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.