Here is a short run down on how I got started in syrup making. I have been playing with old engines and tractors for about 7 years now and making as many shows as possible. About 5 years ago, while a friend and I was checking out a lead on a hit and miss engine, in Newton, Co., Texas, and I was able to get a Columbus #12, the one I operate with James Nash's mule Frank". I am also into genealogy and found out that my East Texas ancestors were syrup makers. About 6 years ago I also was able to purchase 30 acres just south of Kountze, Texas and started fixing the place up to have an operating farm to get an idea of how my ancestors lived. I can tell you now that they had a hard but rewarding life! Any way, I started accumulating farm equipment and things just started falling together. I joined Power of the Past and the David Bradley Club. (I just retired 3 years ago as a service technician for Sears, Roebuck & Co.) I met a couple from Silsbee, Texas, Fred and Linda Miller, and they had been making syrup for a number of years. They invited me to help them and they also gave me my start of cane. Then a couple of my gardening buddies want a start of cane and they have joined me in making syrup at my farm. We are all in the learning stages, this may last for quite a few years, but we have been making pretty good syrup the last few times. We are getting brave and making thicker syrup lately. Just last week we tried the thermometer method at 226º F. and that turned out very good. We were also trying the foam method but chickened out at the 226º F. temp and did not get to see the foam fall completely. The next time I'm going for total drop or 228º F.

 As for as the equipment in the photos, it is mine. I have a #12 Columbus mule mill that Frank operates. That's the mule not the man. The mill with the 4 ft. flat belt pulley is a #11 Columbus that was factory equipped the way you see it in the pictures. It is a real crowd pleaser and I like using it. (Just got it out of Buna, Texas this last year.) The other mill, on the trailer, is a #13 Columbus that I got from a widow in Beaumont, Texas. Her husband had converted it with an angle drive and Vbelt pulleys. I have an 80 gal. and a 40 gal. Chattanooga Plow Co. dish and a homemade 75 gal. stainless steel vat fired with propane. We use the stainless vat the most because it seems to make the best syrup and we can control the heat easier. It does cost a lot for the gas though!