Our equipment dealer arrived about 11:30 AM with the R/O.  Yeah!  We can see it and touch it even though we can’t use it until next year.  Its neat to have this.  Its the start of a transformation of our maple syrup operations.  Our current operations are 1950s/1960s technologies.  Buckets, spouts, visiting each tree to collect sap.   A low efficiency evaporator.   The quantity and quality of the syrup reflect the 50s and 60s and was good for that time.  But newer technologies have come along that improve both the quantity and quality of maple syrup that can be made of even a small sugar bush.  And reduce the manual labor.  The R/O was the one thing we could do that would have the biggest impact on the operations so we started there.   It will reduce firewood use.  Decrease cooking time.  Improve quality of the syrup because less cooking time means lighter grades of syrup.  And as a bonus give us water to use. 

Over the coming years we hope to install a vacuum tubing system and upgrade the evaporator.   This will all take a few years to accomplish.  But it has begun.