Down to 28/29 overnight.  Sun appeared at 8:30.  Temperature up to 40, but windy all day made it feel cold.  It was warm enough for the trees to drip.  May collect tomorrow.

A day of repairs.  Replaced the hoses on the R/O valve unit.  Then brought the R/O to the syrup building.  Membrane is at the farmhouse yet.  Tomorrow we work on preparing the R/O and loading the membrane.  We have to get water to wash the membrane before using it.

We also got a new three burner propane stove for the finishing pan.  Added some additional angle iron to help the pan sit better.

And we got a new fill spout for the bottling pan.  Hope is it will eliminate bubbles when we fill the bottles.    The new spout has ½ thread which is the same size as the old coffee make fill spout.  That worked out well.

The big repair was to the evaporator.  The back end by the stack was badly rusted.  We were worried last year that it may collapse under weight of the pans with sap.  Got through the end of the season, but it needed repairs for this season.

Welded on new angle iron along with sheets of steel on the sides and bottom.  Firebrick will go in next.  Without the repairs we wouldn’t have been able to cook.   This should support the weight and get us through the season.

Forecast is 22 overnight and 43 tomorrow.