A Few Fitting Pics. To End the 2015 Maple Season

Well today, we lite the last fire in the small evaporator in the sugar house. We drained the sap from the big evaporator into the small one, bucket full by bucket full. Empting the sap from flue pan to flue pan, and finish pan to finish pan. (If I have confused some of you, feel free to ask questions, as there is a method with the shut down sequence). We filled both the gathering trailers with well water and dumped it into the storage tanks. Once the small evaporator was able to ingest, and boil down the sap from the big evaporator, and turn the combined sap in both evaporators, about 275gal., into about 27gal. of syrup. Bare in mind that the sap in both evaporators, had already boiled a lot of H2O off prior to today fireing. Once the small evaporator brought a nice first batch, about 15gal., we tended the fire and brought off the second and last smaller batch of syrup. After the first batch came off we opened the valves from the storage tanks to allow the well water to chase the sap thru the pans, and we were done for the 2015 season.
I have a bit of a meloncoly feeling tonight. My dad and grandad had been makeing syrup in this saphouse years before I was born, and as far as I can remember back, I was a part of this tradition. Three years back my dad died at 91yrs. His last trip from the house was with me to spend some time with us , his brother, me, and two younger generations of cousins who are the reason we keep going.
The sap house has had some renovations with several additions which my dad and uncles did to acomidate larger evaporators, and the woodshed.
I could rattle on for pages about my spring memories from childhood to present makeing syrup.
Tonight, I said to myself, "Self" you did it another year!! With my current health issues,I hope I will be here on YT to post of our family's 2016 maple syrup production. The pics of the back lighted clouds from the setting sun say a lot in my mind.
I think the pics. are a fitting end to this season, and the hope that mother nature will bless us with this years new growing season. One season fades away, like the setting sun, and another arives.
Pics. are from my back yard of the family farm tonight.
Loren, the Acg.

Loren- poignant pictures and story. Thanks for taking us along for the season!

BTW, loved the pics.

My grandfather purchased our northern Indiana land in 1910. There was a brick arched iron pan syrup and sorghum/molasses boiler in the orchard. The sorghum press was post mounted and horse powered with a walking pole. The gathering and processing of sap was normal till the second world war. I was born in 1949, and the rusted pan and crumbling brick were just part of the orchard. In 1980 My dad and Uncle, with inspiration from a second cousin, reset the press at the local steam show, and made sorghum for the next 10 years.
I really believe in the basic value of your contribution (visual and story telling) to the forum. Thanks to you with heart felt remembrances. Jim

Loren, Thank you for all of the informative posts with all the great photos about this years maple syrup season.I now know a lot more about the maple syrup making process,your updates and photos were all most like being there with you.Thanks so much!
Like Hank Jr. says(It's A Family Tradition)

Loren, you have quite an eye for photos! When I read the topic of your post and saw the pictures, I could have guessed how you were feeling. Those are some beautiful pictures and they do convey a somewhat melancholy mood. The second and last shots are fit for a calendar.

Feel free to fill as many pages as you need/want to Loren, I'll read and enjoy every bit of your farms history.

Are those barns still being used? Nice to see everything being kept up. I hate seeing run down dairy farms, even the ones not being used anymore.

Tim

I have always meant to ask you. How many feet long is that barn?

I was wondering the same thing. I bet a lot of cows line up from one end to the other...

Great end of season. Thanks for taking us along. Plus all the time you took to share the pic's. We never get tired of seeing tractors and farms. Jerry.

Beautiful photos. Hope you'll be posting about making syrup for many seasons to come.

I've enjoyed looking at your Photos every year.
Good luck with your health issues and hopefully we will be looking at your photos for years to come.

Great pics, I'm glad we got to come out and see your operation first hand, glad you made it threw another good season too.

Loren,

AS others have said thank you very much for taking us along this years syrup season I to now know more about it than I ever thought I would.

I can relate to your thoughts on family and times gone by. For these feeling are at the end of Deer Season. Growing up hunting with Granddad, Dad, Mom, Brother, Uncles, etc. Granddad has been gone since 94, Dad's health won't allow him to hunt anymore and hasn't in several years, Brothers wife is now bed ridden with MS so he has to stay home to take care of her, Uncles and others hunt different areas now. At the end of each season I look over the area lost in memories if times gone by.

Now it is just me and couple of my best friends that hunt.

Not trying to hi-jack this thread just trying to let you know that I too understand.

BJ

Those are some beauitful pictures. Would make a great post card. Ive enjoyed looking at all the pictures on here from your post about the syrup season. And have learned alot by the reading of your post. I look forward to next seasons pictures.

Those are terrific pics!!!!!

What kind of and scope of farm would have demanded those barns and silos? Is it still farmed today - are the buildings still used?

Very cool!

Thanks,
Bill

loren, thanks for the pictures, and the tour, of the saphouse activities. it is a tradition your family can be proud of. we never got into boiling sap here, but we sure do like to taste the results.

Thanks for all the photos and comments, learned a lot and appreciate where the good stuff comes from. HOPEFULLY some one will continue but ever year some little part of old AMERICA fades away.. Great photos.

Thank you for taking us on a tour of your operation this spring. It's been very entertaining and informative. Now you can wash the mud off the tractor and keep it off. LOL

Loren, what were your final stats for the season? Total taps, gallons of syrup, etc?

Just curious, as I'm trying to get a sense for how the season has been across the state. We are down in the Catskills so probably an hour or so from you.

My buddy and I expanded our operation a lot this year. We went from 450 taps on poor vacuum 3 years ago to 2260 taps on solid vacuum this year. We added a new vacuum pump and a used RO this year as well. So far we've made ~540 gallons but we're still running so we still have an outside shot at making 600 gallons.

Glad you and the family are keeping it going, both in the woods and in the fields.

Thanks,
Jake