Into the woods by 10:00 AM. Setup the R/O valve panel and connected hoses from the permeate tank to the R/O. Also brought a tank of water from the farmhouse for the permeate tank. We need 200 gallons of water for the initial rinse of the membrane. We have to start with well water because we don’t have permeate water from the sap yet.
Now that we have water in the tank we had to setup the tank heater and heating tape for the exposed hoses. In past years we were always rushed to setup the R/O and tanks because we had sap to process. It’s nice to have time this year.
18 overnight. Snow this morning. 1 ½ inches. Sun came out by 10:00 AM and it started to warm. Up to 38. Not much melt yet because the ground is cold.
Sap is moving in the trees. Pressure gauge on our tree reached 18 PSI. Internally sap is moving, but we didn’t see sap at the spout. Likely the wood around the tap hole is frozen yet. Until it thaws we won’t get sap runs. The spouts are exposed to the air so cold can penetrate into the tree around the tap hole. The pressure gauge is on tubing and sealed so cold doesn’t penetrate into the tap.