Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Backyard Lumberjack]

Raw sap is almost flavorless but has a very slight maple flavor. It is not sweet when you taste it. My cousin does maple syrup and maple sugar commercially on his farm and so I have been exposed to sap at every stage of the process. You never process sap in the kitchen because the steam coming off while you cook it down is not just pure water, it can get sticky and you will be in trouble at home if you do it indoors. When I lived closer we would buy an imperial gallon from him every year and never had any left over the next year. He lives just 5 miles north of the Vermont border in southern Quebec. When you get it cheap or free it is amazing how fast it gets used up. His family uses it in place of cane sugar in many things like when making rhubarb pies or sauce. Maple sugar on oatmeal rather than brown sugar is also great. Be careful to not use too much all at one time because maple syrup can act as a mild laxative. I live too far away right now to keep getting syrup at wholesale from him but can see me tapping some of my own trees starting next year.

that's interesting... thanks for posting it up. I bet it is something to see a big pot of sap cooking down... do you use hydrometers to test the viscosity, or just wing it? I may never look a the bottle of my Aunt Jemima ' genuine ' maple syrup in refer the same again... lol. I don't care for thick pancakes or flapjacks... but thin - yes! with butter and syrup... yum. runs close 2nd to my fav... homemade waffles, butter and syrup. my mom used to make them often as kids...

 

[farmer steve]

It's ok everyone it's just one of those toy stihl saws like FS has
But hey you gotta start somewhere

help me out here stihl lovers.

 

[farmer steve]

i think i read it on this thread that someone posted that the 028 WB with the WB in red letters was more desirable. Dancan maybe?

 

[benp]

I meet my new friend two weeks from yesterday or today.

Is it going to Mitch for a little massaging first?

 

[svk]

No. I see that was his video though.

 

[DFK]

Years back I read in one of those " How to live in the Woods" books that a Sycamore tree could be tapped.
It is my understanding that the sap that comes out is almost pure water.

Anybody ever tapped a Sycamore??

David

 

[hardpan]

I tapped 4 maples and 5 black walnuts today. I do not mix them. Walnut syrup is awesome. I process the maple separately.

If only using walnut, what does it taste like? Difficult to describe taste but compared to maple?

 

[nomad_archer]

Here is the other half of yesterdays scrounge

 

[hautions11]

Walnut syrup is sweeter and has a nutty taste. It is good. If I do not get to collect much sap, I will mix them and it is hard to tell the difference from straight maple syrup. You can tap sycamore trees, very little sugar, hardly worth the effort. Maple and black walnut have 2-3% sugar. That still means 40 gallons of sap to one gallon of syrup. Lots of boiling to drive off all the water.

 

[hardpan]

hardpan, I'm pretty sure I didn't call it work anywhere other than when I said I did a "little work" in the GMT
This is all just chores around the house if you will, no real pay involved, when I work I try to make a buck or two
Here's some more "playing" I did today
This is a cherry that had the top broken and still attached. I knew it would hang up if I notched it to fall where I wanted it to go. I was to lazy to move the quads(they are just parts quads anyway) and getting the tractor out for the locust in the earlier post was already in the plan. So I notched it to fall where I wanted and just took a little extra of from the back cut on the side with the quads. It did exactly as planned and leaned right into another tree.View attachment 483209 What a bummer, oh well, a little tug (very little), little spin and it's right where I nicely asked her to goView attachment 483214 Here's the cherry and the smallest pieces of the locust. The locust as well as the pieces of the cherry from the broken top went straight into the house. View attachment 483219

I owe a little clarity here. I always say, "It is only work if you do not enjoy what you are doing." A lot of things can happen to diminish the enjoyment and then it becomes work. If I am in the woods, odds are I am cutting, piddling, or playing. I thrive on accomplishment. Visitors often comment on how much work there is in firewood. To me most of it is not work but splitting wood in 100* heat index does indeed suck, ain't no fun, work. LOL

Onward. I have never owned a winch and am intrigued with the clever way you hook to twist and manipulate the fall or drag, never thought of it that way. The winch appears to be your central tool. Fact is I almost never pull BUT a couple years ago I bought a tractor with ultra low granny gears and a slow, controlled pull is now available. I have a new tool and it didn't cost me a dime, just knowledge. LOL

 

[MustangMike]

help me out here stihl lovers.

I'll come over with my Ported 460/046-D, and we'll put it up against anything he's got!

 

[farmer steve]

I'll come over with my Ported 460/046-D, and we'll put it up against anything he's got!

 

[chipper1]

My uncle bought a house with bamboo in the yard. He bulldozed it all into a pile and burned it. Then he burned the ground it was standing on. Then he sprayed the whole thing with a mix of roundup and fuel oil.

I think he had to go through that whole routine 2 or 3 times, but it eventually worked.

Must have been posting when you posted this, just saw it.
That's a lot of crap. My buddy had said when he looked into it they said if you keep cutting it like with a mower it will eventually die out, but I'm not sure what type of bamboo that is for, or what type he has.

 

[kingOFgEEEks]

Must have been posting when you posted this, just saw it.
That's a lot of crap. My buddy had said when he looked into it they said if you keep cutting it like with a mower it will eventually die out, but I'm not sure what type of bamboo that is for, or what type he has.

