Not A Great Day

Due to Tucker being in the regional spelling bee we didn't arrive until around noon. Unfortunately the first thing I saw was Michael cleaning the pans up by the garage. I knew that was bad news, because that's usually only necessary when the front pan has gotten too hot and burned the syrup.

It turned out that was exactly what happened. Due to the cold temperatures most of the liquid in the evaporator was frozen. Michael had been expecting some visitors at 8:30, so when they arrived at 8:00 he started it up. The pans thaw fairly quickly, and the front had been pretty close to syrup when we shut down. Unfortunately the pipe that runs between the pans did not thaw, so when the liquid in the front pan was hot enough to be syrup and the automatic drawoff opened the valve there was no liquid to take its place.

The pan that was in front sagged quite a bit & was discolored, so it got really hot. Fortunately he was able to get them cleaned up & we got things started back up. Unfortunately that means the loss of probably five gallons of syrup.

The lesson learned is not to start the evaporator until everything is thawed after a cold spell. We are also going to try leaving the pilot light on during some cold weather coming up to keep it at least somwhat warm.

Another lesson learned for the day was not to install flourescent lights near the evaporator without removing the tubes. We were putting one up & the tube fell out right on the front float box & of course shattered everywhere. We were able to make a plug out of plastic wrap and a dish towel to plug the hole & remove the box. After we got it cleaned up we got it back together & cleaned up.

Not a great day with the loss of the syrup and no additional sap collected, but hopefully the weather will improve this week. Tomorrow is supposed to be really warm, then temperatures below freezing until late in the week.