Spring

 We had an average syrup season this year. The sap yield was down as a result of an extremely long winter and late-in-coming spring. That said though, this season was my most efficient one and things operated really smoothly. It's taken a long time to be able to say that but after 9 seasons I'm feeling like the logistics of the sugarbush are finally up to snuff. The workers I hired this year were great and relatively consistent which made all the difference.
 Following are some snap shots of the season in progress.

 

Right around the time of the sap run there was a video of a new axe going viral on social media. The idea was that this new axe, with its off centre counter-weight, split wood by striking it on a tangent thus forcing the wood fiber to split easier and with less effort. Sound like a bunch of smoke? I think so too. In the video the guy had his straight-grained, seasoned, beech (I think) wood, placed in a tire on a block and he showed the effectiveness of the axe. I would argue that the tire is the main factor contributing to splitting success. I had been using the tire for a few months and it is awesome, highly recommended. Use whatever axe you already have!

I spent a fair bit of time at the start of this season getting the lines just the way I've wanted. With valves placed at intervals along the line we're able to hook into the line and pump sap up and into it from the portable sap tank hauler. The hauler starts the season on skis and later is fitted with wheels. The system works really well. 

Spring was very late this year and we had a huge dump of snow just as we were about to tap. The crew ended up using snowshoes for most of the season which we've never done before. 

Here's the aforementioned sap tank hauler. I use it at the start of the season to move buckets out to the trees. It's an awesome little sled if I do say so myself. 

We celebrated Ella's birthday at the sugarbush this year. She requested a blue ladybug cake and Beth pulled through amazingly well. 

Getting the fire going at the start of the season. Here I've got the steam hood lifted above the evaporator for inspection. 

Full steam ahead. 

This year I hired people other than my friends. As we all get older and have kids our free time is whittled away. Luckily, I found a good crew by posting online and with a couple posters up at the university. Alex, Kyle, Phil and Jocelyn were a great crew this season. My dad, Dave Sr., came up again this year and he was simply amazing. At 67 years, he's still moving really well and is a super competent guy. He helped with sap collection every day and stayed out at the camp by himself or with me. It was so great to have home here and we got a lot done together. 

Our new system of sap processing includes reverse osmosis and so we've got three tanks on the go now. From left to right there's the raw sap tank, water tank (filled by the RO), and the concentrated sap tank. The system works so well and makes the boiling time about half of what it used to be. 

Washing buckets is a rather tedious job following the season. In the past we've struggled to get it done but this year we kept the workers on until it was complete. What a relief. 

Catching up!

I've not posted much on here lately so I think I'll pinch a bunch of posts from Facebook to make up for it! I'm doing this mostly because I just made a recipe booklet that'll go out to the folks (you know who you are) who bought our lamb and included the blog address in the contact info.

Poster advertising our lamb. I posted this on Facebook and at work. We were able to sell 7 out of 9  lambs (we're keeping two) very quickly which makes me believe the local food movement is alive and well.

Tried to enlist Esther's help for mail delivery during the holiday parcel madness. Didn't work.

Pre-Christmas stars and decorations. It's been an exceptionally cold winter here but with sunny skies in the day and clear nights like this one its difficult to complain.

Raising kids on a sheep/llama/alpaca farm makes me think we may need to have a 'talk' about glosettes and bridge mix.

Our up to date version of "Making Boreal Birch Syrup". The old version has about 16,000 views so I'm hoping this one garners as much attention over the years! This newer version shows how we use reverse osmosis now as well as different tapping, collection and filtration methods.

Here's how we clean blueberries now. It's so much easier than picking all the garbage out bit by bit!

Shelter

This summer I decided to build a shelter for the livestock that would draw them away from the barnyard and provide summer shade and a place to eat hay. The reason for this is that I don't want the animals in the barn, making a mess during summer which I later have to clean up.
To build the shelter on the cheap I decided I'd try my hand at timber-framing (very roughly) with wood cut just metres from where the shelter was to be built. I had some left over bit of steel roofing from the deck project as well as two building projects at the sugarbush so the dimensions were dictated by materials on hand. To cover the feeders which are now attached to each side of the shelter I used an old painted-steel shower that was all in bits in our loft. They actually work okay and keep the rain and snow off the hay. My father-in-law Jake made a funny video of the start of the building process and I added a few photos at the end of his video that show some of the rest of the process and the (nearly) finished product. I have yet to put a backside on the shelter but will do so soon - once some materials come my way!

