Bob Sheets and his family make maple syrup every year at their Green Bank home.
Sheets said his pan was built in the 1940s. It's elevated slightly in the back so the denser maple syrup collects at the bottom end of the pan where it can be drained.
Sheets uses a standard cordless drill to bore about an inch-and-a-half or two inches into the tree at a slight angle. He said he always taps the southern facing side of the tree because it warms up from the sun first.
Then a spile is tapped into the drilled hole using a hammer.
And a pail is hung to collect the maple water run-off.
Sheets measures the temperature of the boiling maple water inside his sugar shack. He said the maple water boils at around 219 degrees, about seven degrees higher than water.
Son-in-law Stuart Fanning said this is his first year making maple syrup, but he appreciated learning the old-time way of doing it.
At the Sheets' maple syrup operation, family, friends and neighbors all lend a hand. Lyndsee Gay, Jed Sheets and Bob Sheets collect buckets of maple water.
Sheets said the hobby is expensive — if you make it that way. Most of his equipment and gear are hand-me-downs, homemade or salvaged.