MapleAcres

A super cell with tornadoes is moving in from the west at about 50 mph.  This could be a long night of storms.  Last night’s storms were non-events.  It rained this morning starting about 7:30 AM and lasted about 45 minutes.  Then became party cloudy and warm. 

Into the woods by 9:00 AM.  Staying late to slowly boil down the sap in the evaporator paid off.  We emptied the evaporator today.  Had about 20 gallons remaining.  We took the big pan off to rinse it.  Got water.  Replaced the pan and filled it with water.   Then we could boil the remaining sap on the front pan. 

Removing the big pan is a challenge.  It is about 4′ x 3′.  Its heavy gauge stainless steel so it weighs over 100 lbs.  Its hard to move.  We actually use ramps to slide it off the evaporator and onto the floor were we can more easily handle it.

By about 3:00 PM we had boiled the remaining sap down.  It should not take too long to finish on the gas finishing pan.  Not sure if we finish and bottle Monday or Tuesday. 

All the buckets and covers are in.  We hustled this afternoon as the weather looked threatening.  Some spouts are still in, but they won’t blow around or get wet. 

We can see the end of clean up now.  The buckets are in.  The sap ready for the finishing pan.  Tomorrow we work on cleaning the evaporator.  We have two days.

A two part storm is moving in starting around 1:00 AM.  On the front side of a warm front we get thunderstorms and possible hail.  Then later Sunday into Monday we get the cold front with more thunderstorms and possible tornadoes.  

We are in clean up mode.  A little less then half of the buckets and covers are back in storage.  We hope the storm does not blow around those remaining in the woods.  They are set at the base of the trees.

The storage tanks were empty by 8:30 PM.  We started at 7:30 AM.   We then took two hours to slowly boil down the evaporator.  Just enough fire to boil, but not enough to build a bed of coals.   We have to get the sap out of the evaporator and its faster to boil in the evaporator then over the gas fire. 

Tomorrow inbetween the rain we hope to get the remaining buckets and covers.  And we want to empty the evaporator and get water and cleaning solution in it.  We are down to three days and feel the pressure to finish everything.

Into the woods by 10:30 AM.  We decided to take down the buckets rather the boil.  There is no temptation to wait for more sap with the buckets down.  We do have to pull spouts yet.  We found good sap in the buckets too so we picked it up.  Got 110 gallons.  More to cook.  This gives us 3340 gallons for the season.  We should have over 75 gallons of finished syrup.   We should get close to 80.

By 3:30 PM we were done with the buckets and stated to work on our milk can of syrup.  Dumped the syrup into the finishing pan.   We ended up bottling 31 quarts.  

Tomorrow is warm and nice.  Saturday evening and into Sunday is rain/thunder storms.

The covers for the bottles did not arrive today.  We have to come with alternative plans for bottling in case the covers do not arrive tomorrow.

Into the woods by 7:30 AM.  Got back at 8:00 PM.  It did freeze last night.  But the trees didn’t drip much.  The season is ending.   This weekend its forecast for the high 60s.  Maybe some rain.  

Cooked down just a little over 200 gallons.  About 110 remain.  Took three batches off the evaporator.   We will try to bottle tomorrow.  Our bottle inventory this morning revealed we have enough bottles for over 80 gallons.  But we are short on covers.  We ordered 240 more which will hopefully arrive tomorrow to Saturday.

The snow is melting fast.  It was up to 50+ today.  Did not freeze.  It was sunny.  We knew we had to collect.  Started out just after 1:00 PM.  We picked up 330 gallons.  This gives us 3230 for the season.  Unless something unexpected changes with the weather today is likely the last collection.  We plan to start pulling taps on Friday. 

One of our trails through the woods had a lot of water and mud from the melting snow.  We avoided it because we didn’t want to get the tractor stuck and didn’t want to create big ruts.  It was  nice  to have a different pattern through the woods.  But it did mean we had to carry farther.

After collecting we stayed in the woods to clean the syrup pan.  This gives us a head start on tomorrow’s boiling. 

We have to check bottle inventory in the morning.  We need enough bottles and caps for about 18 gallons yet.   We should be OK with bottles but need to count caps carefully to verify we have enough.

After the last week today was an easy day.  Into the woods by 11:00 AM.  Back by 4:00 PM.  Our only task was to bottle 21 quarts today.  It was sunny and 50 today.  It did freeze last night, but the trees did not drip much.  Tomorrow we plan to collect.  That will likely be the last collection.   By Friday we have to pull taps and get into clean up mode.  The weather forecast seems to confirm our plans.  We loose freezing nights.  The 60s are coming. 

