Ye Old Garage

[sublime68charger]

Today Had the ATV out and was doing some riding around and the snow got deep had to back out of this spot and go around the long way and come at this spot downhill to get a trail threw.

 

[sublime68charger]

Some more ATV Pics Temp in the teens and tried this path in the snow and no dice Snow was hard and then when you spun a tire it just became suger snow just spun down till the frame is sitting on the snow and you run out of traction.

2nd pic is a day later same size atv and same trail and was able to go right threw. Temp was in the 40s and the snow packed down and ATV kinda floated over it with out any problems. 2nd ATV has better float tires and wasn't packing an extra 300 pounds of weight. 1st atv had some chainsaws/chains/logging arch

 

[sublime68charger]

So last weekend backed the truck up into the yard to hook onto my little trailer to haul my John Deere 140 with broken rod I think to repair shop. Got hooked up and stopped at end of the driveway to just double check the straps on tractor to make sure it was all still good get back in truck and low tire alarm tire is at 16 PSI. Get back out and passenger rear tire is not looking good. Back to truck and now tire is at 14. pull out onto road down to next drive to get turned around 10 psi, Back home and park just in front of garage. tire at 4psi. Move the old 78 Ford out of garage and now tire at 1 psi. Unhook trailer and pull truck in as temp was mid teens and breezy I didn't want to have to take tire of outside as that would not be fun.

$86 later and got a used tire from the tire shop just glad they had a same size and brand used tire on hand.

I sliced Sidewall tires found this splitting wedge in the snow and put it threw the sidewall. didnt even know I was missing the splitting wedge it lives on my Logging ATV and must have bounced out when bringing in a log sometime. Might Have been when I was pulling some old Telephone poles around or when I was moving a maple syrup stove and was watching the stove and not the front of the ATV and didn't see the wedge get bounced out.

 

[xtremek]

You didn't get them to plug that? They did mine..............................................not. Fortunatelyc, mine was covered under warranty.

 

[sublime68charger]

You didn't get them to plug that? They did mine..............................................not. Fortunatelyc, mine was covered under warranty.

was just glad they had a used same size and tread and I didn't have to poney up for a new one I guess. These tires just need to make it to next Novemember and then I be getting new Tires I think.
I was just happy I was at home and not having to jack it up on the side of the road and then put on the spare and all of that great stuff. Was warm in the garge to get it jacked up and then take to tire shop. Still mad at myself for not know I had lost the wedge out of the ATV. First time I have had that bounce out, its got its own little cubby space it stay's in. Will have to keep a better eye on it I guess.

 

[sublime68charger]

Gearing up for Maple syrup cooking this weekend. 5 Stove set and kinda Ready, okay well they are set anyway.
#1 Stove 35G barrel that holds 2 turkey pots set put on stove pipe put fire to it and go!
#2 Old House Wood Stove remove tin covering firebox and bucket on the stove pipe add 3 pans 2 for boiling and 1 warming on the stove pipe put fire to it and go!!
#3 Stove Fireplace Stove need stove pipe put on and then pans set on top and put fire to it and go!!!
#4 Stove 55G Barrel need stove pipe put on pan put in and put fire to it and go!!!!
#5 Stove 55G Barrel Finsh cutting out pan insert spot and put fire to it and go!!!!!
Stove order in pics is 5-4-1-2-3

 

[drivesitfar]

Looking good. Now you just need to build the sugar shack around and over this set up.

let there be SYRUP!!

 

[sublime68charger]

Looking good. Now you just need to build the sugar shack around and over this set up.

let there be SYRUP!!

I know. that is on my get to list. Though I think I want to make the sugar shack somewhat portable so I don't get digned for another building on the tax roll I'm thinking I have 2 Decent Telephone poles and make them the runner's and build a deck on top of them with a drive threw center alley and stove off on the side's can drive ATV and Sugar wagon Up the ramp inside unload sap to the Stoves drive out the other end. Be inside boil off sap and then in off season have storage for ATV's and trailer. Can use dad's tractor to pull the shed to this spot in mid winter run extension cord to house to have light in shed for night time boiling and maybe run the sap season 6 weeks instead of the 2-3 I due now. WIth that many stoves going it would stay warm in the shed and would also be out of the wind if it happens to be a windy day when i want to boil of sap.

rough plan at the moment but that is what I am thinking.

 

[xtremek]

That's a lot of stoves, holy cow.

