Warmth

In a previous post called "Melting Time" I posted pictures of tapping trees for sap. These pictures are of the sap being cooked and turned into syrup. I chose these for warmth because as you will see in a picture below, in order to turn the sap to syrup the temperature is in the 215 to 220 degree range. Needless to say it if vary warm. Not to mention the smell the sap gives off while turning to syrup, which makes you feel warm inside. :)

The photo above is when the sap is starting to boil and steam. The picture below is only 10 minutes later when the sap was at a full boil and starting to turn to syrup. 

This is the wood eating beast that cooks the sap. Its called an evaporator, and this one happens to be one of the biggest in our area. It has to be seeing as we have close to 3, 500 taps out and another 3,000 or so to go. 

This little device is used to keep track of the temperature, and control the valve which allows syrup to come out. When the top number matches and goes above the bottom number, this gadget lets the valve open and draws syrup off. Compared to others forms of evaporators where they must cook so many gallons at a time, the one we are using is continuously fed. So syrup is continuously drawn off. Yes those numbers are really how hot the sap gets (and that was low because it was the first fire up). 

And finally I had to take a picture of the burning wood we were using to fire the evaporator. I like watching fire and love to see the wood get that look that you see in the photo. This is my typical warmth picture.