14 overnight then down to 10 at sunrise. Sunny and up to 33 by late afternoon. A little melting. Cold again tonight but starts to warm tomorrow. Trees actually had 4 PSI.
More snow overnight. Since Friday we’ve had 8” according to he National Weather Service. A lot of that snow came overnight. Mostly cloudy today with high of 29. Temperature falls to the teens tonight.
Checked the woods at 4:30 PM. Increased the R/O room heater setting to accommodate the colder temperature overnight.
Into the woods by 9:15 AM to light the fire on the finishing pan. Then brought over the filter press, filter aid, kitchen heater, bottling pan and other things we needed for bottling.
Syrup ready for filtering by 10:40 AM. Started bottling by 11:15 AM. Done by 12:15 PM. Then started on the second milk can. Finished bottling it by 3:05 PM. Bottle 16.5 gallons in total.
Snowed all day. Up to 37, but atmosphere must have been colder. Continues snowing over night too.
Trees did run some. PSI up to 6.
Back to the farmhouse by 3:30 PM.
UPS delivered the pump yesterday about 6:00 PM. The snow storm delayed them because UPS usually delivers around Noon. But we got it.
Into the woods by 9:00 AM to get a tank of water to test the pump after replacement. Took at little while to figure out the electrical connections on the new pump. When the pump starts it should reach 25 PSI within a few seconds, but took longer then expected. Likely because the pump needed to change itself with water first. But all is well. We need sap next to verify that the new feed pump can meet the needs of the high pressure pump.
This pump from Goulds is widely used in the maple industry. It’s propellers are all stainless steel. And parts are replaceable. It was expense at $1042, but should last. It’s the third feed pump for the R/O.
Washed the finishing pan. Brought over two milk cans of water. We plan to bottle tomorrow.
Snow forecast again for tonight and tomorrow with 3″ – 6” possible by Monday morning. 26 overnight. Cloudy all day. Did reach 36, but cold north east wind. Time change tonight: Spring ahead an hour.
Back to the farmhouse by 2:30 PM.
About 8” of wet snow over night. Snow started by 7:00 PM yesterday and lasted until Noon today. Between 4:30 AM and 9:00 AM it was accumulating at ½” per hour. We were at the syrup building and that’s what we observed clearing the sidewalk in front of the building.
Into the woods by 4:30 AM. Evaporator going by 5:15 AM. Three batches in the milk can. Finished by 1:30 PM. Back to the farmhouse by 1:45 PM.
Still waiting for the pump. UPS got a late start because of the weather. It’s still showing as out for delivery by 7:00 PM March 10 (today.)
The day cooking
5:30 AM 15.5”
6:00 AM 15.25”
7:00 AM 13.5”
7:00 AM 0 PSI
7:35 AM batch
8:00 AM 11.25”
9:00 AM 9”
10:00 AM 7”
10:00 AM 0 PSI
10:35 AM batch
11:00 AM 5.25”
12:00 PM 3.25”
12:00 PM 0 PSI
12:40 PM batch
1:00 PM .75”
1:30 PM done
Into the woods at 2:30 PM to clean tanks for collecting at 3:00 PM. Collected 160 gallons, but the Brix is down: 1.5 Brix. That’s disappointing. It’s the second collection that Brix is down. Trees were not dripping today when we collected. All the other days they were dripping. Collecting yesterday wouldn’t have yielded as much. And now the buckets are empty before the storm. We were right to wait a day before collecting.
A snow storm is predicated for later tonight and into tomorrow. 5”-8” predicated. Cold north east wind now. Cloudy and 35 today. Froze overnight but not sure of low. Sunny early, but then clouds moved in.
Back to the farmhouse by 4:15 PM.
Into the woods by 5:00 AM. Started the fire in the evaporator by 5:30 AM. 30 overnight, but dropped to 25 at sunrise. Sunny and up to 42 today.
