Mother Nature gave us 92 gallons this season.  A good crop.  We finished bottling at 11:45 AM.  14 quarts and 2 x 250 ml bottles.  All Grade A Dark.

Fewer sap collections then most seasons, but more gallons per collection.    Good sugar content:  started at 2.5° Brix and never fell below 2.0° Brix.  No nitre during the first three boils was amazing.  We struggled with bottling: let our temperature get away from us twice causing cloudy syrup and blew out the hand pump again.  Over all the syrup was darker.

The R/O is back at the farmhouse.  The tanks washed and pipes down.  Finishing pan cleaned.  Most equipment also back at the farmhouse.  We were trying to beat the snow/wintery mix.

Snow totals are still unsettled:  2”-4”, 4”-6”, 3”-5”.   Final totals all depend on where the warm/cold line settles.  To the  West in MN, SD, NE they are getting a blizzard with 12”-24” and high winds.  We had that last year at around the same dates with blizzard Evelyn.

Tomorrow morning we can clean equipment in the house until the weather clears.  We want to try a different method to clean the nitre scale from the flue pan.