this far Now just need to add a tension device to this last pulley and due I put a spring on this to hold tension or just the turn buckle I am holding up in the 2nd pic?

I'll need to go to hardware store and get some chain links with locking nut's to put on each end for the turnbuckle to hook into and a chain to take up the extra space.

thanks for any thoughts and or idea's.

 

[sublime68charger]

Sweeper tension update this will be the first setup for testing hope the chain stays on

 

[sublime68charger]

so Got the Sweeper on the 140 and some trail and error on keeping the chain drive on.
But got a Nice Pic with the car and garage in the back ground.

 

[drivesitfar]

do you need to tweak the spring set up or is it working well enough? nice work by the way setting that little attachment up and having it work ok.

did you figure out a repair for the busted canopy glass yet or just put on a piece of plastic for now?

looks like maybe your snow has gone so maybe you can wear T shirts some days again? how is the maple syrup tasting and did you try any of the recipes I posted?

 

[sublime68charger]

do you need to tweak the spring set up or is it working well enough? nice work by the way setting that little attachment up and having it work ok.

did you figure out a repair for the busted canopy glass yet or just put on a piece of plastic for now?

looks like maybe your snow has gone so maybe you can wear T shirts some days again? how is the maple syrup tasting and did you try any of the recipes I posted?

Drives the last revison held up and worked but the tension pulley is not setting straight. I got about 70% of the yard done.

Have not had a chance with your posted recipies! Some of us still work a full time job and stuff you know! LOL!

On the truck rear window not yet. Truck is sitting outside but down hill to try and keep rain out the back cause its full of stuff from the workshop cause having a garage sale this weekend.

Snow is all gone but suppose to have some snow this week again but it wont last more than a day.

Its on my list to try out your recipies. thanks for posting those
only got about 1 gallon of syrup this year way way down from past year's.

2 years ago 320 gallons of sap
1 year ago 290 gallons of sap
this year only 40 gallons of sap

 

[captain14]

Do you know if your trees go through cycles of producing sap? I know my pear tree will have a bountiful load One year, then the next year just a few pear will get to full maturity.

 

[sublime68charger]

Do you know if your trees go through cycles of producing sap? I know my pear tree will have a bountiful load One year, then the next year just a few pear will get to full maturity.

I dont know if trees go threw cycles. I have reused my taps which some say dont due that as the taps have bacteria still in them from previous years and that causes the tap hole to shut down sooner than if it was a fresh hole and new tap.

I have done sap for 6 years and only have data on the last 3 years to go from though the first 3 years was a whole lot of trial and error and not knowing what I was doing.

which this year makes me question if I know what im doing or not.

But I wanna say we had a deep freeze in January temp at -10 for a few days and no snow cover on the ground so the frost line went deep deep this year. frost in the ground wont let the sap flow and then when ground got unfrozen still was slow running. My 2 best trees from last year did not much and a tree I have tapped for years did really well but it never was a big producer in years past that I noticed.


Its kinda like fishing or farming I just gonna call it tapping you get what you get and go with it.

 

[sublime68charger]

It's garage sale weekend let me know what you want out of the line up!

 

[captain14]

Hope you have dry and good weather!



And lots of customers with cash.

 

[XJSuperman]

Gotta be an April Fools joke. You're just cleaning out a garage right?

 

[sublime68charger]

Gotta be an April Fools joke. You're just cleaning out a garage right?

Most stuff in the line up is over priced. the funiture items are priced to sell. The ATVS and JD are all over priced but if somebody really wants it they can have it for 2x what the market value is.

They are there for Eye Candy for guys to look at while wives can shop inside in peace.

 

[Prospecter]

Clever marketing!

 

[drivesitfar]

Just curious if you’ve ever sold something like that? I agree very clever marketing sort of like having a comfy chair in a shop with women’s clothes while your dream girl shops.

Great to see no snow on the ground for your sale. Since you kinda live in the sticks so to speak do you get many lookers?

Sugar shack really looks good. Can you boil the old taps to make them like new again or is that a one (2 or …) time use item?

 

[sublime68charger]

Clever marketing!

I like to think so. I don't know if it helps or not but this year Had the wife call me cause me and guy was in the garage talking about the car and garage stuff and his wife and kids was in the car waiting for him so they could go to the next sale!

He was a classmate of my brothers and had a barn fire 2years ago on christmas eve night that was quite the fisco as it was cold and long driveway and icy and dark and at night. And pretty far out in our district to get to. Back Country winding road to even get to there driveway.

 

[sublime68charger]

Just curious if you’ve ever sold something like that? I agree very clever marketing sort of like having a comfy chair in a shop with women’s clothes while your dream girl shops.

Great to see no snow on the ground for your sale. Since you kinda live in the sticks so to speak do you get many lookers?

Sugar shack really looks good. Can you boil the old taps to make them like new again or is that a one (2 or …) time use item?

Drive's not yet. well can't say that as I know back at the house in town I had a 1984 Honda Big Red with V plow for snow removal that I really liked but I sold it and used that Money to help pay for the logging ATV and I have used that ATV alot. So good trade I guess but I still miss the Big Red ATC.

Get some but I Think back to when we had house in town and had garage sale with the city wide sales and it seemed like we had 15-20 people for like 5-6 hours and we run Thursday-Friday-Saturday. Saturday was alway's slow but Thursday and Friday was busy busy.

Now out here if we have 5-8 people we think that is busy.
But I dont think people go to garage sales like they used to, They either order new from Amazon or look on Facebook Marketplace or craigs list etc ......

Plus baby items was alway hot stuff to sell and we are way past having baby stuff anymore.


The Sugar taps we clean and put in freezer for a month. and then use them again. Some say to use 1 time and then get rid of them as they have still have Micro Bacteria in them and that starts the tree healing up sooner when you reuse old plastic taps.

Thinking this next year I may get all new taps and see if I have better luck than this year. or mark the old reused taps against brand new taps or get some metal taps that the buckets can hang on and not have to deal with tubing. to speed up the collection process as that seems to take longer that I would like.


Pic of my 84 Big Red with V plow setup not the best pic but what I could find. I had them on the cardomain site and that went defunct several years ago and I lost alot of Pics that I had there and course I didn't have them any place else that I know of to look.

 

[sublime68charger]

Had some Pics show up in my Face Book memories and this is the old house in town and my Basement remodel that i did to try and make it look better than just old cement walls.

 

[sublime68charger]

Hope you have dry and good weather!



And lots of customers with cash.

Weather was a bit breezy and a little cool but have had other years with it colder so not complaing no rain which is the worst to deal with.

some customers had cash.