5:30 AM 21”
6:00 AM 21”
6:30 AM -5 PSI
7:00 AM 18.75”
8:00 AM 17”
8:10 AM batch
9:00 AM 14.5”
9:00 AM 9 PSI
10:00 AM 12.5”
10:15 AM batch
11:00 AM 10”
12:00 PM 8.5”
12:55 PM batch
1:00 PM 6.25”
2:00 PM 3.75”
2:00 PM 6 PSI
3:00 PM 1.75”
3:25 PM batch
3:30 PM .5”
3:45 PM done
Snow forecast for Thursday evening into Friday. R/O pump scheduled to arrive Friday.
Back the farmhouse by 4:00 PM.
30 overnight, but dropped to 28 at sunrise. Sunny and 38 today. Out at 3:00 PM to collect. Picked up 210 gallons, but sugar content down to 1.5 Brix. That’s 57:1.
Ordered a new R/O pump from the manufacture, Lapierre in Swanton, VT. The propellers and other internal parts are stainless steel. Should be better than plastic. Not sure when it arrives, but hoping for Friday. That’s 3 days away.
Also found out the Grundfos pump is prone to burn out the bearings. They can be replaced, but it’s still down time. We don’t need down time with burned out bearings.
Checked the woods at Noon. Dripping. Pressure 9 PSI. Collected at 3:00 PM. 210 gallons, but only 1.5 Brix.
Cook tomorrow. Should be about 10 hours. Back to the farmhouse by 4:15 PM.
Into the woods by 4:30 AM. Cooked 265 gallons. Back to the farmhouse by 6:00 PM. 13 ½ hours. The only consolation is making Grade A Golden syrup. We haven’t made Grade A Golden before. This is special. Wet snow over night. Just enough to make things white. Switched between snow and rain. Cloudy all day. 34.
The day cooking
5:30 AM 22”
6:00 AM 21.75”
7:00 AM 20” PSI 4
7:25 AM batch
9:00 AM 16”
10:00 AM 13.5”
10:15 AM 16.5” Added 8 pails of sap
10:25 AM batch
12:00 PM 12.5”
12:50 PM batch
1:00 PM 10.75”
2:00 PM 8”
3:00 PM 6.25”
4:00 PM 4.5”
5:00 PM 2.75”
5:45 PM .5”
5:45 PM batch
6:00 PM done
Into the woods by 5:15 AM. 28 overnight. Sunny and 42 today. Snow in the woods. Trees dripping. Steam rising from the syrup building. It’s the kind of picturesque day people think about when they think of maple syrup.
Washed the storage tank first then pumped sap from the collecting tank. Got the evaporating going by 6:30 AM. Had a batch ready by 7:00 AM. The evaporator was very sweet from yesterday.
Cooked hard all day because we wanted to get the sap pushed through. Very nice syrup. This is could Grade A, Golden. We’ll grade after bottling.
Finished cooking by 1:45 PM. Back to the farmhouse by 2:00 PM for a brief rest because we had to go out collecting at 3:00 PM. Brought two milk cans of water to the syrup building when we took the tractor over.
Collected 265 gallons at 2 Brix. Trees ran well. The storage tank holds 225 gallons so we have the rest in 5 gallons pails in the building. We’ll empty in the morning as we cook. Pumped the sap into the storage tank this afternoon yet so we are ready to cook in the morning. 265 gallons is 13 hours of cooking at 20 gallons/hour.
The day cooking
7:00 AM batch
7:00 AM 16.5”
8:00 AM 14.25”
9:00 AM 12.0”
9:00 AM 15 PSI tree pressure
9:20 AM batch
10:00 AM 9.25”
10:50 AM batch
11:20 AM 6.5”
12:00 PM 5”
12:55 PM batch
1:00 PM 2.5”
1:30 PM 1.25”
1:45 PM done
Rain/snow possible overnight. Low of 30. Cloudy tomorrow.