My barn construction progress update for 3/1/12

A quick photo update of my barn construction progress for 3/1/12. The first trusses are set.

Maple syrup and barn progress.

The weather has been very good for february here in Indiana. Because of that I have made some good progress on barn construction. With the help of my two sons, I have began erecting the roof framing. This excites me, to see the barn start to look like a barn.

We have took on another project this year. My eldest son William, my dad, and I will be collecting and boiling down sugar maple sap to try our hand at homemade maple syrup.

We have tapped 5 trees so far and will be tapping at least that many more soon. With the warm 45'F days and freezing nights, the sap is flowing pretty well.

For any of you that havn't heard of where maple syrup comes from, heres a simple web definition for you.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species such as the bigleaf maple. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before the winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in the spring. Maple trees can be tapped by boring holes into their trunks and collecting the exuded sap. The sap is processed by heating to evaporate much of the water, leaving the concentrated syrup."

I will post updates when we have collected enough maple sap to boil down into syrup. Ive been told it takes about 35 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. So thats gonna take a bit of time.

Barn construction update 1/10/12

Heres a photo of the barn build so far. Its dimensions are 24' x 24'. Till now I have had it pretty good this winter with the warm weather. But as of today winter and cold is back.