Vet visit day

        One of the rituals of spring is to get all of the animals checked out by the vet before they start having babies. The vet checks them over and gives required shots. As you probably guessed, that requires rounding everyone up so that she can take a look, and as with most things for us, we have gotten better at this with time. Catching sheep and goats is more art than science. Our first attempts were aided by a smaller pen within the larger pasture where we could contain the animals and systematically run them down. This often resulted in terrified sheep and exhausted farmers. Our next upgrade was a chainlink dog kennel that we would put hay in and shut the door once we had gotten all of our patients cornered. It became this by default since Cody can somehow climb out of it if he feels like it. The biggest problem with this was that it is really heavy to move so if you have multiple animals in multiple locations, you were out of luck.

 The livestock trailer has become the standby method for catching animals. The main trick is to skip a meal before they need catching and then put the feed inside the trailer. This often works best with two people. Sheep are especially leery and it helps if you are slightly hidden while another person spots them all inside so you can shut the door. With one set of especially wily pigs, I sat on top of the trailer for hours until hunger got the better of them and they were convinced no one was around. They walked in and I slid the door shut behind them.

This time, since we were just catching them for shots. We used feedlot panels (A 16' rigid steel wire panel) to hold them in a small area and the vet administered shots and inspections through the fence.

Round up time!

One of my dreams is to have real handling equipment that we can funnel the sheep and goats through and by switching the gate one way or the next, everyone goes back to where they belong. As always, this is very attainable....if you have a grand or two to spare. One thing I did discover was that should we get any more cattle, we will need something better. Erica managed to throw our very pregnant vet back and me sideways when the first needle hit her. A full body hold against the tractor by Karen and I kind of worked but if she gets much bigger that probably won't be very effective.


Before the shots-I believed that cute look....

Long story short, everyone checked out with a clean bill of health. Best wishes to Dr. C expecting her first child. Her help is always a lifesaver (Literally!) for the farm.


Spring Cleaning

I apologize for my lack of postings recently. I would however, ask everyone to notice the title is not "Confessions of a Diligent Blogger". The syrup season is nearly complete! Actual, it is but one part remains----the dreaded clean up.

Some of the aftermath-each of those 5 gallon buckets has tubing in it also....

I resolved in January when I was cleaning with ice water trying to get ready for the sap I would have an orderly and efficient clean up time this year and by god I am trying to. The first thing is the tubing. As with many things in the maple community, there is some disagreement over cleaning. Some folks use bleach water, which others say attract rodents and leaves a poor taste in the lines. Some do not do any cleaning. I am of the flushing fresh water through the lines crowd, followed by compressed air and a drying period. To do this, I built a contraption that allows me hook the tubing up to our hose bib and force water through the tubing. I use a compressor to blow out the tube and then hang dry with a weight on the bottom to allow water to drain out. Once they dry, I will store them in a 55 gallon drum by tap amounts on the line.

 

 

As for the buckets. We scrub any debris or dirt out and then rinse with a water-bleach solution (20:1 is the recommended amount) and allow to air dry. Then they will be stacked and covered in the sugar shack. By far this is the most tedious part of the process but is key to making good syrup next year and saves money on having to buy new tubing and buckets each year.

With any luck this will be complete by tomorrow. Then the real fun starts with the cleaning of the evaporator. All the ashes get shoveled out and the grates are removed for cleaning. Then all the small parts are taken off and cleaned in the sink. The larger parts like the pans will be pressure washed and scrubbed. I am in the market for some covers to go over the top for the off season but most likely I will just store the pans upside down so they won't collect dust and debris. Now you can see how exciting things have been over the past week or so and why no postings. I'll spare you the fascinating story of getting our taxes done.....

 

 

In other news, the snow is mostly gone and cleanup of the winter mess has begun. Erica the calf is happy because she gets to spend her days out in the back field taking sun baths. The mini truck is back on the road and the heated buckets have all been put to bed. One season down, the next is just beginning. Soon we'll be shearing the sheep to get ready for lambs!

Squishy-Squishy-The mud is here.

Ahh, Spring. That beautiful time of year when everything is brown or snow colored like Wyatt after a dirt bath. As the white stuff recedes, we see all of the things that we didn't get done before the winter. Like all the hoses neatly coiled in a fine rats nest, only broken by the slashes courtesy of the plow. Or the shovel half buried that we have spent most of the winter looking for. It goes on and on, and as much as I enjoy a clean farm, I have to just ignore it as maple syrup calls and until all the snow is gone, it is a futile effort to pick away at the small stuff.

Do I have something in my teeth?

Maple season has been good so far. We have already made more than all of last year and production continues, at a slower pace due to weather that was too warm, which had the sap stop flowing and now it hasn't been getting warm enough during the day to make much of a run. I am enjoying the brief break though as a chance to catch up on bottling, labeling and delivering to customers. The warm-up was preceded by a marathon boiling session to ensure that none of the sap went bad and there is only one sure way to make that happen-turn it into syrup! Thanks to all the friends who came by to visit and partake in the New England tradition of watching the sanity of the sugar maker slowly disappear. It is entertaining for the guest but helps the sugar maker because no sane person would watch and think they should do that too, so competition stays low. Here is a picture of the operation in full flow for those who can't be here to watch.

