Lots of work ahead shoveling around the syrup building, opening the trails in the woods, and dumping sap from the buckets. Started shoveling and opening trails with the tractor.
Low-20s overnight. Cloudy and mid-30s by late afternoon.
Low teens overnight. Might have hit single digits. Sunny and mid-20s during the day. With the snow and cold it looks like a day in January.
3 ½ hours to plow the yard this morning. Because the hydraulics on the H are bad, it takes more time and effort to plow.
Drifts were over 4’ in front of the garage. And 3’ in the East driveway. The mailbox tipped over. The snowplow didn’t hit it, but the momentum of the snow ejecting from the plow knocked it over.
We didn’t plow in the woods yet. We have to open the road to the syrup building and drive the collecting trails through the woods to pack down the snow.
Blizzard continued overnight. Some reports of 22” of snow. It raged this morning. Winds gusts of 40-50 mph along with heavy snow. Three and four foot drifts in the yard. But the North wind blew away much of the snow from the West driveway. By Noon the blizzard slowly started to diminish and the sky brighten. By 3:15 PM the sun appeared although the wind continued. Mid-20s. Tonight in the single digits.
Checked the woods and syrup building by 8:00 AM. Moved the milk cans of syrup into the heated R/O room to prevent freezing since the temperature will been single digits, teens or low 20s for several days.
A month ago it was 55 and we started tapping. Extreme weather fluctuations are part of climate change.
About 6” of snow overnight. Then a lull. Snow returned around 1:00 PM and increased in intensity. Snowing hard now. And with wind is picking up. The blizzard part of the storm is here. Time is just before 4:00 PM. Expecting 18” of snow.
We did check the woods this morning to confirm the R/O wash cycle completed; it did. Reached 113 this cycle. Not sure why the temperature only reached 110 the other day.
April 13-15, 2018 we had Blizzard Evelyn. Its arrival delayed the return to Washington, DC.
Into the woods by 5:30 AM to cook. It was cold overnight: low to mid-20s. Forgot to drain the line from the storage tank to the R/O. It had slushy ice. The R/O feed pump would run, but the high pressure pump wouldn’t start until that ice was removed because there wasn’t enough sap flow to sustain the pump. It was 7:15 AM before the R/O was going.
The R/O was not preforming. The pH wash didn’t restore performance. We limped along until 11:00 AM then swapped from the FilmTec membrane to the CDL membrane. The spare membrane didn’t preform much better. Both the concentrate and permeate were under .5 gal/min. Likely closer to 0.2 gal/min. The gauge doesn’t have graduations for anything less than .5 gal/min.
We checked the permeate: no sugar in it. Approximately 3.5 Brix on the concentrate. If the flow was higher we could even tolerate the lower Brix. The R/O is rated at 125 gal/hr. Real world is 90 to 100 gal/hr. We were getting 25-30 gal/hr.
Gave up on the R/O by 1:00 PM to concentrate on cooking old style. Dividing attention between the R/O and firing diminishes effectiveness of both. This became a 14 ½ hour day. If the R/O performed to specifications, it should have been a six to seven hour day.
After three batches into the milk can, we returned to amber color as the sap from the warm days was cooked off.
Sunny and mid-30s by afternoon. Some tress dripped, but we have to abandon that sap. Didn’t have the resources to collect and with the forecast snowstorm, couldn’t cook it.
Since replacing the Grundfos feed pump with the Goulds feed pump three seasons ago, we’ve had performance problems with R/O. We suspect the Goulds pump is over-sized for a single 4” membrane and pushes more sap through then the re-circulation pump can handle. We’ll have down time this week because of the snowstorm and then cold weather with single digits at night, and plan to investigate how these pump specifications differ.
The day cooking.
7:15 AM R/O start
8:00 AM 2 3/4″
8:20 AM batch
9:00 AM 4 1/4″
10:00 AM 4 ¼”
10:15 AM batch
11:00 AM 4″
11:00 AM switch to CDL membrane
11:35 AM resume R/O
12:00 PM 4″
12:55 PM batch
1:05 PM stopped R/O
2:00 PM 3 3/4″
3:00 PM 1 1/4″
3:10 PM batch, amber color returned
4:00 PM 8″ raw sap
5:00 PM 6 ½”
5:35 PM batch
6:00 PM 4 1/2″
7:00 PM 2 1/2″
7:30 PM 2″
7:45 Pm done
Back to the farmhouse by 8:00 PM.
