Logging is on hold - it's sugaring time

[bill m]

First day of making syrup this year.

[isawlogs]

  Nice place   8) One of my favorite times of the year, we have a small sugaring outfit at dads, might have 5 to 6 hundre taps, enough to keep the falily in sugar for a year.
How many taps do you have .

[thecfarm]

I can smell the sweetness in the air. Nice pictures.

[Burlkraft]

That's awesome Bill!

Thanks for the pics.

Do you need my address?  :D  :D

[bill m]

  Nice place   8) One of my favorite times of the year, we have a small sugaring outfit at dads, might have 5 to 6 hundre taps, enough to keep the falily in sugar for a year.
How many taps do you have .

I only set about 700 this year. Kind of new at this, only been doing it for 32 years.

[Ron Scott]

Nice!

[Warbird]

That's awesome.  Thanks for sharing the pictures!

[SPIKER]

This was my OFF year, I made couple gallons last year and skip a year then will have to do more next season.   I do my syrup the hard way maybe a dozen taps and buckets/rubes & bags then hand boil over open wood pit in a 45 gallon SS pan draw off and collect and final boil down in on a camp stove using propane in a 5 gallon flat pan I built pre-filter down into 32qt pan inside heat to 219F final filter & can in mason jars.   :D ya the wood fire adds some flavors that I really like though one batch 3 years back was bad due to some punky popple wood I tossed into the fire...   but truthfully it is the best I ever had..

mark

[clww]

We went to the Highland County, VA Maple Festival last weekend. One week and two weekend annual event for the past 53 years. Went to three farms that process the sap and boil it down into syrup. They all said that the sap mostly stopped around 10 March this year. Stated that it had been a bit too warm this year.

[bill m]

It's been a little to cold for much sap to run so I have been cutting some pine.




These logs are going to FF member Dave Shepard for some barns he is doing.
The sap did run a little bit yesterday. This is the cold sap intake going into the preheater. Kind of hard to read - 33 deg.


This is after the preheater as it goes into the flue pan.


And finely making more syrup.

[thecfarm]

Always enjoy seeing the logs you are cutting.That Blue tractor is nice to see too,easy on the eyes. Looks like the snow is just about gone where you are? I still have a good foot in this area.

[bill m]

Yes, the snow is almost all gone now. That was a dusting of snow yesterday morning. My sugarbush is on a north face so there is still a foot of snow up there.

[bill m]

Well the weather has been good so far and as of today I have made about 50% of a crop. All a real nice light colored medium amber but I think that is going to change in the next day or two.




The samples on the top shelf are from last year.

[northwoods1]

You sure do have a nice setup with everything you are doing  do all those perfect looking logs you cut come from property you own? If so how many acres of timberland do you have?

[bill m]

northwoods1, Thanks. I own all of 1 3/4 acres of lawn with 3 apple, 2 pear and 1 spruce tree. Not much for logs ;D There is some very nice timber growing around here and the foresters I work for do give me very nice lots to cut.

[northwoods1]

northwoods1, Thanks. I own all of 1 3/4 acres of lawn with 3 apple, 2 pear and 1 spruce tree. Not much for logs ;D There is some very nice timber growing around here and the foresters I work for do give me very nice lots to cut.

I don't understand at all ??? ??? Lots? Is it just small parcels close to your home that you work on? What do you mean when you say you work for foresters? Do you not bid jobs

You showed on the logging board in the past these huge piles of exc.++ logs all decked on one landing... do you mean you just work for local landowners close to you? And haul your tractor around to jobs? Do you bid these jobs and what do you do with the pulpwood? All the pics I see of yours are just perfect looking logs ???

What type of competition do you have for these jobs? Here in WI grade lumber jobs are very much sought after small operators with farm tractors would not stand a chance at competing with the more efficient full time operators.

I am really curious... I did not know Massachusetts had that much good woodland. I look at your pictures and it puzzles me ???

[Piston]

MA does have some nice trees, especially some tall straight Eastern White Pine. 

Bill,
I remember doing a 'tasting' in the VT building at the Big E Fair this past year of Maple Syrup.  There were different grades and shades of syrup.  I think I remember liking grade A or B but I don't remember what any of that means? 

What do the different colors and grades refer to? 

I really like that trailer you have too.  Your pics make me want to get home and cut some nice pines down! 

[Piston]

There is a recipee for Maple Sugar Pie here.....
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2011/03/31/maple-sugar-vermont
Ever have it?  I love maple syrup but don't eat it nearly as much as I should!  :D

Also the pic of the sugar shack in that link is now my desktop background, really good pic. 

[bill m]

northwoods1, I work on just about any size job from 1 acre up to 900 acres. All of my work has been within a 1 hour drive from home. Most of the pictures are from jobs less than 25 minutes away. No, I do not bid on jobs. I have no competition for most of these jobs. Because of my equipment and neat, clean job I do the foresters have their customers look at some of my past jobs so they know what their woods will look like when I am done. There is a tremendous amount of land in western Ma. that has been bought up by second home owners who have put the land into a forestry program to save money on taxes, not really to grow timber. Because it is in a forestry program at some point they will have to harvest some timber and some of them do not like the idea of a skidder on their land because of past experiences so I get the job. The pictures I posted of the larger piles of logs is a property where I have cut about 250mbf and still have another 125mbf to go. If the price of good Oak goes up I will be there this summer. Right now I have 3 or 4 years ( probably more ) of work ahead of me. Just curious, why do you think my equipment is not as efficient as full time operators. My trailer hauls 1000 to 1400 bd. ft. per load and most of my skids are from a quarter to half mile long and I use about 2 gallons of diesel a day. I cut anywhere from 1500 to 4000 feet per day depending on the layout of the trees and land. We do not have a big pulpwood market near by but I do bring out all of it. Most of what I cut is sawlogs and here might be 100 to 150 cords of pulp on some of the bigger jobs.

[bill m]

Piston, The different colors are grade A light amber, grade A medium amber, grade A dark amber and grade B. These are USDA grading standards ( it could/will be changing in the next few years). All pure maple syrup has the same sugar content and the different tastes mostly comes from the amount of sap it takes to make a gallon of syrup. The more sap it takes the stronger and darker the syrup will be.

[Piston]

Thanks Bill,
I really admire your logging and maple syrup operations.   8)

[thecfarm]

northwoods,does not puzzles me one bit.I do not know much about logging in Mass even though it not that far way,but Maine is alot like that.I do bet that bill gets his share of bad looking stuff too. No bids on lots here either. I know some of the big outfits does it,like on a town or city lot,but the small time guys don't do it.

[Magicman]

That sugaring operation is very interesting.  Folks down South cook sugarcane and sorghum for syrup, and fermented corn for ...... 'till they get caught.   :D

[isawlogs]

 I was thinking of putting a bottle of Sortilege on the to bring list to the piggy roast, very good maple flavoured medicine