MapleAcres

30 overnight.  40 during the day but cloudy, foggy and wet.  However there was a sap run.  It started yesterday as it warmed and dripped well into the night before resuming today.   Checked woods at 12:30 PM.  That confirmed we needed to collect.  Started about 2:45 PM.  Finished by 6:00 PM.  625 gallons.  Tomorrow we cook.

Most of the snow is now melted.  Wet and muddy in the woods.  The ground did re-freeze with last week’s cold so the tractor  didn’t sink too far into the mud.

Possible thunderstorm overnight.  Tomorrow is also warm, high 40s, but Wednesday it turns cold again.   The next 7-10 days could also bring back snow.

About 30 overnight.  Cloudy and 38 today.  Trees started dripping a little this afternoon, but after the cold week take a while to come back.

Washed the finishing and bottling pans.  Got the milk can of syrup on the finishing pan a little after Noon.   It was ready by 2:30 PM.   While filtering, one of the plates in the filter press was installed the wrong direction.  It was the end plate so we could still filter, but we have to watch that more carefully.

We bottled 33 quarts, the first syrup of the season.

We had a work crew by 10:00 AM.  Got a lot things completed in the woods.

• • Moved bottles into the house so they are warmer when bottling
  • Installed a light in the R/O room
  • Cleaned bottling kitchen
  • Connected propane gas tank
  • Setup finishing pan
  • Fixed panel on cupola
  • Cleaned walls and corners
  • Organized tool/stuff shelf
  • Raised R/O water tank with blocks
  • Setup ag tourism sign

The ag tourism sign is from the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producers Association (WMSPA).  They had the signs made for members to put up in the sugarbush to reduce liability if visitors get injured while visiting.  Turns out Wisconsin has a law on the books, 2013 WISCONSIN ACT 269, to cover ag tourism.  This encourages farms to open for visitors by limiting liability to farms if they post this warning sign and take reasonable steps to make the farm activity safe.

We also made good progress on our label and branding redesign.  We’ll cover this in more detail later.

0 over night.  Sunny and 30 today.  Tomorrow and Monday warms with rain possible.  We are hoping for a sap run.

7 overnight.  Tanks stayed liquid.  Sunny, but cold all day.  Only reached 23.  Needed the insulated coveralls.  Hands didn’t feel warm all day even though they weren’t getting wet.

Into the woods by 8:30 AM.  Started a fire under the evaporator then started the R/O. More sap then planned in the evaporator so took until 10:00 AM to start drawing from the concentrate tank.     Three batches into the milk cans.   About 2 hours between batches.    Back to the house by 3:15 PM.

All tanks are empty.  The 575 gallons from Tuesday is finished.  One milk can is full and another started.

R/O finished by 11:30 AM.   The R/O is running a wash cycle now.  That takes several hours but shuts off automatically when completed.

12 tonight.  Tomorrow 37. But Sunday and Monday hit 50s again.

15 overnight.  Sunny but cold today only 31.  Checked the tanks first thing this morning.  We kept all the tanks liquid, no ice.  The R/O water tank had a heating tape so it didn’t freeze.  We took down the pipe from the storage tanks to the evaporator.  Wrapping in heating tape is a hassle and not 100% effective.  Turns out the pipe is pretty easy to take down and store in the heated R/O room.

Had to haul 100 more gallons of water to clean the R/O membrane.  We used the same hose setup we figured out yesterday in the snow storm.  That was a lot of trail an error. Today we were much more efficient.

By 11:00 we were running the cleaning cycle on the R/O.  By 1:30 PM we started concentrating.  Everything worked.   Our cleaning and off season storage were adequate.  Had a few leaks from loose fitting that we quickly fixed.

Sap went in the R/O at 2 degrees Brix and left at 5 degrees Brix.  That’s a 17:1 ratio.  By 2:00 PM we were cooking concentrate.  Took the first batch of syrup off at 5:00 and the second batch at 7:00 PM.  Cooking concentrate is faster.  Its worth the hassle of setting up the R/O.  Back to the house by 7:45 PM.  Took down the storage tank pipe again.

Tonight down to 7.  Still 200 gallons of sap for tomorrow, but that should go fast now that the R/O is ready to use.

What  a day.  Raining yet at 5:30 AM.  By 7:15 it turned to a wintery mix.  By 9:00 AM the temperature dropped just enough to give snow.   10 hours later its still snowing.   We also have a strong North wind giving us near blizzard conditions at times.  We’ve had a good 6” maybe more.  Through all of this we were preparing for and started cooking sap.