 

[captain14]

Who gets to cut all the firewood to stoke the fires and keeps the stoves going? I’m betting it’s sublime himself!

 

[sublime68charger]

That's a lot of stoves, holy cow.

did a sap collection run and Have appx 60 gallons of sap. Plan is to boil on Saturday so I may have another 20 gallons of Sap by then as well so I'll be running a double batch or I may have to boil both Saturday and Sunday. Its a 40 to 1 ratio so count out 10 buckets of Sap at 4-5 gallons per bucket and boil it all down to 1 gallon. I like to keep the math simple and start with my finish pot and just poor in 1 gallon of water and take note of where the level is in that pot and then start the fire's and get to a boiling.

 

[sublime68charger]

Who gets to cut all the firewood to stoke the fires and keeps the stoves going? I’m betting it’s sublime himself!

yea I just steal firewood from the wood pile for the outside boiler/ I also have some small dead staning Pine that I may cut down and run threw the fires its a day of fire minding and stuff so I can keep adding in Pine branche's and small rounds where I can and the pine burns hot and fast so that will help as well.

 

[harley jim]

That looks like a fun thing to do, I have always been drawn to living off the land type things. If I were closer I would be there. We dont have lots of hardwood trees in this area, it's all pines and paper mill land so nothing like that going on around here.

 

[sublime68charger]

Ran for 6 hours today 40 gallons down to 8 then done for the day

 

[sublime68charger]

Took a trip on Friday 500 miles give or take but now have a topper on my daily driver truck

 

[xtremek]

Nice topper. And that is some production run on the sap, holy cow.

 

[sublime68charger]

Nice topper. And that is some production run on the sap, holy cow.

21 pints of sap on a 1 week run 20 some trees tapped I think.

Boiled 6 hours Saturday got a late start due to rain/snow kinda self defeating to try and boil sap outside when there's moisture be direct injected right back into the pans though I could probaly boil at a faster rate then the rain fall I still didn't want to end up cold and soaked. Had a party to attend on Saturday Night so pulled the fire at 4pm and started to wind down the production run got everything I had on the stoves down to about 8 gallons and had it all in the 4 round Pots I have for cooking.
Sunday was start up at 7am Had appx 8 gallons to get reduced down and then 12 gallons of fresh sap plus went on a collection run and was kinda suprised only got 1 bucket from the trees. We had collected on Thursday and got like 70 gallons of sap from the trees on a 4 day tap so then to get 5 gallons on a 2 day tap was suprising.

Sunday was quick run as with the 8 gallons to finish off and then with 20 gallons of sap to reduce down I got all the stoves going and didn't even have enough sap to warrent setting up the warming pan it was a run of get it all set up and fire's going and start with reducing the pans down from 2 to 1 with in the first hour of the run.

The whole sap process is like a giant engine it takes appx 1-2 hours to get really going and then its 1-3 hours when you start the shut down process as well.

Was done and cleaned up by 1pm on Sunday I got to work on cleaning out the shop for the upcoming garage sale!

 

[sublime68charger]

Nice topper. And that is some production run on the sap, holy cow.

Topper will be nice as it'll keep stuff in the back of the truck dry. The Boy Scout Troop is going to gettysberg in July and the truck will be hauling all the gear in the truck not taking the troop trailer on long trip like that. The trip is scouting sight seeing tour. We are at Gettysberg for 2 day's Laying 2 wreaths at the tomb of the Unknow Solider. Spending a day or 2 in Washington DC. Maybe Battleship Wisconsin as well. Still putting it all together yet.

 

[drivesitfar]

How tasty is that syrup or is there another step or to to do before it’s edible?

this made my mouth water for buttermilk or sourdough pancakes, waffles, French toast or crapes. Yumm!!

Speaking of that you might consider buying sunrise flour mill flour cause it’s milled old school and really has given my bride some relief from arthritis. her thumb had been hurting for 24/7 for a couple years and after changing to this flour her pain is gone now and we’ve been using it for 12-18 months.

 

[sublime68charger]

Drives, Syrup taste's great from the little bit I got of it.

It is alot of work but then when you get to have some and its all made with your own blood/sweat/tears and the kids will have this memory of making syrup when they are older. So I guess it's worth it.

 

[Denwood]

Drives, Syrup taste's great from the little bit I got of it.

It is alot of work but then when you get to have some and its all made with your own blood/sweat/tears and the kids will have this memory of making syrup when they are older. So I guess it's worth it.

