MapleAcres

Down to 28/29 overnight.  Sun appeared at 8:30.  Temperature up to 40, but windy all day made it feel cold.  It was warm enough for the trees to drip.  May collect tomorrow.

A day of repairs.  Replaced the hoses on the R/O valve unit.  Then brought the R/O to the syrup building.  Membrane is at the farmhouse yet.  Tomorrow we work on preparing the R/O and loading the membrane.  We have to get water to wash the membrane before using it.

We also got a new three burner propane stove for the finishing pan.  Added some additional angle iron to help the pan sit better.

And we got a new fill spout for the bottling pan.  Hope is it will eliminate bubbles when we fill the bottles.    The new spout has ½ thread which is the same size as the old coffee make fill spout.  That worked out well.

The big repair was to the evaporator.  The back end by the stack was badly rusted.  We were worried last year that it may collapse under weight of the pans with sap.  Got through the end of the season, but it needed repairs for this season.

Welded on new angle iron along with sheets of steel on the sides and bottom.  Firebrick will go in next.  Without the repairs we wouldn’t have been able to cook.   This should support the weight and get us through the season.

Forecast is 22 overnight and 43 tomorrow.

205 taps out today.  505 total.  50 taps between 9:00-10:30.  50 taps between 11:00-12:30.  50 taps between 1:30-3:00.  55 taps between 3:00-4:00.  Had help for last 55 taps so it went faster.

28 over night.  The day started cloudy.  Sun came out around 9:30.  Temperature up to 40.  By 3:00 clouds returned and it got colder.  Forecast to freeze tonight with possible wintery mix again.

Tomorrow we prepare the syrup building and get ready for sap.

If sap is moving in the tree, a  new tap always runs.   A maple tree can be 50′ or more tall.  When we drill a hole at the base of the tree all the sap above that hole now has an outlet and gravity pushes it out.

100 more taps.  Washed spouts in the morning.  Also got hose for the R/O.  We need to replace hoses that went bad over the summer.

Its easy moving around in the woods.  Not much snow.  The ground is still frozen.  Lots of water.  When the ground thaws there will be mud.

Not much of a wintery mix last night.  Lower 40s and cloudy today.

Sap is starting to move in the trees.

Season 101 is open.

Weather looks favorable the next week:  freezing nights in the 20s with days in the upper 30s to low 40s.  That’s tappi’n and sappi’n weather.  Seasons are unmistakably shifting to start earlier.  Our traditional thinking is the season starts around March 7 so we are two weeks earlier.

200 taps out today.  Got a late start tapping at 12:30.  Had to wash spouts.  Also order replacement hoses for the R/O.

A wintery mix forecast for tonight with freezing rain/snow.  Lows around freezing.

The season is not over until all the cleanup is done.  Into the woods by 10:00 AM for the final cleanup tasks.  Floor washed. Tanks emptied and in the syrup building.  Gas tank disconnected and back in the syrup building.   Taped close gas burners and R/O hoses so no insects make homes in them during the off-season.  Final task is unplugging the radio and taking down the clock.  Back to the farmhouse by 1:30 PM.

A good season.  Above average corp in quantity and quality.  The R/O is such a game changer.  It makes the season so much easier with much less time cooking and less wood used.  We don’t even haul water any more.  Very happy with the investment.

Wish we started earlier.  There was a big run over February 18 & 19 that we missed because we weren’t tapped.  Likely would have put us over 100 gallons of finished syrup for the season.   It would have been a nice symmetry to have 100 gallons of syrup in season 100.

The new labels and branding is another big improvement.  Real happy with how that turned out.

Thinking of entering syrup for judging at the meeting of the North American Maple Syrup Council in Lévis, Québec in October.  Haven’t ever done that, but why not try.

Off-season improvements we’re considering:

• replace concrete floor
• new propane burners for finishing pan and in bottling kitchen to replace stove
• new sap hydrometer
• new fill spout on bottling pan to see if we can eliminate bubbles
• replace buckets with PVC sap sack holder and plastic sap sacks
• re-brick evaporator with firebrick after replacing metal sides
• finishing painting building and woodshed
• new base for the R/O water tank
• new transfer pump

All depends on how much money we want to spend.

