The day started cloudy and cold.  It was cold working in and around the syrup building.  By 2:00 PM it changed quickly with the sun arriving, wind stopping and getting up to upper 30s; a very nice afternoon.  Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny and up to 40 or so; another nice day.  We plan on collecting.  There should be several quarts in the buckets as the sap did run this afternoon.

Setup the evaporator today.  Our goal was to get the 100 gallons of sap out of the collecting tank as its forecast to drop to 18 tonight.  We did not want ice in the collecting tank.  We did not use the storage tanks but rather pumped directly from the collecting tank into the evaporator.  About 1:15 PM we were ready to start the evaporator.  And by 1:55 PM we had our first boil.   And then we get that wonderful aroma of maple rising from the evaporator.  We boiled until about 4:45 PM.  Emptied the 100 gallons of sap from the collecting tank into the evaporator.

We may get the H tractor back tomorrow.  That would be very helpful.