I think you have it there with the point on the kids

I was a guest on a film shoot in Quebec (with Olivia Wilde, Kris Kristofferson and Eric Bana to name a few) and the farm they were shooting on had a large network of plastic pipes connecting all the trees on a slope which I assumed was for collection. It's a nutty amount of heat to boil that all down!

So once boiled down, that's it correct? How long does the sap itself last at room temp..or is that even an issue?

 

[drivesitfar]

I agree the experience for your kids and you helping them learn how to do something productive is what parenting and life is all about.

I still recall the YouTube video you provided a link for where the guy wouldn’t pay $30 for pure maple syrup cause he thought he could make it cheaper. OMG that made me laugh hard while he told of his syrup making costs and issues and then asking the company selling syrup how they could sell it so cheap.

my bride made sourdough pancakes today with cheesy eggs and I poured on my Canadian made 100% maple syrup. That’s a mug Of ice tea not a cold beer with breakfast.

keep up the great work around your place and more pics of kids working would be great too. Stay warm cause heat is on its way.

 

[sublime68charger]

I think you have it there with the point on the kids

I was a guest on a film shoot in Quebec (with Olivia Wilde, Kris Kristofferson and Eric Bana to name a few) and the farm they were shooting on had a large network of plastic pipes connecting all the trees on a slope which I assumed was for collection. It's a nutty amount of heat to boil that all down!

So once boiled down, that's it correct? How long does the sap itself last at room temp..or is that even an issue?

I hope so, They due a little bit better each year with it. The wife take's the final product and cans the stuff in pint jars and then its good for a few year I would guess. I just know its real good on pancakes way better than stuff from the store.

There are some wicked sap collection setup out there have been on mapletrader.com and seen quite a few nice setup's compared to what I have.

 

[sublime68charger]

I agree the experience for your kids and you helping them learn how to do something productive is what parenting and life is all about.

I still recall the YouTube video you provided a link for where the guy wouldn’t pay $30 for pure maple syrup cause he thought he could make it cheaper. OMG that made me laugh hard while he told of his syrup making costs and issues and then asking the company selling syrup how they could sell it so cheap.

my bride made sourdough pancakes today with cheesy eggs and I poured on my Canadian made 100% maple syrup. That’s a mug Of ice tea not a cold beer with breakfast.

keep up the great work around your place and more pics of kids working would be great too. Stay warm cause heat is on its way.

went back and found this for you drives,

 

[sublime68charger]

9 buckets of sap today will be cooking tomorrow way to windy today.

Worked in garage this afternoon putting pipe insulation on my pex lines for the boiler heat. Just to try and reduce heat loss. Dont need the garage heated unless im out there working on things. 16 feet done 64 left to go.

 

[harley jim]

Boiling that syrup looks like a lot of fun to me, I'm sure there is a lot of work involved but I would still like to try it.

 

[sublime68charger]

Sap on today started at 8am with 6 trays 4 pots and 32 gallons to boil. At noon down to 4 trays 2 pots under 5 gallons to boil. 2 stoves are done for today.

 

[sublime68charger]

Boiling that syrup looks like a lot of fun to me, I'm sure there is a lot of work involved but I would still like to try it.

it is alot of work. You can be as big or as small as you want the limit is how many trees due you have and how much sap you want to collect and then the Time to invest in making said sap into syrup. Its not hard work but it does take time. It only boils so fast. Unless you want to spend big bucks on commerical equipment or get into the Reverse Omaiss setup. I may try the RO some time. My next goal is to get a sugar shack built so that when Cooking I can be inside somewhat and warmer and cook later into the night if you have some lights in the sugar shack. Plus you can if you trust your stoves to maintain them selves Set the fire at 9pm fill up the pans with sap and let it run on its own and when you come back you can just start the fires again with the sap you have in the pans. Its a fine line dont want to have your pans run out of sap if still boiling but as the fire dies down the boil will stop but wont have to reset it all again in the moring.

 

[sublime68charger]

I get a bit better at the sap boil every time I set up and run. Just learning how hard to push the fires and what level to keep the pans at to keep the boil going at its best and such. Also if you load the stove with wet wood it takes a bit for the fire to build back up hot and get itself going good again.

Wind will also make a huge difference the more breeze the more heat I loose and take longer to burn but sure does make the sap steam pretty as it comes off the pans!

