[Ed Thayer]

I received a note from Mary-Paige Provost from NH Chronicle, It looks like they would like to do a story on the Spring Wood Bee. I will keep you all posted.

Ed

Ed,

Thanks for writing. This sounds like a fantastic event. We would love to
join you. I am working on securing a crew for that weekend. Can you give me
a better idea of what the day would look like and what time everything would
be starting and finishing?

Best,

Mary-Paige Provost
Coordinating Producer
New Hampshire Chronicle
(603) 666-9577
mprovost@hearst.com

[Ed Thayer]

Great video Carl, Thank you for sharing. A week in the woods with you would fill in a lot of the blanks for me.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

We were able to gather a little sap this weekend and made another 5 gallons of syrup. Things are frozen up good now and will take a couple of days to thaw. I hope the weather will give us a break here soon so the maples can give up some sweet sap.
How are things on Maine Mitch? Did you get much snow from the last storm?

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

I called and spoke to Chuck this morning and expressed our enthusiasm to working with him on his farm. I explained that we as a group felt August was too busy to get an event scheduled at this point. He agreed and thought a fall event would fit in better. He thought some cover crop work or tillage could be done as well.

I gave him the dates of the Annual Gathering so we would not conflict with that event. He said he would get back to me with a series of dates and we could pick one that works.

More to come when I hear from him.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Mitch, that is a nice set up. I wish I had a sugar bush close enough to the sugar house to use only the horses. Your team must grunt a little when that tank is full? Good looking horses too. Hard to imagine no snow in Maine at the end of February.

Mark, The rig is a 30″ x 8′. Forced draft with insulated front. The head tank holds about 500 gallons and is sized big enough for the largest runs. Sometimes I have to store sap in the truck when things get full in the sugar house.

We had about 2″ of snow on Friday night and then the sap ran in the lower bush real well. Kind of surprised me but after this winter nothing should surprise me.

We finished boiling this afternoon and canned just over 10 gallons of real nice light syrup. I hope the weather will moderate and keep things cool for a few weeks.

A couple from the city stopped in today and spent an hour talking, asking questions and visiting. I did not know them but was reminded how steam rising from a sugarhouse is an open invitation to stop and talk. Some of my neighbors whom I am very friendly with never stop at the house until sugaring time. I was glad to visit and was a little taken back when the lady from Concord asked why the sap was so “watery”. I needed to explain that syrup did not come from the tree in that thick, sweet consistency and that it had to be boiled down. She looked at me like I was crazy and had a hard time wrapping her head around that. Our discussion ended with draft horses after she had seen the sleds and scoot in the field next to the sugar house. She asked about the horses and what we used them for. She seemed rather impressed that horses were still used for working and not riding. It felt good to explain to her the relationship with our animals and our work here on the farm. I hope I made an impression on the couple, and not for selfish reasons. I think it is important to show what we all do with our animals and land to keep the general public from forgetting about us.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Here is the thoughts so far on the Spring Wood Bee. We are looking for interested teamsters to tentativley committ to the event.

Ed

Hi ED,
I’ve been away from the internet for a few days and just got your messages. MAY 12th with a rain date of May 19th works well for me. I hope it can be a social event, as I won’t be able to prepare much, or demonstrate much as I am still learning myself. I have a field for folks to park in, and camp Fri night if they like, Sat night too if they want. I’ll set up a 20’X20′ tent and tables, 3 250 gallon water tubs for the teams and 65 gallons for people. I’ve got quite a bit of wood down at my place and a good woods road up to the dirt road we have to travel about 300′ down to get where the wood needs to go. I’ll get some more wood down on the ground, with the longest haul being maybe 1/8 mile, gradual upslope.
I imagine we could do this as a “run what you brung’ kind of event, if people can bring arches, scoots, whatever we’ll move the wood to my neighgbor’s dooryard an, cut it up, and get it into their basement. Right now everything’s tree length, but we can cut it down. I’ll have some bucked up to travel on my cordwood sled, but that’s the only drag I’ve got.

I’ll try to get a grill and some eats together too, to thank everyone for their help. Maybe I can do burgers and dogs and we could pot luck the rest?

