Happy New Year everyone! I love making list and plans for what I would like to get done in the coming year, but I don’t jump right into it at the start of the year. I’m much more of a there’s a reason for every season. Currently I’m in hibernation. I have a brief period of time where I allow myself to just be. The wood has been cut, the Christmas orders have all gone out, we aren’t quite ready to tap yet. I do the chores, feed the birds then stay inside. Reading, garden planning, knitting and yes lots of extra naps in front of the wood stove!
I also look back at my planner and pics from the last year – wow we got a lot done! This will be our 2nd season with the new storage tanks, that took a lot of pressure off us as we all have other jobs and luckily can work around sugaring with them. The packing room was new this year – it is making my life easier and we actually could use our dining room this year! I have a list of upgrades to the room – a printer, lots more shelves, a better system to keep track of orders.
Sugarhouse updated with new siding 2025
The exterior of the sugarhouse has finally been finished off with board and batten. Hopefully it helps block a little of the wind. In the near future we will look into insulating the sugarhouse and boarding the inside. Over the generations of sugaring we have continually upgraded the equipment. 80 years ago the wood fires were much less efficient – the amount of wood the used was incredible when you look at the old pics! Today we use a very efficient wood arch, which is great – we use so much less wood, But it’s also much colder inside! We rely on heaters to take the chill off when we’re in there working.
electric vacuum sap releaser
Speaking of new equipment – we just bought a new electric vacuum releaser. The releaser is a go between from the sap in sap lines, the vacuum pump and the storage tanks. The releaser transfers the vacuum to the mainlines while allowing the sap to flow to the sugarhouse and automatically be dumped into our storage tanks. I’ll have action pics in about 2 months give or take Mother Nature’s whims.
wet and dry line maple sap collection pipeline
New mainlines! We had a new mainline run that goes from behind our house to the sugarhouse – about a quarter of a mile or more. The one that was there had a lot of sags and need to be re routed in a few places. This will increase the amount of sap we get from this section of the woods, commonly referred to as the garden section as it is directly behind my garden.
When there are sags or dips in the line the sap does not flow correctly, it stays in the line and backs up to the trees so we don’t receive the full potential. It also created more strain on the equipment – the old releaser and the 3 year old electric vacuum pump. When the installers were here they also ran this wet/dry system to the property line, we had a section that ran into a tank next door, which is now where Ian lives. We haven’t run the lateral yet in this section, that will be a project for this coming year but having the wet/dry and the mainlines run is a huge first step.
Yes I hire installers. We don’t have time to do the work ourselves with our regular jobs, plus these guys are much faster and more efficient. One crew came and installed the wet/dry line. Another crew came and did line maintenance, they cut 14 trees off lines, straightened the mainlines, tightened the laterals and put spouts on. They had time enough to cover about 80% of the sugarbush. This is going to save me so much time, I should be able to tap faster since I won’t have all the repairs to do. I started back in September working on the lines but didn’t get very far. I’m hoping this same crew will be able to come back and help finish any tapping I don’t have done. I plan to start next week.
This is going to be a big year on the farm for the family too! Dad turns 80 in September! Yes he was born the same year as the current sugarhouse. His daughter is 30 years younger then he is, so she has a milestone birthday in May. The best part is Juliette is getting married in September! She is of course getting married here on the farm, it may have something to do with the breath taking views. So mom has lots of landscaping to get done! It’s going to be a year of chaos and family, love and laughter. We are so blessed to be here and to be able to make plans for so many to join us.
I hope you are looking forward to 2026 as much as we are. I hope you’re finding and making the time to rest as I currently am. I hope you have a healthy year and take care of yourself. I really do love to hear from you, so many of you I have had the pleasure of meeting or talking to for a good many years!
Jessica
