My plan 2022/23

[Pdiamond]

Gary, make sure you rest and relax so that it doesn't become anything worse. You'll be in my prayers. Get better real soon.

[Swingpure]

Today I finished splitting the last of the seasoned wood designated for the evaporator. Added some to the top of the existing rows, then started a third row on the right. I put some tarps over the piles as we will be having four days in a row where it will rain. I will work on a more permanent way of securing the tarps prior to the first snow fall.

I calculate that I have 6.5 face cords of wood. I also have 5 large garbage bins full of pine/spruce construction scraps. Last year to boil 930 gallons of sap, non RO’d, took me 5 face cords, or 186 gallons (704 L) of sap per face cord.

Last year I ended up with a litre of syrup per tap, which is what you would expect, but I only reached that because of the high sugar content of my sap and that I was given 100 gallons of free sap. Locals said it was a very slow year for our area.

If I do have 130 taps and I actually collected 40 L of sap per tree, that would be 5,200 L of sap. I hope this year’s evaporator will be more efficient, partially because of the base stack and 8” stove pipe and partially because of the divided pan and especially the float box. For easy math and perhaps too optimistically, let’s say I now boil 200 gallons (757 L) per face cord. Also let’s say with my pine scraps, I have 7 face cords of wood. That means I could boil approximately 5300 L of sap. If I RO all of the sap I could maybe double that. Hmmmm, as I type this, maybe I could handle more taps, if I really did get the evaporator efficiency improvement I hope for.

Coming up, is putting the stainless steel pipe through the garage wall, so I can pump from my collection barrel directly into the raw Sap RO barrel in the garage. Also coming up the next sunny warm day is pressure washing all of the collection barrels, so they are totally clean going into winter.

I found today, that I am starting to think of winter as purely the pre sap flowing season.


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[Swingpure]

I put the stainless steel pipe through the garage wall today. Pretty straightforward after moving existing items that were on the wall. I have quick disconnects at either end of the pipe to quickly connect the RV hose from the transfer pump to the pipe.

I am back thinking I will have close to 150 taps and in a few days will order a 400 gpd membrane and will have two 400 gpd membranes on my DYI RO. I am not sure how many gallons of concentrate it will produce per hour, but hopefully close to my evaporator boil rate.

[Swingpure]

Colour me happy. I let the guy whose property I will be running three new lines down on his steep hill, know what I have been doing and will be doing. I told him about the ribbons on the maple trees, the twine I ran to determine the path of the tubing and to figure out how much tubing I will need and let him know I would run the tubing after deer season, and he wished me good luck. So I guess it is for real.

Monday I will go to CDL and buy another 1000 feet of tubing and in my spare time, I will make about 100 new drops, for the new lines and some additions to two old lines. I am retiring one old line (1 year old) and was debating making some drops out of that line. If I don’t watch it I could end up with 170+ taps. The RO better work.

Edit: Deer season is longer than I thought, I will time it to put up the lines a week or so before the first snow.

[Swingpure]

Marked some new trees and ran some twine to map out the new line that will go in that area. My one neighbour has left for the season, so I will run the two lines that run partially on his property, sometime this week. My other neighbour will likely leave for the season after the Canadian Thanksgiving on Oct 12th, and I will put up the single line on his property after that. Last year I had two lines on his property. So I have reduced that line, but have added trees to the one line.

Right now it is shaping up like 165 to 170 taps. Next spring after the season I will be saying I have to downsize.

[Pdiamond]

Or you'll be saying. " well, if I am going to keep doing this it's time for a real arch and raised flue pan and syrup pan setup."

[Swingpure]

I installed one line today, one of the ones from last year and added five additional taps to the line. I still have to add some of the drops to it. It is a relatively low tap line with 11 taps on it. It does have a decent drop on it and should produce well.

Tomorrow I go to CDL and pick up 1000 feet of tubing and a few other things. Tuesday, I will add another line from last year, with no new tap additions. I may have time to add another short line from last year as well.

I read the new NAMSPM about RO’s. I will have to raise my raw sap RO barrel a little. I am finding all of the cleaning practices of the membranes, that I read you are supposed to do in the manual, with constant acid and soap washes during the actual season, more than I expected, and if true, it makes me wonder if it is worth it. I was prepared for the permeate washes, but not sure if I have time to do the others. I will talk about this with CDL tomorrow.

Maybe I am misunderstanding what is required.

[Swingpure]

Or you'll be saying. " well, if I am going to keep doing this it's time for a real arch and raised flue pan and syrup pan setup."

Lol, the base stack and pan I will be getting, will be able to go on a real evaporator, but I can never see freeing up $4000+ for getting a real evaporator. (Despite nickel and diming myself to well past that)

[DrTimPerkins]

...I am finding all of the cleaning practices of the membranes, that I read you are supposed to do in the manual, with constant acid and soap washes during the actual season, more than I expected, and if true, it makes me wonder if it is worth it.

It's like your mother asked when you washed your hands...."did you use soap?" A permeate rinse will help somewhat, but when membrane performance starts to drop, only a soap wash will help. If you keep concentrating and only rinse, eventually your membranes will be so clogged they will barely work and soap washing may not restore performance. Typically you won't have to do more than rinses and soap washes to keep flow rates up. We've had citric acid in our cabinet for a decade and only used had to use it once. It really isn't that difficult. The key thing to keep in mind (other than the fact that they are strong chemicals) is that you want to do a good rinse AFTER the wash to flush all the soap out, and you want to do a good soap wash and rinse before storing at the end of the season.

An hour to soap wash and rinse is well worth the huge reduction in boiling time (50% or more) and the time spent cutting and handling wood.

[Swingpure]

It's like your mother asked when you washed your hands...."did you use soap?" A permeate rinse will help somewhat, but when membrane performance starts to drop, only a soap wash will help. If you keep concentrating and only rinse, eventually your membranes will be so clogged they will barely work and soap washing may not restore performance. Typically you won't have to do more than rinses and soap washes to keep flow rates up. We've had citric acid in our cabinet for a decade and only used had to use it once. It really isn't that difficult. The key thing to keep in mind (other than the fact that they are strong chemicals) is that you want to do a good rinse AFTER the wash to flush all the soap out, and you want to do a good soap wash and rinse before storing at the end of the season.

An hour to soap wash and rinse is well worth the huge reduction in boiling time (50% or more) and the time spent cutting and handling wood.

Thanks, lol, I calmed down a little as I understand things better. I still have to learn exactly how to do it, but I guess rinse, wash, rinse. I will have a separate bucket to draw from with the soap solution. I also realized while driving to CDL that I will have to have a quick disconnect to switch from my raw sap barrel, to my permeate barrel and my soap barrel.

My raw sap barrel is above my pump, but at the moment my permeate barrel is not. Hopefully the pump can draw the permeate from the top of the barrel.

I will order the 400 gpd membrane in the next day or so. I just want to spread out the expenditures. Today, I purchased 1000 feet of 3/16 tubing, some fittings, some RO soap, some filters for my dyi vacuum filter and a new tension hook. My other tension hook fell out of my hoodie pocket yesterday, or I placed them down on the ground and forgot where. I was interrupted with a phone call, then a visitor and then when I looked for them, I could not find, them. I searched for them and could not find them along the tubing path. Now that I have purchased a new set, I am sure I will find the old set.

This afternoon, once things dry up a little, I will add the drops to the line I added yesterday and may start putting down another line.