Maple Sugar Shack Tour 

Thank you so much for watching and the kind comment!

Thank you so much for watching! We've really enjoyed it.

Thanks for watching!

Thank you so much for watching - we really appreciate it. It's a great place to gather with friends and family!

Thank you! We saw the step down/up at a neighbors setup and they highly recommended it. It's been a nice back saving design!

Howdy! Thanks for watching. When did your 2023 season start? Hopefully things have turned around for you.

@@GardenHandsour last boil was last week. We tapped our trees the first week of January. Very unusual warm winter temps between boils which was a real challenge this year. But hey, that’s farming, right? Boil on!

Thank you, we enjoy it! We find the vacuum filter works well for our size set up. Thanks for watching.

Your grandma was a wise woman and what a great way to describe it! Hopefully by the time you've watched the ones posted we're ready for the 2022 season with new content!

@@GardenHands trying to find more pictures of Guy, Carl and Alice at the Sugar Bush. Will send along when I find them

Thanks Kris! Glad you enjoyed the video! Let us know if you have any questions! We'd be happy to answer.

Thanks - appreciate you checking it out. 2022 season is right around the corner! Hope we all have a good one!

Thanks for watching Julie! It really is a fascinating process. I love learning all the science behind it and learning something new every year.

Thanks Terry, it's worked really well for us so far!

Thanks! There are quite a few operations around us and we definitely asked a lot of questions to make sure we at least considered their best suggestions. My guess is we'll continue to tweak things every year, but that's part of the fun, right?!

Agree they're a great evaporator! We had the same draft issue and used bricks in the arch as well. We also put a damper in the stove which helped. Thanks for viewing and commenting!

Greetings and thank you for your kind words. It is fun to hear about everyone's operations, especially from other parts of the world. We hope you have a wonderful and productive 2022 season!

it is a wonderful productive hobby.

I'd highly recommend it! Since we started doing it, winters have gone by so much faster and we actually really look forward to Feb/Mar because it's so much fun walking around the woods! Thanks for watching!

Thank you so much - appreciate you visiting the channel!

Thank you...we're looking forward to spending the next couple weeks in there as well. Feel free to send us an email at GardenHandsWI@gmail.com if you're interested in syrup. Thanks!

Our steam hood does end about 2 feet from the peak of the roof, it does help get the steam out of the pan area in the days when it is high humidity. I hope that makes sense, however it does condensate inside the steam hood and drip back into the pan some, but there isn’t any steam in the shack, except in the cupola. Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, if you have anymore questions I’ll do my best to answer them and I can sure send more pictures if you need some, thanks and good luck on your project

I don't think we've run out of wood before and luckily dad REALLY enjoys splitting wood and lives very close by so we can send someone to pick up a load if needed. We have run out of sap before; when we were learning the ins and outs of when to stop firing. That caused a bit more panic and we now try to have a couple emergency buckets of sap around. Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching. We can do a video on that!

It's a poured cement foundation and we don't have any insulation. There are battens on the siding which helped keep out quite a bit of wind, but on cool days without a fire going it's cold. Good luck!

Thank you. Aprpeciate you watching! The design was a combination of pictures he saw online as well as visiting local sugar shacks and finding out what they liked and would do differently if they were building again. He knew the size of pan he had, that he wanted room for the small wood stove and counter space for canning/storage as well as storage for wood on either side of the evaporator. He was advised to make sure there was sufficient room to walk all around the pan because there's a lot of hustle and bustle going on during the season. I think the shack is 20x32 and there is a 6' or 8' porch as well. Let us know if you have any more questions - happy to answer!

Thanks Dave! It's about 20x32. Good luck with the building of yours!

@@GardenHands thanks so much for the info!!!

Does the 20X32 include the covered entrance where you walk into the building? I’m putting a 2X8 evaporator in my building and I was hoping 20X18 building would be big enough for some inside wood storage and for finishing.

@@pdcookieman1 No, those measurements did not include the porch. We have a 2x6 evaporator and we have about 6x6 on each side of evaporator for wood. For us a 20x18 would of been a tight fit. Tim would be happy to chat more with you if you'd like. Feel free to email us at gardenhandswi@gmail.com

@@GardenHands thanks again for the info!!!

Thank you so much for watching. We don't have an official material list, but we can work on one this week while watching sap boil!

Hi Randy, if you're interested in an estimate of the materials, can you send us an email at: GardenHandsWI@gmail.com? We'll find some time as the sap is boiling to come up with a rough idea of what was used. My dad first drafted the sugar shack plans on a napkin, so it wasn't a plan he found somewhere online. But he thinks he can get you a rough idea.

I’d be interested in a breakdown as well. Including how you positioned the posts and on what material. Might give me some ideas for mine. I’ll shoot you an email shortly.

We get most of our filters from Roth Sugar Bush. I believe they have an online store.

Thanks Jack - send us an email at GardenHandsWI@gmail.com and we can chat! Thanks

We were just talking about that the other day. We aren't in it to make money, but even with the big operations there are a lot of costs and labor for such a short season.

That's the great thing about making syrup, there are a TON of different ways to do it. You're right, you can make syrup using items you might already have. We did too, starting with just a couple trees, a turkey fryer and finishing on a stove. Unfortunately we didn't film any of it back then. We appreciate you watching and hope you'll stick around for the upcoming season.

@@GardenHands I sure will! A tip here, a trick there and it just becomes more fun.

Appreciate that Sam! I've made a note for this upcoming season that it might be helpful to talk about different ways we've done it in the past or ways we've seen others doing it. The maple syrup community is generally so helpful, which makes it really fun, no matter if you're making 1 pint a season or hundreds of gallons.

@F A Thank you for your comment. Our setup is most definitely for our own personal use. The recipients of the small amount we give away or have sold all know the background that this is from our family sugar shack and not a commercial operation. All bottles are sterilized and the sap/syrup is filtered over a half dozen times.

@F A I sent you an email after we checked on shipping prices. Just a warning, they are quite high!