Down to 5 overnight. Sunny, but cold all day: 23-24. Hoped on the H to clean up the snow from the yard. We’re clearing a lot of space in the yard for parking this weekend. Went through the woods too trying to level out the ruts by packing in snow. That will take more work.
The new hand pump for the filter press arrived.
Wednesday we start to warm. 30s-40s by Thursday and Friday. Expecting sap. The timing would be terrific for the open house.
24 hours ago the snow was gone. The ground bare and brown. Now we have 6”-8” of snow covering everything. The wind blows the snow around too. Second time since mid-February the snow melted then returned. Because of the cold ice is reforming on the river too.
The trees must be confused about what’s going on: move sap or don’t move sap. Right now they are not moving sap.
The new heater kept the R/O room at 60. We’re gaining confidence in it.
Ordered a replacement hand pump for the filter press.
By Wednesday we start to warm. Thursday and Friday we see high 30s. And the weekend is looking promising. We have the open house this weekend so having sap to cook would make it nicer for visitors.
10 overnight. Sunny, but cold today. Mid 20s. Our new heater kept the R/O room at 55-60 overnight.
Put a milk can of syrup into the finishing pan at 10:00 AM. It was ready by 12:30 PM. The filter press hand pump cracked and starting leaking while filtering the syrup. Using a cup we were able to catch the syrup. We got half the batch through the pump before giving up. The unfiltered syrup went back into the milk can. We’ll add more syrup to it and finish it again when we have more sap. Contacting our equipment supplier about getting a new food grade hand pump. The filter press is in its 15th season of use. The hand pump is plastic and after so many cycles of heating and cooling it just gave out.
Tried to level out the ruts in our road to the syrup building. No luck. The ground was wet and muddy before the cold weather set in and now the ruts from the tractor are frozen and hard as concrete. With the upcoming open house March 18 & 19 we wanted to smooth out the road to make it easier for visitors to walk in. Our next option is packing snow over it to level it. We don’t have snow now but we will within 24 hours. Forecast is 4”-7”. We’re in the lake effect band.
Bottled 19 quarts.
8 at 5:00 AM this morning. Sunny, up to 23 but still windy. Wind chill below 0 this morning.
Into the woods at 11:00 AM to get a milk can of syrup on the finishing pan. The milk can stood in the cold building all night so the syrup started out very cold. Takes longer to finish because we have to heat it longer. We brought the remaining milk can of syrup in the farm house to warm overnight. Should start out warmer tomorrow when we bottle it.
Used two heaters in the kitchen while bottling. The heaters are more for the bottles then for us. We can dress warmer but the bottles should be warm to keep the syrup at pasteurization temperature when filled. We start bottling when the syrup is 190 degrees. If the bottle is too cold syrup temperature is lost to warming the bottle and our syrup could fall below pasteurization temperature.
Bottled 31 quarts and 1 pint. This syrup looks a little lighter in color.
About 12 overnight. Only 23 during the day. Sunny and windy. Wasn’t the wind forecast to stop? It felt very cold outside. Tonight down to 10. Any sap is definitely ice in the buckets now. The ground is re-freezing too.
We got a new heater for the R/O room. Hoping it keeps the room warm enough so the R/O membrane doesn’t freeze. Don’t want to find out the hard way it didn’t.
20s overnight. Wind did stop. Partly cloudy and upper 30s during the day, but it felt colder. Ice didn’t thaw in the puddles until late afternoon. Some trees starting responding and dripped. Some buckets were getting half full but others empty. Tonight is 10 and tomorrow 20s. Any liquid turns to ice.
Bottled today. 27 quarts and 1 500 ml. Freed up one milk can.
550 gallons in one 14 hour day. That’s a first. Couldn’t have done it without the R/O. It would have been three days cooking. All the tanks are empty.
Into the woods by 6:15 AM. Wanted to start early and also had a meeting at 7:00 AM that took an hour away. Prepared everything until about 6:50. Returned at 8:00 to light the fire and start the R/O. Started drawing from the concentrate tank at 9:30 AM. By 11:00 AM took off the first batch. And every hour for the next seven hours took off a batch. We now have three milk cans of syrup that need finishing and bottling.
At 1:30 PM we could have stopped the R/O and cooked the concentrate we had. Would have finished between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM. But decided to push on with the R/O to finish the last 200 gallons. Concentrate doesn’t keep well so when sap is processed through the R/O it should be cooked. We had good boils and it made sense to push on and empty the tanks. Slacked off firing the last 1 ½ hours. Should have pushed harder and finished earlier. Back to the house by 8:30 PM.
Very windy all day. It froze overnight. We saw ice on the puddles. Sunny and 30s today but wind made if feel much colder. Trees dripped a little but not enough to collect. We also needed a break after three days of almost 1000 gallons of sap,
Now it turns colder again. Snow possible. No sap expected for a few days.
50 degrees at 5:00 AM and very windy. Sunny by the afternoon. Wind diminished by didn’t stop entirely. Cooled to 40.
Into the woods by 7:30 AM. Got the pan cleaned and R/O ready. By 10:00 AM cooking concentrate. Cooked through 425 gallons by 6:15 PM. Seven batches into milk can. One milk can is full. A second half-full.
We also picked up an additional 350 gallons of sap today. The second half of yesterday’s run: a big run can last two days. We have 550 gallons of sap in storage tanks.
30 overnight. 40 during the day but cloudy, foggy and wet. However there was a sap run. It started yesterday as it warmed and dripped well into the night before resuming today. Checked woods at 12:30 PM. That confirmed we needed to collect. Started about 2:45 PM. Finished by 6:00 PM. 625 gallons. Tomorrow we cook.
Most of the snow is now melted. Wet and muddy in the woods. The ground did re-freeze with last week’s cold so the tractor didn’t sink too far into the mud.
Possible thunderstorm overnight. Tomorrow is also warm, high 40s, but Wednesday it turns cold again. The next 7-10 days could also bring back snow.
About 30 overnight. Cloudy and 38 today. Trees started dripping a little this afternoon, but after the cold week take a while to come back.
Washed the finishing and bottling pans. Got the milk can of syrup on the finishing pan a little after Noon. It was ready by 2:30 PM. While filtering, one of the plates in the filter press was installed the wrong direction. It was the end plate so we could still filter, but we have to watch that more carefully.
We bottled 33 quarts, the first syrup of the season.
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