Into the woods by 8:00 AM. The goal was to empty the evaporator and bottle another milk can.
Manged to get the flue pan off and outside without spilling the last of the sap on the floor. A quick rinse then back on the evaporator. Filled a tank of water from the farmhouse while the working on the pan. Filled the flue pan with water and the front syrup pan with the remaining sap. Started cooking.
In past seasons cooking down the last of the sap yielded about 4 gallons of syrup. Ended up with considerably more: about 10 gallons, maybe 11 gallons. The remaining sap must have been very sweet to not need much more cooking By 2:30 PM all sap was in milk cans. Used two milk cans so we had enough room. The finishing pan will hold 15 -20 gallons. But the bottling pan only holds 10 gallons. The plan is to finish it all at once, but use two milk cans when its done and add into the bottling pan as room permits.
We did finish and bottle another milk can.
29 overnight. Sunny all day and 43. Back to the farmhouse by 3:15 PM