To elaborate on the turkey fryer process a bit more and how our evaporator works. The big silver tank in the background is the feed tank. We pump from outside tanks into here with a filtering process to remove most things from the sap. This tank feeds a float box which controls the amount of sap in the syrup pan.

The flue pan, which sits in front of the tank in this picture, is where most of your evaporation takes place. It has small alleys or flues in the pan that make more of the sap in contact with the heat below.

After it has boiled in the flue pan, the smaller box to the left will control it's release into the syrup pan. The syrup pan is the shorter pan to the left where you get to making the finished syrup product, or in my case, close enough to finished but not in danger of burning and ruining a $1,000 dollar stainless syrup pan. I prefer to use, you guessed it, the good old turkey fryer to finish my syrup on, after filtering, because I can do large batches and easily control the heat since it is propane. Plus the pot is $45 which would sting but wouldn't cause a heart attack.

We are still refining the process but we are getting there. Construction wasn't fully complete when we started as you can tell from the scaffolding in the background. That will have to wait for the snow melt too.

Farmer Phils Big Winter Vacation.

For those who don’t know, we raise Icelandic sheep on our farm. The sheep were actually the first animals we got on the farm along with Mama the goat. Most sheep need to be sheared (get a hair cut) at least once a year. We shear twice, in the spring and in the fall, as the fleece quality is much better the more you cut it. It also makes lambing easier and the summer a little more bearable for the sheep.

 

Previously we have hired a professional shearer to come and do this for us. Not many people would look at the process and determine that it is easy. It takes a lot of strength, flexability and patience as you finagle a 175 lb. animal around with really sharp clippers that can cut both of you. All the while, they are attempting to get away not realizing the impending danger they are in. Despite this, I have been watching it for a number of years now and really wanted to learn how to do it myself. Enter my big vacation to the Cornell University shearing school this past weekend.

The shearing school was a two day course at the Cornell sheep farm in Dryden, NY. It teaches the basics of shearing while giving you a hands on experience handling all types of sheep. (No major injuries to report to student or sheep).  Shearing has been fine tuned over the centuries to a standardized pattern of cuts that are used across all breeds of sheep. The process we were being taught was perfected in New Zealand in the 50’s . It breaks down the shearing in simple, easy to follow steps, which as with most things, look great on paper.

 

 

He doesn't appear to be in pain or yelling expletives and that sheep is holding still - based on recent experiences, I am calling Shenanigans...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 After getting a few demonstrations, we began shearing. We would then get some more demonstration and shear some more sheep. It really was a hands on learning process because no sheep will react the same way and each step takes a few times to feel comfortable with. By the end of the day on Sunday I can claim that I sheared 11 sheep. I will probably be practicing on our lambs as a refresher for when we do the full flock. I'll try and go a little further into the process then.  As one instructor put it best “ sometimes whatever gets it done is the best method”and I think that sums it up. All in all a great class, where I got to meet some great people and learn something new-all the elements of a good trip in my book.

I did attempt to have a guest blogger tell the story of how our horse earned the name of Houdini while I was gone but she was still traumatized from the event, but I am sure we can get her to tell the tale soon.

The good kind of collection agency

 

Collecting sap - Nothing really technical here. Go in the woods and get the sap. Bring sap back to the truck and bring to the sugar shack. One key thing is to ensure the tank in your truck is tied down, otherwise it will come flying out the back and you will spill 35 gallons on Sandown Rd. Trust me. It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap from a sugar maple to make one gallon of syrup. A red and silver maple are about double that because the sugar content is about half. We tap mostly sugar maples however we do have a few red maples mixed in.

 

Happier times when the tank was in the truck

 

Once back to your farm, you can begin to boil. There are a million methods to perform this step but the process itself is basically the same. We’ll be using a turkey fryer as our example here as most people have one and our first question on the blog was about this method. When I first started making syrup as a lad, we typically just set a pot on the woodstove and waited. One major drawback to this method is that it takes a really, really long time and if both you and your father fall asleep, the syrup will become sugar and then burnt sugar and will wake you both up to a smoky living room. We started out our modern operation with a turkey fryer.Most newer burners have kill switches that need to be pressed every 15 minutes or the gas will be shut off, thus avoiding the above mishap. The other advantage is that you are outside so the copious amounts of moisture that is released into the air, versus the kitchen which can peel wallpaper and ruin drywall. Never a good thing.

This turkey fryer works well if you only have a few taps and really don’t feel like spending $1000 plus on a small evaporator. With a turkey fryer, use the pan and fill it about 2/3 full. Once you light the burner, you leave the lid on until you get a boil going and then remove the lid. Use some sort of visual mark in the pan-mine had a scratch that was fortunately at the correct height and slowly add sap to the pot as it boils down. Once you have put all your sap in, you will boil it down. Through the process, you will notice the contents of the pot getting darker-that means you are getting closer.  Aside from the darkening, you will get a few indicators that you are getting close. The bubbles in the boil will suddenly get very small and very active.

