Nicole & I struggled with the idea of a tractor for a while. In only 3 years we’d had such an impact on the land with barely any power tools, and a tractor will greatly augment our ability to affect it further. We believe a few things will keep us in check from expanding too much. At the end of the day, the winning argument was that our projects were going to happen, regardless of how much I suffer through them. A tractor will certainly take care of a lot of heavy lifting.
April snow
Boiling day
More mistakes made this year, due to scheduling & weather constraints we let ~100 gallons of sap freeze in the tanks. Because I filled them too much, a thaw actually pushed a lot of concentrated sap out the top… lessons learned…
The stuff dripping out the top of the tank tastes quite sweet, and it’s fertilizing the lawn.
Fortunately we are also avoided a lot of mistakes we learned about last year. Boiling is much smoother a process now.
Helping?
Totally safe, no problem
The smell…
Finishing on the stove
Not captured in pictures, carrying 8 gallons of boiling liquid back home at night, on snow and ice, with a thrown back. Having a shed and proper snow handling equipment will make an amazing difference in the years to come.