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Temps topped out at 70 yesterday and by evening the buckets and gravity tubing had slowed considerably. Boiled mid-morning and again in the evening trying to get the sap processed as fresh as possible. Sugar levels still at 2% +. We are at 2/3 crop, but the forecast for the next 10 days is not favorable. Hoping we might get a little push Friday night, but other than that temps look to be in the upper 30's at night for the duration.
We'll be cleaning the tanks and pans this afternoon and then settling in to see what happens.
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I was able to get 9500 gallons yesterday. My woods has not let go yet and I know the ground is good and froze still. My weather is showing some freezing temps this week so things are looking real good here. Saps only running 175 GPH right now but thats fine. If we can get through all this warmth in March (which I think were going to) not only will we get a good amount of sap for the month of March but we still have about 20 days in April. Using the CV2 spouts will really pay off this season if we go well into April.
Spud
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We had a high of 66 here yesterday. Sap has slowed but still coming in. Pulled in another 400 since 5pm yesterday. Sugar at 2%. I processed about 8-900 gal. yesterday and made about 18 gal. Grade dropped slightly into AR, but just on the edge. Great flavor.
I was thinking about taking today off from boiling but the sap is looking a little cloudier than it has been so I may still boil later today to keep the grade up. It looks like tomorrow will be better for storing sap with a high in the mid 40's and now a freeze tomorrow night seems more likely. Hopefully that will be the case.
I have been pretty impressed with this 10+ year old springtech ro with original membrane I have been using. Even with cold sap I am getting sap thru it at just below its rated flow. The thing just chugs along. Granted I am not needing to push it hard at all to process from 750 taps. Great machine though.
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We added about 30 new taps with 25 on a 6' ladder. It worked great. A few more new taps to go. We processed about 500 gallons a sap yesterday and made a little over 10 gallons of syrup for a total of 18 gallons. My Father is draining the pans today, filling with permeate and bringing it to a boil to clean. We'll add the sap back in this afternoon and do a general clean up to get ready for the next round. Our syrup this year has been the lightest since using a R/O and has great taste.
Mike
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Surprisingly to me, I had 120 gallons of 1.5% in my tank at 9:30 this AM from my 320 vacuum and vacuum had dropped to 23" last night. So, after getting 8 gallons of GD last night I will have another 500 gallons to process and boil today.
Friday night looks good for two reasons. All the forecasts show 28-30 for a low, but even more importantly, it will be a slow and prolonged freeze that the NWS and WU show to be 6-8 hours below freezing, which should give good penetration. I still have some ice on the ground, and the ground is solid frozen still, so I am being optimistic that we can get through the week after that and get more freeze cycles. Temps should be 30's to 50's between that time. Dr Tim assured me the trees will not be fooled by these moderately warm temps.
It will be good to get a week off.
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I too have been keeping an eye on the Friday night forecast. Looks like a nice busy weekend ahead.
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Made about 125 gal yesterday. Another 105 gal today. That puts us at a total of 465 gallons, which is about 25% of a minimum (0.5 gal/tap) crop for us. Niter seems to be fairly minimal so far, and the sap quality is quite good.
Vacuum still good at around 25.5" Hg (in the mainline....even better in the 3/16" laterals). Sugar content still around 2.2-2.3%. Check out our new "releaser cam" http://users.gmavt.net/perkins/view.jpg (note that the vacuum gauges aren't hooked up quite yet....its on the list for tomorrow). This cam is just a backup for the vacuum sensors on our Smartrek system, and so we can keep an eye on the new electric releaser to make sure the sap filters aren't clogged.
NWS has dropped the temp forecast for here some. Looks like maybe a little snow and light freeze overnight, and hopefully a good one (27 deg F) on Friday night. Could be a great weekend.
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Sap running slow all day but should have 4000 by morning. Testing at 2.3% which is very good for my woods. I too am at about 25% of hitting a .5 GPT. I have a good feeling about this season.
Spud
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The warm weather treated us well here in Montgomery Center. 18,000 gallons of sap since Tuesday morning. Sap has been running non stop now for over 60 hours. Vacuum has held steady at 26+ ". Made 4 barrels yesterday and 4 more today.
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It turned into a good 3 days down here, with 800 gallons of sap, and 18 gallons of syrup. Bracing for what may come Saturday.
I ordered a vane kit for my Gast vacuum pump, Saturday delivery. I am hoping it will come in the morning some time. I had unplugged my sap pump (don't ask...) and forgot, and my sap trap shutoff switch did not cut the power for some reason. I was nearby, and shut it off, but it was to late. I opened it up, cleaned it, and ran it, but it did not last long. Vanes broke from stress I guess.
