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Cabin in!

As I was making my way scoop by scoop of dirt out of the property onto the road and about an hour early the truck came with the Cabin.  The thing I noticed was how big it was…it didn’t look 10×12.  The driver was very hesitant about my make shift driveway and in general was a bit lazy.  he just wanted to drop it off in the neighbors flat field which would have been awful.  He finally got out of truck and took a look around and decided it was doable.  So he backed down in.  He came up to a point where he could go no further (not yet at the half done pad for the cabin) So I took the digger and knocked out some stone walls i was hoping to keep.  He backed in and place it ..woot.  It was on uneven ground that I was hoping to have flat but it was in.  He then mashed it and made it out   could have been better but it was in and I could have a beer and relax and an epic push to get the driveway done.  I dont have pics of this b/c I was going at it so hard.

The cabin is really cool.  Ill post more in a following post but its 10×12 .  Half porch half enclosed.  Novelty sided with plywood and tarpaper covered in metal.  The hip roof makes it look different then anything around but its natural wood siding blends in nice to neighbor hood.

So I have machine over there and b/c I don’t have a car.  I have a pedal power with a trailer to get to town for diesel fuel and tent/tarps for the 4 or 5 days ( I forget) until the Cabin is delivered.  So I started off picking a spot out of the way and in the trees so I could hang a tarp.  I then took the digger and made a mound so I would be above the surrounding soil.  This turned out to be a very wise thing to do.  The weather was very dynamic (its spring in ny).  There was lightning storms and downpours and b/c of this step I stayed warm and dry.

So plan now is to get things clearer enough for the scheduled (3 weeks in advance) arrival of the cabin/shed.  This is no small thing b/c the whole land is overgrown and there is absolutely no access into property.  The spot where I picked to set it up is a high spot where a barn used to be.  So from here on out it was a lot of crazy non stop 12 hour days.  I slept very well and burned serious calories.  Which required me to bike to town for food… a few miles .  But I felt good.  Nights would get very cold sometimes.  I focused on the wrong this initially.  I just started cleaning b/c to be honest I did not know here to start.  I could not really see and underlying topology. Focus should have been on access first b/c I ended up working til 2 am the morning and the freezing cold the night before the shed came and getting up 6am in same freezing cold to finish-ish driveway.

Around old barn foundation (where cabin will go)

What the pics miss is the process.  I would go in with shears and thing the branches of bushes and once I got things in piles I could get a machine in to pick up the big stuff (willow was 2 to 3 feet in diamter for example).  The logs went into the resource center out of the way by the road.

So this post is just to get some things down somewhere. I have managed to keep up with the sap from the 4 tapped trees (5 taps) so far, when I fall behind it just goes into a clean 5 gallon pail.

Boiling takes 10 hours approx to boil down 5 (4.5) gallons down to roughly a pint (maybe a bit more?). The process is incredibly easy but I need to constantly tend it all day(every 10mins). The tending though is not bad. I saw videos of people using these stoves and they were very particular about placing wood in. I was at first but now just shove a bunch in and walk away. Super easy. Wood consumption Id say would be around 2 chunks (18″) wide worth of Ash per batch.

The main thing this year was testing this “Batch” Method vs the standard factory type evaporater.

The goal is to refine this current method and scale it up a bit . I have approx 50 maples on property. This small stovetec eco rocketstove is not capable of doing any more then what I am doing now!

Most maple sap people will tell you the longer it takes to boil the better it will taste. The first batch this year was the best tasting surp I ever made. Now keep in mind the first 3 half ass attempts with different backyard rigs were pretty much were unconsumable!

The first time is got scaled so it tasted very burnt (try balancing a burning hot lasanga pan with out moving the syrup in the pan..jeez). The next years setup just tasted like smoke from the fire (not only was sap smokey but it was not fun having burining eyeballs the whole time). This year victory..awesome syrup and an experience that is enjoyable then any so far!

I purchased a stove tec rocket stove. I wanted to purchase an institutional rocket stove but they did not have it in stock and I was feeling a bit tight money wise so I ordered this which is good for personal use/learning.
I taped 5 trees this year. I had taps left over from last year. For buckets I used the 3 gallon water containers with a spout. With a key cut in one corner it can hang on the spout

Being this is version 3.0 I think this years setup is the best (the bar is very low)

Stove Tec Rocket Stove