MapleAcres

Up to 63 today.  Only 40s overnight.  Its interesting to see the day change when you are outside all day.  Daybreak was sunny, but quickly got cloudy.  By 11:00 AM it rained.  Not a lot but got the surfaces wet.  By 2:30 PM it cleared and got sunny.   Tonight close to freezing and cooler tomorrow: only 40s.  We are hoping for one more sap run maybe by Saturday.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM.  Its a different routine cooking with the R/O.   Still clean the syrup pan first, but then switch on the R/O.  225 gallons of sap becomes 112 gallons of concentrate.   By 10:00 you are feeding sap into the evaporator.  Batches of syrup become ready quickly.  By 3:00 PM our concentrate tank was empty.

We bottled syrup at 3:30 PM.  By 5:15 we were back in the farm house.    By comparison without the R/O it would have been 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM before finishing both today and tomorrow.

It felt like a sauna in the syrup building today.  When its warm outside the heat from the steam makes it even warmer inside.

Down to 25 overnight.  That was unexpected.  Started out sunny, but clouds moved in by 10:00 AM.  Later this afternoon it cleared.  Temperature up to 48.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM.  Busy day.  Cleaned syrup pan.  Prepped the R/O.  Started the fire.  Ran the R/O.   Had to empty a milk can into the finishing pan so we had room for today’s syrup.    Also managed the R/O water.   Filled everything we could and prepared water for washing the tanks.   Tried to save and use whatever we could as dumping it doesn’t make sense.  Batches of syrup become ready much quicker with concentrate so you are constantly monitoring.  It was 1:30 PM before we could even sit down.

By 3:00 PM our concentrate tank was empty and we were ready to collect.   Picked up 510 gallons.  But a lot of that run was from yesterday.   It tired to drip today but did not really get going.  Some taps are drying out.    The warm weather the next few days will not help.   This weekend its forecast for a return to freezing nights. Hoping for one more good run for the season.

Tonight does not freeze.  Tomorrow warm and rain possible.  Running an R/O wash tonight.  That will take 7 to 8 hours.

Into the house by 5:30 PM.

Warm again today.  It  rained last night about 10:00 PM, but did not last long.  No sleet as forecast.   It did manage to freeze for a little while as there was ice on the puddles.  But was not a hard freeze.  Sunny and  up to 50 during the day.  Tomorrow and Thursday are also warm.  But the weekend is forecast for a return to freezing nights.

We did not collect but there will be sap tomorrow.  Checked the buckets during the day and many were half full.

Cooked all day.  175 gallons of concentrate which is the equivalent of 350 gallons of raw sap.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM.  Back to the house by 7:00 PM.

Collected 515 gallons of sap today.  With this sap we are about 300 gallons of sap away from an average season.  2.5 Brix for raw sap.  Ran the R/O and got 175 gallons of concentrate at 5.0 Brix.  Still have 185 gallons of raw sap in the storage tank.  The soap wash did help the R/O  preform better.  We did not need to ran at 500 psi.   Doing a warm wash this evening.  The R/O will turn off when the water temperature reaches 113 degrees which may take until midnight.

Checked the woods at 12:30 PM.  Found a lot of almost full buckets.  Washed out the collecting and storage tanks.  Started collecting about 2:45 PM.  Finished by 5:30 PM.  Finished pumping the collecting tank in the storage tanks and getting the R/O into its wash cycle.  Back to the house by 6:45 PM.  Tomorrow we cook.

Today was sunny and warmed to 53.  Must have fell to upper 20s overnight because there was ice on puddles this morning.  The sap ran started late yesterday.  We noticed yesterday the trees were trying to run.   After our sleet yesterday the temperature warmed to about 40.

Tonight we get sleet again late.  Tomorrow not as warm.

25 overnight. The day started okay.  By 10:45 AM it turned cold, windy and we got sleet.  Late afternoon warmed to upper 30’s but stayed cloudy and windy.  The trees dripped a little.  If it had been warmer there would have been a run.

