French Collection

They need Simmonds from 10 years ago and sign him for 6 years.

Sitting by myself in my sugar shack watching sap boil. Sorry photo is sideways, not the greatest techie as you can guess.

Our tipping point was when I was working out of town and she had to shovel the driveway because her 4x4 couldn’t get out.

Is that your tractor? Kioti or Kubota? I have a 27 HP Kioti. Not digging dirt here, still have snow on the ground.

I love watching Forged in Fire on History, I would have time to forge a sword if I had the equipment.

British soccer guy is great.

Canada announced they were not sending athletes before this was decided. Australia was next to announce. I’m happy for this decision, there is no way there would not have been a flare up of the virus by bringing all of these people together, even in July.

That’s why a lot of stores are out of aloe cream. We have gallons of isopropyl alcohol at work, I never thought about bringing a small bottle home.

We have had a couple of cold nights, my son is skating and shooting on the pond while the dogs chase squirrels. Healthier than video games.

Canadian government wants all residents to come back. Health insurance coverage ending is a big driver of the exodus. I have heard different end dates but March 23rd is a common one.

I don’t have a fancy evaporator, I have a 12’ x 12’ sugar shack with a flat top wood stove. There is room for 3 large stainless steel pans on top of the stove. It takes me about 12 hours to boil 30+ gallons of sap. I just keep feeding wood (approx. 1/2 cord of wood) and adding fresh sap to the starter pan. I get it down to 80% syrup and then finish it on the electric stove in the house. We can get better precision and not burn it with the electric + hydrometer to measure water content. Filtration at the bottling stage takes a while as well. One can have a few beers over the course of a syrup day. No driving required as the shack is 300 yards from the house.

I plan on having some birch sap this year. I read that people in the northern parts of Europe drink it as a health supplement. It is best fresh and spoils in a few days.

It is darker and has a taste more like molasses. It is mainly fructose, where maple syrup is sucrose. Boiling it is more difficult, it can burn more easily. It is a lot more work to make, requiring 100 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. Maple is 40 to 1. A lot of firewood is burned, but there are a lot of dead trees on our property plus scrap wood from projects.

It is still winter here so I am going to make some maple syrup. We usually tap about 40 trees and make about 2 gallons. We collect it by hand so it is exercise and a few 12 hour days of boiling sap. I have some firewood to cut and split as well. Once maple season is done I switch to birch syrup. The dogs love being in the bush all day. I am off of work for at least three weeks so I should have plenty of time.

There are many to choose from but... Lead vocals: Freddie Mercury Lead guitar: Eddie Van Halen Rhythm Guitar: Malcolm Young Drums: Neil Peart Bass: John Entwistle Keyboards and backup vocals: Burton Cummings