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Yess, stripey cats are the best cats (I have a stripey cat).
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Feb 7, 2013 22:31
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That is badass. All I can picture is that tree cracking a giant boulder in half as it grew through it 
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Feb 8, 2013 01:28
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Chiming in to say how awesome this is. Keep it coming!
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Feb 8, 2013 04:56
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I am loving this thread since it is a nice change of pace from my desert life. It gets cold here but no snow and no frozen creeks.Tres Burritos posted:That is badass. All I can picture is that tree cracking a giant boulder in half as it grew through it It happens quite a lot. Here is my boulder cracking tree. It is still kind of small. 
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Feb 8, 2013 05:36
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- pics of stuff and things go here
apatite fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Feb 8, 2013 16:14
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So loving jealous of your property.
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Feb 8, 2013 16:34
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Looking forward to pics after this storm. Keep your roof clean and good luck!
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Feb 9, 2013 03:23
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This property was logged about twenty years ago, and so there are these old logging roads through the woods. I've been clearing them out and trimming trees back to open them up. Somehow that is a very rewarding thing to do, and there's something about them that I find very inviting. I went out walking Saturday with fresh snow on the ground. 
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Feb 12, 2013 02:03
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0-0-0-0
apatite fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Feb 12, 2013 16:34
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apatite posted:Time to start walking home. My kingdom for a decent pair of snowshoes or XC skis... Could you make your own? http://www.motherearthnews.com/do-it-yourself/how-to-make-snowshoes-zmaz81ndzraw.aspx
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Feb 13, 2013 01:25
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8-6-0-789
apatite fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Feb 13, 2013 20:08
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Not to mention that cross country skis are the sort of thing you can find at yard sales in the summer for like $5. I say that because I bought a few pairs this summer at yard sales, but haven't actually used them yet. Actuary X fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Feb 13, 2013 |
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Feb 13, 2013 21:24
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Actuary X posted:Not to mention that cross country skis are the sort of thing you can find at yard sales in the summer for like $5. I say that because I bought a few pairs this summer at yard sales, but haven't actually used them yet. Yeah! I got ours for free. It turns out one set is actually a pair of Fischer downhill skis from the 70s, but they are the fastest skis I've ever used, so going to keep pretending they are XC. apatite fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Feb 22, 2013 18:35
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This dog is old and happy. apatite fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Feb 16, 2016 |
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Feb 25, 2013 21:12
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Awesome update! I'm surprised housewrap isn't high up on your priority list - Is it difficult to come by cheaply? Tons of it is wasted during any decent sized construction project. I imagine it would do wonders to I wonder if you'd get more heat into your water if you used exhaust wrap around the pipe, enclosing the copper in with it?
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Feb 25, 2013 21:38
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467982
apatite fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Feb 25, 2013 21:59
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apatite posted:Installed these battery powered combination carbon monoxide/smoke detectors a while back and just found the pic. When we were in Lowes on Sunday getting some bolts for the solar rack I saw that all they had were the 110v version and it cost $50. Better just go to Amazon and pick them up for $20 like us unless you're in some crazy hurry. Next time you're at Lowes you can get them to price match Amazon. If it's the exact same item (model numbers) they will match it, including shipping (which for most items is free anyway). So you just have to pay tax on it but get the item right away. I saved like $20 on a water filter for my refrigerator and was pleasantly surprised they would do it.
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Feb 25, 2013 22:20
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excidium posted:Next time you're at Lowes you can get them to price match Amazon. If it's the exact same item (model numbers) they will match it, including shipping (which for most items is free anyway). So you just have to pay tax on it but get the item right away. I saved like $20 on a water filter for my refrigerator and was pleasantly surprised they would do it. Well that's a wonderful idea and we'll start abusing it ASAP. Thanks! The sap started running yesterday: Some taps didn't give much  But some were quite productive  Last night from 11pm-1am we walked around in the moonlight trying to plan out where tubing for a gravity feed system would be run next year if we can afford it and have a way to boil it all. Mostly just enjoyed the silence and moonlight reflecting on the snow 
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Feb 27, 2013 16:22
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I'm missing something. Why is the sap clear?
