Category: 2017: Season 100 Page 3 of 6

35 overnight.  44 and cloudy today.  Did melt.  The trees responded and started dripping.  Likely started  late yesterday and into the night because it did warm in the afternoon yesterday.

Into the woods at Noon to put a can of syrup on the finishing pan.  Checked buckets and found ½ full in quite a few.  Changed plans.  Postponed bottling and started collecting at 2:45 PM.  Back in the farmhouse by 5:15 PM.  415 gallons.  It started to rain about 4:00 PM.  Fortunately we finished collecting before the heavy rain started.  Now through Sunday rain is forecast.

22 overnight.  Cloudy and windy all day.  The thermometer said 40 but it felt much colder.  The ground didn’t really thaw.    Tonight and tomorrow rain is forecast.

Started the finishing pan by 9:30 AM.  Dumped in one milk can.  By 1:30 we finished.  31 quarts and 7 pints.

18 at 5:00 AM.  Everything frozen.  Ice on the evaporator.  Thankful we collected yesterday because today it would be ice in the buckets.  The valve on the tank was frozen.  Needed the heat gun to thaw.  Light snow flurries several times during the day.  Cloudy until 2:00 PM then the sun made an appearance and turned partly cloudy.

Into woods by 7:30 AM.  Done cooking by 2:30 PM.  Five batches in the milk can.  Back to the farmhouse by 3:15 PM.

We are entering a rainy pattern Friday, Saturday and Sunday.    We need 775 more gallons of sap to hit 75 gallons of syrup for the season.

3 ½ milk cans of syrup.  Tomorrow we will bottle.

Froze harder overnight; thicker ice on the puddles this morning.  Day started sunny.  Was warming nicely until 9:00 AM when the wind came up from the north.  Felt cold.   Trees started dripping but we were hoping for more.

Went out collecting at 3:00 PM.  Picked up 315 gallons.  No Brix reading yet.  We timed this collection well.  Yesterday would have been a lot of walking from tree to tree for little sap.  And tonight any sap in the buckets turns to ice.  We now have empty buckets. Turned colder while collecting.  A few snow flurries. Tomorrow we’ll cook.

Tonight gets cold, in the teens. Tomorrow mid 30s.   Put tank heaters in the tanks to keep the sap from freezing.

While pumping out the first tank of 225 gallons we noticed pump didn’t sound right and wasn’t moving sap as fast as expected.  It was getting air from somewhere.  Tightened the hose fittings on the pump several times.  Didn’t help.  Finally took washers off another garden hose to replace the washers.  One washer was worn out.  On the other connection a washer was doubled up.   The result was we didn’t get tight seals on the pump.     Because of bad washers on the pump hose we spend 45 minutes emptying the tank.  Should have taken about 15 minutes.

34 at 5:30 AM.  Maybe 30 overnight for a short period because there was some ice on the puddles.  We were hoping for colder temperatures.  Warmed to 52.  Partly cloudy but the sun did make an appearance between 10:00 AM and 1:30 PM.

Into the woods by 8:45 AM.  R/O started at 10:00 AM and finished by 12:20 PM.  200 gallons in 140 minutes means 1.4 gallons/minute.  84 gallons/hour.  The R/O is rated at 125 gallons/hour.  Have to keep working on the controls to get the gallons/hour higher.  Sap out at just over 5 °Bx.  Finished cooking by 2:30 PM.  3 batches in the milk can.  Back at the farmhouse by 3:15 PM.  Actual cooking time was 5 hours.

Checked buckets at 1:30 PM.  Buckets had 1-2 quarts.  We plan to collect tomorrow.

Tonight also around 30.  Little cooler tomorrow.

106 visitors today.  224 for both days.  We weren’t sure what to expect.  Very happy with the turn out.  It was fun to see the people that came out in sneakers or even penny loafers in one case.  Really, you’re  wearing regular street shoes in the wet, snowy, muddy woods.  Okay.  Enjoy.  Glad you’re here.  Visitors arrived a little slower this morning because people attended church first.  Bigger groups today.  And entire families and grandparents with grand kids.    That’s what a day visiting a sugar bush should be about.

