Maple Syrup time

First you drill holes for the 'taps'.
Then you tap in the 'taps' with a rubber mallet.
Then you connect the hoses to the taps into a bucket with a lid.
There are over 1700 taps in the trees within a quarter mile.
This collecting station is filled from hoses from the trees farther up the hill. The blue hose then can reach the truck on the road to transfer all the collected sap.
The machine above washes the buckets used to collect the sap out in the woods.
The machine below removes over half the water of the raw sap from the trees before it enters the 'cooker machine'.
The blast furnace is like the end of the space shuttle taking off.
The pan was removed for this picture.
Who needs a facial - just stand in here for a bit.
The first sweet syrup of the season put through the new machine.
What took 27 hours over a wood fire last year ~ took just over 1 hour this year.