Today will be my last boil. I have burned almost all my wood, along with another 5 cords we cut over the weekend. The combination of low quality wood and low sugar content in the sap has made this whole season a continuing misery.
I have been looking at a dry pine stub on my neighbor's lawn, probably two cords or more of fairly dry wood, but I am not sure I have the go-power to tackle it.
My help disappeared over the weekend when I was tapping, one (my disturbed nephew) gone into rehab, and the other four days late returning from appointments at the VA hospital. (Ran into old marine buddies) A good friend helped me tap, and my son worked with me for the first week of boiling, but it seems like I have been behind the eight-ball all the way.
I am going to have to sink a bunch of money into my operation if I want to continue beyond this year, and am not sure I can, or want to. If I were twenty years younger, or either of my boys had an interest, it would be a no-brainer, but doing it alone, or with paid help, really doesn't fly.
On the other hand, spring without sugaring is two or three months of cabin fever and total depression.
My current thinking is to continue tapping, and maybe downsize the boiling operation, and sell the extra sap to another sugar maker.
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Today's Featured Article - Bad Vibes - by Curtis Von Fange. One of the strangest ways to communicate with our tractor is to ask it how it feels. "Ask it how it feels," you say? Yup, ask it how it feels. Now, as with the other articles in this series one has to be able to hear what 'ole blue' is trying to say in response. The nice thing about our old iron friends is that they are usually quite consistent in their response, rather unlike some people I know who might change what they say due to the weather or other mitigating circumstances. But since t
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