MapleAcres

18 overnight.  30 and sunny this morning.  Turned cloudy after 2:00 PM.  Flurries after 5:00 PM.

So glad we collected on Monday and cooked on Tuesday.

An observation: using the wheel barrel to get wood from the woodshed makes the task less tedious.  You can only carry 6-8 pieces by hand which means many trips through the day.  The wheel barrel can hold three times that resulting in less trips back and forth from the woodshed.

We got 6”-7” of snow and still have flurries.  At 11:15 PM last night it was snowing but didn’t look that intense.  By 4:30 AM this morning it tapered off but there was 5” already.  During the day we got an additional 1”-2”.   Snow came in from the South East based the snow pattern on the trees.  That’s unusual.  North or North West is the usual direction of wind blown snow.

Into the woods by 6:45 AM.  Had to shovel and sweep away snow from walkways and tanks.  R/O running by 8:00 AM.  Finished 255 gallons by 11:00 AM.  Done cooking by 2:00 PM but needed to get a batch of syrup off yet.  It was close to done.  From a prior year we learned that when cooking with concentrate its important to draw off batches that are close to finished or else the syrup could crystallize as it cools or worse, the pan could burn if too much heat remains.

Another milk can full of syrup.  Took off six batches today.

9:15 AM
10:25 AM
11:15 AM
12:10 PM
1:15 PM
2:20 PM

Back to the farmhouse by 2:45 PM.

Don’t expect sap the next few days.  Forecast is 18 overnight with high of 30 tomorrow.  Thursday high is 32.

4”-7” still the forecast for tonight through tomorrow afternoon.  This storm is coming down from Canada so the forecast should be more accurate.  Southern storms are harder to predict.

The trees dripped into last night.  Low around 30 so not much of a freeze.  Cloudy and mid-30s today.  Trees did not drip much today there was enough sap in the buckets from yesterday to go collect.  Went out at 3:00 PM.  Done by 4:30 PM.  255 gallons.  Better to get it before the storm.  After snow and sitting in the buckets a few more days the sap would not be good.

Cleaned and organized the finishing pans and bottling kitchen.  We should be ready to finish and bottle.  We have two full milk cans that need finishing and bottling.

Tomorrow we cook.

Into the woods by 6:45 AM.  Back to the farmhouse by 4:45 PM.  400 gallons of sap collected yesterday all cooked today.  Topped off one milk can.  Filled another milk can.  One batch into a third milk can. We were taking a batch off the evaporator every 45 minutes.  Eight batches total.  Past years it was about an hour between batches, but taking the sap to 7° Brix makes a difference.

Started the R/O by 7:45 AM.  Finished by 12:45 pm.  Should have finished sooner but did not have the high pressure pump adjusted properly.  We needed to make an additional turn on the handle controlling pressure.

The transfer pump worked better today.  Placed food grade grease on the threads and washer.  This helped seal hose/pump connector.  We use food grade grease to seal the O-rings on the R/O so using it on the transfer pump was worth trying.

Froze overnight.  Upper 30s and cloudy all day.  Dripped a little later in the day.

4”-7” of snow forecast for Monday night into Tuesday.  We’ll see.  March storms are hard to predict.

22 overnight.  Sunny and 40 during the day.  Trees dripped.  We started collecting at 3:00 PM.  Picked up 400 gallons of sap.  Had a crew of 6.  Makes collecting much easier.

The biggest challenge was the transfer pump:  its not operating at full efficiency.  Its rated at 1450 gallons per/hour which should empty our 225 gallon tank in 10-11 minutes.  The pump took 50 minutes.  We could collect and fill the tank faster.  Looking into replacing the pump.  We can’t go through the season waiting on the pump.

Connected our new propane burners.  The finishing pan got a new 3 burner and bottling kitchen got a new 2 burner.  Each burner is rated at 15,000 BTU/hour.  With 45,000 BTU under the finishing pan we are hoping to cut our time in half to finish syrup.  The 2 burner replaced the stove in the kitchen.  Its smaller and gives us more space to around the bottling pan when pouring in the milk can of syrup.

Forecast is 20s overnight with 40s but cloudy tomorrow.  Tomorrow we cook.

The 1”-3” of snow did not materialize.  About 4:30 PM it snowed a few flakes but if you were not watching would have missed it.

35 and cloudy all day with a North East wind.  Trees not running.   Only activity in the woods was to run a rinse cycle on the R/O.

Forecast for low 20s overnight with sun and 40s tomorrow.

Into the woods by 6:30 AM.  Froze overnight, about 30. Fog at 5:00 AM.  Cloudy most of the day.  Reached 42.   Trees are not dripping.

Snow for tomorrow:  1”-3” possible.

Connected the propane tank this morning but the gas is not flowing.  Fortunately the syrup pan did not have much nitre.  Cleaned it with cold water.  Cold water is unpleasant on the hands.

Got 7 Brix concentrate from R/O.  It was done by 11:00 AM.   Three batches into the milk can.  About an hour between batches.  Finished cooking by 12:30 PM.

Burned out the heating element on the R/O wash tank.  Forgot to unplug it when emptying the wash water.   Without water covering the heating element it burned up.  Actually had arching between the element and the tank.  That was scary.

All tanks empty.  The 435 gallons of sap we collected Monday is now cooked.  Back to the farmhouse by 1:00 PM.

28 overnight.  55 and sunny today.   Trees barely ran.  The frost must be deep yet because this was a text book day for sap.  Of course 55 is too warm for February 27.

Into the woods by 6:30 AM.  Washed down evaporate pans.  Setup the pipes from the tanks to the evaporate.  Filled the evaporate with sap and lite the fire at 8:45.  By 9:30 had a boil.

After starting the evaporate, worked on the R/O.  Installed the membrane.  Then ran 200 gallons of water though it.   By 11:00 the R/O was ready for sap.   Was able to get 7 Brix today.   That’s a 12:1 ratio. One difference: a new hydrometer for the sap.  Its likely our old hydrometer was not accurate and under reporting the actual Brix.

Cooked 225 gallons today.  One batch in the milk can.  Back to the house by 4:00 PM.

210 gallons to cook tomorrow.

25 overnight.  Sunny and about 40 today.  Sap was dripping.  Between yesterday and today’s run there was 435 gallons.  We went out collecting at 3:00 PM.  Trees did stop dripping around 4:00 PM.  We we done a little after 5:00 PM.   Forecast for around 30 tonight and upper 40s tomorrow.

Firebrick in the evaporator.  Its set to use tomorrow.

The R/O is connected and we have water for it.  We have to run a wash of the R/O in the morning and then we can start cooking.