Well it's been a busy few days ... Mum & Dad were up for the weekend. The sap was flowing and we got a bunch of syrup. It's stopped again except for a few rebellious drops that didn't care that it was too cold today. I guess w
e've got a total of about 8 litres of finished syrup so far.Here's a picture of the some of the pails hanging in our back yard. We have a total of 30 pails hanging. The sap has been fair, but the real run hasn't started here yet. With the weather being so cold overnight, there's more to come though.
The evaporator that Dad and Ken have perfected over the past five years works really well now. We used to hang a kettle over a fire in a drum. We had to stand right by it all day keeping things working. Now with the current version, we can leave it for a while and do other stuff.
Which takes me to the next topic. The gazebo, affectionately known as "The Crow's Nest". It got shingles this weekend. Now all that's left to do is the screenin
g and trimming it. In this picture you can see Dad on the ladder finishing one side and Ken on the scaffolding on the far side. It is six sided and overlooks the lake. Each of the six sides is six feet. It's very cool and will be a great way to avoid the blackflies, whom we're expecting in the next month or so. First the blackflies, then the mosquitoes, then sometime around June the 8th the dragonflies appear and put an end to the nasty banquet.
So, the final topic for today. My Incredibow. It arrived Friday. It is a beautiful rainbow of colour. It sounds a little different than my brazilwood bow. The brazilwood is mellower and the Incredibow is brighter. It's really light, half the weight. After a couple of hours of fiddling, my grip on it has sort of fallen into place. It sounds great and I'm rally enjoying it.
Okay, so it wasn't the last topic. I'm working on a couple of peices that our concert band is playing in the music festival on Thursday. One peice by Brahms and a dixieland piece. So between fiddling and playing my flute, my banjo is only getting a couple of hours a week. I'm moving forward with it too. I'm just not moving forward with the pile of laundry too quickly.
I guess that has us up to date .... for now.
1 comment:
Dragon flies are my favourite. I love them whirring past my head while I work outside. (Don't you guys get Stable Flies in August? They're the grey looking house fly size thing that has a little drilling nose. They make a mess out of dogs ears). I hate them, I'd take black flies and mosquitos over them anyday. They love sunny places and don't mind if it's windy. You can run but you can't hide.
Keep up the good work on the various musical instruments. I think you need to put on a show for the family reunion.
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