 

[xtremek]

That is quite the production process you've got going there. Do you ever let some of it go, and make rock candy out of it?

 

[sublime68charger]

That is quite the production process you've got going there. Do you ever let some of it go, and make rock candy out of it?

have not done that yet. I read up on rock candy and that requires more finess than I can mange cooking out on open flame like I due. Maybe take some and finish it up on the stove inside so you can control heat alot better. I'm a hack who can stoke the fires and make it boil and keep at that till I get down to the last pot and then I'm slowly learning the finish off as the wife used to make that call but this last weekend I was also involved in that. Got taught a few of the trick to know when done.

It might be something to try if we want to give it a go though I'll mention it to the wife and see what she thinks about it.

 

[drivesitfar]

Sounds like stoking the fire with wet or dry wood is great exercise so you can work off those pancakes and French toast and waffles with your syrup.

 

[sublime68charger]

Ran sap on Friday ended up with double batch made a long day but most every bucket I checked was full and that on a 4 day draw. Started at 8am was down to 3 gallon to finish at 11pm. 80 gallons to run threw. I went to pull taps on Sunday and buckets was full again on 2 day draw. Left 11 buckets on back hillside still tapped and already have trailer sitting full

 

[xtremek]

So, what you're saying is that you'll have enough syrup for anyone on GJ who wants some, right?

 

[sublime68charger]

If you come and boil it down you can have the last batch. I have 40 gallons sitting on the trailer right now and still 11 trees out there with taps. I don't know if the 11 tapped will still be good this weekend or not but the 40 gallons sitting on trailer it still good to go just needs cooked down.

 

[sublime68charger]

Thinking Next year if I run good and better than this year. I'll be having enough to sell. Want to get a Murphy Cup which is a $150 item but will dial the syrup in that its syrup instead of us just going of the hip on it. Also looking at getting a RO system which will remove %40 of the water with out having to setup and boil so If I can take my 40 gallons and break that down to 25 gallons and start the boil at the already almost half way would be super nice. Need to get some 55 Gallon Food grade Barrels and set up a tubing system to drain to the barrels then pump out to another barrel on my trailer and then run threw the RO system then boil it down. With Barrels I could run some more taps and run sooner in the winter. I'll have to get a suger shack made up so I can cook when its colder or in the dark better than what I have now.

Its like I need another project to take on but I'm thinking the suger bug has me now and I might as well dive right in!

 

[harley jim]

I get pallets from a buddy that run a steel cutting business.
What I picked up today would more than frame out a sugar shack, they were free. I dont know what you have in your area but it may be worth a look to see if there is a plasma cutter, a laser cutter, or a steel fab shop. Wouldn't a IBC container work to collect your sap?

They hold 275 gallons, they sell used around here for 70 dollars or less. Not trying to tell you how to do it just how my mind works.
I did some checking into it, there is a small group that dose collect sap in S.E. Tn. So after I get some of my projects finished I am going to check into it more.

 

[captain14]

If you come and boil it down you can have the last batch. I have 40 gallons sitting on the trailer right now and still 11 trees out there with taps. I don't know if the 11 tapped will still be good this weekend or not but the 40 gallons sitting on trailer it still good to go just needs cooked down.

You forget to mention to bring your own wood to burn and you could apply to be picked to be a very select group of syrup extraction interns.

You will earn a very fancy certificate to hang on the wall to be the envy of your friends .

 

[sublime68charger]

Harley Jim, I have thought about getting a big tote like that but then I wonder if I can get it moved when I have it full.
I use ATV's to transport Sap and they will only pull so much and also will have to deal with Mud and less then ideal trail conditions. I think I want to get 55 Gallon Plastic food grade barrels to run the sap into I can move 40 gallons at a time with the trailer I have and not sink it on the trail. Maybe run 2 barrels for collection and then go to a RO Station setup in my garage and run threw the RO and dump the RO water into a big tote as a holding tote then just use that water for garden or chicken water. Alway's trying to think of way's to be better at the sap making and such but also with the limits of the equipment that I have at hand.

 

[sublime68charger]

You forget to mention to bring your own wood to burn and you could apply to be picked to be a very select group of syrup extraction interns.

You will earn a very fancy certificate to hang on the wall to be the envy of your friends .

plenty of wood here, Its standing dead just needs cut up and ran threw the stove is all. Heck I might even give you a sharp saw to get after it if your willing to show up and run sap!