Mar 18

On a goofy note, everyone has been so busy today (Friday the 18th) nobody even checked trees tonight. See what the weekend brings!

Wonderfully warm spring day on Thursday March 17th. Blustery day in the enchanted forest though, so we uninvited everyone but Bob & Cody & Nickie to gather. We added four bees to our ant collection in the filter, which means spring is upon us! Collected about 160 gallons (& 12 gallons from Sandhill Rd. where the big trees in Uncle Frank's yard are newly tapped and running great!) Cathy provided the corned beef & cabbage to set the holiday mood. Boiling was very slow today. Bob, Cody, Jack & Chuck babysat the evaporator until about midnight. This is the first day the syrup looks a little darker.

Upper tank that gravity feeds the evaporator. The clear plastic tube on left is a gauge we watch to see how late we will be up boiling!! This is a very sophisticated system.

Bottom tank (an old 300 gallon milk tank) where sap hopefully keeps cool until it is pumped into the upper tank. The portable tank on the trailer holds 325 gallons so the person dumping needs to be thinking!!

Total sap: 5,572 gallons 

Total syrup: 115 gallons