We have 233 quarts bottled now.  That is 58 gallons and 1 pint.  We have at least 2 gallons in the milk can yet.  Plus the evaporator and what we collect.    We are hoping for over 70 gallons.

It did not freeze last night.  It was mostly cloudy all day although the sun made a few brief appearances. The sky was clear when we came back in from the woods.  The forecast was for rain so again they got it incorrect.   It was up to about 38.

Into the woods by 8:30 AM to boil.  The goal for the day was to empty all the storage tanks.  Made it.  But it was 11:30 PM before we got back the house.  That’s another 15 hour day.  The past seven days have been the season’s rush.  We collected and boiled 1240 gallon of sap.  We did not bottle yesterday.  The focus was boiling.  We did get three visitors.  

We finally found a radio station we like.   We started with  70’s rock/metal.  Not that we really liked it, but it was that or country.   Yesterday we found a more modern rock/pop station.  The station plays current music with a tilt toward the pop side.  Still its more lively which helps the time pass.   Almost makes you want to dance away the time between firing in what we would call “The Maple Dance Party.”   Does the wood fire under the evaporator count as glow sticks?

We will bottle today.  Still not sure when we will collect again.  We are expecting a wind down to the season now.

We were in the woods until 11:00 PM last night.   Into the woods by 8:00 AM today to start cooking for the day.  Got over 200 gallons boiled through.  We hope tomorrow to get the tanks empty.  

The weather could not make up its mind today.   Started raining around 8:00 AM.  Then turned to snow, sleet, thunder and lighting,  a brief appearance by the sun, then back to cloudy.  It was about 36 or 37.  If the temperature had been colder we would have had a few inches of snow.

We bottled another 30 quarts.  It is a little easier doing the larger batches because cleanup of the finishing pan and filter press is the same no matter the size of the batch.  Larger batches mean less frequent cleanup.

We are changing our plans to return to Washington DC.  Originally we went back tomorrow April 4.  But we will not be done by then.  We are now planning to return April 13.  That does mean we start cleanup for the season by this Friday the 8th.

Advances in technology have allowed us to write and post this article to the website right from the woods.  No, we do not have an Internet connection in the woods.   Rather we tether our smartphone to our netbook and use the Internet connection on the smartphone to post to the website.  Or do other Internet work.

It did not freeze last night.  Today was mostly sunny and into the 50s.  The forecast was for cloudy weather.  Got that wrong.  Tomorrow rain is forecast.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM for what we knew would be a busy day.  Got our pan cleaned and had a fire going by 8:30 AM.  Checked some buckets: mostly full, as expected.   Pushed hard on boiling because we knew we would need the storage tank space.  We also had to bottle: we had a milk can full of syrup.    By 10:30 AM the syrup was on the finishing pan.  The stage was set, would we get help?  By 11:30 AM we were still alone.

Between 12:30 PM and 1:00 PM all kinds of people showed up to help.  Still not sure where they all came from.  One was experienced at driving tractors, so that assignment was easy.  There was a family with two boys.  A nephew also came.  And two sisters.   So now collecting, cooking and bottling were all happening at the same time.  Much different from earlier in the week when this was a solo operation.  It was nice not to collect. 

We bottled 30 quarts and 1 pint.  We also collected 585 gallons of sap.  All our storage tanks are full.  We have about 30 hours of cooking ahead of us.

And visitors came.  Three or four families.  The kids seemed to enjoy playing in the mud.  Gave everyone the tour.  They enjoyed it.  We enjoy having visitors.

Down to the 20s overnight, but again warmed to the mid 40s.  Sunny all day.  We were expecting clouds to move in after noon.  Into the woods by 8:30 AM to start boiling.  Boiled down over 200 gallons.  About that much remains yet.  Took four batches off the evaporator.   The milk can is full of syrup. 

Tomorrow and Sunday will be busy days.  Tomorrow we have to cook, collect and bottle.  We have now about 8 gallons to bottle.  We expect to collect over 400 gallons of sap tomorrow.  We should maybe have collected today but we couldn’t get help and did not feel like collecting the woods solo again.  And we have to cook down the 200 gallons we have plus the fresh sap we collect tomorrow.    It will be a full scale operation of all phases of syrup production.