Mon Bazou: How to Make Maple Syrup by Firewood Efficiently

Finished building Sugar Shack, at least 20-30 trees connected and you have run syrup for a week or two to get the hang of it

No connected maple trees on the clearing beside the dirt road/sugar shack where birches will be planted(Will be important later)

12 or more birch trees (less is doable though you should prune/plant them, then wait 2 weeks and take more clippings)

Jerry Can, Pruning Shears, Log Splitter

Enough empty barrels to last an entire weekend (daily barrel production x 3) 4-6 is a good start.

Preferably a Trailer for when production ramps up 😉

The main thing that slows down wood fired syrup production is having to move firewood far distances. By planting trees directly beside where they will be split, this issue can be eliminated.

Plant birch trees in the space between the dirt road and your sugar shack, then you can walk them the short distance to where you will place your splitter. Take cuttings from every birch on your property, move them here and plant them.
It takes two weeks for a fully grown tree to start producing cuttings. Every two weeks you can take cuttings, so make it a routine. Taking cuttings every two weeks from every birch should keep you gaining trees, until you nearly able to afford grid power 🙂

If moving cut logs from this area while running syrup, you can move 4-5 logs to the splitter before you should run in the sugar shack and check the temperature to keep it running efficiently.

in the picture above, you can see my splitter is right in between the sugar shack and where I plant the birches I burn. This further reduces the distance logs will be moved, as once they are split they are right beside where I will store them.

Pile logs directly at the end of the splitter, this way they arent in the way of the firewood that comes out, and the distance between them and the splitter is minimal

Park the splitter there with the fourwheeler or truck, then leave it there. if it starts moving to a spot that makes splitting awkward, you can use the truck’s hoist puller to move it back into its spot.

If you are splitting while running syrup, you can split 8-10 logs before you should run in and check the temperature to keep syrup running efficiently.

Many people seem to have problems with wood stored in the sugar shack catching fire and being wasted. Using the space behind the opened door as a storage area, this risk can be *nearly[/i} eliminated. *Just make sure you dont close the sugar shack door while the fire is lit, the pile can explode out of its space sometimes

The quickest and easiest way to pile wood here is to move it though the window or wall where your splitter is placed, and if placed well it will line up one side of the wood it outputs with the window, and you can stand between the pile and window and drop firewood behind the door.

Dont pile it too close to the table if you like to store empty barrels there 🙂

Two steps ahead of you! I store my empty barrels beside the tables in the sugar shack, and my full barrels along the front outside wall. You could keep empty barrels on the inside of the front wall instead and pile more firewood, but then it will take you more time to get to where the temperature gauge is as well as take more time to swap barrels under the reservoir.

I try to get as many barrels placed out as I can before I start running syrup as knocking over a barrel can be a major headache if you play with controller, as they take some time to get upright again.

Santa Goat was kind enough to add some nicely sized storage boxes on the fourwheeler, so now you no longer have to take the truck back to the house after eating all the poutines laying around in your truck….

Instead load up those nice fancy storage boxes with some homemade (or storebought) poutine and park it near the door of the shack (not in the way of wood production or barrel storage though 😉