I am by no means an expert on bamboo, but the patch of bamboo was large and well established. His neighbor owned a dozer, so as far as that goes, it might have been just easier than repeated mowing, although it was certainly a LOT of work.

 

[chipper1]

help me out here stihl lovers.

You don't need any help, you've been getting razzed about this long enough to know the truth, there all just a bunch of plastic and metal, just some are better than others .
You know everytime I put a chain on or flip the bar on the 550 I'm thinking about you, but then I fire it up and, I remember why I deal with it

 

[MustangMike]

Reminds me of the old argument comparing the Chevy 409 to the Ford 406. They said the 409 was strong in the 1/4 mi, but if you were in a 500 mi race, you better have the Ford under your hood. So, my solution was just build the 406! Never did have one of them, but did a Ford 427 and 390 instead, almost the same!

 

[chipper1]

I owe a little clarity here. I always say, "It is only work if you do not enjoy what you are doing." A lot of things can happen to diminish the enjoyment and then it becomes work. If I am in the woods, odds are I am cutting, piddling, or playing. I thrive on accomplishment. Visitors often comment on how much work there is in firewood. To me most of it is not work but splitting wood in 100* heat index does indeed suck, ain't no fun, work. LOL

Onward. I have never owned a winch and am intrigued with the clever way you hook to twist and manipulate the fall or drag, never thought of it that way. The winch appears to be your central tool. Fact is I almost never pull BUT a couple years ago I bought a tractor with ultra low granny gears and a slow, controlled pull is now available. I have a new tool and it didn't cost me a dime, just knowledge. LOL

I agree, I love good ole physical labor.
The winch is a new tool to me so I'm trying to use it as much as possible and learn what I can. I've used many of the same tricks for felling, construction, and mechanical projects through the yrs.
Not sure if you noticed, I used the same technique on the cherry, you can see in those pictures how the choker is around the other side of the tree to twist it.
You can do the same thing when skidding with anything and it can really help.
Tow truck drivers use the same types of pulling tricks to shift a car around almost every time they hook to something, many just do it without thinking, I'm tring to share some of this knowledge before it's second nature in this application of it.

Nothing is free, my secretary was sending a bill as soon as you posted a response to my post, you should receive it soon, prompt payment would be appreciated

 

[chipper1]

I'll come over with my Ported 460/046-D, and we'll put it up against anything he's got!

Be careful Mike, you don't know what I have behind the counter, under the shelf, or hidden in the way back. I've been known to make some crazy purchases just to prove a point ,
That being said, that's gotta be a screamer. Sold my little 460 last yr and replaced it with the 441c-m, it does great and much better anti-vibe. It is however a bit heavier, but always in tune so closer in power to a stock untuned 460(you of all people know how quickly you can lose 10% because of a bad tune), and I would think there are times where it has more power because of the m-tronic set up, but certainly not more than a ported and tuned one

 

[chipper1]

Reminds me of the old argument comparing the Chevy 409 to the Ford 406. They said the 409 was strong in the 1/4 mi, but if you were in a 500 mi race, you better have the Ford under your hood. So, my solution was just build the 406! Never did have one of them, but did a Ford 427 and 390 instead, almost the same!

Silly boy, why would you bring a car to a bike race lol.
That is a place i would just grab something up from downstairs, if the wife said ok. It's amazing what a 750cc GSXR does to "almost" any street car around.
Funny you liked the 406. The last engine I built I did was a stock internals(except pistons) 406 Chevy. It was a long rod 400, which is a 400 small block with a 400 crank and 350 rods (5.7" rods).
I was always a Pontiac and Chevy guy, but I'm not opposed to a ford(small f lol), and like them even better with a chevy engine in them
If I had to choose one of the older ones it would be a 428cj in a 69 fastback or a cobra.
The new stangs kick tail too if we were talking new.
Here in Michigan we like our American rides. Although if I was to build anything these days it would be a Japanese flavor in the 2.5 liter range with a turbo, I'm sure you know what that is. It's awesome what an all wheel drive does out of the hole, and what fun to drift.
There's no feeling like having your eyeballs sucked into your head and you vision blurred because of it

 

[Oldman47]

that's interesting... thanks for posting it up. I bet it is something to see a big pot of sap cooking down... do you use hydrometers to test the viscosity, or just wing it? I may never look a the bottle of my Aunt Jemima ' genuine ' maple syrup in refer the same again... lol. I don't care for thick pancakes or flapjacks... but thin - yes! with butter and syrup... yum. runs close 2nd to my fav... homemade waffles, butter and syrup. my mom used to make them often as kids...

Actually, when I have watched, they were using a series of 3 pans and moving the sap/syrup from pan to pan as it got closer to being finished. When I was watching and asking how it was done the answer about finishing was to go out that day and boil some water to determine the boiling point for that day's weather conditions (high or low pressure conditions, elevation, etc.) The end point was a certain number of degrees above that value and a very accurate thermometer was being used. Sugar, like any impurity, adds to the boiling point of water, so a very accurate end point could be determined by temperature, more accurate than a hygrometer. It would have been sacrilege to just assume 212ºF as the boiling point in his opinion.