MapleAcres

Only 35 overnight.  Upper 40s today.  Partly cloudy.  Sap dripped all night.  We collected again this afternoon at 3:00 PM.  Picked up 310 gallons at 2 degrees Brix.

Into the woods by 7:00 AM.  Today’s goal: get the R/O operational.  Started the day cleaning the syrup pan of the evaporator to keep in clear of nitre.  Then moved on to installing the membrane in the R/O and running a long rinse cycle to get it ready.  By the feed pump would not start.   The R/O had power because indicators on the control panel were on.  But the pump would not start.  We stored the R/O in house since last April so it couldn’t have ice in pump.  We test turning it over with a screw driver and it moved freely.  Contacted our dealer who put us in contact with the manufacturer.  The manufacturer said it sounded like it was only getting 110 Volts.  It needs 220 Volts.    Called our electrician.   They arrived in about 30 minutes.  Confirmed it was only getting 110 Volts.   Checked the circuit breaker box.  Loose wire on the circuit breaker for the R/O.   After fastening it, the pump started right up.

After the long rinse cycle we were ready to start concentrating.  Switched all the values for concentrating and started the pumps.  Now the high pressure pump was not generating any pressure.    It ran, but no pressure.  It should run at between 200 PSI and 500 PSI.   After troubleshooting for about 2 hours we realized we missed a part on the membrane.  There is a small plastic cap with two O rings that fits on the bottom of the membrane.    Took out the membrane and added the plastic cap with O rings. Then high pressure pump generated pressure. 

It was about 2:00 PM before we could start concentrating.  We had been boiling old school since early in the day so we could make progress on our 265 gallons from yesterday.  We had 11 inches in the tank that went though the R/O.  We were getting 6 degrees Brix on the R/O.

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Back to the house by 6:15 PM.

Tomorrow we start the day with the R/O on the 310 gallons from today.

Picked up 265 gallons of sap.  2.5 degrees Brix.   

Only down to 30 or 31 overnight.  The day started cloudy.    Around 9:00 AM the sun appeared.   Clouds move back in but we had brief periods of sun.  Helped warm the trees to start running.   We went out about 2:30 to collect.  Dumped ice that was in the buckets.     Not as big a run as last weekend but we take whatever we can.

We get a warm weather patten the new few days.  Highs in the 40s or even 50s.  But no freezing nights.    That’s not good for sap runs.  There is still frost in the ground so we will wait it out.   We’ve had warm spells during past seasons.   

Installed the wash tank heater on the R/O.  Should reduce wash time from 8 hours to under 1 hour. 

Filled the R/O holding  tank with water.  Tomorrow we run a cold wash cycle to prepared the R/O for use.  Then  we plan to use it on the 265 gallons we picked up today.

It may not freeze tonight.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

4-5 inches.  Started about 6:00 PM and snowed most the night.

Cloudy today.  Up to 37, but felt damp and cold.  The trees tried to drip.   We need a sunny day to get them going.   Tonight forecast lows in mid-20s.  Tomorrow sunny and low 40s.  That’s the weather pattern we need. 

Moved a tap from a dry tree to a tree close the building we missed.  Used the hand brace to drill the hole.  Don’t miss using it for all the holes.   

Plowed the snow in the yard with the H.  The H is starting fine.

3 overnight.  Up to 38 during the day, but it was cloudy. And with the cold days the trees need to time to warm up again.  No sap.

Into the woods by 2:00 PM to clean the kitchen.  Then by 3:30 emptied the milk can into the finishing pan and started the burners.  Take about 2 hours to finish.  Got all our bottling equipment ready while waiting for the syrup to finish.  We go a new hydrometer this year.  It has both the Baume and Brix scales.

By 5:30 the syrup was ready.  Filtered it.  Then into the bottling pan.  We bottled 30 quarts.  Back to the  house by 7:30 PM.

Its snowing this evening.  2-4 inches expected.  Tomorrow up to 38 again, but cloudy.  Looks like Sunday may be a sap day with partly sunny and 41 forecast.

After five busy days to kick off the season we had a day of rest today.  Low overnight 0.  Today was cloudy with a few snow flurries.  Cleared late afternoon.  Temperature around 30.  No melting however.  Tomorrow is also cooler.  But over the weekend the weather pattern changes again.  We get warmer.   Forecasts are for upper 40s.

