1 ½” of snow overnight. Changed to sleet at by 7:00 AM, then changed to rain by 9:00 AM. Rain ended by Noon, but stayed cloudy. Temperature in mid-30s. We didn’t go into the woods because of the cold, wet weather. We’ll bottle tomorrow when the weather is nicer.
Moved all the bottled syrup into the basement. When we brought the syrup in from the woods, we stacked it in the 1st floor living room.
Into the woods by 8:00 AM to bottle. Finished bottling another milk can by 12:00 PM. 19 qt and 13 pts. Projecting 70-72 gallons for the season. We have to bottle at least two more times.
Mid-20s overnight. The day started sunny. Turned cloudy in the afternoon. Light snow tonight again.
Back to the farmhouse by 12:30 PM.
Took advantage of the sunny day to get all the taps out and buckets down. The buckets are still by the trees. They have to dry out before we collect them.
Also repaired a leak on the propane tank regulator. It’s had a faint propane odor for several years now. Saturday while we finished cooking, we identified the leak using a dish soap/water mix. Small bubbles arose on a bushing connected to the regulator where the thread tape wasn’t covering all the threads. Removed the bushing to redo the thread tape.
Rain turned to snow overnight. About ½”. Sunny and 40 today but felt colder. That’s typical for March. At the beginning of March, 40 feels warm. By the end of March, 40 feels cold.
Into the woods by 9:00 AM. Back to the farmhouse by 3:00 PM.
Drizzle and rain all day with a cold wind. This was an ice storm in Northern Wisconsin. No woods work. A day of rest. We did start moving bottled syrup to the basement.
Next week is cleanup mode.
Into the woods by 8:00 AM to empty the evaporator and finishing cooking. We did well on the end of day cook yesterday. About 17 gallons of sap left to cook down.
Cleaned the syrup pan. Emptied all the sap. Took off and rinsed the large flue pan. Replaced it on the evaporator then filled it with water. Added cleaning solution when the water was boiling. Started the fire by 11:00 AM to cook down the remaining 17 gallons.
It takes time to cook down the remaining sap because only the front syrup pan is used and we add 2-3 gallons of sap at a time instead of trickling the sap into the evaporator. The syrup gets darker because it’s on the fire longer and under goes temperature swings from boiling at 212 back down to 80-100 when we add sap, then re-heated to boiling.
Took the syrup off at 3:40 PM when it was 53 Brix.
We switched from the Baume scale to the Brix scale this season. The hydrometer has both scales. The red line indicating syrup is done is in the same place on both scales. It’s just different units. Think of a ruler that has inches on one side and centimeters on the other. 6 inches is 15 centimeters. The absolute distance between points is the same; it’s just a different scale.
Brix is widely used in the maple industry. The Baume scale was traditionally used in the Mid-West while other areas of maple belt used Brix. Both scales measure dissolved solids in a liquid, but Brix scale is based on dissolved sugar in a liquid. Baume is based on the measure of dissolved salt in a liquid. Baume can measure dissolved sugar, but the scale is based on dissolved salt. Since we are interested in sugar, Brix is a better scale to use. We measure sap sweetness in Brix and use Brix for R/O measurements. Now we have a consistent scale for all measurements.
Practically, the switch means we now take syrup off the evaporator at 53 Brix instead of 29 Baume. And hot syrup is finished at 59 Brix instead of 32 Baume. Cold test syrup should be 66-67 Brix.
Upper 30s with drizzle most of the day. Rain/sleet/snow moves in overnight.
Back to the farmhouse by 4:15 PM.
We don’t have to be in the woods by 5:30 AM tomorrow. There’s no new sap coming. Our work pace is under our control, not Mother Nature. Its been a long, busy two weeks in the woods.
Finished cooking the last 225 gallons of sap by 4:30 PM. Boiled at 22 gallons/hour again. We stayed an hour after the tank was empty to reduce the amount of sap in the evaporator so the last cook will be easier. Hoping for under 20 gallons to finish.
It gets boring just hauling wood, firing, and watching the sap boil.
Into the woods by 5:30 AM. Back to the farmhouse by 5:30 PM.
The day cooking.
6:45 AM 22 ¼”
7:20 AM batch
8:00 AM 19 ¼”
9:00 AM 16 ¾”
10:00 AM 14 ½”
10:55 AM batch
11:00 AM 12 ¼”
12:00 PM 10 ½”
1:00 PM 8 ¼”
2:00 PM 6 ¼”
3:00 PM 4 ¼”
4:00 PM 2”
4:15 PM 1 ½”
4:30 PM ¾”
4:45 PM done
Into the woods by 5:30 AM to cook. Spent the day bringing in wood and chucking it into the fire under the evaporator. After cleaning the finishing pan, had the evaporator going by 6:10 AM. Loaded up the firebox with wood to get a boiling going faster. Started drawing from the tank by 6:40 AM. By 6:10 PM had 250 gallons cooked. That’s 22 gallons/hour.
