dinorocks

I didn’t realize I owned half of my brothers house and pool! OnX is not always very accurate. I contacted the company a few years ago to report the error (they told me they want errors to be reported so they fix them)...still waiting. I do find OnX helpful so I have been renewing each year.

Great job! I joke that I would be happy to pay twice the going rate for a gallon of syrup with all the time and effort I put into making maple syrup! with the light on your jar of syrup, it looks like it could be on a Pink Floyd album cover!

Well I didn’t have the heart to dump what was in my buckets while pulling my collection equipment for the season so I put my previously cleaned pans back on the arch along with 50 gallons of sap last evening. Had a nice dinner with my wife while closing up shop. The ice I collected for the sap refrigeration area at my sugar shack lasted to the end (although my creek-side “ice castle” melted quicker than I thought). I’ll finish boil today with an anticipated gallon of very dark syrup. All and all, a great season albeit a slow start, but lots of lessons learned to add to the list! I can share my lessons learned if interested...I would be very interested to hear what you learned and any changes to your sugar making for next season. Happy Spring!!

A bigger pan would obviously speed things up a bit. Seems a bit too slow...about a gallon per hour if I read correctly? I believe the longer you boil the darker the syrup gets. My pan, when full, holds 40 gallons...each inch equals 5 gallons. I can typically evaporate 10 gallons per hour...this year I kept the pan at 2-3 inches and the sap evaporated faster. I measure the sugar content in each 5 gallons I add with a refractometer ($20 on Amazon) and measure and record the volume before and after I add to my pan to make sure my boil is steady. If my average sugar content for example is approximately 2%, I divide 86 by 2% to calculate how many gallons of sap I need for a gallon of syrup (46 gallons). My approximate volume of sap collected for my third and last boil of the season was 260 gallons. 260 divided by 46 gives me about 6 gallons of syrup. 6 gallons in my pan is about 1 1/4inches...I then know I want to stop my boil to filter and finish boil at the house when I get to about 1 3/4 inches in the pan. At the house I can boil off the remaining 2-3 gallons of water in my nearup. I can boil off about 1 gallon per hour in my finish pan (finish pan holds 6 1/2 gallons...each inch is about 1 gallon)...but at this point I tracking temperature and Brix. After several finish boils I now bring my temp to 220 F and 68 Brix (using my hydrometer)...if I don’t reach those numbers there will be too much water in the syrup making it runny but most importantly it will not keep as long....if I exceed my target, large crystals form in the bottled syrup after a short while and the syrup gets too thick. If I exceed my target I can add my emergency sap to the boil to bring things back. Regarding filtering, I soak my “wool” and “paper” filters in hot water before use. I put 3 paper filters in the wool filter and start to filter (hot) when I reach my target ...if the filtering slows, I remove the clogged filter and keep filtering...my goal is to bottle at approximately 180 F. If filtering is not done correctly, niter (sugar sand) settles in the bottom of the bottle and the syrup can be cloudy... This is how I make syrup from 6 years of trial and error...definitely not the only way, but what has worked for me...hope some of the above info helps the current and future “sugar makers”!

I have added bourbon to my syrup in the past...first time adding bacon. Tried some last night...spot on!!

Kept my nearup nice and cold last night with the last of the ice rink. Finished this evening with 5.4 gallons of syrup. Knob Creek and bacon in the last 1/2 gallon...oh my!!

I’m very sorry about your sap loss! I set up my game cameras when I tap to make sure nobody is messing with my stuff or peeing in my sap buckets...No one is typically out during the wet and soggy maple season except shed hunters...everything is on my property but you never know... maybe put up some cameras...a little late this year but maybe next year. take care

Just got in from collecting/boiling 260 gallons of sap...out since 6:00am...I’m beat! Brought 8 gallons of nearup back to the house and put it on ice...the last of the ice rink...hoping to get about 6 gallons of syrup tomorrow when I do my finish boil.

Collected 140 gallons of 2% sap this afternoon. Hopefully collect another 100 gallons tomorrow during my boil...5 gallon syrup goal for my last boil.

My wife and I just finished bottling almost 5 gallons of syrup...a bit darker than my first two boils (Photo of syrup with labels is from my earlier boils for color comparison). Looking like this Sunday might be it for the season.