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Feb 27, 2013 16:28
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Jealous Cow posted:I'm missing something. Why is the sap clear? its mostly water, you have to boil and reduce it to make the brown syrup
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Feb 27, 2013 16:56
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Cartoons led me to believe that you got maple syrup straight from the tree. I've been misled!  cartoons!
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Feb 27, 2013 18:41
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Leperflesh posted:Cartoons led me to believe that you got maple syrup straight from the tree. I've been misled! I love to drink it right from the tree, but it sure isn't syrup  We often end up with more sap than we can boil due to terribly small scale inefficient boiling methods, and have resorted several times to drinking pretty much nothing but raw sap for a while (well and maybe some beer on my part...)When you boil it you are removing a large percentage of the volume by evaporating off the water and leaving just the sugary goodness. Some large scale places use a reverse Reverse Osmosis filter (not a typo) - they take what would normally be filtered out of the water by the RO and boil this down into syrup. The fresh water is the "waste" product in this scenario so I call it a reverse Reverse Osmosis in a failed attempt at humor. It takes about 40 gallons of this sweet sweet tree juice to make a gallon of syzzurp but it sure is worth it!
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Feb 27, 2013 20:17
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apatite posted:It takes about 40 gallons of this sweet sweet tree juice to make a gallon of syzzurp but it sure is worth it! When I was a kid my parents couldn't ever really spring for "real" syrup. The first time I had any I distinctly remember going  .Corn syrup with maple flavoring 4 lyfe. The 40:1 makes the prices more seem more reasonable.
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Feb 27, 2013 20:41
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I recently bought real maple syrup for the first time at Fresh Market. 30 years old and I've never had it before. It's pretty damned good. What does the raw sap taste like? How much thicker than water is it?
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Feb 27, 2013 20:45
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apatite posted:I love to drink it right from the tree, but it sure isn't syrup You seem pretty handy building stuff. Have you heard about rocket stoves? That might be a cheaper way to boil it than propane.
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Feb 27, 2013 22:04
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The opposite of reverse osmosis is, of course... osmosis. Consumer-grade (e.g., under-the-sink) RO filtration is horribly inefficient. You generally flush about five gallons of water down the drain for every gallon of purified water that you get from your tap. I have no idea if a regular osmosis process is more efficient, or what. It does have the (enormous!) advantage of not requiring you to boil your syrup, though; I'm sure boiling alters the flavor (you're basically cooking it) and a lot of the lighter chemicals in the syrup are going to escape along with the steam in a boiling process. Raw honey is better than cooked honey. I bet raw filtered maple syrup is better than boiled syrup.
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Feb 27, 2013 23:43
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If you have more sap than you can boil, make beer with it. Nothing more Appalachia than turning excess agriculture into alcohol of various kinds. I bet you could make some incredible liquer courtesy of some maple syrup wine and freeze-distillation, too. Also this is pretty bad-rear end; I don't think I could live out in the woods permanently, but short of being right on a river or lake this is pretty much my ideal of a "get the gently caress out of town" second home.
