Maple Syrup

This email that arrived yesterday from Drew gladdens my heart. After a tough five weeks he is living his dream. Experiences such as these are a big part of the reason I wanted him to spend a year overseas and his plans for March Break and the rest of the year will build a bank of memories that will be hard to match. It appears that he now has a family that I would have chosen for him myself (if I was doing the choosing)....but they chose him and I will be forever grateful for that. I spoke to Lianne today - and already, she doesn't want to let him go! THIS, is how a year of exchange should feel!

Well. What a weekend it's been so far! On Friday I had the day off. Haha Lianne thought it would be a good idea if Bryn and I had the day off to explore Ottawa. We went to this area of Ottawa called 'The Gleeb' - the rich part of Ottawa. Reminded me alot of New England, wouldn't have even thought I was in Canada! We went to this really nice Coffee shop called 'Truffle Treasures' - known as having the best hot chocolates in Ontario. I had one. Was simply AMAZING. Bliss. Haha loved it!

I also built a snowman :) Suzie, but because it’s warming up the rain melted her. RIP Suzie.

Today was a little hectic. Haha. I had intended on spending the day relaxing in bed but Lianne asked me if I was interested in going out to a Maple Farm out in the country (45 minutes out of Ottawa). The family who owned the Maple Farm had a Maple Tree forest out the back of their property and just did it as a hobby. It was a real Canadian country farm, with the barn and of course of animals. Lianne's middle son Lane lives with these two people (you can see them in the photos) Sam and Jen. They drove me out because they wanted to try it as well. When we got to the house I found out the family are into hunting... and then keeping what they killed... and hanging it in their house. Personally I think that’s a bit weird, but I guess its a way of life for some people. They had Moose heads, Coyotes, Bears, Beavers and a deer.

Dad: They had one cow. I asked what breed he was because my dad was pretty professional in the cattle industry. They said he was called a 'Dexter'.. I had NO idea so I took a photo of him for you :)

Megan: THEY HAD GOATS, and OMG - these goats are WAY cuter than Peppy and Peachy. Have a look at the photos. The goats HATE the ice and water so it was funny seeing how they live and act, eg avoiding ice (which is pretty hard). At nighttime they sleep in the barn. If you look closely at the photos of the goats you'll see they share a nighttime cage with a bunny rabbit. They have a good little system going on in there. They have a heat lamp that four goats sleep under in a cluster... the rabbit... sleeps on top of the four goats so it's closer to the heat lamp. HAHAH! Smart Wabbit. Not bery smart goats.

The Maple Leaf Extraction System: Okay so first we loaded up the big horse thing and a sled that pulled us out to the actual Maple Tree forest.

Once we were out there we split out into teams. I was with the son (Jacob, French Canadian, my age - we got along really well) and the mum (Kym, she was SO lovely). Jacob taught me what a maple tree actually was and tried to pass on his information and wisdom by testing me on how to identify a Maple Tree.

He would say:

Jacob - Point out the Maple Trees for me.

Drew - Okay, that one *points at tree*

Jacob - No, that’s a fir tree.

Drew - That one *points at another tree*

Jacob - ..... No, that would be a North American willow.

Drew - Okayyyyyy. That one? *points at tree*

Jacob - .... Okay, never mind I'll just show you..

HAHAHA - Lesson learnt? I won't become a Maple Tree farmer.

So Jacob would go to a Maple tree and drill a hole into it then push in a funnel. My job was to connect a bucket to it and a lid so that the Maple Syrup had somewhere to drain into. We were walking through like knee deep snow in a forest - it was SO fun and SO peaceful. Loved it.

'Rock', the horse that was pulling the sled, just stood there for hours. He was so mellow and chill. Until he decided to leave quite a large pile of excrement on the ground. Tell you what, wasn't much fun to run over THAT in the sleigh.

The family has invited me back for when the buckets are full of syrup to start the next process of filtering the sap and so on in the next two or so weeks. So that'll be really good.

Lianne came and picked me up and drove me back home. Then the family (Lianne, Jim, Bryn and I) went and volunteered at Soup Kitchen to provide food for the homeless. I was a server of pork, potatoe and carrot. Then helped serve desert. Then helped clean up. Was SO tired but I felt pretty good that I was doing something to help those less fortunate. The other volunteers LOVED me and my accent so that was an added bonus.


We got home at 7:30pm. Every Saturday night Bryn has this thing called 'Girls Night'. I'm sure you can all guess what that includes. Haha! So she had 8 girls over to watch movies, eat food, bitch about the latest gossip and of course talk to the Aussie :p Haha so that was pretty good fun.


It's currently 1:45am and I am SO tired. Hope all is fine with everyone. Missing you all SO much. Sending love to you all! Keep Japan in your thoughts.


DrewXx