Boiled about 150 gallons yesterday. Perfect day to be in the woods! I’ll be finishing it up today (new hydrometer arrived late yesterday). Not much left to my ice castle. RO’ed 100 gallons of 3% to 6%...you can see the color difference between the raw sap, concentrate, and permeate. Collected 50 gallons of sap during the boil...added it directly to the pan as I didn’t want to listen to the generator anymore. Looks like another boil on Sunday! Happy sugaring!

My neighbor had a large split-trunk silver maple and part of it fell just missing their house. I recovered the fire wood and noticed a hollow section full of ants...probably were the Achilles heal of that tree. Good luck getting them trimmed up!

Those are some big trees! Yes, Probably easier with tubes to a bucket on the ground. Good luck!

My wife and I just finished bottling 3.8 gallons. I’m shocked at how light the syrup was! Not much sap running today. Drops down to a low 21 tomorrow night so hopefully things pick up! Cheers!

Lots o’sap you got there mowin!

Started boiling...needed to wait a bit to start as I wanted to coordinate my noon sap collection (so I didn’t run out of sap to add to the boil). Looking forward to an afternoon drink...with some Maple sap ice (while it lasts!).

Here is another video with great shooting tips! Again, Mark is an incredible archer/teacher/person!

Collected 100 gallons today and ran it through my RO bucket...came out at over 6.5%. Thought my refractometer was off until I remembered there was ice in my buckets, hence the high sugar content in my raw sap (minus the ice). My 50 gallons of concentrate should yield me over 3 gallons of syrup. Took tomorrow off to boil. With the forecasted temps, I’m counting on collecting another 100 gallons of sap by early afternoon to add to my boil. Good luck collecting/boiling!!

Thanks for the comments! My goal for the Bone Creek rendezvous is to get more people involved. I considered this past rendezvous an ongoing success as that I didn’t need to “outfit” anyone this year as I have done in years past...this can be a very addictive hobby and folks who didn’t have gear last year, made or acquired what they needed this time around. Some of the rendezvous I attend are very strict (I.e., all clothing must be hand sewn, all equipment must be period correct, no modern nothing!)....look up “The America Mountain Men” to see the 20 requirements for membership to give you an idea of how this hobby (or lifestyle) can be brought up to the n’th degree. We are a bit more laid back! If you are interested in checking something like this out, we have our Hawkeye Bowmen primitive shoot the weekend of April 23...spectators (and participants) are more than welcome! If you want to participate, a selfbow and self nocks are required. If interested in joining the fun at the Bone Creek rendezvous next year, reach out to me in February so I have time to help you out with your attire and gear if needed. Our group is very generous and helpful to get people involved. If you just want to stop out to visit, I have extra capotes and frocks that you can use so we can keep with the spirit of the event. Regarding who was the overall winner, it was very close but I got to pick off the prize blanket first (and it had nothing to do with the fact that I was the score keeper ;-). And regarding our adult beverages, we are very responsible when it come to mixing booze and black powder... we do the shooting events early on before we start to hydrate. I didn’t have my phone/camera to take any photos...Below is a link to last years rendezvous...

