Surviving Minnesota!

[duluthralphie]

Morning Erli! You’re up early celebrating that cold being gone.

We have two new inches of snow this morning! I wonder if BYC will consider the middle finger emoji.

A coating of that white crap here, at least a thumbs down emoji!

It snowed off and on here yesterday, thankfully it didn't stick. Forget spring, I'm ready for summer.

It is sunny and 70 degrees here in the Banana belt,....

(I am guessing at the temp, but no snow anyways.....the sun is out which is an improvement over yesterdays cold miserable sleet)

 

[ketojenn]

It is sunny and 70 degrees here in the Banana belt,....

(I am guessing at the temp, but no snow anyways.....the sun is out which is an improvement over yesterdays cold miserable sleet)

sunny here this morning, but not anywhere near 70 degrees! I can't imagine such heat!

 

[jerryse]

Sunny here and it may hit 60 . Rain coming tonight so afternoon clouds coming . I need to get outside and take advantage of the nice weather . Thinking of setting up the low pressure water system . My bantam has 10 eggs so maybe getting close to setting I hope .

 

[Molpet]

SOOOOOO after reading the sap boiling adventures
while making maple syrup (from sap not chemicals ) is a good hobby ...but is about as cost effective as poultry..... what do the syrup producers do differently to make money? I know what poultry producers do
I have a few dz black walnut trees and thought about tapping them some spring

 

[duluthralphie]

I have just checked the Menard's Official Climate tracking device and I made a slight error when estimating the temperature. An error that became apparent as soon as I opened the door to let the dog out....the device is claiming it is 39 degrees.

SOOOOOO after reading the sap boiling adventures
while making maple syrup (from sap not chemicals ) is a good hobby ...but is about as cost effective as poultry..... what do the syrup producers do differently to make money? I know what poultry producers do
I have a few dz black walnut trees and thought about tapping them some spring

The difference between the maple syrup producers is about as large as between us and chicken factories.

I have a neighbor that produces thousands of gallons of syrup and still wonders if he is making money at it.

First he has a woods full of 1 inch blue tubing strung through the whole woods. He has 5/16 inch blue tubing running from each tree to the larger tubing. The 5/16 inch goes to a tap. All the tubing is joined together at a manifold on an automatic pumping tank. When ever the tank is full it pumps the raw sap up to storage tanks.

There is a large vacuum pump in a building that runs constantly during syrup time. Vacuum can pull twice as much sap from a tree as gravity and nature.

When he gets about 3,000 gallons of sap he runs it through a reverse osmosis system. I think he said this take out over half the water. The stronger sap solution is placed in other tanks. When he gets however many tanks of that he needs he runs it through the evaporator. His evaporator is about 3 feet wide and 12 feet long. It has "troughs" about 6-8 inches deep all along it to increase the surface area. The troughs are only an 1-2 wide. Everything is stainless steel, so he has a ton of money tied up in this.

The evaporator is fueled by wood which is cheaper than propane. When he starts the fire it burns hot as he has a 20 ft 12 inch chimney to increase draft (stainless also).

He can do a pallet full of syrup in about 2 hours. I have no idea how many gallons that is. But he does more in an hour than I could do in a lifetime.

BUT the expense to produce it is amazing. Even the time involved to tap 1,000 trees would be enormous. He starts tapping in January. After season ends he has to go back and pull the taps, disinfect the lines, (which he disinfects when he taps again in January).

So lot of thing are different. I have more sap than I will be able to process. I can only process 15-20 gallons a day, I have about 100 gallons stored up and my bags and pails are full. It will sour before I finish boiling it down.

 

[Molpet]

I have just checked the Menard's Official Climate tracking device and I made a slight error when estimating the temperature. An error that became apparent as soon as I opened the door to let the dog out....the device is claiming it is 39 degrees.



The difference between the maple syrup producers is about as large as between us and chicken factories.

I have a neighbor that produces thousands of gallons of syrup and still wonders if he is making money at it.

