So, I have to admit I was a little sore yesterday. There was a lot of crouching and bending over the arch to insert and take away bricks and I sure felt some stiffness in the morning and the fact that the weather was still miserable out didn’t help motivate me. The temperature was a mild 40F, but still felt cool and damp with a heavy fog and was just an overall dreary day.
After I completed my Sunday chores it was time to complicate the install of the step in the back of the arch a little bit. Essentially, I built a raised platform on top of the arch board that was lining the bottom of the evaporator. It may have been easier just to stack bricks to fill the space but that would be too easy.
Once I more or less built the perimeter frame and leading edge I was ready to install a layer of arch board on top of the frame work of bricks. I had some extra arch board and needed the extra 1” of height, so in it went.
The finish line is nearing! Only six more bricks to install and because I like symmetry I needed to cut each one to length. I could have just put three full size bricks on the step and only cut the other three to length but than the design would not be balanced! After all, what is three more cuts and what would I do if a visually unbalanced brick layout some how screwed up this years syrup making! To be safe I chose symmetry and a few more cuts.
As I placed the last brick, I was not quite finished. I still needed to completely unbrick the arch so I could move it to the yard. At first I thought I would be able to only take some of the bricks out, but then I tried to move this pig fully loaded and she was not going anywhere! I guess 56 bricks is a significant amount of weight when you put into a big metal box and try to move it all at once!
It took all of my inner strength not to fit these bricks super tight for no gaps, but from what I read I need to allow some space between the bricks so I can cement them in at a later date. Now to take it all apart move it to the yard and level it up.
Hopefully six weeks from now, when I go to disassemble the arch for summer storage this blog will help me remember how everything goes back together!
Leveling her up before I re-brick her…
Not too shabby. I probably should have used metal washers to shim her up, but all I had on hand was wood shims. Next year perhaps. With the syrup pan level, I brought the pan back into the house and started re-bricking the arch. I covered the arch up and I am ready to start thinking about the stack next.
Pingback: Sugaring 2013 – Test Boil, Part 1 « Little Creek Maple Farm