Last night about 10:15 PM we went back to the woods to run a 20 minute rinse of the R/O after the wash cycle.  Wanted to get it flushed out and not sit overnight.

Only activity in the woods: we brought in the bottled syrup from yesterday.

Down to 11 overnight.  Sunny today with a high of 35.  Too cold for sap although late in the day the sun warmed the trees enough to start dripping.    Tonight is mid 20’s and tomorrow is 43 but snow/rain.

Brought back the syrup we bottled yesterday.  And prepared for bottling today.  Bottled plastic quarts today.  They travel better then glass.

While bottling we also ran a wash cycle on the R/O.  It takes hours to warm the water as it cycles through the R/O.   We want to get a tank heater for next season to save several hours.

We need about 850 gallons of sap yet to have an average season.  Hopefully this week we get some sap runs.

Down to 12 overnight.  Sunny, but windy and cold all day. It was cold in the syrup building even with the evaporator going.  Maybe 26 for the high.  Tonight cold again with lows in teens.  The ground freezing did dry up all the mud from the snow the other night.   Supposed to reach 38 tomorrow, but starting so cold its doubtful sap will flow.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM.   Caught up on cooking.   By 3:30 PM our concentrate tank was empty.  We started the finishing pan by 1:10 PM so it was ready by 3:15 PM to filter and bottle.  Bottled 24 qts, 9 pts and 12 8 oz bottles.

Back to the house by 5:00 PM.  The R/O saved us about 13 hrs of cooking over the past two days.

Did not freeze last night.  Cloudy.  Windy.  Snow flurries today.  Up to 34.  Tonight down to the teens.  No new sap.  Spent the day cooking.  Or trying to cook.

Into the woods by 8:15 AM.  We washed the syrup pan last night so we were ready to go this morning.  By 9:00 AM ready to run in sap.  But the flow was restricted.  We thought frozen pipes so used the propane torch on the elbows and other places sap may accumulate and freeze.  Flow still restricted.  Got the pipe wrenches to take apart the pipes looking for obstructions like trigs or bark.  Reconnected and tried again.  Still restricted.  The obstruction had to be by valve because we could get sap at other joints.  Took off the valve.  Struggled to get that off.   Did not feel any obstructions.  Blew into and out came the obstruction.  Reassembled the pipes and got back to cooking.  This problem took two hours to resolve.  We lost about 2 ½/ hours cooking time.

About 3:30 PM we started filtering and bottling.  Needed to be done, but lost more cooking time.  Bottled 24 qts and 17 pts.

At 6:00 PM we started the R/O to empty the large storage tank.  About 125-150 gallons of concentrate to cook tomorrow.    We filled a milk can with syrup today.   Back to the house by 8:15 PM.

Picked up 525 gallons at 2.0 Brix.  It ran into late last night.  Then started again today after the snow.

We got about 1 ½ inches of snow early this morning.  Everything was white for a few hours.   At 6:00 AM it was snowing pretty hard.  The snow stopped by 7:30 AM.   It was cloudy all day but warmed to the low 40s.   The snow melted and sap ran.  Because of the R/O we had a day off from cooking today.

We checked the buckets around 1:00 PM.  A lot were full.  Called everyone for collecting and headed out by 3:00 PM.   Had a 225 gallon tank full by 4:00 PM.  Started the R/O to process it while heading out for the second tank otherwise we would not have enough tank space to hold the sap.   We now have 175 gallons of concentrate at 4.0 or 4.2 Brix.  And about 175 gallons of raw sap at 2.0 Brix.  We will hold off running that through the R/O until we finish cooking the 175 gallons of concentrate.

And water.  We now have excess water.  That has never happened before.  Every drop of water ever used from all the past seasons came from milk cans hauled on the tractor from the farmhouse.  The R/O gives us water.  Some we need for cleaning the R/O but the rest we can use.  Or dump, which seems just wrong considering all the water we hauled over the years.

Tonight 28.  Tomorrow 37, but then turns colder with lows in the teens.