First Boil February 6, 2016

My head filled with checklists, running through the whole process of boiling. Did I forget anything? Paper towels, lighter, buckets, filters, on and on. Everything is in order, phew. Damn, the hose water is frozen up good. Had to wait until mid day for that. Ok, so now the wood pile. Yep the one that's covered in snow. At least my leaky green tarp kept the wood dry for the most part. Clean containers-damn again. I had to get water from the inside to clean up before the sap went in. Yep all 80 gallons.

Filled with firebox with some aged newspaper, twigs all set up nice like a little tepee, some bigger stuff right up to the forearm sized logs. Lit her up closed the door and went to get more wood from the pile. Came back to check and I snuffed the fired out. Choked. Repeat this time with the door open and she was ripping in no time. Something like 8 hours later the boil  was done.

 

Now at least I'm much more prepared for the 2nd boil. Though I still have to clean the pans that have been soaking with mix of water and vinegar. The top edges of the pans are loaded up good with burnt sugar. As the boil goes on the sap becomes more concentrated and with  the rapid boil some sap splashes up and gets cooked onto the pans.