What We've Been Up To

Update (3/24/15) Inspired by Joanne's comment, I'll explain: We collect maple sap from 30 trees, and because it's cold outside, the sap is cold. Mr.4444 has a brand-new sap cooker this year, made by the handy friend of a friend. It's wood fired, which means it's more efficient than the propane we usually use. It will also be faster. The sap gets boiled (for days), until most of it (93%) evaporates and we are left with syrup. The maple syrup will be ready faster if the sap stays at a consistently boiling temperature. So...Mr.4444 rigged up a system that slowly feeds cool syrup into boiling syrup, thereby keeping things running smoothly! Brilliant, right?! Now all he needs is something to keep his back and knees from getting sore from all the wood stoking!