Now with 600 trees how much sap do you gather and how or do you run hose from tree to tree and do you let people come and watch and also do you sell privately or commercially? I know a lot of questions but my uncle did a few trees in New Hampshire and we used to help but it was a long way from what he did as a hobby to 600 trees... let me see if memory serves me correctly it takes between 40 to 45 gallons of sap to equal one gallon of syrup. I remember when I was a lot younger I used to drive around and if ever I was to get thirsty I would take a pail off a tree and pour myself a cold glass of the sweet sap.

Like are you sure this is Vermont I don't see any of the Sap Buckets out and if there are not any Sap buckets it could be anywhere. Living in Both NH and Western Mass I used to love this time of year and visit all of the Maple Syrup Houses..... The rising vapor and the smell of wood burning under the copper vats full of sap and then eating sugar on snow .... boy there are times that I miss the North East ..
Great pictures thanks for the memories and I will be there this May but still to late for the boiling off of the sap.....

If in manual mode you are either changing f/stop or shutter speed to get even exposure if your at a fixed ISO. You can still have your Exposure Compensation set to -.7 But have adjusted your settings till the meter looks good, but when you take the shot you are -.7. Press the exposure compensation button, turn back dial until you have a 0.0 Fast way to check, press the info button back of camera, when the screen lights up, press your exposure compensation button, top right side behind the shutter button. In the top center of back screen, your exposure numbers will appear 0.0 if not adjust.