Pulled 9 spouts to symbolize ending the season.
Back to the farmhouse by 6:15 PM.
The day cooking.
6:40 AM 22 ¼”
7:00 AM 21 ¾”
8:00 AM 20”
8:20 AM batch
9:00 AM 17 ¾”
10:00 AM 16 ½”
11:00 AM 14 ¾”
12:00 PM 13 1/2”
12:20 PM batch
1:00 PM 12”
2:00 PM 9 ¾”
3:00 PM 7 ½”
4:00 PM 5 ¾”
4:00 PM batch
5:00 PM 3 ¾”
5:45 PM 2”
6:00 PM 1”
6:10 PM done
Collected 475 gallons. Many full buckets. Also finding dry taps. Three taps on a tree. Two dry, one full bucket. Taps have been out for a month so this is expected.
With the R/O down, we are winding down the season even though weather is favorable for more sap over the next week. We have two 12-14 hour days of cooking ahead now. We’ve become dependent of the R/O so long hours cooking over days isn’t appealing. With the volume of sap we’ve collected, we should have an average season.
Mid-20s overnight. Sunny and mid-40s today. That’s sap weather.
Into the woods by 6:00 AM to bottle another milk can. Only one full now. It takes 4 hours from start to finish. Back to the farmhouse by 10:30 AM. It was nice to have a few hours to relax. Back into the woods by 1:30 PM to prepare for collecting. Started collecting by 2:15 PM. Done by 5:45 PM. Back to the farmhouse by 6:00 PM.
Into the woods early tomorrow to cook. Hopefully, done with cooking by Friday evening.
Into the woods by 5:30 AM to cook. Without the R/O cooking is straight forward: keep adding wood to the evaporator. There’s no checking on the R/O pumps, adjusting settings, use the transfer pump, managing water for R/O washing. Just bring in wood for firing. We did fix some of the sap-saks with new zip ties or replace spouts.
Considered collecting. There was sap from yesterday. But at Noon spouts were wet but not dripping much. We decided to wait until tomorrow to collect. Hope that works out.
With collecting off the schedule, we turned to bottling. There would be enough time after finishing cooking to bottle a milk can. Cooking should be done by 2:30 or 3:00 PM. We started the finishing pan by 1:30 PM so the syrup could finish about the time cooking finished. It was 4:30 PM before we were ready to bottle. Finish bottling by 5:15 PM. It felt good to bottle another milk can. Back to the farmhouse by 5:30 PM.
Mid-20s overnight. It took until 10:30 AM to start melting. But the crowns remained cool because yesterday’s snow on the limbs wasn’t melting and trees weren’t dripping. Sunny and mid-30s today. Tonight is mid-20s again, but mid-40s tomorrow.
The day cooking
7:00 AM 15”
8:00 AM 12 ½”
9:00 AM 11”
9:00 AM batch
10:00 AM 9 ¼”
11:00 AM 7 ¼”
12:00 PM 5 ½”
12:50 PM batch
1:00 PM 3 ½”
2:00 PM 2 ½”
3:00 PM done
Identified the root cause of the R/O performance problems. While the older membrane may have contributed, there is a cracked fitting on the bottom of the pressure vessel. The membrane rests on this fitting so the pump can inject sap into the membrane for concentrating.
After inserting the new membrane, the high pressure pump wouldn’t even start. Swapped back the old membrane. Same result: the high pressure pump wouldn’t start. Started troubleshooting. Since the pumps tried to start, it pointed to the pressure vessel. The broken fitting was reveled when we removed the pressure vessel.
The two screws that fasten the fitting are directly across from each other. This creates a hinge across the fitting. As the high pressure pump engages, this fitting will move up and down slightly but parts not screwed down, will move on the hinge. It’s isn’t much movement, but over time, the plastic on the hinge weakens and eventually, it failed.
This didn’t just happen. Performance felt like it was declining over several years.
The R/O is down until we get a replacement part. If it arrives by Wednesday, we’ll continue with the season. Otherwise, we might end the season. It’s hard cooking without the R/O. With the sap we’ve collected, we are within 2 gallons of an average season.
Into the woods by 6:00 AM. Took four hours to get ready. We collected the taps left over from yesterday: 40 gallons. Pumped sap from the collecting tank to the storage tank, then worked on swapping out membranes and running a 100 gallons rinse on the new membrane. When the high pressure pump wouldn’t engage, we suspected a problem with the new membrane, so we swapped back to the old membrane. We it still wouldn’t engage, we switched to cooking without the R/O.
We cooked until 4:00 PM. For the first time in many years, we didn’t finish. There is close to 200 gallons left to cook tomorrow.
3” of snow overnight and into this morning. Temperature upper 20s to lower 30s. This afternoon, temperature rose to mid-30s. There will be sap tomorrow.
Back to the farmhouse by 4:15 PM.
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