Arrived in Wisconsin about 12:30 PM.  Back to farmhouse by 2:30 PM.  No urgency this year as the weather is still cold.  A snow storm moved through earlier in the week dropping 12” of snow.  About 60” for the winter which is about normal.  And there was sub-zero weather for a week in January.  We hope it will help for the season, but we have to accept whatever Mother Nature gives us.  

Producers out East were making syrup in January.  Using the new check-valve spouts they can tap very early and and still avoid the build up of bacteria that closes the tap hole.  As climate change continues to impact maple production these types of technologies will be necessary to get any type of crop.

We have a lot of things to get ready.   The addition for the R/O is finished.   The electrical is finished.  Those we big items.  A new smoke stack is ready and just needs to be picked up and installed.

But we have to learn the drive the R/O.   In theory we feed in sap and then under pressure its separated into two streams: water and sugar concentrate.  But there are a lot of pumps and hoses to connect to get the flow through the machine correct.  And that is what we need to figure out.

The weather is forecast to be cold for the next five days.  We hope by Monday we can start tapping so we are ready when the weather breaks.