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Feb 28, 2013 03:37
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apatite posted:It takes about 40 gallons of this sweet sweet tree juice to make a gallon of syzzurp but it sure is worth it! The guy who does it on the side, near my place does a 50:1 ratio and just before he is done he throws a cover over the pot and ports smoke from the fire into it. You end up with a really thick, dark syrup (almost black) that has a hint of smokiness to it. AMAZING! Edit: The dark colour is a result of the ratio, not the smoke, which is only ported for a minute or less. Blistex fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Feb 28, 2013 |
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Feb 28, 2013 14:48
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Sorry for leaving you all hanging, been pretty busy lately.Tres Burritos posted:When I was a kid my parents couldn't ever really spring for "real" syrup. The first time I had any I distinctly remember going You blasphemer! Never speak of this corn syrup junk in my presence again  Jealous Cow posted:I recently bought real maple syrup for the first time at Fresh Market. 30 years old and I've never had it before. It's pretty damned good. Good for you! Not like this "Tres Burritos" person up here with their corn flavored junk water  The raw sap tastes like... Well it tastes like slightly sweet maple flavored water. Think some kind of subtle fruit flavored water but with maple flavor and a little sweet? Hard to describe maybe. Cpt.Wacky posted:You seem pretty handy building stuff. Have you heard about rocket stoves? That might be a cheaper way to boil it than propane. Thanks Actually recently I was able to catch a couple of rocket stoves in action and see one being built. They're pretty neat but we generally don't use propane to boil the sap, just good old firewood anyway except maybe for the final boil at the end to get it to the proper temp without too much fluctuation.Leperflesh posted:The opposite of reverse osmosis is, of course... osmosis. Isn't it still reverse osmosis? I mean they're using an RO filter they're just using the waste product instead of the filtered water? They still have to do a final boil on the syrup to get rid of the rest of the water and get it to the right temp to turn to syrup, it just takes way less time/energy to do it after the RO pulls out the water. Raw honey is fuckin delicious though, we're hoping to get some bees in the next couple of years (thanks a lot, bee keeping megathread!  )Kilersquirrel posted:If you have more sap than you can boil, make beer with it. Nothing more Appalachia than turning excess agriculture into alcohol of various kinds. I bet you could make some incredible liquer courtesy of some maple syrup wine and freeze-distillation, too. Now we're talking! Freeze distillation sounds pretty drat cool and we're going to try it. I've got some 5gal glass carboys from a beer making setup... Yeah it would be nice to be on a river or lake, but those properties historically cost a boatload more cash than some chunk of woods that most people look at and say "It's all mud, rocks, steep rear end hills and trees. Useless." It does seem lately though that people are fleeing NY due to property taxes and other stupid poo poo that's going on, and a large number of waterfront properties are coming onto the market all the time. Maybe now's your chance!  Blistex posted:The guy who does it on the side, near my place does a 50:1 ratio and just before he is done he throws a cover over the pot and ports smoke from the fire into it. You end up with a really thick, dark syrup (almost black) that has a hint of smokiness to it. AMAZING! I'm not sure I really get this. The ratio depends on the amount of sugar content in the sap. If his trees had more sugar he would need less sap to make the same amount of syrup, this is why i say it takes "about" 40gal for 1gal of syrup. Some trees have incredible sugar content and only require like 30gal. The smoked syrup sounds really cool and I'd like to give that a try. Here's some crappy cellphone snowstorm pics from last week. Big giant wet/heavy snowflakes that bent branches and small trees right over to the ground.            This tree is very special to us. One of our dogs is buried here. She was let out of the house we were living in when we were not around and got out into the road where she was hit by a car two years ago. She used to sit on this little knoll under the tree, where she had a perfect view of the entire landing. RIP awesome dog, we will miss you always.   Second PV panel is up, we are officially at 290 watts!  Spring is in the air and I'm letting my freak flag fly high 
apatite fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Mar 6, 2013 17:24
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apatite posted:Now we're talking! Freeze distillation sounds pretty drat cool and we're going to try it. I've got some 5gal glass carboys from a beer making setup... Make sure you use a yeast that will ferment as close to 15 percent or higher as you can get. I used a champagne yeast rated for 18% to finish off a mead batch that I freeze-distilled, it takes quite a while for it to build up to the high natural percentages though. You will likely have to add extra syrup or sap to keep it going, too. When you freeze it(probably next winter), do so inside of a flexible, foodsafe container - NOT your glass carboys. The ice is likely going to develop from the top down, which means the top will develop an ice layer, which expands and shatters the glass if you leave it inside your carboys. And of course, don't sell any if you make it. The ATF has kind of a blind eye towards hobbyist distillers, but the second they hear about somebody selling unlicensed booze they release the hounds. If you can get apples or fresh-pressed apple cider really cheap around there, you can ferment this spring, age all summer in kegs/barrels, and then freeze it in winter to make delicious, delicious applejack.
