Category: 2012: Season 95 Page 3 of 4

Down to about 26 last night.  By 8:00 AM it was already 36 and warming.   It reached the highs 40s this afternoon.  It was sunny most of the day.   Much snow melted.  

The trees were slow to wake up.  We checked around 11:30 AM.  The sap was dripping slowly.  That -3 temperature the other night seems to have caused the trees to go semi-dormant.  By late in the day they were responding.  They will likely drip all night as its forecast to remain above freezing.     Our plan is to collect tomorrow.   It will be even warmer tomorrow with rain possible late in the day.

We were to the printer this afternoon to order labels.   The shipping company called to let us know our bottles will arrive tomorrow.  And the R/O manufacturer called to confirm the R/O is now on its way to Wisconsin.

Very cold overnight.  Down to -3.   Sunny today but only reached about 32.  Tomorrow and Wednesday warmer weather is forecast with highs maybe reaching 50.   Changing weather is normal in March, but these swings seem more extreme than normal.  Everything is still snow covered and pretty.  But with much warmer weather melting will commence and the brown mud will return.   Later in the week is settles down to 40s and 20s.   We are expecting sap.

Into the wood around Noon to bottle.  Ice in the evaporator.   The milk cans with water have ice.   Even the battery powered clock stopped for 7 ½ hours do to the cold.  Got the syrup in the finishing pan and started the burner.   In the bottling kitchen the stove did not light.  Must be ice somewhere in the lines.  But the burners on the bottling pan worked so we could continue.  Warmed water on the bottling pan.   We bottled 24 quarts and 1 pint. 

We have 19 ½ gallons total for season so far.   Our average is 60 gallons.   So we are about 1/3 the way there.    We are hoping to make more than 60 gallons, but our average over the years is 60 gallons which accounts for both the good seasons and the poor seasons.

Down to the teens last night.  Never got above freezing.  With the recent snow, this is what early March in Wisconsin is normally like.   Winter is starting to break.  The teens are a warm-up from the single digits or even below 0 from January and February.   March is a changeable month.  At the beginning of March 40 is warm.  By the end of March 40 is cold.    The warm winter this year upset all that and triggered the early maple season.   

Tonight is down to the single digits.  Tomorrow barley breaks freezing.    But the cold spell is short lived.  By Tuesday and Wednesday we warm to highs of 40s and should have freezing nights.   This should be good sap weather. 

No activity in the woods today.

Into the woods by 7:45 AM.  We got about 6” of snow overnight.  Everything looked pretty covered in snow.  Cooked all day.  Back to the house by  9:15 PM.    We bottled today as help came.   24 quarts and 1 pint.

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Our sugar house is corrugated metal. When the snow and ice from the snow storm falls off the tree branches and hit the metal roof it sounds like firecrackers going off.

We had snow flurries all day.  Maybe an inch of accumulation.  Tonight will be cold.  Down to 13.   Tomorrow it does not warm above freezing.  But next week is forecast to be good sap weather with freezing nights and sunny days.

We are getting a snow storm with 6”-10” of wet heavy snow.  Its 31 so its a fine line between snow and rain.   It is snow so it must be colder in the clouds.    At 1:30 PM the precipitation started.  It was light rain then.  By 2:30 PM it was snow.  By 3:00 PM the snow was sticking to the ground and accumulating.   Its forecast to snow hard until around Mid-Night then tapper off. 

Into the woods by 8:15 AM to cook.   Around Noon made a water run with the tractor.  Filled three milk cans with water.   Then tucked the tractor in for the snow storm.   Also pumped the collecting tank into the storage tank.    Worked all day on getting wood from the woodshed into the syrup building so we would not have to walk outside as much during the storm.   

By 4:00 PM it was snowing pretty good.    But we were snug and cozy in the syrup building.    We had everything battened down for the storm.  We had a supply of wood already in the building.   The steam from the evaporator keeps the building warm.  We just cooked away.  Took three batches off the evaporator and into the milk can.  One milk can is now full and we are starting a second.  We are hoping to bottle tomorrow if we can get help.  And we will need bottles soon.  We were waiting to ship the bottle order at the same time as the R/O.   But with the R/O delay we have to have the bottles shipped now.

Back at the house by 7:45 PM.   The big tank has about 6”.  The smaller tank is full.  Tomorrow night is forecast to go down to 15 so we want to cook until all tanks are empty tomorrow.

Cloudy all day.  It was down to maybe 30 overnight.  Not very cold.  Up to about 38.  Into the woods about 11:00 AM.  Checked buckets..  Definitely need to collect.  Buckets ranged from a one quart to 12 quarts of sap depending on the tree.   We planned to start collecting by 1:30 PM.

First we cleaned the evaporator syrup pan.  There was no heat under that pan now so its a good time to clean it.   If we don’t clean it after each boiling the nitre build up causes odd heat dispersal that makes the syrup pan boil over.   Cleaning it after each boil just makes life easier.

At 1:30 PM headed out collecting.  Solo.  It takes five to six hours to collect the woods solo.  Pacing is important so you don’t get tired out before finishing.  And you will finish in the dark. 

