I have sand about 8-14″ below the surface in the woods around my sugarhouse. When I got to the sugarhouse to pack more syrup today I noticed 2 trees that had taken a significant lean and not in a good direction. One such tree is a large sugar maple about 30″ diameter at breast height (DBH). If it uproots and falls it will likely crush 2 SS sap tanks, my vacuum pump and wipe out one corner of the sugarhouse. That corner has my tankless water heater, a micro wave, a $4000 solar power inverter, a battery bank, main solar disconnect and my finisher. On that end of the sugarhouse on the outside is also an elevated platform on which sets my head tank (that feeds the evaporator), None of which I want damaged. I then, using my tractor, moved everything (except the sugarhouse and 2 SS sap tanks). In the morning my brother is bringing his large JCB skid steer on tracks to move the two sap tanks. My tractor can only lift about 1100 lbs, the tanks weigh about 1500-2000 lbs each. The head tank is lite enough, I can move that, my brother’s skid steer lifts about 4000 lbs. Once that’s all moved I’ll cut the tree so I can direct it away from the sugarhouse.
Then my second leaner tree, is leaning towards it may land on my 28′ shop, my wood splitter and my sawmill. I’ll move the splitter and the sawmill. That tree is a hemlock about 14″ DBH, I’ll then cut that tree down too. It will be a good log to saw up for lumber and the big sugar maple will make good firewood. While My evaporator is being converted to oil fired, I still heat my home using wood. In addition to those two trees, I also had to winch a 12″ DBH beech that blew down, broke off about 5′ up, not uprooted, that will also make good firewood. After both trees are down, the tanks and vacuum pump can be replaced. I’m just glad I noticed the trees leaning, it would have been a total catastrophy had they fallen, especially the maple.
Once I get those trees down, drag the hemlock out of the way and buck it into logs I’ll be ready to resume processing and packing syrup. Those who are awaiting orders to be shipped will be postponed up to a week, the one customer for very dark will still need to wait longer to see if I get any very dark this year.