16 Feb Mon 2009
Assemblage
The new evaporator is here! Erica went up to New Hampshire Friday evening--returning at midnight--to pick up the supplies.
With the help of my father, who put in some solid work while keeping strong hold of his advisory role, we assembled the evaporator. It is supposed to use 40 firebricks. We managed to use 48 of them. We got it all together, ready to try out, and.....The doors did not fit! Someone at the old evaporator makin' factory drilled the holes in the front doors incorrectly. The doors DO fit upside down and backwards...Hmm...too much Moosehead up there in the Canadian factory, perchance.
The good news is that Chris, one of the guys at The Maple Guys, where we bought the unit, is sending a new set of doors to us today. We should be up and running tomorrow making our first batch.
We'll be posting photos of the tapping of the trees later on today...