37 overnight. Cloudy and 55 today. Rain tomorrow into Wednesday. Weather pattern becomes more favorable on Thursday with a return to freezing nights.
34 overnight. 54 and sunny today. Tree pressure at 3 PSI all day. Trees did not drip. We need another freezing night but the forecast for the next several days isn’t promising for sap with clouds, rain and 40s or 50s without freezing nights.
Into the woods by 7:00 AM. Brought over water in the milk can again. Evaporator going by 7:30 AM. Three batches into the milk can. Just over an hour between batches. Not cooking concentrate so this is really good. Cooked at 25 gallons/hour again. Done by 11:45 AM.
When its over 50 the heat when opening the evaporator doors radiates out and hits you hard. When its colder the the heat dissipates before it reaches you because of the colder temperatures.
Thinking back to tapping 400-500 and cooking on this evaporator without the R/O. That was a lot of work.
24 overnight. Sunny and 44 today. Tree pressure up to 12 PSI. Trees dripping. By 5:00 PM pressure down to 3 PSI.
Collect 105 gallons. Sugar content back to normal: 2 Brix.
Successfully bottled today. Frequently the first bottling has problems: filter press hard to pump; cloudy; trouble holding temperature. But this first bottling went smoothly.
Welding repairs on evaporator. Added an angle iron on the back, right side where it rusted through causing the evaporator base to open up and threaten the structural integrity.
Cook tomorrow.
25 overnight. Sunny and 45 today. That’s good for us. Trees dripped. 12 PSI but started dropping after 3:00 PM. Forecast is 27 overnight and sunny and 45-50 tomorrow. Hope to collect tomorrow.
Into the woods by 7:00 AM. Brought water and cleaned the syrup pan. Evaporator going by 7:30 AM. Two batches into the milk can. Done cooking by 11:15 AM.
Shipment of bottles delivered today. We won’t use them this season. Ordered bottles before we decided to scale back. Bottles keep so we have them for next season.
Plan to bottle tomorrow.
8:00 8″
9:00 6.5”
10:00 4.25″
11:00 1.25”
11:15 Done
34 overnight. Sunny, windy, 40 today. All the snow from the other day melted. Went out collecting at 3:30 PM. Back to the farmhouse by 5:00 PM. Sap looked good. Sugar content is dropping. 1.5 Brix today.
Tree pressure was 6 PSI at Noon but dropped to 2 PSI by 4:30 PM. But we got the full run. We need a freezing night again for another run.
Cook tomorrow.
29 overnight. Cloudy and 36 today. Light snow and sleet started by 8:15 AM and continued on and off through out the day.
Into the woods by 6:30 AM. Used the tractor to bring over a milk can of water. Cleaned the front syrup pan. Evaporator going by 7:30 AM. Two batches into the milk can. Done firing by 11:30 AM. Back to the farmhouse by Noon.
Tree pressure up to 7 PSI. Some dripping.
Sap Level In Tank
7:30 10.0″
8:00 9.5”
9:00 7.5”
10:00 4.75”
11:00 2.25”
11:30 0.5”
Noon Done
The forecast was up to an 1” of snow. Looking outside at 4:00 AM it was obvious there was more than 1”. It was 28 overnight so we didn’t get rain. And the storm moved slower so it accumulated.
38 and cloudy all day. But with the freeze/thaw cycle the sap ran. Tree pressure up to 13 PSI. Out collecting at 3:30 PM. Sugar content dropping: just below 2 Brix today.
Forecast for the next days looks promising. By amount of sap collected so far, we are about 2/3 of a crop.
28 overnight. 36 and mostly cloudy today. Snow forecast overnight: up to an inch.
Into the woods by 9:00 AM to cook. 11” in the tank at 9:30 AM when we started to run sap into the evaporator. Three batches into the milk can. Done by 1:30 PM. That’s 25 gals/hr. Have to fire hard to get 25 gals/hr with this evaporator.
Tree pressure hit 11 PSI. A small run. Unexpected, but we did get the freeze/thaw cycle.
34 overnight. Sunny, windy and 37 today. The wind made it feel colder. By not collecting yesterday we got the full run. Otherwise sap would have run into the evening and accumulated in the buckets after we collected. Not a lot but buckets wouldn’t be empty. The run finished before we collected so now the buckets are empty.
No snow or mud in the woods. Did not need boots. Forecast: 22 overnight. Mid 30s and rain/snow mix tomorrow afternoon.
18 overnight. Sunny and 56 today. Into the woods by 8:15 AM to cook. Filled milk can with water: without the R/O we don’t have a water source for cleaning. Boil going by 8:45 AM. One batch into the milk can. Only 35 gallons to cook. Done by 10:00 AM.
At 9:00 AM tree pressure at 0 PSI. By 10:00 AM it was 13 PSI. Trees dripping. Tree pressure increases rapidly under proper conditions. Expect to collect tomorrow.