Into the woods by 5:00 AM. 27 and foggy overnight. Felt odd. The fog would kind’a freeze on surfaces. Also made everything damp. Had trouble starting the fire under the evaporator because paper and wood were damp from the fog. Took 1 ½ hours to get a good boil.
The day cooking.
5:30 AM start R/O
7:00 AM batch into milk can
7:55 AM batch into milk can
9:15 AM batch into milk can
10:00 AM batch into milk can
10:15 AM R/O finished
10:15 AM 9 ¾” concentrate
11:00 AM 7 ½” concentrate
11:40 AM batch into milk can
12:00 PM 5 ½” concentrate
12:20 PM batch into milk can
1:00 PM 3 ¼” concentrate
1:00 PM batch into milk can
1:50 PM batch into milk can
2:00 PM ½” concentrate
2:20 PM done
Wrapped insulation around the membrane pressure vessel. We had a lot of insulation left from the wash tank. That helped. Also left the tank heater on during the wash cycle rather then using it to warm to 90 then disconnecting. After three hours it reached 113 and turned off as it’s supposed to when warming to 113. We’ll need to monitor temperature during the concentration cycle now because the insulation may retain too much heat while the high pressure pumps runs during the concentration cycle.
By Noon the sun came out. Tree pressure up to 10 PSI and trees dripping. Because of the cold foggy start to the day, not enough to collect. Plan to collect tomorrow.
Back to the farmhouse by 2:30 PM.