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Mar 6, 2013 21:29
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Kilersquirrel posted:Make sure you use a yeast that will ferment as close to 15 percent or higher as you can get. I used a champagne yeast rated for 18% to finish off a mead batch that I freeze-distilled, it takes quite a while for it to build up to the high natural percentages though. You will likely have to add extra syrup or sap to keep it going, too. Maple Liquor? AppleJack? I'd better pre-book a stay at Betty Ford and find all the local AA meetings in advance. Thanks for the awesome info!
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Mar 7, 2013 20:45
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Ok, time to walk home   
apatite fucked around with this message at 14:23 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Mar 11, 2013 15:12
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Nice pictures! After being warned in this very thread to wear chaps when chainsawing, I have no one to blame but myself that I ended up in the emergency room on Saturday with a cut on my leg. Only four stitches, so it could have been much, much worse. It was strictly due to my own carelessness, and yes I will go get chaps immediately. It is already healing up very nicely, and I should go get the stitches out on Friday. Just a few days of vegging on the couch are called for. Be careful out there!
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Mar 11, 2013 19:22
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Actuary X posted:Nice pictures! Sorry to hear, but glad you are on the mend. On that note, I should probably re-evaluate my usual motto of "Safety third!"
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Mar 11, 2013 21:10
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Actuary X posted:Nice pictures! Call Labonville, they're good people.
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Mar 12, 2013 02:59
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Apatite, where did you get the open fire grate setup? My wife and I are about to start planning a fire pit with the addition of our patio area and that looks exactly what we want to toss steaks on every now and then.
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Mar 14, 2013 18:22
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Fog Tripper posted:Apatite, where did you get the open fire grate setup? My wife and I are about to start planning a fire pit with the addition of our patio area and that looks exactly what we want to toss steaks on every now and then. No clue... It was a gift. It worked great for a couple years but really it's a wonky setup at best. It all threads together and stuff and it just wasn't high quality enough to stand up to several summers of at least twice weekly usage. Was hoping to improve on the design this spring, if I do some pics will get posted here and you can make one or farm it out to someone with a welder. On the other hand, if you won't be using it frequently/for lots of stuff, buying one of these would probably work out great. It certainly does a nice job!
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Mar 14, 2013 21:47
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apatite posted:No clue... It was a gift. It worked great for a couple years but really it's a wonky setup at best. It all threads together and stuff and it just wasn't high quality enough to stand up to several summers of at least twice weekly usage. Was hoping to improve on the design this spring, if I do some pics will get posted here and you can make one or farm it out to someone with a welder. I am quite happy, if not more than happy to build one on my own. I wouldn't know where to begin looking for the materials for it however.
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Mar 14, 2013 22:58
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This thread is awesome and you are awesome. I've been wanting to do something like this for a long time and after stumbling on this thread a couple weeks ago I was inspired to do some research and planning. I'm going to go full hippie and build and live in a yurt in the woods this summer. At least that's the plan. Maybe I will post a thread when I finally get off my rear end and get started. Hey OP are you in Lewis County by any chance? Just guessing based on the geography.
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Mar 16, 2013 14:27
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A ruffed grouse was walking ahead of me and got spooked, taking flight. Here are the tracks from feet and wing tips as it burst forth in explosive flight. Hard to see in the pics but so beautiful. A true wild snow angel gifted from this wonderful bird.  Happy Spring, everybody. After walking an hour and a half, had to turn around and back track for 40min after finding that a glove had fallen out of my pocket. apatite fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Mar 18, 2013 20:31
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