Well it’s been a little chilly lately which prevents me from getting too much done. Well that and a lot of snow. We’re over 7’ so far this year.
I’ve had some help though and we have all the tin on the sugar shack addition.
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Hello Bill, how you doing? Hope all is well.
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Gee, Gary good to hear from you, how are you doing too? Are you still DOW. If so how about a new video for us all. Post it in the free rides thread.
Bob and the rest of the DOW gang.
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Hello Gary .
Real good to hear from you . Hope you and family are doing well.
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I have some pics I took last weekend, started tearing the gasifier apart. So far no major issues found. I am going to cut the top out and remove the burn tube assembly and see how the fins are looking on the burn tube. I took pictures on my phone and not sure how to post them on here. And yes we are doing well, tks for asking. Hope you guys are doing good also.
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Hi Gary! I’m doing well. It’s warming up enough now for the maple trees to give up some sap. We have some new neighbors and they are going to make syrup this year with us so we’ll be tapping 600 maples. When those are done, we’ll tap 800 birch trees. Jakob North is coming up here in April to get trained in.
Here’s our sap hauler.
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Wow Bill you are turning into a big syrup operation. Good Job.
Bob
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Hi Bob.
Actually we’re still pretty small. Our new neighbors don’t have any syrup equipment and after last year helping us, they want to get set up. So basically it’s only 300 trees each. I will do the cooking and they’ll do most of the collecting. During birch season, a buddy of mine comes up from the cities and we all split three ways. We all get along and work well with each other so it’s something to look forward to.
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Our maples are done. I made syrup this year with like 5 taps LOL When you do tap the birch trees? is that later then the maples? Do you use the same taps?
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Hi Sean. Yes, just before the maples are done, the birch trees start. We use the same equipment except we use reverse osmosis to reduce the sap prior to cooking. Also, when cooking birch sap, one shouldn’t let the temperature get over 200⁰F. Birch has fructose sugar which is heat sensitive over 200⁰ and will taste bitter if boiled like maple.
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Do they both end at the same time? I was done with my 2 trees like a month ago (I may have pulled early boiling in a large pot stinks and I got plenty) the spring peepers just came out…
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Amen to that brother!
Those yankees are sure a breed of their own. Probably why they don’t stage insurrections and the like…too busy cutting firewood…
…they have my respect for not dying, but I Haven’t figured out when they get stuff done with all the white stuff in the way though.
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We shortened it to two seasons winter and summer. 
actually handling the cold is all about warm clothes. There is some pretty good gear now that you can stay warm in the outdoors without being overly bulky.
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When you spend five months building and rebuilding and rebuilding stuff in your mind it goes faster when you can get to your tools Billy. I guess a form of muscle memory.
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You should look at tubing for that many taps, you get up to 30% more sap if you add suction, which I see you have some pumps. Can your collector haul a full pallet type water tote? You can get those for like 50 bucks and I think they are 250 gallons.
I used the 5/16 spiles with the balls to prevent backflow so bacteria cant get in which is what you use with tubing, but I just ran the tube into a 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled in the top to fit the tube. It worked well. except I switched buckets and didn’t wash out the bucket before the switch and I think bacteria got in the bucket. I didn’t think about that until after I pulled the taps, but I was pretty much done wanting to boil by that point anyway. I wasn’t sure if the kiddo’s would like doing it. But one of them did, so we can improve the ‘boiler’ for next year. I made enough to justify my investment.
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That dumping idea is genius guys!
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What kind of filter is it using?
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Right now just a cyclone. he is going to add more later.
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