Sugar Bushing at Edgewood Farms

Shortly after our hour without power, we talked with the Durepos to see if they wanted to go to the sugar shack on Sunday morning. During Easter dinner, we had talked about going, and the weather was supposed to be quite nice on Sunday, so we thought it would be a good idea. The plan was then defined as heading up to Frankville to go to Gibbons Farms for around 11am. This was after talking with Gilles...

Then Sunday morning, around 9am came along, and we now talk with Tara! Well, the plan is now to go NOW, and not to go to Gibbons Farms at all, but to go to another place that is closer and offers the full pancake breakfast. A much better plan, really, but it means rushing out of the door. We run around and get the kids fed and dressed and we head out to meet the Durepos (actually, it's Gilles, Tara and Jacob as well as Tara's parents, David and Peggy, as well as two of her sisters, Lara and Saryn). Eventually, everyone's ready and we leave. After a quick stop at the drive through bank machine for the Durepos, we get to our final destination, right around 11am. Let me mention that we were at the their house by about 9:30 or 9:45... :)

Anyway, once we get there, I'm about to faint, I'm so hungry. It was well worth the wait though - the pancakes were thick and fluffy and completely covered in maple syrop. Mmmmmmm.... Christine enjoyed them as well, but definitely not as much as she enjoyed the taffy later!

After a delicious meal, we went outside to see the animals. There were lots of cows and horses. I'm not sure if this is something Trevor asked Christine or if she came up with this on her own, but she kept saying that the cows and horses needed a bath! After a while of walking around, we decided that it was time for the taffy, so the boys went to figure out where we had to go for it. It turns out they are not allowed to pour the taffy on snow outside (Health Ministry rules...), so they have to make their own snow and pour it on it, inside! Oh well... So Trev came back with a stick for me and a stick for Christine. She loved it! See the pictures on flickr (you'll need to be a contact to see them, so tell me what your yahoo account is and I'll add you if you're not already on there).

While we were still just walking around and enjoying our taffy, this man showed up with a couple of copper rods in his hands. They were "divination rods" - used to find dead corpses or something underground. Well, he asked for a volunteer to lay on the ground to make a demonstration. Gilles quickly jumped at the opportunity. He laid on the snow, face up. The man then walked towards Gilles with the sticks straight out, parallel to the ground. When the sticks were above Gilles, they crossed (X marks the spot). Then Peggy tried with the sticks and it did the same thing again! Turns out, if you lay face down, nothing happens... the sticks stay straight out... So we played with those for quite a while, even trying to get the kids to lay down for us to "find" them. It was fun.

After a while of talking with this man and looking at the buckets of ice on the trees, we decided to go for a wagon ride. They said it was too slippery for the horses, so it would be pulled by a tractor. Jacob and Christine enjoyed that just as much if not more than if it had been horses pulling us. Along the tour, we saw tons of trees that were tapped, most of them were tied to lines, but quite a few had the buckets attached, so someone's doing a lot of hard work there!

Finally, it was probably about 2pm when all this was done, so much past Christine's naptime. We were heading towards the car when Nicholas decided that he wanted to eat, and wanted to eat now. So after a stop for that and more exploring of the cows that need a bath for Christine and Papa, we headed home. Christine was exhausted and fell asleep in less than 5 minutes of being on the road. Unfortunately though, the 10 minutes of sleep she got in the car were enough for her for the day! When we got home, there was no way she was continuing that nap!

So we went for a walk to the park and played on the swings and slides for a while. We all had a great day!