[Ed Thayer]

Sounds exciting, Don I added this to the events page and posted it to the calendar on the forum. Let me know details as they become available and I will update it accordingly.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

That came out great, nice work. It is great to see an older piece of equipment restored and put to use again.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Does the disc work well? How do you set the angle to achieve the desired affect? It sounds ingenious to me.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

I paid $600.00 for my first mower. It was a McCormick Deering single horse mower with a 4′ bar. It was all original and in very good condition. I used it for two seasons then regrettably sold it.

I now have a No 7 McCormick Deering that I am considering rebuilding. I talked with Jay and he has some mowers ready to go for very reasonable prices, but I think I will try to get mine up and running this spring.

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[Ed Thayer]

That is some sweet sap you have there.

Do you use the wheeled arrangement in the woods as well? Great photos. I have taps spread all over the village so we continue to collect with the truck and our UTV. It is a lack of labor that keeps me from using the horses more for gathering. We do use the horses to collect buckets at the end of the season and to harvest all our wood.

The industry has changed so much in the last 25 yrs. The equipment prices have skyrocketed. I was at Bascom Maple Farms the other day to pick up supplies and saw an evaporator exactly like mine but it was welded not soldered. The price of that unit was $15,000.00 dollars. I paid $8,000.00 for mine only 10 years ago.

Glad I was able to invest in equipment back then, I do not know how producers can get started today from scratch without going into serious debt. But I guess if you have a solid business plan it is doable.

Here are some more current photos.

https://plus.google.com/photos/107396364480794542661/albums/5574807898168686193?banner=pwa

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Very impressive George. This is on my to do list as well. How did you figure the beam size? Is there an online engineering table or do you know someone?

I assume it is rated for the 4,000 lbs?

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

George,

We have about 700 taps or so. Most are on private land that we have permission to tap. We have about 250 buckets and the rest are on tubing. We trade syrup for use of the trees. We sell all our syrup retail to local consumers. We have some local labor that work for syrup but we pay no labor rates.

We have been making sugar here for 4 generations and boil in a sugar house that was built by my Grandfather in the early 50’s. Before the homestead sugar house, the family sugared allover East Washington. Several sugarhouses were built and used over the years and abandoned for one reason or another. The largest operation on Lovwell Mountain was destroyed by the hurricane of 38. We have added several additions and made great improvements over the years, but the basic process remains the same.

It is a labor of love and tradition. We struggle to make syrup and make a profit. I think the newer advancement’s like reverse osmosis and vacuum will have to be considered for our operation to continue with the limited labor resources and escalating costs of container prices and overhead. But we are trying to keep it at a scale that is affordable and fun. We have no debt for the operation and have often placed our profits from a year into an upgrade for the sugarhouse.

The biggest concern is the ever increasing state and federal oversight and potential regulation we face. I hope we can keep that at bay.

Below is a link to some photos of our homestead and sugaring pics from over the years.

https://plus.google.com/photos/107396364480794542661/albums/5574058880030571601?banner=pwa

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Tapping on snow shoes 🙂

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[Ed Thayer]

Don,

What a great video, thanks so much for continuing to provide opportunities and informatio to beginning farmers. Loved the footage of the haying and grassy field as I sit here looking at it snow outside.

You need some footage of the new ground drive forecart. 😛

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Evan,

Could you elaborate a little on your over seeding between rows of crops? What is the row spacing? what are you using for cover? How do you mow clip?

Thanks,

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

gfb

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[Ed Thayer]

Thanks Jay, now I’m hungry and it is only 8:30am.

There is nothing like home grown/raised food. Nice work.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Don,
I have only used the bit in the neutral position and have not used the lower settings. Thanks for the clarification. I took the curb chain off until I thought it was necessary.I wanted to use the least amount of pressure first, then use the lower positions if it was called for. So far so good on the bit,Oz seems a little more relaxed and is working much better with the other horse. I pulled 3 scoot loads of wood out on Friday and they both worked well together.Not sure if it is the bit or that they are getting more comfortable with my signals.

I think I will hold off on the buck back strap for now and see how things progress.I have been paying more attention to the horses response to my commands and line pressure and I am encouraged so far.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Hard for me to tell, but I do know Basswood looks very familiar to old ash.

[Ed Thayer]

I purchased a straight bar bit last weekend and took some pictures of it in Oz mouth. Does it appear to fit properly? it is a 6″ bit, which was the size of the snaffle I was using before.

https://picasaweb.google.com/107396364480794542661/OzBit

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