20 overnight then down to 18 at dawn. Cold all day with high of 29. But it was sunny. It felt like a day in February should feel.
Into the woods by 5:30 AM to cook. Expected an early start because we cleaned the syrup pan yesterday. But the pipes from the storage tank were frozen. We attached a heat tape before leaving the woods yesterday. Turns out that heat tape isn’t working. So the pipe froze up. Took nearly an hour to thaw out with the heat gun.
Otherwise a good day cooking. 10 batches into the milk can. Doing a pH wash on the membrane.
The day cooking
6:30 AM R/O start
7:00 AM 2 ¼”
7:55 AM batch
8:00 AM 5 ¼”
8:40 AM batch
9:00 AM 7”
9:50 AM batch
10:00 AM 9 1/4”
11:00 AM 10 ½”
11:00 AM batch
11:45 AM batch
12:00 PM R/O done
12:00 PM 12 ¼”
1:00 PM 10”
1:05 PM batch
2:00 PM 8”
2:00 PM batch
2:45 PM batch
3:00 PM 5 ¾”
3:35 PM batch
4:00 PM 3 ½”
4:10 PM batch
4:30 PM 3 ½”
5:00 PM 1 ¼”
5:15 PM done
Back to the farmhouse by 5:30 PM after cooking all 440 gallons of sap.