Got a new tank of propane gas.  And a refill for our small propane torch.  We use the torch to help thaw frozen pipes.

We plan to get the R/O setup this weekend so we are ready for the next sap runs.  We got a heating element for the wash tank.   This should reduce the time we spend waiting for the water to warm to 90 degrees through friction from circulating through the pumps.  The heating element runs at 220 V and can heat the water in the wash tank in 20 minutes or so.  The complete wash cycle should take around 30 minutes compared to 8 hours without the heating element.

It was -5 last night.  We had 225 gallons of sap in the collecting tank.  The challenge was to keep it liquid in the collecting tank, as it was pumped into the storage tank, and as it flowed through the pipes into the evaporator.  If it froze at any point we were finished because we didn’t have the means to thaw it when its so cold.  With a little planning we were able to prevent freezing.

We put a tank heater in the collecting tank overnight.  That kept it mostly ice free expect for a little on the top.

We used warm water to prime the pump so it wouldn’t freeze. And we waited to prime the pump until we were ready to use it.

Cold pipes can cause sap to freeze as moves through.  We started a fire in the evaporator. Took apart the pipes and rested them in the steam raising from the evaporator.  This warmed them enough to prevent the sap freezing as it moved through.

It was cold all day expect between 2:30 and 4:30 when it hit 28.  Tonight is cold again: its 5 already and may get colder.

Into the woods by 7:30 AM.  Back to the house by 6:50 PM.  All tanks are empty.  One  milk can full of syrup.  A second milk can about half full.

We’ve had a busy start to this season.

Snow must have started around 3:00 AM.  It snowed until 3:00 PM.  We got about 4 inches.  But we also had wind with it to blow the snow all around.  This was unexpected.   It was cold too: about 18.  We expected the cold but not the snow.    Even though it was cold and snowy we had work to do.

We had sap so we went into the woods to cook by 7:00 AM.  A slow start because our pipes were frozen.  Each year we re-lean that liquid does not flow up hill.   We didn’t properly drain the pipe last night so sap froze in it.   We took the pipe apart and actually held it over the fire in the evaporator to thaw out.

Three batches into the milk can.  Another 225 gallons boiled through.  225 remain for tomorrow.  Tomorrow is also cold.  Low around 10 with high about 25.

A truck arrived with our supplies: bottles, filter aid, hydrometer, R/O tank heater.    And we got our R/O membrane.  A neighbor picked it up for us when he got his supplies.   We will wait until the next run to use the R/O.

And the TV station came again this year to do a story.  Here is a link to that story.
http://fox11online.com/news/local/lakeshore/syrup-season-begins-early-in-manitowoc-county

Connected the gas tank so we can use the gas burners for heating water.   Moved the tank heater to the collecting tank so its ice free for tomorrow.

Back at the house by 6:00 PM.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM to get the evaporator setup.  With 625 gallons of sap in the tanks we needed to start the evaporator and cook.  Took 2 hours to get things cleaned and setup.  By 10:00 AM we ran sap into the evaporator and lite the fire.   By 10:30 we had a boil.  Cooked  until 5:00 PM.  Emptied the 175 gallon tank.   We use the 175 gallon tank to hold concentrate from the R/O so emptied it first so its available when we get the membrane.

Change in the weather pattern today.  22 overnight.  Cloudy, but warmed to upper 30s about 10:00 AM.  Trees started dripping a bit.  But then a front moved through accompanied by a gusty winds.   The skies cleared and the temperature dropped.    By 3:00 PM it was 27.  The rest of the week the forecast is 20’s for the highs, teens for the lows.   No sap.  But we’ll get caught up cooking.

We knew the sap would run all night because it didn’t freeze.    But we thought we could wait with collecting until Monday.   We checked the woods at 1:00 PM.  It couldn’t wait.  We called for help and prepared the tanks.  Set out collecting by 2:15.  Finished by 5:00 PM and had 625 gallons.  Quite a few full buckets.   We don’t know the Brix yet because we haven’t got all our tools and supplies in the woods. We’ll check it tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning we have to get the building ready and setup the evaporator.  We have to start cooking.  Without the R/O we have 30 hours of cooking ahead of us. 

The weather is forecast to turn colder for the week so we aren’t expecting sap.  It snowing this evening. Not supposed to accumulate.