Disconnected R/O hoses this morning. Late this afternoon disconnected remaining hoses and took out the membrane and brought it back to farmhouse. The R/O is draining now. We’ll bring it into the farmhouse in a few days.
Plan to bottle tomorrow.
Snow started around 4:00 AM. No accumulation but everything is white again. Changed to rain around 1:00 PM.
Into the woods by 8:00 AM. Snow still forecast to start before dawn tomorrow morning. Wanted to get all the buckets and covers in because they don’t need to get wet again. Completed by 9:30 AM.
28 overnight. Cloudy this morning with sun and 42 after Noon.
Into the woods by 7:15 AM. Emptied the evaporator. 15 gallons of sap to finish. Took off and rinsed all the pans. Filled the flue pan with water and cleaning solution while the front syrup pan cooked the remaining sap. Pumped water from the R/O holding tank in the pans in place of getting a tank of water from the farmhouse. Saved time. Started the evaporator by 11:00 AM. Done by 4:00 PM. Should yield about 3 gallons of finished syrup putting us close to 40 gallons for the season.
Took down the remaining spouts and buckets. Hope to pick them up tomorrow because tomorrow evening an inch of snow is forecast.
The third wash of the membrane left clean water in the wash tank indicting the membrane is clean.
We also bottled 8 gallons and 1 pint. We have 37 gallons bottled so far.
Cold today. Cloudy. Windy. Temperate started at 34. Up to 42 but with the wind it felt colder. Forecast is 24 tonight.
Back to the farmhouse by 4:15 PM.
Cold this morning. Wind chill in the 20s. Sunny and 40s during the day. Into the woods by 3:45 PM to take down buckets. All the buckets north of the building are down.
Running a third membrane wash this evening. That should get it clean enough. We’ll have it professionally washed at an equipment dealer again after the season.
Bottle tomorrow. And work on emptying the evaporator. Back to the farmhouse by 5:00 PM.
Into the woods at 2:00 PM to bottle. Had the propane tank filled on Monday. It was still 2/3 full. Can’t figure out why we didn’t get propane at the burner on Saturday. But it worked today. Bottled about 8 gallons. 29 gallons for the season so far with another milk can of 8 gallons yet plus what’s in the evaporator.
While waiting for the syrup to finish, we took down 13 buckets. Symbolic, but signals the season is over. Freezing nights are forecast for this weekend, but sap has moved in the trees. Sap in the buckets now looks bad. We’ll dump it.
Back to the farmhouse by 6:00 PM.
Cloudy. Rainy. 50s. No woods work today.
Into the woods by 4:30 AM to cook. Only 85 gallons of sap, but since we had the R/O setup we used it. Had to rinse the R/O before starting because we didn’t run the rinse cycle the day before.
Couldn’t get rolling boils because we didn’t have enough sap. Kept the fire smaller. Still boiled, but not as hard so it still took us 4 hours to finish. Took a final batch off at 8:00 AM because it was getting too close to syrup. It would have crystallized or worse, burnt, if we left it in the evaporator. Fired enough to get it done, but not leave much fire and heat under the evaporator. When the batch was complete, the concentrate tank was empty and the fire low. Only about 3/4” left in evaporator. This makes emptying the evaporator for the last boil easier.
The day cooking.
5:05 R/O start
5:45 batch
6:05 R/O done
6:05 3.25”
7:00 3.00”
7:30 batch
7:30 1.75”
8:00 batch
8:15 done
Back to the farmhouse by 8:30 AM.
Into the woods by 4:30 AM to cook. Back to the farmhouse by 8:30 AM. The aroma changed from the nice maple aroma to a steamy maple aroma. That’s a sign the season is ending. Sunny and up to 65.
Back into the woods by 2:30 PM to collect the tail-end of the weekend run. Another 85 gallons. But that’s the end. With higher temperatures the sap doesn’t keep. Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.
The day cooking.
4:45 R/O start
6:00 batch
6:15 R/O done
6:15 4.75”
6:55 batch
7:00 3.75”
7:30 2.5”
8:00 batch
8:00 0.75”
8:30 done
We got the anticipated run. 26 overnight. 52 and sunny until late afternoon. Warmed quickly. And the trees dripped into the night. 130 gallons of nice clear sap at 2 Brix. When finished, we’ll be approaching 38 gallons. Some taps are dry while others on the same tree had a full bucket. Late in the season that’s expected. Started collecting at 2:45 PM. Done by 3:25 PM.
Into the woods by 7:30 AM to finish and bottle another milk can of syrup. Discovered the propane tank is empty when the burners on the finishing pan went out just after lighting. Not sure how we were able to finish bottling yesterday. We’ll get another tank of propane tomorrow then finish and bottle later in the week.
Tomorrow morning we cook.