On the R/O.  The manufacturer called.   It did ship from the factory in Canada to the US.  The manufacturer’s US rep said he saw it.   Shipping is the next delay.    The earliest it would arrive is March 14 or 15.    This is exactly what we did not want: trying to setup new equipment in the middle, or even the end of the season.   This manufacturer really let us down.   Now we have to decide if we even attempt to set it up this season. 

Tomorrow and Saturday we will cook.  At some point during the next days we are forecast for 2”-3” of snow.

Awoke this morning to rain.  At one point over night there may have been snowflakes, but if you blinked you likely missed them.  In fairness, about 80 miles to the North they got 16”.  The warmer air dominated our weather while the colder air took over farther North.   It was cloudy all day with a high around 38.  Tonight we are getting a dusting of snow.  It won’t amount to much because we can see the quarter moon in the sky.

Into the woods by 8:15 AM.  It was a long day cooking.  Around 10:30 AM we prepared for finishing and bottling the three batches from yesterday.    That took until 1:00 PM.   We finished and bottled 23 quarts. 

Finishing and bottling diverted our focus from boiling on the evaporator.  The fires went down and we were not boiling as much per hour.  So it took longer to finish this evening.  We struggled to get good boils all afternoon.  Our tanks are empty.  The 400 gallons we collected is cooked through.  Got back to the house at 8:45 PM.  So 12 ½ hours today. 

Looks like we will collect tomorrow.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM.  It was cold overnight.  Down to the teens.  Sunrise was clear but by 8:00 AM it was cloudy already.   It did get up to 38.  A lot of puddles. 

Our major snow storm has turned into maybe 3”.  It seems it will be warm during the precipitation so it will be a wintry mix of snow/sleet/freezing rain/rain.  Its forecast to start in a few hours so we will know by morning.

The R/O drama continues.  We found out today that the R/O did not ship on February 15.  The manufacturer is now saying it is still being built.   Maybe next week.   Not getting a straight answer is so frustrating.  This manufacturer is harming their reputation.   Of course there is also the question of how they build something in a week that they couldn’t get built since October 2011.

200 gallons of the 400 gallons collected yesterday is cooked through.  We took three batches off the evaporator and into the milk can.  We were back in the house by 6:00 PM.  10 hours of cooking is completed.  10 hours remain for tomorrow.

t was cloudy until 1:00 PM.  It hovered around 33-34 most of the morning.  Then it cleared.  We needed the sun to help melt ice in the buckets.  We checked the buckets around 11:00 AM.  Many were full, but also had ice.  We were hoping it would melt enough to collect as we wanted to have empty buckets before the snow storm.   The sun did its magic.  Once about half the ice is thawed we can collect.  We dump  the ice  as its just water.  Sugar does not freeze.  The remaining sap is more concentrated.    Ice is nature’s reverse osmosis. 

We picked up 400 gallons of sap.  More than expected.  We can cook about 20 gallons an hour so we have 20 hours of boiling ahead of us.  Again the R/O machine would tremendously help us.  It would remove about 300 gallons of water before we ever stated boiling. 

It gets dark around 5:45 PM.  We were not done collecting yet.  But we recently picked up some strap on head lamps.  That worked really well.   We should have done it years ago.  We have tried car or truck headlights in past years, but they cast odd shadows so its still difficult to see well enough to get the bucket off, emptied and back on the hook.  The head lamp puts the light right where we need it and keeps our hands free to work.  We finished up by 6:45 and were back in the house by 7:00 PM.

Still forecast to get a major snow storm starting tomorrow evening.  Amounts are still changing.  It will depend on where the cold and warm air masses meet.  We are currently in the 5” to 8” zone.  50 miles North its predicted at 9” to 15”.   And there will be wind to blow around the snow.   

We will most likely cook through the storm.  We have done it before.  It can be pretty snug and warm in the building while boiling.

Cloudy and windy today with high about 38.  Not so cold last night: 23.  Late in the day it cleared.  Snow is forecast for Tuesday; possibly heavy.  

Into the woods by 8:00 AM.  We had pipe problems again.  We drain the pipes or else they would freeze.   Liquid does not move uphill but we had an uphill section of pipe right by the value leading into the evaporator that did not drain.    The tapped sap froze the valve.  So we got out the small propane tank to thaw it.  Set us back about an hour.

We started boiling in earnest with the goal of emptying the storage tank.  The wonderful aroma of maple was soon all around us.  We could even detect it outside the building as the wind blew the stream  around. 

We got water with the tractor and milk cans.  We got all the finishing equipment and supplies: syrup tester;  filter press,  filter papers and filter aid, digital thermometer,  bottles.  While boiling we washed the finishing pan and bottling pan.  We were anticipating there would be syrup by the end of the day.

By 3:30 PM we had a batch of syrup ready on the evaporator.  We emptied the batch into the milk can.   It was small batch.  Typically we don’t bottle such a small batch.  We would leave it in the milk can and add additional batches to it.   But since this is the first syrup of the season its special.  We wanted to get it bottled so we could say we have syrup!

February 26th we have syrup.  This is very early.  Maple syrup is the first crop off the year and this year it came a little early.

With the storage tank empty and the first syrup bottled, we were done for the day by 5:00 PM.