Each year over the past several years I have organized a primitive rendezvous at my Bone Creek Sugar Shack. I typically have about 10-12 attendees…more join each year! The attendees come in period-correct attire (1750-1850), are given an event medallion (this year was a beaver tail pendant cut from a beaver tail I tanned), participate in multiple mountain man type competitions, and drink/feast/converse in front of a campfire into the dark. This year’s rendezvous included seven competitions. The first was woods walk with a stickbow and six self nock arrows – each person followed a trail of rock cairns and hanging turkey feathers throughout the hard woods and try to find hidden animal targets to shoot at; the one catch is that you cannot backtrack to get a better shot. After everyone has completed the shoot, we walk back together to pull arrows and score. There is a maximum of 6 points awarded (1 point for each small game target and 1 point for a kill shot on a large game target (-1 point for a non-kill shot on the large game targets)). The next competition was shooting at 3-D foam targets along the side, and at the bottom, of a steep 50-ft plus hill. There are six targets and a maximum of 6 points is awarded. Third was an aerial archery shot. I made a dozen flu-flu arrows with blunt tips, sinew-wrapped self nocks and turkey feather fletching (and thanks again to all those who donate their turkey wings to me following turkey season!). I hoisted a foam turkey decoy about 30 feet in a tree and we each took a try to hit it with our flu-flu arrows. Six points were awarded for a hit and everyone got to keep their flu-flu arrow. Next was a black powder shoot using a flintlock or cap lock rifle and round balls. We were going to make our own lead balls over the fire but decided that would be a bit too time consuming as everyone was excited to shoot. I set up three separate shooting stations and each person took one shot at each station; 2 points were awarded for each hit (maximum of 6 points total). The first target consisted of small logs with the bark removed on one side (to make them stand out) and balanced on a larger log. The second target consisted of blocks of ice set up on some leaning logs (they literally exploded when hit) and the third target were gourds which I hung in tree branches. A primitive rendezvous would not be complete without a hawk throw competition…6 points maximum was awarded in this event. Three throws each…1 point for sticking the hawk in the log and 2 points for hitting the card. Another competition was to use a “throwing stick” to knock down wooden pins. (if you were stranded in the woods, your best method for harvesting small game would be with a throwing stick). I had six pins set up and two throws were given to knock down as many pins as possible, with a maximum of 6 points awarded. The last competition was a fire challenge. Over the camp fire we made char cloth. Everyone was given a piece of char cloth and a ball of jute. Using flint and steel, the object was to start a fire and make it hot enough to burn a string set up between two logs, about 12 inches from the ground. If you burnt the string in half within 5 minutes, you got 6 points, 6 minutes got you 5 points, etc. until 10 minutes had expired, and the event ended. Following the competitions, the person with the most points got to pick first from the prize blanket (prizes donated from the participants), second highest next, and so forth. We finished the evening with a Germen feast consisting of venison bratwurst, sauerkraut, mixed baked beans, and spaetzles (not to mention all the other hors d’oeuvres that were brought). Everyone had a great time and I’m already planning for next year’s event! Below are a few photos and a link to a slide show of the event consisting of photos taken by one of the spectators (thanks Lynne!).

Going to be a big run of sap this week! Took a couple days off this week for collecting/preparing/boiling! Also added some ice to my storage areas now that my rink will be melting.

Hope to get a chance to hunt in Chateaugay twice in 2021 ...fall hunt and snow hunt. Want to learn more about hunting in the big woods...much more challenging to me than hunting WNY. Flintlock with spit patch and round ball!

Liquid gold!

Not as fancy, efficient, and good looking as Mowin’s setup but I got her done. I collected a messily 160 gallons of sap and boiled it down yesterday. I did “cheat” and use my new RO bucket (RB-10)...the day before my boil I sent my 160 gallons of 2% sap through the RO and ended up with 80 gallons of 4+% sap...at an average rate of 10 gallons of sap per 40 minutes. using the rule of 86, I would have needed to boil 43 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of syrup...with the RO, I only needed about 20 gallons. At an evaporation rate of 10 gph, I saved a ton of boiling time! And with the new revisions to my arch, I used less than a 1/4 cord of wood (over 8 hours). I’m very pleased ! Looking forward to next weeks warm weather! I have just under 500 gallons of sap capacity between my two ice-insulated storage areas. Good luck to all the sugarmakers out there!!

I cut the ice blocks with an ax...well I tried at first just to see what I was up against...with 8 plus inches of ice, I brought the chainsaw out. After I figured out how much ice I needed, I shoveled and gridded the area out and then screwed wood handles I fabricated into the ice with long screws...if I tried using nails the ice would shatter. I worked from down stream to upstream so if I fell in pulling ice I would have a chance to get out before going under the ice...I also took other precautions like standing on a long board to spread out my weight, rope, wore wool, and had a nice fire going. The ice was surprisingly heavy but I was able to “pop” it out by pushing the ice into the water and heaving it out when it floated up. I have a light blue tarp that I used to cover the top of the drum storage...and built it in the shadow of a very steep bank (north side). Somehow I managed a day two and cut more ice and built mini igloos around 20 of my 5-gallon buckets...with the buckets on the before mentioned steep hill being the most challenging (and back-breaking)!