Work Shelf Overhaul

Basically, I tend to organize things and this time David let me get after a bookshelf in the work shed. We've had nuts, bolts, screws, and washer strewn all over the garage and work shed, and a bookcase full of who knows what. We have tons of space to store stuff so I figured I'm hailing in spring (even if it's 16 degrees today) and getting stuff cleaned!! There's more to the work shed that will be modified based on how David would like to better utilize the space, but for now getting stuff off the ground and organized into one spot was a start.

Not quite a BEFORE shot but it'll do                                                 AFTER                           

Not the most accurate labeling but better when relative to what it was

Makes my organizing heart flutter :o)

  

It's Really Working

Another successful weekend of evaporating. We started with 79 gallons of sap (really were able to utilize the preheater this time!) and made about one and a half gallons of syrup! I tried some different ways filtering but they still didn't end up doing much as far as filtering out the sugar sand. Basically the coffee filter worked but it took too long to get through for the rate that we needed to get it out of the pan. I'm thinking of getting a 5 gallon bucket that has a spout on the bottom where I can put completely finished syrup and just let that slowly drip through a filter into a pot and jar it from there. That'll probably be for next season but always thinking of ways to improve and taking notes. The sugar sand honestly isn't bad it just doesn't look as pretty. As you can see in the last picture this batch of syrup is really dark. Probably because we ended up boiling and reboiling the sap in the pan. We don't mind because it tastes more robust and nutty which both David and I like. Not sure how much longer this season will last but we'll keep collecting and boiling til the trees feel like quitting.

Total Sap Collected - 120 gallons

We got the pan to a strong enough boil to really let the preheated sap flow quickly

My mountain man

She be blazin'!!

So hot

I love pictures of flames

              First attempt to filter                                  Screw the filter, open it up and let it flow

Another attempt at filtering

Excited to See Grass!!!

It's a little embarrassing but is anyone else overly excited about seeing grass?! Seriously, every time I walked past our large window I look out and see the grass, even if it's a little yellow, and do a little happy dance on the inside. Since I'm not currently working I have had lots of time to plan for the break in the weather and lots of time spent in the sunshine!! Outside projects are the following:

• Build 5 raised beds/put in garden and add wood chips in walkways
• Build actual garden fence with working gate/add stone and slate steps leading to garden
• Design and add landscape on east and south side of house
• Build fire pit on back lawn
• Clean up back bench area and add stone border
• Plant seeds and transplant later in season to garden
• Create bed on north side of garage at the bottom/add fencing to plant ornamental corn 
• Help David organize shelf in work shed
• Patch driveway
• Add posts to deck to hang lights from
• Redo plastic cover on cold frame

There's probably more that I will add to this list as I find the ideas on Pinterest, but for now that's what I got :o)

Just a little inspiration

First Batch of 2015

We decided to make syrup on Friday, later learning we should confirm clear skies before starting. Either way, rain and shine, we were able to get about half a gallon of sap by Saturday afternoon. We boiled on the evaporator about 4 hours (not counting a rain delay where our fire died down while we were building our cover), then continued on the stove (the one we used last year) another couple hours the next day. We started with about 40 gallons, so either we had a lot of rain in the mix or our trees have an extremely low sugar content (usually it's 40:1, gallons of sap to gallons of syrup). Since we got about half a gallon of syrup our ratio was more 80:1.

What we're realizing is that our evaporator may be a little larger than we anticipated since we don't have the sap quantity to really get the most out of it. This is the case because the sap evaporates in the large pan as low as it can get without burning, and then it still needs boiled another couple hours in pots. In my opinion it would be best to start with at least 100 gallons of sap to be using it to it's full potential. Funny considering last year our set up wasn't large enough, and now we've swung all the way to the other side where it's too large! Figures.

Overall though it went really well. David calculated that we were able to boil 7-8 gallons an hour, and we completely used up our stored sap which we were never able to do last year. It feels good to be starting the collection from scratch and not worrying about the older stuff going bad the longer it sits.

Total Sap Collected - 41 gallons

Little bit of cleaning before production starts

The vent I was talking about in an earlier post. Come to realize it still wasn't enough so the door was left propped open majority of the time.

That valve is to add sap from the preheat to the large pan, as well as a valve to drain the entire pan. The preheat pan allows you to add warmer sap to the large 'get-er-done' pan without lowering the boiling point too drastically.

This view you can see the channels for the sap/syrup to flow. Again, we didn't really have enough sap for it to flow as it's intended. Still worked though!

Handy dandy tractor :o)

The rain brought out the hillbilly side in us... that is if you didn't already think this evaporator was hillbilly enough

Finishing the syrup on last year's stove. Easily monitored through our mudroom window (yes my lazy ass planned it that way!)

Gotta watch out for the froth! Comes about 215 degrees and then again at the very end (that's how I burned our cooktop last year :o/)

Filling the bottles is a more of a two man job, hence no pictures for that process. Essentially used a funnel to fill the bottles (need hot bottles when you're filling it with hot syrup so they don't crack), put the caps on and stored them upside down until they cooled. I'll try and get more pictures next time of these final stages.

You let it cool upside down to seal the tops

Thanks for the vintage bottles Kelly, they're too cute

Helping Hands

Today I had a few helpers to collect about 20 gallons of sap. I'm always grateful when it comes to others lugging sap up our hill. Robin even saved my life when she got rid of a HUMONGOUS spider chillin' in one of the buckets. I had warned her in advance of the beast but she was still surprised by its size. I don't lie when it comes to human eating size spiders, and plan on me being a solid 100 yards away. I might live in the country but I don't think I'll ever get comfortable with that size of spider, not gonna happen! Thanks again for you help Robin, Megan, Tim and Leanne :o)

Total Sap Collected - 37 gallons

Not seen was me cracking the whip

Time to Collect

The temperature is rising, the snow is melting! Finally! We're using a trashcan lined with bags to store the sap we collect during the week and will plan on boiling on the weekend. The past couple of days have reached the 50's but for some reason the sap hasn't been flowing like it did last year at that temperature (we collected 50 gallons in one day). We're hoping it'll pick up but for now not too much sap to show for. We also have added 5 taps since we figure we have the means to boil a lot of sap and still some trees we hadn't tapped. Our tap total is now 24.

Total Sap Collected - 12 gallons

Tarped up during the week while we collect sap

We added a few more taps since we had the trees and ability to evaporate a lot

The route we will frequent often the next few weeks

Baby Fever

I've had some friends deliver babies recently so I didn't need much more incentive to do a little baking. Tie dye onsies, hearts and airplanes for the mommy's and daddy's.

Burn Baby Burn!

The test boil went really well! Took a bit to get the fire going and stay lit. It would end up going out whenever we would shut the door, so David drilled some holes in the front, right below the door, to see if that would help. It seemed to do the trick so he has plans to improve the air flow with a few more cuts and mounting a saw blade. It'll make more sense when he finishes it and I can post some pictures (it'll be based off of a vent on a grill to give you an idea). With the hot water David was able to scrub the pans and get most of the debris and dirt out. We'll do a little finer cleaning right before our first boil of sap, which we're hoping will be next weekend.

Roasted some weenie's too :o)

That's what we like to see!