The house felt cold waking up this morning at 4:45 AM.  Went to turn on a light.  Didn’t come on.  Started to realize it seemed quite dark.  No yard light.  Checked other windows: neighbor’s yard lights also not on.    Power outage.  How long was the power out and how is the R/O handling it?  The R/O is not supposed to freeze.   We keep it in an insulated and heated room but with no power the heater won’t run.  The clocks were stopped at 1:56 AM.  It was now 5:10 AM.  Power out for about three hours.

Into the woods to check the R/O.    It was 8 outside.  The thermometer in the R/O room showed 33/32.  Getting cold but the R/O doesn’t become an ice cube at 32.  It would take several hours at the mid 20s to freeze it.  Contacted the power company.  They estimated power restored by 6:45 AM.  Sunrise was coming about 6:15 AM.  That provides a warming sun.   At 5:30 AM decided to maintain the status quo.   Unless the temperature of the R/O room  dropped into the mid to low 20s the R/O was going to be okay until sunrise and the power was restored.   Power came on at 6:10 AM.   Checked the R/O about 8:00 AM.   Temperature already about 50 in the R/O room.

Into the woods to get the filter press.  The pump plunger broke yesterday.  The collar holding it on is made of plastic.  As the hot syrup passes through the pump, the plastic becomes soft.  This causes the pump handle and plunger  to move out of alignment.  The plunger rubbed against the collar and wore through.   We replaced this pump last year.  We kept the old pump for parts.  And the old pump had a metal collar which is not affected by heat.   Swapped collars.

Into the woods by 11:00 AM to finish and bottle.  Had a problem with filtering.  We put a partial batch back into the milk can yesterday.  We did not account for the filter aid already mixed in.  Added the normal amount of filter aid, but this now proved too much.   Stopped half way through filtering to replace the papers.  This gets messy but it worked and we finished filtering the batch.  Back to the house 2:30 PM.

35 and sunny today.  Trees started dripping around 1:00 PM. The trees take a long time to warm up when its 8 overnight and any sap in the buckets is ice.   Possible flurries tonight.  Hopefully not as cold.