First he has a woods full of 1 inch blue tubing strung through the whole woods. He has 5/16 inch blue tubing running from each tree to the larger tubing. The 5/16 inch goes to a tap. All the tubing is joined together at a manifold on an automatic pumping tank. When ever the tank is full it pumps the raw sap up to storage tanks.

There is a large vacuum pump in a building that runs constantly during syrup time. Vacuum can pull twice as much sap from a tree as gravity and nature.

When he gets about 3,000 gallons of sap he runs it through a reverse osmosis system. I think he said this take out over half the water. The stronger sap solution is placed in other tanks. When he gets however many tanks of that he needs he runs it through the evaporator. His evaporator is about 3 feet wide and 12 feet long. It has "troughs" about 6-8 inches deep all along it to increase the surface area. The troughs are only an 1-2 wide. Everything is stainless steel, so he has a ton of money tied up in this.

The evaporator is fueled by wood which is cheaper than propane. When he starts the fire it burns hot as he has a 20 ft 12 inch chimney to increase draft (stainless also).

He can do a pallet full of syrup in about 2 hours. I have no idea how many gallons that is. But he does more in an hour than I could do in a lifetime.

BUT the expense to produce it is amazing. Even the time involved to tap 1,000 trees would be enormous. He starts tapping in January. After season ends he has to go back and pull the taps, disinfect the lines, (which he disinfects when he taps again in January).

So lot of thing are different. I have more sap than I will be able to process. I can only process 15-20 gallons a day, I have about 100 gallons stored up and my bags and pails are full. It will sour before I finish boiling it down.

Thanks I figured there was a low profit margin for the producer. .. as in any ag, the middle man makes the money.
I didn't realize it would sour. ...

 

[CindyinSD]

Morning Erli! You’re up early celebrating that cold being gone.

We have two new inches of snow this morning! I wonder if BYC will consider the middle finger emoji.

This is us today. Not deep but still... disturbing.

Global warming can cause global cooling. Did you know? A lady on the radio said so, so it must be true. They wouldn’t let them lie over the radio...

 

[duluthralphie]

This is us today. Not deep but still... disturbing.

Global warming can cause global cooling. Did you know? A lady on the radio said so, so it must be true. They wouldn’t let them lie over the radio...

View attachment 1724797

I wanna move in with you. I love your view.

 

[duluthralphie]

This is us today. Not deep but still... disturbing.

Global warming can cause global cooling. Did you know? A lady on the radio said so, so it must be true. They wouldn’t let them lie over the radio...

View attachment 1724797

I wanna move in with you. I love your view.

 

[CindyinSD]

Thanks! I do too; only I prefer it in green...

At 2:30 a.m. this morning, the phone rang. I’m glad (sort of), but at the time I didn’t know that. I stumbled around trying to find the phone but it was too late. It said “Security...” (the other word disappeared before I could open my eyes the rest of the way.) DH and I spent the rest of the sleeping time cursing (silently of course) stupid robo-calls.

DH got up at 4:30, having despaired of sleep. At 6:30 he charged into the room where I had finally fallen asleep and said, “That was the post office. Your chicks are there.” So I’m glad the chicks made it. That’s the glad part. I thought the hatchery had messed up my order somehow and was fully intending to lay into them as soon as it was office hours. No e-mail, no tracking number... and I had discovered this lack at a few minutes past closing time on Tuesday. So yeah... I should have checked Monday.

I did have the brooder set up in case the fluffies were coming after all. Here the little darlings are, maybe ten minutes after moving in.

There are actually 26 of them, but they’re mostly under the yellow mother-hen thing. Here is a brave lad or lassie already calling king-of-the-mountain:

They’re meaties. Color Yield. Hubby is distressed there are so many. I explained they are for eating. He said “Yeah sure.” He thinks he knows me so well... I hope he will not be TOO shocked when he finds out I mean it.

Since they’re here and all perky I guess I’ll refrain from cranking at the hatchery, but geez, guys....