“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time."
― Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
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We've had a lot of rain this year...at some point I'll have to do the math. Between the rain, our heavy clay soils, and heavy fruits on the Loring Peach tree, it has literally fallen over, pulling up the stump, two or three times this year. I'm not sure it will make it, but it is holding on so far, with some help from a few ratchet straps and T-posts.
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Certainly the heaviest load of peaches we've had, and they are delicious
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Primal Woods
Finally. Finally two things I'd have to say, 1) the first Kiln is complete, and 2) I pulled the trigger and got the help I need. Especially with the ramp-up in Sawmill Services work this year, 30%, there just hasn't been enough time in the day.
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Done and dusted, more or less. A couple of improvements yet to be made, but nothing that will impact function.
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Portable Sawmill Services Pretty light on milling this month, which is par for the course; August, perhaps due to the heat, is regularly a low month in terms of Sawmill Services revenue. Frankly, that was a godsend this year, as it allowed us to finally commission the Solar Kiln.
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A brief walk-around of the Kiln. Some "tweaks" remain to optimize its performance.
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We have learned quite a bit on this build, and the benefit of all those lessons will be incorporated in Solar Kiln #2. Further to that end we are collecting data on the performance of the Kiln using in the Wagner Smart Logger pictured last week. Having gotten my phone to work with this device with help from Jason at Wagner, I ordered a second logger yesterday; the second logger will be used to measure atmospheric temperature and relative humidity for comparison to conditions inside the Kiln.
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Temp F and Relative Humidity (RH) data since Kiln load on Aug 10
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This is an experiment of sorts, and I don't really know what to expect. It will be interesting to see how the Kiln performs; we're expecting 80's for the next 7 days, with good sun exposure, so I should know more by this time next week.
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Now that's a paddle!
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Pure Maple Syrup Another small improvement to the process for making the Blueberry Pure Maple Syrup; a 3 ft long stainless steel paddle will make it much easier to keep all of those blueberries in suspension!
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“I'm A BIG FAN of the Blueberry Pure Maple Syrup! Will be ordering more bottles in the future!!"
Gary W. after having shared the abundance with his grandchildren
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It's makes our day to receive this sort of feedback, and the early results are in; it's a WINNER!
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“First order. 19 days and 4 gallons of vanilla ice cream!"
Mike O. sent the above message with a picture of an empty bottle
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Over vanilla icecream is one of my favorite serving suggestions for all of our syrups, but apparently Mike has made the combination its own food group!
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Suffice it to say, I hope you will give it a try!
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