We return in February 2018 to start the next 100 seasons.

All the big stuff is done now.  Completed the evaporator today.  Cleaned up easily.   The nitre in the pan and carbon on the bottom don’t get as burnt on when you cook less then half the time.   Another R/O benefit.

Nice day today.  About 35 overnight.  Sunny and low 50s until late afternoon.  It made cleaning the evaporator easier on the hands.  The sun actually warmed the metal so our hands stayed warmer.

Remaining cleanup:  sweep  and wash the floor; empty the water tank; clean milk cans and stuff with paper for the off-season; put away all the supplies and tools.

A little warmer today but still cloudy and windy.   Into the woods by Noon to clean pans.  Bottling and finishing pans all cleaned up.    Hands still got cold.  Water, wind, and metal are not a great combination for warm hands.

Most of the equipment and supplies are now back at the farmhouse for the off-season.  Only the flue pan of the evaporator needs cleaning yet.  And wash the floor.  Hope to finish that all tomorrow as its forecast to be a little warmer with some sun.  Hoping that helps keep the hands warmer.

Low 50s overnight.  A thunderstorm moved in around 5:00 AM.  We had thunder over an open woods (no leaves on the trees) which means more snow according to folklore.   Its surprisingly accurate.   Rained most of the morning.  Turned colder this afternoon with a north wind that picked up as the afternoon progressed.

Into the woods at 2:30 PM to clean the evaporator.   The cold wind bite.  We did get the front syrup pan cleaned up.    We had to return to the farmhouse because of cold hands.   Water and a cold wind don’t mix well.  Back to the farmhouse by 4:45 PM to warm up.   The rain returned too.

We also did the math on wood used this season.  Our main wood shed it 14’x15’x7 ½’.  1 cord equals 4’x4’x8′ or 128 cubic feet.  14’x15’x7 ½’ = 1575 cubic feet or 12.3 cords.  There’s and addon to the south side of 5’x10’x5′ = 250 cubic feet = 1.9 cords.   Woodshed total is 1825 cubic feet or 14.3 cords.

We didn’t use any wood from the south side addon.  From the main woodshed we used 7’x4’x7.5′ = 210 cubic feet of limb wood and two rows of larger split wood.  One row was 7’x3’x6′ = 126 cubic feet.  The second row was 7’x5.5’x6′ = 231 cubic feet.  Adding all together we get 210+126+231=567 cubic feet or 4.4 cords which we rounded to 4 1/2 cords of wood burnt for the season.  During our seasons without the R/O we would use 11-12 cords.  The woodshed was almost bare at the end of a season and especially when we had an above average crop.  Our main motivation for the R/O was to cut down on wood use.  We are accomplishing this.

After we completed bottling and totaled up all the syrup we made 85 gallons of syrup for season 100.   A good season.  Above average crop in both quantity and quality.  We made mostly medium amber with just the last batch from today as dark amber.  The quality is also a function of the R/O and being able to process sap faster.  During our years without the R/O we made mostly dark amber and then into the real dark grade B syrup.

Into the woods by 9:00 AM to start bringing in buckets and covers.  They are all in off-season storage.  Finished this afternoon after bottling.

Put the last of the syrup on the finishing pan by 11:45 AM.  It was done by 3:00 PM.  Filtered and bottled it came to 16 quarts.

Doing the math:  we collected 3595 gallons of sap; we made 85 gallons of syrup.  That gives us a ratio of  42:1.  Running through the Rule of 86 means our sap averaged 2.03 °Bx for the season.  At exactly 2.00 °Bx the ratio is 43:1.  Given the low Brix readings we had, we need to replace our sap hydrometer.  Its calibration doesn’t seem accurate.

45 overnight.  55 today.  Partly cloudy this morning but the sun appeared around 2:00 PM.

Tomorrow we start cleaning the evaporator.  That’s the last big task remaining.

Back to the farmhouse by 5:00 PM.