Magic Night
So I did not get a chance to post anything last night because of how busy we have been. This of course is a sign that we are making syrup.
It has been a pretty good year so far, we are boiling every day. The funny thing is we keep making light syrup. I think we had one batch of medium and the rest has been light and extra light. This could mean that we are in for a very long season. The trees do what they want I guess.
Yesterday we tapped in 108 trees, this brings the grand total up to 1753, pretty close to a full bush for Bill. At the end of the day I went over to Bill and Ann’s for a barBQ, it was amazing.
We had a lot of help today from a few people that came into the bush. Most of the day, like every other day was spend splitting firewood and boiling, all day. Some good new is that the quad is fixed, turns out it was the combination of a weak battery and bad gas, thank you Esquire Honda for helping me out.
Today was one of those days you just love what is happening outside. It was really warm during the day and started to freeze when it got dark. We had a great run and were making maple syrup all day. I also had a chance to take some really cool night shots of the sugar bush. The full moon was amazing and lit up everything.
I am going to keep this post brief as I have to get to bed and start the whole thing over tomorrow morning bight and early. Seeing the Island a buzz in maple syrup time makes me want to get my own sugarbush someday. I am going to have to crunch some numbers and see if it is possible. It would be nice to be able to live for a whole year off nothing but maple syrup.
Finally a new post!
OK so I have not posted in a couple of days and that is because we have been busy, (Steve I got your message). The truth is that It takes forever to do anything on dial up and I have been getting in so late that I can’t think so spending another 1h playing with dial up is not going to work. But I am posting now!
first of all here is the video that I shot of Bill cutting the huge block of wood.
and now here is what has been happening over the past few days:
Day 3
The day after my last post, April 4th we were out at the sugar bush until about 10:00 p.m.. We tied in a spur line and tapped about 80 more trees. Steph and Mike came by the sugar shack at about 7:00 p.m. and stayed until the sap ran out. They were very welcome as they brought beer, like I said they are very good friends. I also met a great guy named Cody who helped to fire the boiler and watched the temperature gauge. Than after syrup was done we went out to Mike’s hunting camp and stayed up way to late. I wanted to be in the bush that day but no dice.
Day 4
Since most of the people in the camp did not get up until about 3:00 p.m. I thought that there was no point in going into the bush that day. We had a lot of fun anyway playing with Mike bombardier trail groomer. We also did some very useless building of dams in his creek and played with the deer in his yard. All this while the largest run yet this season took over Bill and the sugar bush. Thank goodness we had the emergency tank to fill otherwise Bill would have lost even more sap than he did.
A completed project
Day 5
Mike gave me a ride out to the Bill’s sugar bush at about 10:30 a.m.. Mike has worked in a number of sugar bushes so we went to see one of the larger operations on the island, Thompson’s sugar bush. This is a truly a first class set up! The boiler they use is out of an old steam ship. The whole bush is put together in a double line system and he has two beautiful R.O. machines. There are all sorts of really cool little curiosities in his operation enough to write a whole post on.
We stayed out at the bush until about 1:00 am trying to get rid of all the sap that had accumulated from the day before. Once again the big problem was fire wood, we just did not have enough! We ended up burning some green stuff at the beginning of the day to see how it would go, it was bad. We were basically splining wood and throwing it directly in to the fire, never really getting ahead. It is very disheartening to be splitting wood for 8h straight and not even having pile to show for it.
Towards the end of the night we decided to clean up the yard a bit and through the wood-splitter chips into to coals near the end of the boil. This worked better than expected as it kept the fire going longer than we anticipated and we were running low on sap. In the end the problem was the not the amount of sap but rather the flow, as it was getting pretty late at this point the lines from the holding tank to the boiler froze, which stopped the flow of sap.
Luckily we were able to kill the rest of the fire and threw a couple of buckets of cold water in the boiler for good measure. We were both very very tired and trying to finish up all the little chores that had to be done before we left. Just than it happened.
The brand new 4 wheeler that only had 14 km on it would not start. This thing was less then 3 months old and we had been babying ever since it arrived in the bush. We just pushed it out of sight, locked up the camp and went home.
Day 6 – Today
Well since it was a really late night last night we got started a little later today. Everything was frozen and the sap is not running so it was a good day to finish up some chores. Bill had to go into the Sault today which gave us an opportunity get the bring the quad back to the dealership. That machine has been a god sent for us and has already shown it worth in the few days that we have used it. I am no very pleased that it BROKE before it even hit 50km. I hope Esquire Honda treats us right, I though you bought new stuff so that this would not happen?
