Started snowing yesterday afternoon around 4:00 PM; done by 5:15 PM.. Close to 2” of snow in 1 ½ hours. It was a heavy snow.
Cold now. 20 overnight. Sunny and teens this afternoon. Low teens tonight. Starting Friday, temperatures warm.
20 overnight. 33 during the day, but cloudy and windy made it feel colder.
These are the weather forecasts we used to decide to tap last week. They are from the National Weather Service (NWS) and show temperatures trending warmer than normal.
We monitor three weather services: NWS, AccuWeather and Google Weather. All three forecast trending warmer temperatures. Actual temperatures and precipitation will always vary from forecasts so this cold dip isn’t out of the ordinary.
High teens overnight. Low 20s today. Cloudy again. The week ahead is cold with some nights in the mid to low teens. The long term forecasts fro NOAA still show temperatures trending above normal. Cold weather doesn’t affect the taps as much as warm weather.
Cloudy and snow flurries all day. Lower 20s overnight. Upper 20s during the day. The R/O room was at 50 with the heater on.
Light snow yesterday evening. Enough so the ground is white again. Upper 20s overnight. Cloudy and low 30s today.
Placed the tank heater in the permeate tank and wound the heat tape around the hose. Also setup the ceramic heater in the R/O room. Forecast is lower 20s overnight with teens forecast in a day or two.
Rain over night and this morning. Mid 30s and cloudy all day. Checked the woods at Noon to see if we needed to collect. Yesterday was favorable for sap, but it didn’t run. We need several days of colder weather. The weather pattern is changing to colder and more favorable conditions: more normal for this time of the year.
30 overnight. Sunny and low 40s today. Not much tree activity. We need colder weather.
Into the woods by 6:00 AM to cook. By the time we assembled the pipes from the tanks and completed other preparation, it was 7:00 AM before we started the fire. Had a boil by 7:45 AM.
The day cooking
7:00 AM 13 1/3”
9:00 AM 10 ¾”
10:00 AM 9 ¼”
11:00 AM 7 ½”
12:00 PM 5 ¼”
1:00 PM 3 ½”
2:00 PM 1 ¼ “
2:30 PM Done
No batches into the milk can.
We did not use the R/O. We’ve learned over the years that trying to prep the membrane while cooking is a frustrating experience. Your attention is split between cooking and the R/O and neither is done well.
A grate in the firebox broke. We had to adjust firing on the fly since we had a fire going. Used scrap metal to replaced the grate. We’ll adjust the spacing on the remaining grates to compensate for the missing grate. Hope we make it through the season.
Light rain overnight. Foggy until Noon, then partly cloudy. Temperature in the low 50s. Not great weather to start the season. It’s not the snow covered idyllic and picturesque woods scenes associated maple syrup season. We didn’t have much snow cover and it’s all melted now. Frost is still in.
Connected the hoses on the R/O. It’s ready for the membrane.
Collected 160 gallons of sap. It won’t keep when the weather is this warm, so get it while it’s good. 2.1 Brix.
We had our sap hydrometers tested. They under-report Brix by 0.6. The sap hydrometer measured 1.5 Brix. With the 0.6 correction, the sap is 2.1 Brix. We noticed in past years that the sap collected didn’t agree well with the final amount of syrup. An inaccurate sap hydrometer could account for this discrepancy.
Tomorrow the weather starts to cool. We need freezing nights to get the sap flowing.
103 taps today. Planned for 100, but miscounted. Plan to put out an additional 100+ taps next week. Low 40s today. Sunny this morning turning cloudy in the afternoon.
The R/O is in the woods. Started connecting the hoses. Feeling apprehensive about the R/O. It’s a key piece for making the season easier. We’ve had problems the past several years. Hoping the repairs to the pressure gauge, defuser and a new membrane will give use the full potential of the R/O for the full season.
Rain possible this evening. Tomorrow highs the upper 40s Still forecast for 30s and teens by the weekend.
Started tapping today. It’s sunny and 55. Feels like end of March. This is climate change. We’re two weeks early by the calendar, but we can no longer go by the calendar. We need to monitor the weather patterns and act accordingly. The 14 day and 30 day forecasts show temperature trending above normal.
200 taps out. Sap is dripping. Not fast, but enough to confirm it’s time to tap. Plan for another 200 taps tomorrow.
Tomorrow is cooler: 40s. By the weekend 30s and teens are forecast. Cold spells are okay.