Blizzard warning in effect for tomorrow through Monday. 8”-18” forecast with winds 40-50 mph. We are on the trailing edge of the storm. 18”-24” expected 50 miles to the North in the center of the storm track.
Into the woods by Noon. Started collecting at 12:45 PM. 325 gallons. Solo. Pumping out the full tank delays us by 50 minutes because the transfer pump is slow. We work ahead emptying buckets and leaving the full collecting pails by the road to dump when we drive by.
Trees dripped overnight as we anticipated. But the run is done now. Don’t expect more sap until next week after the snow storm has passed.
Forecast still shows between 8”-18” of snow. Final amount depends on the storm track.
Back to the farmhouse by 5:00 PM.
Into the woods by 9:00 AM to check if the pH wash cycle finished. It did finish. Then swept the floors and other tidying up in the building.
Back to the woods by 10:45 AM to empty the buckets. About a pint in most buckets, but it was ice and we had to wait for it to melt before emptying. That sap was in the buckets for several warmer days so didn’t want to keep it. We are ready for fresh new sap.
Upper 20s overnight. Sunny and 40 during the day. Trees started dripping by Noon. Likely drip all night because temperature forecast for the mid-30s overnight. Hoping to collect tomorrow.
Ran the rinse cycle on the R/O this afternoon. The R/O needs a longer rinse cycle after a pH wash. Also washed the finishing pan so it’s ready.
Light snow forecast for tonight. No accumulation expected. But Saturday night through Monday heavy snow/blizzard is possible. 12”-18”. It’s still several days away. We’ve seen these storm forecasts before only to fizzle out with an inch or two. Monitoring the forecast.
Back to the farmhouse by 3:00 PM.
Mid-30s overnight. Cloudy with light rain turning to light snow by 11:00 AM.
Into the woods by 11:00 AM to prepare the pH wash. But the yesterday’s wash cycle was still running. Only reached 110 in almost 20 hours. Not sure why. The spare membrane was from a different manufacturer that has different specifications.
We let the R/O cool for three hours before rinsing. Didn’t want to shock the sensors with cold water while the R/O was 110. Waited for it to cool to the 50s.
Swapped back the FilmTec membrane then prepared the pH wash. We got a digital pH meter to better dose the wash water. We want 11-12 pH with closer to 12 pH better. Settled at 11.6 pH. We hope the pH wash restores membrane performance. Better sap will help too.
Back and forth from the farmhouse to the woods several times rinsing, swapping and preparing the pH wash cycle. Done for the day by 4:00 PM.
This is why we have a spare membrane. After 35 minutes, the R/O stopped because it reached the maximum of 500 PSI. A safety switch engages at 500 PSI to stop the R/O. We weren’t surprised because we noticed the pressure increasing during the short time the R/O was running and anticipated it would reach maximum pressure. The membrane was fouling. The warm weather degraded yesterday’s sap, although it didn’t look or smell off. We retrieved the spare membrane from the farmhouse and swapped it into the R/O. This membrane handled the sap. It’s specifically designed for R/Os used with maple syrup. Running the wash cycle on the R/O now with the spare membrane. We’ll swap membranes tomorrow again and run a pH wash on the fouling membrane.
Into the woods by 5:30 AM. Upper 30s overnight. Windy, cloudy and low 40s during the day.
The day cooking.
6:15 Am R/O start
6:50 AM change to spare membrane
8:00 AM restart R/O
8:45 AM batch
9:00 AM 2 ¼”
10:10 AM batch
10:15 AM 3 ½”
11:00 AM 4”
11:50 AM batch
11:50 AM R/O done
12:00 PM 4 ¾”
1:00 PM 2 ¼”
1:15 PM batch
1:30 PM ½”
1:30 PM done
Syrup color changed from light amber to dark amber. The color change also caused by the warm weather effecting the sap.
Back to the farmhouse by 1:45 PM.
Upper 40s overnight. Sunny and mid-60s during the day. Into the woods by 10:00 AM for rinse cycle on the R/O. Checked a few buckets. Some 2/3 or more. We collected two days ago: Friday. Saturday was wet, cloudy and warm. Sunday was warm too. Not sap weather. But the trees will run when they are ready.
Collected at 2:15 PM. Solo. 260 gallons. Back to the farmhouse by 6:15 PM.
Cook tomorrow. Temperature returns to more normal ranges. Some snow also forecast.