Thanks for your help and interest. This means more to me as a way to help my neighbors, but if we can have a good time with it and get draft powered people together, we get two birds with one stone.

My cell number is 603-477-2114. We should meet up to talk further. Perhaps I can show you the lay of the land and you’ll have ideas I’ve not thought of.
Thanks,
Jay

[Ed Thayer]

Bradley,

The meeting is Tuesday Evening the 28th. You can also see all the other scheduled meeting with dates and times at the bottom of the BOD section of the forum or my clicking on the calender at the top of the toolbar.

Jen,
We will set time aside for that discussion.

Also is Jay Fisher’s response to an e-mail I sent him for the spring wood bee scheduled for May 12th with a rain date of the 19th.

Hi ED,
I’ve been away from the internet for a few days and just got your messages. MAY 12th with a rain date of May 19th works well for me. I hope it can be a social event, as I won’t be able to prepare much, or demonstrate much as I am still learning myself. I have a field for folks to park in, and camp Fri night if they like, Sat night too if they want. I’ll set up a 20’X20′ tent and tables, 3 250 gallon water tubs for the teams and 65 gallons for people. I’ve got quite a bit of wood down at my place and a good woods road up to the dirt road we have to travel about 300′ down to get where the wood needs to go. I’ll get some more wood down on the ground, with the longest haul being maybe 1/8 mile, gradual upslope.
I imagine we could do this as a “run what you brung’ kind of event, if people can bring arches, scoots, whatever we’ll move the wood to my neighgbor’s dooryard an, cut it up, and get it into their basement. Right now everything’s tree length, but we can cut it down. I’ll have some bucked up to travel on my cordwood sled, but that’s the only drag I’ve got.

I’ll try to get a grill and some eats together too, to thank everyone for their help. Maybe I can do burgers and dogs and we could pot luck the rest?

Thanks for your help and interest. This means more to me as a way to help my neighbors, but if we can have a good time with it and get draft powered people together, we get two birds with one stone.

My cell number is 603-477-2114. We should meet up to talk further. Perhaps I can show you the lay of the land and you’ll have ideas I’ve not thought of.
Thanks,
Jay

[Ed Thayer]

The first boil of 2012. If only the sap and pans stayed this clean all year 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFWb9NKFc4s

[Ed Thayer]

@ethalernull 32732 wrote:

currently apprenticing with bill acquaviva at Livewater farm. here are some photos of our rig, double bob sled with a three barrel tank, pair of mares and 300 buckets. what’s everybody using to gather with?

That is a sweet setup. I wis my wood lot were a little less rocky so I could do something similare.

I working on mounting a 65 gallon horizontal leg tank to the forecart for single horse work.

But for now I use my utv to gather.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXJBeKrHkto

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

@76Shovel 32659 wrote:

Looks like Star is sold–thanks for the responses everybody.
Now I need to find the right horse for me to buy!!

Did you See Brad’s Percheron Gelding listed? Sounds like a nice draft.

http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?4992-Steady-proven-Percheron-gelding-for-sale

[Ed Thayer]

I have purchased all my equipment from Back Woods Solar , http://www.backwoodssolar.com/

Everyone who works ther lives off the grid and they are very helpfull.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

I tapped about 150 buckets today and the sap ran like crazy in the afternoon. It was preety windy today and I hope it runs well later in the week.

Ed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7d94jAvolQ&feature=youtu.be

[Ed Thayer]

Preety cool history there.

[Ed Thayer]

Tapped all my tubing yesterday and plan on hanging the buckets tomorrow. It was running well by the afternoon. Should be ready to boil by Thursday or so if the forecast is accurate.

[Ed Thayer]

We will be tapping this weekend, the sugarhouse is all cleaned, pans are set and ready and two weeks ago I installed new tubing and walked all my lines. Brin it on 🙂

I just got my new 65 gallon horizontal leg gathering tank and plan to make an adapter to fit into the receiver hitch on my forecart so I can mount it on there and gather in the back 40 with the horse. I need to find about 50 good buckets still though.

May the Maple Gods shine on you,

Ed

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