35 overnight.  Mostly cloudy today and up to 52. 

Into the woods by 7:00 AM.   Started the R/O before 8:00.  Had to run the R/O for about 30 minutes to get sap to fill the evaporator before starting the fire.  After last weeks crystallized syrup pan, we had very little sap in the flue pan and none in the front syrup pan.  By 10:00 the 225 gallon tank was processed.   Pumped over the remaining 175 gallons to process. By 12:20 all the sap was through the R/O.

Meanwhile we were emptying batches into the milk can every hour.   5 batches in the milk can and a full milk can at the end of the day.  By 2:00 PM we stopped firing.  Back to the house by 2:45 PM.  About 5 ½ hours of hard cooking to process 400 gallons of sap.

5 ½  hours is a quarter of the time compared to not using the R/O.   The R/O is meeting all our goals:  using less wood;  less time cooking; water to use and nicer syrup.  However we are much busier during that time.  Constantly checking R/O flows.  Drawing off every hour;  Checking the water holding tank and filling milk cans with the overflow water; Firing; Getting wood.  Almost no time to sit. 

Running a wash cycle on R/O to keep the membrane clean.  The tank heater is working now.  Took about 30-40 minutes to warm water to 90 degrees.   Last year we ran the R/O for 5 hours to warm to that temperature by friction.  After the temperature is 90 degrees then we add the cleaning powder and  run the R/O until it hits 113 degrees.  But it has a sensor and turns off by itself.

Wednesday into Thursday the forecast is for a snow storm.  Amounts still shifting.  Was 6”-10”.  Now 8”-14”.  We get wind too so blizzard conditions are possible.