Maple Syrup, mmm

Yesterday we went out for a truly Canadian March Break treat, the local Maple Syrup Festival, and what a fun packed day we had.

We went on a historic tour of how to tap sugar maples and boil the sap down to make syrup.  There were lots of tapped trees so you could check out how much sap was in the buckets, not so much in this one.

Loads in this one.

And here are J and R tapping a tree with a 'bit'n'brace'

This is how the pioneers boiled down the syrup it in the 19th century in big, scary looking cauldrons over a fire.

And here is our lovely guide Laura (not Ingalls which was a shame) with a turn of the century engine thing that is apparently safer and much faster than the three witches set up.

Anyway, when we'd finished learning stuff there was lots more to do.  We looked at cows, smelled pigs and the children gobbled at turkeys.  We learned how to play a game of catch with sticks that Jacob was very good at and toured a 1900 farm house.

We took a wagon ride to the pancake house and ate pancakes for lunch.

Jacob and Rose tried maple sugar candy and maple taffy, I think the weather was a bit warm for the taffy (wow, it reached 10 degrees in the afternoon) and it melted all over them.

And finally they ran about on a bunch of hay bales for half an hour while I stood around holding coats and thought about how nice it was to be able to stand still in the sunshine without freezing to death.  Needless to say they were filthy and smelly when we got home (I think the hay bales were cow contaminated) so much to their disgust the day ended in the bath.