Drilling, Sawing, and Burning – The Beginning

Look what came in the mail! My spouts/taps! The parts we will put in the maple trees for tapping off some of the sap!

My very handy hubby got an old oil drum, a fireproof door, and other things like stove pipe to build a wood stove for this project.

Then he broke out the power tools, acetylene torch and got busy measuring and cutting. He had to cut out a spot to put that cast iron door, where we will feed the wood in.  Then he had to cut out a spot for the damper, to regulate the air flow to keep the fire going. The acetylene torch is a cutting torch.
 




In that last picture, he is having to straighten up the legs of the stand we are using. That stand is sentimental to us. It came out of a cabin of a deceased friend of ours. Hubby and George used to duck hunt together at Clear Lake and they had cabins down there they would go stay at. George’s cabin got burnt by vandals. That stand lived through a cabin destroying fire and had chunks of the building fall on it, so it was a bit bent. Kind of cool I will think of George every time I fire up the stove. George was about 15 years older than Gerald, and lived at the end of our street. He used to show up whenever we were doing an outside project. I could just imagine him sitting in the garage with us, giving Gerald a hard time. 
 
I will think of a dear friend named Pat too. She lives in the town the door was made in! Hi Pat *waves*!


We are recycling some old metal bed frames too. We are using them to make the frame for the top of the can, where there will be a metal sheet and the evaporating pan will sit. It takes something like 50 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup! That’s a whole lot of sticky moisture going in the air, so definitely not something to do in the kitchen!
More pictures as fabrication progresses and tapping begins! Stay tuned!
Herbal and Honey Hugs to all who visit Comfrey Cottages xx