 

 

At this point you want to take a spoon and dip it in. If the syrup drips of like water, you have a while longer to go. If it hangs as a drip at the end that is similar to well, cough syrup, You are set. This is the method most old time syrup makers used and still do today. It takes some practice to master this method so we cheat and use a Hydrometer. I’ll cover that another time.

 

A couple of points about sap. It is similar to milk in the way you should handle it. If you leave sap unprocessed and un-cooled, it will start to get a cloudy residue that looks like boogers. DO NOT use that. It can ruin a whole batch. The best plan is to collect every day and process it that day. We store our sap on the north end of the sugar shack where it never gets any sun. This allows it to stay cool so that we can wait a day or two to boil, but if you are using a turkey fryer, do it right away.
That is it for syrup for now. It's all we'll be doing for the next four weeks so a new topic awaits the next post. Stand by...

Some Maple Buckets Look Better on Postcards

 

After getting some necessary modifications to the sugar shack complete, we started step one of the maple syrup odyssey – tapping the trees (Adventure? Epic? Quest? Tragedy?...I guess we’ll know at the end of the season) . As the lazy farmer, I am constantly trying to upgrade and this is a brief recap of how we have arrived at our current method.

As a young lad tapping the trees of the great New Hampshire forests, we were frugal in the truest sense of the word. The sugar bush consisted of four trees and my dad had picked up a couple taps along the way. Our bucket consisted of milk jugs with modified holes for the purpose. The following image is a recreation as we weren’t particularly proud of our method and never took pictures of it.

 

 

With enough attention to detail, you can usually get all hints of milk taste out of the jug and be making a decent sap collector-except for the fact you can only hold ¾ of a gallon. I was collecting in the morning, as soon as I got off the bus and once again at nite if it was really running. Not ideal if you have more than 10 taps.

Now, everyone has seen the steel grey buckets that hang from the trees. These are generally 3 gallons and are galvanized. The main drawback to many of those is that lead solder may have been used on them and they have the potential to release lead into the sap. A low chance but still there. We skipped right over those and tried the modern equivalent:

 

 

The one on the left is aluminum and the right is plastic. Both are lead free. I would love to claim that we were fully researching both mediums for sap retention and tried both for science but the truth was, we bought a bunch of the plastic ones (the main advantage being that you can see the sap level without lifting the lid). As we found more trees, we ran out of buckets and the local hardware store only had aluminum buckets in stock. Both are three gallons also. We still use these in front of the farm as an advertising tool and because we have them so they are going to get used.

Enter the lazy frugal farmer and our current preferred setup:

 

 

That is a 5 gallon food grade bucket with tubing. The bucket cost $3.45 ea for lots of 5 at Lowes and it’s $1.98 for the lid. The plastic maple bucket is $8.50 and the lid is $3.50. I leave the math to you. The tube spout is smaller and better for the tree (and much cheaper than the traditional tap $.39 vs.$ 2.25. If you use a tee connection, you can have one tube going into the side of the bucket and it keeps out dust, rain/snow and ill-intentioned teenagers.  The five gallon bucket also comes with a handle to carry it back to the truck. We run this with a large portion of our taps. This year, we are looking to do a slightly larger version, with a few trees gravity feeding into a 55 gallon drum, and we pump it out to the truck. Pictures to follow. The main reason we haven’t done this is that people are doing us a favor by allowing us to tap their trees- we don’t want to return that favor by having them clothesline themselves on tubing as they walk or snowmobile through the woods:

 

 

That is what we have been up to for this week. Hoping to have all taps in by tomorrow in time for a foot of snow this weekend- perhaps the next topic will be search and rescue techniques for lost sap buckets. We did receive our first question from our friend Eric in Upstate NY :

“What can you tell me about boiling maple sap in a turkey fryer?”

As luck would have it, that will in be my next post so stay tuned…

Confessions of a Lazy Farmer-Is this called the pilot ?

Well, I suppose I should confess at the beginning that I am not in fact a lazy farmer, despite the title of this blog. That being said, it is my life long dream to become one. I dream of a farm where I awake at a leisurely hour and pull a lever to feed everyone and pull a switch to water them. The eggs are all in a nice pile waiting to go by the roadside stand and the syrup is sitting in the pan waiting for a fire. Hay simply sits waiting to be put on the elevator and ascends into the barn to fall in nice neat stacks. This dream is like many other dreams-very attainable, if you win the lottery, which I have not done. But, till that day, I will try and apply Yankee ingenuity and non-standard ideas to our farm in an attempt to find the shortest way to the bathroom, at the lowest price. If they are successful, I will pass them along, as well as  any stories of farm fun , past and present.  I will also tell you about the failures, since those seem to be the ones that everyone likes. I welcome any comments, questions and ideas along the way.

Spoiler Alert: Today we will be getting the evaporator set up for boiling sap in our new sugar shack. Moving a 1400 lb hunk of iron and brick with my wife is always a bonding experience. Full report to follow...