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Two things
First of all, it isn't necessary for it to snow again tonight, thanks anyway...
All of the buckets have been taken down today, leaving only the pipeline tanks to be brought in. There's a small possibility that the sap may run a little more (see comment above about snow), and the pipelines have more of a chance to produce sap than the buckets do at this point, so they'll stay out for a few days more.
This morning, I went up into town on the two streets that were tapped with buckets, South Street and "North Street" (the part of Baptist Corner Road that is opposite South Street). There was a total of 176 buckets on those two streets, and I gathered the sap at the same time that I was taking down the buckets: ~30 gallons of sap. Not exactly a significant amount.
This afternoon, my father, Mary (one of the family that wanted to learn about sugaring), and I brought in the buckets on Barnes Road and Graves Road, an additional 107 buckets: ~20 gallons of sap.
Then, gathered the sap from the pipeline tanks, and brought in about 4 bbl (>120 gallons). So there is definitely a difference (although one of the pipelines appears to have stopped running as well).
Since we only have around 5 bbl of sap at this point, it wouldn't be worth running it through the R.O. before boiling, even if we wanted to. And we don't want to, because it's better to leave thin sap in the evaporator at the end of the season, rather than sap with a higher sugar percentage. As I've noted before, there's nothing like hot sap for cleaning up syrup, but it's better if the hot sap is as thin as possible.
Some time in the next week or so, we will start the process of cleaning the buckets, as well as disconnecting the pipelines and bringing in the pipeline tanks. Those tanks will also have to be cleaned, as well as the gathering tank on the truck and the holding tanks in the sugarhouse. There's maintenance to do on the equipment as well, sorting of bent spouts and covers, some leaky buckets that need to be dealt with, that sort of thing.
And of course, I have to throw some bales down from the top of the barn to the bottom tomorrow. ;-)
All of the buckets have been taken down today, leaving only the pipeline tanks to be brought in. There's a small possibility that the sap may run a little more (see comment above about snow), and the pipelines have more of a chance to produce sap than the buckets do at this point, so they'll stay out for a few days more.
This morning, I went up into town on the two streets that were tapped with buckets, South Street and "North Street" (the part of Baptist Corner Road that is opposite South Street). There was a total of 176 buckets on those two streets, and I gathered the sap at the same time that I was taking down the buckets: ~30 gallons of sap. Not exactly a significant amount.
This afternoon, my father, Mary (one of the family that wanted to learn about sugaring), and I brought in the buckets on Barnes Road and Graves Road, an additional 107 buckets: ~20 gallons of sap.
Then, gathered the sap from the pipeline tanks, and brought in about 4 bbl (>120 gallons). So there is definitely a difference (although one of the pipelines appears to have stopped running as well).
Since we only have around 5 bbl of sap at this point, it wouldn't be worth running it through the R.O. before boiling, even if we wanted to. And we don't want to, because it's better to leave thin sap in the evaporator at the end of the season, rather than sap with a higher sugar percentage. As I've noted before, there's nothing like hot sap for cleaning up syrup, but it's better if the hot sap is as thin as possible.
Some time in the next week or so, we will start the process of cleaning the buckets, as well as disconnecting the pipelines and bringing in the pipeline tanks. Those tanks will also have to be cleaned, as well as the gathering tank on the truck and the holding tanks in the sugarhouse. There's maintenance to do on the equipment as well, sorting of bent spouts and covers, some leaky buckets that need to be dealt with, that sort of thing.
And of course, I have to throw some bales down from the top of the barn to the bottom tomorrow. ;-)