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well I spent yesterday thawing out my buckets in the house enough that the blocks could be dumped into a pot over a burner and then pumping the warmed sap into the tank to thaw out the iceberg in there only to have temps dip into the 20s last night. I'm kind afraid to go look see if it refroze :)
on the plus side I collected 15 gallons just from yesterday which bodes well for when the weather turns again. Hopefully the 100 gals in the tank is still wet enough to boil today.
ok...went thru about 90 gallons in a little less than 8 hours, so 10-12 gph I figure. Not bad for a 1/2 pint. The blower made all the difference but ye gods does this thing eat wood! I burned 40% of what I put up. The 50 gallon batches will take less of course but any kind of decent sap year means I have to cut and split another amount at least equal to whatever I had put up. Also, pallets. My stack temps ranged between 900-1000. Too much heat may be getting out the stack so I'm going to add a layer of brick in the back to force it closer to the pan.
And my digital thermometer bit it. Couldn't handle the steam. It was brand new, too. Gonna have to see what others use. I can't use a threaded analog as the connection is out of the sap....unless I screw it in and then bend the stem down.
The only other thing is my door needs insulating badly....the pvc pipe connecting the fan to the exhaust pipe won't hold up under that heat. Gotta change that out for metal.
I should be able to start drawing/finishing wednesday.
Spent a bunch of time on evaporator maintenance that I was not planning on. Didn't get to boil, but, not too worried as temps are so low everything shoudl stay fresh until next weekend. I am trying to pick up a new 275 gallon tote to hold sap in as I am running out of tank space. Nest weekend is going to be a lot of serious boiling as I try and catch up.
Sam
Tried to empty the buckets last night as I will be out of town for a few days, but, they were rock solid and would not give up their sapsickles. I swapped buckets that were full with less full buckets so there was additional capacity on the better flowing trees. From the looks of the weather I should be able to empty them all out when I get back in at midnight so that they can keep flowing for the end of the week.
Sam
Pulled 50 gallons tonight...but I'm not going to boil til saturday...I have ice in the tank to hold the cool.
Back in town and emptied most fo my buckets this morning. had a few issues and needed to get into work so some buckets will just have to sit full and overflow today. I hate to lose sap but, I can't pay the bills with syrup and I can buy syrup if I NEEDED to, so I'm at my desk. :(
sam
BTW, do NOT get those alleged "cast iron" grates from TSC. Last year they warped like crazy so I had to invert them every boil. My first boil this year has apparently incinerated most of one of them. I had to spend 2 hours yesterday cutting up some 2X2 square tubing for an emergency grate. I read else thread they would stand up to the heat, only I haven't turned them diamond side up. We'll see if these hold up or if I have to spend seripus $$$ for a real grate.
The ground must still be frigging cold under all this snow. With Temps today well above freezing, but no sun flow was pretty much stopped. Oh well, I'm finally ready to boil. 200 plus gallons in barrels and it even precut my pallets. Hopefully I can crank through it all tomorrow. Best I've seen is about 17 gph, so it's going to be a long day.
sam
boiled 40 gals yesterday, took -2 gals off...do another 50 today and finish in the kitchen tomorrow night
50 gals today, took another 4 gals of pre finished
finish inside the next two nights...hoping for four gallons