Started setting up the R/O.  Got the pipes up.  Then got a call from the location television station.  They wanted to come out to do a story.    They were here about 1 ½ hours.  Left at Noon.  We did get the evaporator fired up so the television station had something interesting.  Wanted to do that anyway to get a start on cooking.  With colder weather coming we wanted to get yesterday’s sap cooked.  That didn’t quite work out.

Spent all afternoon on the R/O.  Had to haul over water to prepare the membrane.  Had a 100 gallon tank for water but our hoses weren’t long enough to fill from the sink in the house.  Finally pieced together two hoses from the syrup building that we use with the pump.  Otherwise we would have to use buckets to fill the tank.  Trying to back trailer close to the building was also a challenge with the snow and soft ground under the snow.  At one point we dropped a screw driver into the water tank.  Had to take off outer shell, fleece liner and roll up shirt sleeves and reach into the water tank to  to fish out the screen driver.   Its mid-20s with a strong North wind and blowing snow and we’re standing outside with rolled up sleeves reaching into cold water.  You may get cold just reading that.

Got 100 gallons in the R/O water tank only to realize once again that water does not flow up hill.  Our new R/O water tank is too low.  We’ll need to block it up.

Now its 4:00 PM.  Snow and blowing hard.  Our hands have been warm, cold, wet, dry so many times today they don’t seem to register the differences any more.  Realized that our day of cooking with the R/O and then just cooking was a bust.  Its getting colder and we have to start thinking about how we keep the tanks from freezing.  We had one tank heater.  Picked up three more so three sap tanks and one water tank could have a heater.  The tank heaters arrived about 6:30 PM.  Got them inserted but we tripped one circuit breaker when we tried to connect two heaters on the same circuit.

Back to the house by 7:15 PM.  12 hours in the woods.  In a snow storm.  The things we do to make Maple Syrup.

Tomorrow and Friday are also cold but the weekend warms to the 50’s again.

Fog and rain today made the woods sloppy.  The snow is melting again.  It didn’t rain hard, but enough to make it sloppy.

Checked the buckets about 10:00 AM.  As expected the trees ran most of the night.  Only down to 30 overnight so not a hard freeze.  By dawn it was above freezing and the trees responded.  Most buckets over half full. Many were full.

Planned to head out collecting by 2:30 but we had to get the tanks ready.  Got water to the woods in the milk cans.  Washed stainless storage tanks.  Washed collecting tanks.    It was raining off and on too.  We were ready by 2:30.

We picked up 575 gallons of sap.  Good haul.  Tomorrow want to get the R/O ready and start cooking.

Tonight more snow is expected.  4”-6”.   And then turns colder and windy.  So crumby weather.

Down to 15 overnight.  Warmed to 40 today with sunshine.  Sap did start running yesterday, not a lot.   After it warmed today sap also started dripping a bit too.  But with 15 overnight it takes time to get going.  Only about 30 tonight with rain overnight.  We plan to pickup whatever sap is there tomorrow because then it turns colder until end of the week on Friday.

Got the collecting tank on the wagon and into the woods.  Had a little trouble getting the ball hitch off the tractor.   Starting cleaning the stainless steel storage tanks.  Prepared the brass valves with olive oil so they open/close better.

Also had a brief snow shower today.

The water softener was connected today.  Its ready when we need it for the initial wash of the membrane.

Went to the syrup building to work on setup.  Got into the kitchen, but the door to the evaporator room was locked.  Must have been bumped the manual lock when the door closed.  Its an old style lock that uses a skeleton key. Tried the other external doors.  All locked too.  We couldn’t get into our syrup building.  Finally figured out a way to get the sliding door open.   We don’t ever recall this happening before.  Syrup season always brings something new.

The task for the day was to repair firebrick in the evaporator and add a fitting to the new R/O water tank.  We fitted 12 new firebrick to replace the crumbling old brick that we not real firebrick.  The need to replace all the firebrick but that’s a task for the summer.  And we need to replace the metal side panels first.

After a trip the local hardware store we found the fittings we needed for the 325 gallon R/O water tank.    We had a 200 gallon tank for R/O water but that was too small.  We always ended up  using pails or the milk cans to store extra water.  We need to save the water for washing the membrane.

Successfully completed both tasks.  And placed the pans on the evaporator for cooking.  We’re ready to start cooking if needed.