Christmas break, got the woods ready. Did some long needed maintenance work, but it was a breeze getting the woods prepped with minimal snow. Tap count should still be 900+/- taps. RS is reporting 750 taps to start the season and expanding, and GZ 300+ taps. It’s going to be a busy season…
Since then, evap/tanks are all cleaned. New membrane installed and rinsed. Glad I did this early because I found the RO feed piping had a nice, long crack in it. Took some PVC glue and sealed it up, so I could actually do the membrane flush. Again, used my old membrane to concentrate well water, to use the concentrate to flush the new membrane. Not sure if this extra step is needed, but it makes me feel better. This weekend, I need to fix the piping.
Only upgrade this year is a new permeate tank. This weekend, I'm picking up a 1550 gal poly tank...should give me all the permeate water I'll need. The new tanks stand is mostly complete. I think it came out nice…cost a few bucks on PT lumber though.
In some ways, this is the most prepared I've been at the start of sugaring season. At the sugarhouse, just got to take care of a few things (final cleaning being one of them), and I'm ready to go.
Over the weekend, I tapped trees over and got the four big mainlines done. Only about 80 taps left. Got about 285 taps in Saturday afternoon, about 385 Sunday, and another 150 yesterday morning. After lunch, I got the vac turned on and spent the afternoon checking vac leaks until things froze up. Got the woods to about 20”. Tapping went well. Saturday was cold, but Sunday and Monday were quite nice.
Now, we sit and wait a week for things to warm up…
Good luck to everyone this season. May it be a good one!