So Bill got some of the syrup ready to drop off in the Sault, I cleaned up the Archway and the large holding tank and we tried all the trouble shooting we could to get the quad fixed. We still had a very big problem, fire wood! We ended up going out to the bush and cutting down a nice piece of dead standing. Bill fell the tree perfectly, though he almost cut the wrong one down which was already tapped in (that would have been a mess). We got just over a cored of fire wood which might last us a few hours but every little bit helps.
Now Bill is suppose to be in the Sault at about 3:00 to meet up with his girlfriend but of course we get stuck in the bush with the load of wood on it. When we finally get out it is about 2:20 p.m., not enough time to make it the 55 km to the Sault from the sugar bush. We loaded up the the quad as fast as we could, grabbed the syrup that he had to sell and headed out of the bush at top speed. Needless to say I forgot a few items in the bush mainly the video camera and my jacket so there is no way to get back until tomorrow.
So that is what has been happening over the past few days, thing are more reactionary rather than preparation. The good new is we are making syrup and I think that is all that really matters.
Day 2 – And It rained!
Man I can’t believe this, I am online! I have been trying for the past 4h to connect to this sub-human dial up crap! after being on the phone with Bell Canada/India. I resorted to drinking beer, pushing reconnect and listening to the sound the modem makes, Just like the bad old days.
Well it’s day two and what a change in the weather. Yesterday it was 8˚C and sunny today well rain and freezing rain. Needless to say we were not in the bush for very long today. We were out of there at about 11:30, putting in a good 4h or so.
It was the first time that we had a chance to really try out the new 4 wheeler. It was a dream, the road into the bush was so bad that the truck could not make it in. Thankfully we had the “quad” as I like to call it and we were able to traverse the deadly path which many a truck has been lost in, saving us about 1h of walking.
Bill has completely redone his bush setting up something called a double line system. I’ll go in to greater detail later but basicity you run to sets of main lines. The top line collects the gases and keeps the vacuum constant. The bottom line pulls in all your your sap.
I don’t know how long this connection is going to last so I am going to upload a few pictures from yesterday. Tomorrow is going to be a really, really early one as we have to make up for lost time yesterday. It is going to be an early night and that just fine for me.
- The double line system which separates gas and sap to keep vacuum constant.
The problem you want to have if not having wood is your other problem
Day 1
I am so tired! Well It would be hard to tell all the things that have happened to me over the past, I don’t know, many hours.
The flight back was fine, they said it was going to be bad and it was not, good surprise Air Canada. Also the baby next to me did not cry a bit, Good deal.
So after doing all sorts of chores in the Sault I went out to the sugar bush to meet up with Bill, he has made some amazing improvements.
He put in this system that I am going to have to go into greater detail about later. I will just say that he was able to replace his whole vacuum tank system and it’s one of the simplest most amazing devices that I have ever seen.
We put up some main line today which gave us another 50-60 taps that would have just ran onto the ground. So far there is about 1450 taps, we are shooting for 2000. We also made about 60L of syrup today. I think the big run is still to come. The biggest Problem today was fire wood, or the lack there of. Because of the downturn in the market no one here is logging. No logging means the people who move logs and get paid in fire wood are not getting paid in fire wood. No one around here would be doing firewood for homes at this time because it is the end of winter. Well without getting into more detail about the economics of firewood it is easier to say that there is no fire wood and we have no time to cut anymore.
Here are some stills from a video that I shot today cutting a huge block in half because of the urgency in getting enough fire wood. I will post the video later but I have to get to bed, todays shift was for 6:30am – 10:30pm and there is another one tomorrow.
I love this! One hell of a first day.
Folllow me on Twitter when I get high enough on the island to tweet.
http://twitter.com/eryx
Gearing up
So I have my plane tickets booked and I am ready to head up north to do some sugaring. I must admit I am a bit apprehensive as it is getting rather late in the season. I am going to be heading up on April 1st and staying until April 12th.
It looks like I am not going to be completely getting away from my work. There are a few things that I am going to have to take care of up while I am up there. The on thing that I am NOT looking forward to is Dial up internet.
I have not been able to get a hold of Bill yet, I am sure he is pulling some long hours getting ready for everything to hit. I have talked to a few people up north who say that the weather is still cold and that there is still 2 feet of snow. I really hope it stays like that, come on winter hang on.
This year I am going to be taking a lot more video and I have a new tripod to make it easier so look forward to some interesting videos.
only a few days left now.
Maple syrup for everyone
I was listening to the point today on CBC and heard these crazy guys talking about affordable maple syrup for all Canadians. It was pretty good, some of the suggestions was to have a tax credit for maple syrup.
You can listen to the full audio of the show, part II.
