Summer News – Spring Work is Done! Yes it took until July

Yeah! Spring work is done.  Mostly. Kinda. Okay, some of it’s done, yes, I know summer is in full swing.  I tried.

Maple Syrup Totals

We had a very good year sugaring. We made over 1,300 gallons of maple syrup. Burned about 5-6 cords of wood. Spent roughly  200 plus hours in the sugar-house.  I’m not sure I want to figure how many hours in the woods.    We had a new filter press that made my life so much easier while boiling.  Before this was one of my bottlenecks.

Updating Equipment

The old press could not keep up with the amount of syrup that was coming from the arch. (I’m not fond of saying it was old, but I don’t remember a different one) This new, larger press easily kept up. Therefore, I was able to boil continuously, instead of having to stop and wait for the press.  The filter press is used to remove any last fine particles of tree sand from the maple syrup before we bottle it in our 40 gallon drums or in the smaller syrup jugs we use.

So, sugaring went well, we were very busy.  Then we had to catch up on our regular jobs. I work in the dairy industry for people that completely understand that when a crop is ready to be harvested – it has to be done right then and there.  They were fantastic about letting me schedule around the weather – last minute at times too!  Matt is a Nurse Practitioner at the local ER.  He took as much time off as he could.  Now he’s back there busy as ever.

Woods Work

Ah, spring work – what is that – pulling spouts is the first job.  All those trees I tapped this spring had to have the spout pulled out and cut off the end of the drop line.  There is bacteria that can grow in the off season, so every year I replace the spouts.  I’ll begin that process in September or so.  We also have to clean up all the pans and tanks at the sugar house and haul part of our crop to a bulk buyer.  The syrup has been delivered. Some of the pans have been cleaned.

Why didn’t I just get all that done right away? Well first was catching up on regular work, then I needed to spend some time planting my gardens and doing yard work. The gardens are all growing, something ate the beans and squash but I should have time to replant those.  My flower beds have all been gone over once, but only half have been mulched.  The fruit trees are loaded – I was worried I had trimmed them too much this winter, but I guess not.

Sugar House Updates

The exciting things – we have a new room for our reverse osmosis! The new room is in the tank room which allows us to watch the tanks as we make adjustments to the r.o. .  The vacuum pump room was made smaller, since the updated vacuum pump is half the size (and energy use!) than the old one, this gave us room to create the new r.o. room.  Our nephew/son Andrew built it for us. He’s left the engineering field to return to carpentry and opened his own business White to Blue Color Construction.  He’s been very happy so far! The room looks great with white vinyl walls that should be easy to keep clean.

Andrew will be back to work for us in a few months to make me a packing/shipping room! I’m sooo excited.  Almost all of our shipping has been done from our house.  The truth of the matter is – I have an office/ storage room with stacks everywhere, plus there’s always overflow in closets in our house and hubby’s “war room”.

We now have internet at the sugar house.  Andrew is going to insulate the room, replace the old windows that are there, doors on both ends and install a small bathroom with compostable toilet.  I’m going to have heating added and I will upgrade the electrical in the old tank room.  I already have most of the tables and shelving I’ll need.  I’m looking forward to being able to have all the products and be able to ship everything under one roof.  Currently, I have to make trips to and from the house to the sugar house to complete orders.  Did I mention I was excited?

Tiny House Updates

AND we’ve had some work done on the tiny home formerly known as the woodsman’s cabin.  We replaced 3 more windows and updated the kitchen.  Andrew built some live edge shelves in the kitchen which are beautiful!  We’ve upgraded the fridge from a mini to an apartment size fridge, an air fryer and propane grill.  We also have an rv style water system so, we have running water for washing dishes and a shower.  Check out the tiny home here! Updated pictures coming soon!

And there’s just a few of the reasons why spring work was a tad delayed.

Jessica