118 visitors today for day one of the open house.  Visitors started arriving at 10:00 AM.  By 12:30 PM over 60.   We didn’t know what to expect for turnout.  We are happy with the number of visitors.    No one came after 3:30 but that was okay.  We had to go out collecting then.

Didn’t freeze overnight.  Trees dripped all night.  Not a lot but enough that we could collect.  Picked up 190 gallons.  1.8 Brix.  We have sap to cook for tomorrow’s open house now.

Today was cloudy all day.  A cold wind.  Up to 38.  A lot of snow melted and made it wet and muddy in the woods. Tonight should be mid to upper 20s.  Tomorrow is partly cloudy and warmer.

Trouble with the R/O today.  After reflecting on the problem we think we were pushing the concentrate to too high Brix.  The sap was already 3.4 degrees Brix because of ice we removed.  Coming out of the R/O it was at 9 degrees Brix.  Our R/O is rated for 7 degrees Brix and we usually go to about 5 degrees Brix.  Our membrane couldn’t handle 9 and the pressure when up to the maximum of 500 psi then shut off.  We ran a soap wash cycle and are hoping that helps.  We should have backed off the concentrate Brix.