There is a serious reason that the price of maple syrup is so high, last year was a pretty bad year. A number of farms did not make much syrup and this caused there to be a decrees in supply, this in turn drove the price up.
Also people that don’t buy real maple syrup will not be really missing anything as they don’t value it at all. This reminds me of some friends’ kids who were visiting and decided to put real maple syrup on their pancakes rather than fake stuff. It was so sweat that they ending up throwing it out, what a waste.
It’s not that big a deal to buy maple syrup as it is not something you buy everyday. You buy a 4L juge and it can last you the whole year.
I could go on and on about this but I won’t as I think this segment of the program was put in to lighten things up, It has to be a joke.
Way way to long
I know it has been forever since I last posted anything to this blog, I will not let it happen again espesially now that there is so much going on.
I am getting involded in a great program called the SEB program to help me build my business over the next year. The only problem is that I have to atteded a few meeting and classes that happen right in the middle of syrup season, figures.
But all is well, I have set it up my time up north so that it works. I just booked my plane ticket for April 1 2009. I know that seems very late in the year but I have a feeling it will work out. Last year I missed the big run by about a week so this year I am spending two weeks up north. Hopefully I can catch the full run and not spend the whole time fixing tree rat damage. I will be heading back to the T. on the 12th of April, it should nearly be summer by than.
It is not long now before I am out of the city and into the country, I can’t wait.
Maple Syrup Insurance
The province of Quebec today is going to help out with some insurance for maple producers. Today Country Guide reported that the “personalized insurance program will cover producers up to a certain volume when their yields are affected by poor climate conditions.” read the full story here.
You can download the English content of the Individual crop insurance information form. The insurance is basically propped up by the province of Quebec. The government pays 60% of the premium and the participant pays 40%. There is a minimum of insureable quota of 2000 pounds and it covers excessive heat, excessive rain and front. The deadline to apply is February 15, 2009 not too much time if you ask me.
Here is the example of how it works found on the back of their Individual Crop Insurance brochure
- Producer’s Quota is = 10,000lb
- The historical adjustment factor = 0.93 ( I don’t really know )
- Which makes the quota = 10,000 lbs x 0.93 = 9,300 lb
- There are three options, this is for 80% = 9,300lb x .80 = 7,440lb
- The insured value = 7,440 x $1.85/lb = $13,764
- payment by government – 2.59% = $356.49 (60%)
- payment by participant - 1.72% = $236.74 (40%)
so by this same model if you only make 6000 lbs your loss is 7440 – 6000 = 1,440 lb. This would entitle the participant to 1,440 x $1.85/lb = $2,664.
I used the same numbers because I don’t know if there are clauses with other numbers and there are no legal documents about the program.
Seems like a pretty good deal if you find out about it in the next 11 days.
The article goes on to say that Quebec is responsible for “71 per cent of world maple syrup production in 2004″ and that of it’s producers “12 per cent have 10,000 or more [taps] and just one per cent have over 30,000 [taps]”
If I had that much invested in maple syrup production I would most likely get insurance too.
Nothing for Ontario producers as of yet and I don’t imagine there would be.
New blog
In my travels in cyberspace I found a new blog. McCucheon’s Maple Updates is a blogspot blog about a sugar bush in Coldwater, ON
They also have a flash website which has a great song playing in the background. Aparently they were very sucessful at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. Congradulation!
Though they have not posted very much in the last little while I think that once they see there are other that are creating blogs about maple syrup they might be more keen to keep up.
“Special” Maple syrup
It was new years day and we had a few friends spend the night, It was a great new years and Christmas. On new years day we went out to a place called Disgraceland. I had been there a few times before and was not too impressed. The owner is really nice and I have gone to a metal night there that was fun. There are only three things that are negatives about the bar.
- Beer is expensive
- Food is not worth the money
- Too many hipsters
But Than I saw this on the menu:
WOW espresso infused! I asked the waitress (with the heavy British accent) if it was real maple syrup? Yes it is she said, saying that she had received a lot of maple syrup as gifts during the holidays. “O.K.” I said, “I’ll have the pancakes with “espresso infused maple syrups!”.
When the syrup came to the table I knew right away something was up:
Retail this would be about $6 and the colour, dark is an understatement. Totally NOT maple syrup, I hate that! I really should have known but I really wanted to see what “espresso infused maple syrups!” Tasted like. I know that “espresso infused Aunt Jemima!” does not look very good on a menu. In it’s defense it was “infused” with something. From what I could make out they were small dots of something that were a bit crunchy.
So I did get something a bit different, I received “Coffee Grind Infused Aunt Jemima!”
The pancakes tasted like they were made from a mix too. I should have asked for my money back!