Summer/Fall/Winter

 A bunch of out-of-order photos spanning many months!

The barnyard in early winter.

 Inside the "creep", an area that is for lambs only. The ewes are blocked at the entrance and thus the lambs get exclusive grain privileges. I converted the chicken tractor into a permanent chicken house for the summer by blocking it up on 6"x6"'s and attached a laying box on the side that is accessible from the outside (not shown). The chicken shelter converts to a creep for the winter by simply pulling out the chickens' roosting poles and removing the door. I continue to use the long, wheeled feeder for the lambs as it's an easy way to get the grain inside without crawling in myself.

Ella and I planted three rows of garlic in an 18" wide bed the entire length of the garden. We're hoping for garlic independence next year as, if it all grows well, we've got enough for eating in 2014/15 and seeding the 2015 crop. This was done around Hallowe'en, hence the cat hat.

When feeding the livestock I often place Ella in the feeder as a safe spot away from bounding animals and without risk of sitting in turds. She's pictured here with her best-lamb Jerry. He actually came up to her to touch noses when she called his name.

Ella helping me spread a fresh layer of straw in the newly converted chicken house/creep.

You can see the laying boxes for the hens on the left side of the hen house here. This simple structure works really well year-round.

Having fun with Julio. A friend from work posted a photo of his dog wearing a postie hat so I did the same.

Lambs waiting impatiently for their grain.

I read somewhere that you could use a tire as an entrance for a lamb creep so I thought I'd try it. It didn't really work. You can see that Juno got in just fine but Jasmine was stuck. It was much like a Winnie-the-Pooh story here for a bit.

We let the chickens onto the garden at the end of season. They enjoyed scratching about for greens and critters.

Visiting with Julio one Saturday morning in the summer when friends were over.

Picking apples off the ground with Ella. These are mostly rotting apples and get composted. We pick them off the ground to prevent wasps and bears from coming around. One day we'll have pigs to feed them to!

Hauling some cedar posts this fall in order to build a fenced in area around the new summer shelter.

Babysitting here means work-party! Here's Ella and her best friend Kikue working hard at securing a new fence post.

The new shelter before getting the second feeder attached. We love to watch the livestock eat.

Water

Watering the animals in winter has been a challenge here since we bought the place. Initially, we ran a hose from the basement up the stairs and out to the barn. Shortly after I put in an outside faucet and ran the hose from there. This has worked well for the summer months but didn't improve things for the winter. Up until recently I was hauling water buckets up the basement stairs, loading them in a toboggan and hauling the water to the big trough at the barn. Pretty labour intensive and not at all fun as I spend more than enough time in the Spring hauling sap buckets and don't feel the need to train for it. In an effort to simplify the process I bought a 10' length of hose and appropriate fittings and now run the water out the basement window into buckets already in the toboggan. This saves a lot of time and energy but is still not the perfect system. I'm saving my pennies, rather nickels, for a frost-free hydrant and water line that'll run 8' deep and span the distance from the house to the barn AND work year-round. Until then, I'll run the water to thirsty beasts with the toboggan but NOT up the stairs!

Thunder Bay Country Market

As much as I enjoy vending at the Thunder Bay Country Market, it's difficult to get there given that I work 5 days/week at Canada Post. I try to get there in the fall but for the last couple years I've set up a booth there just for the Christmas season, which is the busiest time of year I would say. I spent the three Saturday's before Christmas at the market and it was well worth it; better, in fact, than 12-hour days at the Royal in Toronto. The Thunder Bay crowd has been good to Boreal Birch Syrup over the years and they just "get it" whereas folk in Southern Ontario just "don't". People up here like to have things they can call their own and birch syrup is something they're proud of, which makes us proud indeed.

Royal Winter Agricultural Fair 2013

I made it down for the Royal this year but it was a very quick trip. My parents looked after the booth for the full five days and I showed up Friday afternoon and stayed till Sunday. It was a fairly good show though it seemed not as busy as in the past.