We ended up with 4 pints and I’m probably biased but it’s really really good. The cook probably took longer than necessary because I wasn’t exactly running it the right way. I was up until 1am babysitting the thing. But it was all worth it. Its going to be a learning experience for sure.
Very cool!!! I tried it a couple years just with 3 buckets on one monster tree I’ve got. Some days I couldn’t keep up with the sap!!! I just had a big cook pot on a propane burner then finished it inside on the cook stove. Just like you say it sure takes a while! My first batch I ended up with maple candy since someone got things a bit hot!
It really is amazing when a person who is ambitious looks back at old pictures and thinks; "Wow, this has all changed now". That is a great feeling, but it seems some years I get more things done then others. Picking a person's battles is where the battle is actually won. In this arena, I would probably borrow, rent or pay someone with a mini-excavator or tractor with front end loader grapple to move the wood for me so that I could spend my time building and not moving. A person's time has inherent value, and even though I am retired now, I remember living weekend to weekend, and vacation days to holidays hoping to get more done around the farm. In those days, free time was so precious to me. I am really interested in how your pole barn comes out though. In my Adult Education Sheep Class that was this weeks class, and as I explained to them, there are tons of places they can go to build $60,000 barns; my job was to get them to think outside the box and save a lot of money by using alternative methods like Earthcrete, Engineered Earth, and Stimpson Buildings. I am excited for you and look forward to seeing what the same photo angles look like in a year. As my Great Uncle once said, "It is amazing the difference an ambitious person can make". Good for you!
I swear, if it’s not one thing, it’s another! So Amy was bringing in a load of wood from the porch, and she tripped over a couple of roughhousing puppies... Bad boys! So now I get to take the day off of work tomorrow so I can get a new piece of glass for it. In the meantime, I haven’t bought fuel oil in 4 years so we’re gonna have to find other ways to get cozy tonight! But at least I managed to finish up one project this weekend:
Sorry about the broken glass in the stove, and sorry Amy tripped over the dogs! :-( Nice job on the hall table... But on the oil heat, besides the obvious ways to stay warm with the wife, couldn't you just go to a gas station that sells off road diesel fuel, buy 10 gallons of that by pumping it into two five gallon pails, then dump them into your heating oil tank directly? I also know some people unhook their fuel lines from their tank and put rubber gas lines directly into the can and draw for their oil burners that way if they seldom have bulk oil deliveries. It is more expensive than #2 heating oil I know, but for only a day or two will get you by.
Thanks! Yes, Amy is fine. Luckily the stove was cold at the time and the glass all held together. The stove is now back in business as well. $60 for a new piece of pyro-ceram glass, and they had it made in under 15 mins.