Started the day with a family breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup.  It was controlled chaos but in a good way.  Then family photos in front of the original maple syrup building.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM to prepare the evaporator and R/O for the day.  By 10:00 AM visitors started arriving.

Froze overnight.  Ice on the puddles.  Partly cloudy most of the day, but did warm to 42 or 43.  Sun peeked out around 3:00 PM.   Went out collecting at 3:00 PM.  We had lot of help so sent them out to collect.  200 gallons.  1.8 °Bx

Our concern about the R/O was resolved today.  It worked as its supposed to work.  The soap wash yesterday helped.  The sap we collected yesterday was only 1.8 °Bx which helped too.  We took the concentrate to 6 °Bx.  Started the R/O by 10:00 AM.  It finished around 1:00 PM.  We were done cooking by 3:00 PM when we set out collecting.

By 5:00 PM we were back at the farmhouse.

It was around Christmas when we picked March 18 & 19 for the open house.  No way to predict the weather.  We got lucky and had sap to cook for both days.

It was a good two days.  Happy 100th.  Thanks for the memories.

118 visitors today for day one of the open house.  Visitors started arriving at 10:00 AM.  By 12:30 PM over 60.   We didn’t know what to expect for turnout.  We are happy with the number of visitors.    No one came after 3:30 but that was okay.  We had to go out collecting then.

Didn’t freeze overnight.  Trees dripped all night.  Not a lot but enough that we could collect.  Picked up 190 gallons.  1.8 Brix.  We have sap to cook for tomorrow’s open house now.

Today was cloudy all day.  A cold wind.  Up to 38.  A lot of snow melted and made it wet and muddy in the woods. Tonight should be mid to upper 20s.  Tomorrow is partly cloudy and warmer.

Trouble with the R/O today.  After reflecting on the problem we think we were pushing the concentrate to too high Brix.  The sap was already 3.4 degrees Brix because of ice we removed.  Coming out of the R/O it was at 9 degrees Brix.  Our R/O is rated for 7 degrees Brix and we usually go to about 5 degrees Brix.  Our membrane couldn’t handle 9 and the pressure when up to the maximum of 500 psi then shut off.  We ran a soap wash cycle and are hoping that helps.  We should have backed off the concentrate Brix.

Much warmer overnight: 30.  No wintery mix at 6:00 AM.  By 6:45 AM it started to snow.  Hard.  By 9:00 AM we had 2” of wet, heavy snow.  Snow changed to drizzle.   By 11:00 AM precipitation stopped.  Stayed  cloudy the rest of the day.  Sun was forecast.  Warmed to mid-30s.  The trees did start to drip and ice in the buckets started melting.

At Noon we headed into the woods to thaw out the evaporator. With a week of cold weather it was all ice.  We need to use a low fire to slowly melt the ice otherwise the lack of liquid will scorch the pans.

By 3:00 PM we started collecting.  Wanted sap for the open house tomorrow.  We knew there was sap in the buckets, but there was also lots of ice.   Usually we dump ice but with such big blocks we saved it in the buckets after pouring out the liquid that had already melted from the ice.  Picked up 210 gallons.  Te sap was 3.4 Brix.  Ice is natures R/O.

Tomorrow is warmer: 40s, but the forecast changed to cloudy.  Sun would have been nicer.   Tomorrow is day one of the open house for season 100.

8 overnight again.  Sunny and 38 during the day.  Trees started dripping late.  When its so cold it takes a long time to warm.  We’re hopeful for sap Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  We warm into the 40s with freezing nights.  Although tonight is forecast for a wintery mix.

The pastor was out at 11:00 AM for a blessing of  the maples.  Maple syrup is the first crop of the season.  Giving thanks for it is appropriate.

12 overnight.  Sunny all day.  Started to warm this afternoon.  Hit 31/32.  A little melt.  Even some liquid in the buckets, but trees not dripping.  Where the snow was thin from plowing the sun is making the ground bare again.

Tomorrow is forecast for upper 30s.  We need that to wake up the trees.  We are hoping for sap this weekend for the 100th season open house.

The evaporator is all frozen up too.  We can build a fire under it but we have to thaw is slowly.  Its ice, not liquid on the bottom.  The pan can scorch if the fire is too high and doesn’t melt the ice fast enough.