Out with the old and in with the new. We've taken the plunge. 10 years ago we started with a used evaporator, when we built our new sugar house in 2007 we bought a bigger but still used evaporator. Later this summer we will be bring home a brand new Lapierre Force 5 (do a youtube search and see what this rig can do). The Force 5 is an innovation in wood fired evaporators. A conventional wood fired evaporator needs fired (filled with wood) every 5-7 minutes. Do this for about 12 hours and you can barely muster the strength to close your eyelids and fall asleep. The Force 5 uses gasification technology to achieve 90%+ efficiency. What does this mean? 45-60 minute between firebox reloads. 40% decrease in wood consumption. A carbon neutral evaporation process, the wood burned gives off less carbon than if it were left to decay in the woods. Not to mention this evaporator looks like a stainless steel rocket ship, cool! After the exceptional production year we decided that it would be best to put as much back into the business as possible to help build infrastructure for the years ahead. We are building a business we hope our grandchildren will have the opportunity to participate in.
Friday, May 20, 2011
New Force 5
Out with the old and in with the new. We've taken the plunge. 10 years ago we started with a used evaporator, when we built our new sugar house in 2007 we bought a bigger but still used evaporator. Later this summer we will be bring home a brand new Lapierre Force 5 (do a youtube search and see what this rig can do). The Force 5 is an innovation in wood fired evaporators. A conventional wood fired evaporator needs fired (filled with wood) every 5-7 minutes. Do this for about 12 hours and you can barely muster the strength to close your eyelids and fall asleep. The Force 5 uses gasification technology to achieve 90%+ efficiency. What does this mean? 45-60 minute between firebox reloads. 40% decrease in wood consumption. A carbon neutral evaporation process, the wood burned gives off less carbon than if it were left to decay in the woods. Not to mention this evaporator looks like a stainless steel rocket ship, cool! After the exceptional production year we decided that it would be best to put as much back into the business as possible to help build infrastructure for the years ahead. We are building a business we hope our grandchildren will have the opportunity to participate in.
Friday, May 6, 2011
10th Anniversay Trip
June 2nd my wife and I will celebrate ten years of marriage. After 6 babies (one of whom is in heaven), countless loads of laundry, birthday parties, homework and all the rest that goes with raising a family we decided this anniversary was going to be special. I'm not sure how we decided on California but I think it had something to do with a few days of below zero temperatures and over a foot of snow this January. Wherever we were going it was going to be warm and sunny, we were not disappointed. To fund the trip we cashed in points on a credit card and saved for a few months. We shipped our older four children to my parents house (3 month old Helena made the trip with us) and headed for the Pittsburgh airport. We spent two days in San Fransisco and 2 days at Yosemite national park. The photo is of the three of us at the top of Yosemite Falls, it took 4 hours of steep climbing to get there but the view from the top was breath taking. Helena was the youngest to reach the summit that day! In the hustle and bustle of daily life you can lose track of one another and sometimes it takes leaving it all behind, if only for a few days, to just enjoy being with the one you love. Sitting together on the plane, resting along the trial on our way to the falls or watching the sunset over Yosemite Valley, are the moments I will remember most. Not so much because of where I was going or what I was watching but because of who I was doing it with. One thing is for sure I'm not waiting 10 more years to fall in love again.
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