Day Two - Maple Syrup Adventures

Day two of our maple syrup adventure begins by wading through the forest leaves to check the buckets to see how well the trees are performing. Okay so I'm not really wading - Matthew's camera skills have combined with an optical illusion to create this effect!

The sap is collecting nicely.

Look at it shimmer.

Drip, drip, drip, drip, reminds me how much water is wasted when you have a leaky faucet!

In our case the dripping sound is liquid gold.

Deb's invention for filtering the sap before we start boiling. Yet another use for the common clothespin.

The setup for cooking the sap. Looking at our fire pit gives me much satisfaction as Matt and I spent a fair bit of time last summer removing the old ugly cinder blocks that had been there and replaced them with nice field stones we collected throughout the summer when driving in and out of the cottage road. The benches are slabs of Canadian Shield granite carried down from the top of our hill at much risk to my ankles and back! The wood benches came from old barnwood boards we found along the river during various outings in the canoe.

Oh and of course we need lots of wood! That old wheelbarrow we got last summer from Bob down on the county dump road by way of a referral from the local garden centre is coming in pretty handy!

Okay now for 7 hours of boiling and adding sap and wood and boiling and boiling... did I mention the choking smoke on the wind that seems to always shift in YOUR direction every time you sit down and get comfortable.

We proudly display our product - 2 x 250 ml containers of Syrup - well one container of almost syrup (very sweet maple water) and one of actual syrup. The finishing stage is very critical and being newbies we wanted to ensure we didn't burn it all so we bottled our first bottle just before the syrup formed in the pot - after 7 hours of boiling it really came down to about 15 very critical minutes where the risk of scorching is imminent.

This was definitely the most expensive HALF LITRE of maple syrup we ever tasted..... and oh so very sweet - It likely can be branded organic!

Another early spring chore - this time made much easier with the help of our new (almost antique) gas tiller that I bought at a local garage sale last summer for less than the price of a good case of 24! After sitting in the bunkie all winter - a couple of pulls and we were off and running, with me trying to hold onto it. Wow we just doubled the size of the garden this year!

Another new addition to our magic forest is our first bird feeder. We put it in the tree out front of the cottage last time we were up and were very glad to see all the seed had been eaten.

I'm not sure why it has taken us so long to get going with birding, it is very satisfying to see these visitors up close - so far only nuthatches have come calling. We will have to build more

and try adding several types of seed and suet to attract a more diverse crowd.