10 overnight.  Sunny, but cold today.  Mid 20s.  Our new heater kept the R/O room at 55-60 overnight.

Put a milk can of syrup into the finishing pan at 10:00 AM.  It was ready by 12:30 PM.  The filter press hand pump cracked and starting leaking while filtering the syrup.  Using a cup we were able to catch the syrup.  We got half the batch through the pump before giving up.  The unfiltered syrup went back into the milk can.  We’ll add more syrup to it and finish it again when we have more sap.  Contacting our equipment supplier about getting a new food grade hand pump.  The filter press is in its 15th season of use.  The hand pump is plastic and after so many cycles of heating and cooling it just gave out.

Tried to level out the ruts in our road to the syrup building.  No luck.  The ground was wet and muddy  before the cold weather set in and now the ruts from the tractor are frozen and hard as concrete.  With the upcoming open house March 18 & 19 we wanted to smooth out the road to make it easier for visitors to walk in.  Our next option is packing snow over it to level it.  We don’t have snow now but we will within 24 hours.   Forecast is 4”-7”.  We’re in the lake effect band.

Bottled 19 quarts.