Our property sits on a mountain in an area of Quebec that receives a lot of snow and rain. When there is a stretch of dry weather we need to be prepared to take advantage of it. On the property there is a cabin that is only accessible via foot or ATV. After a rain the trails become muddy and getting up some of the steep sections of the trail becomes problematic. Especially on an ATV hauling a trailer. Trail management and water diversion is never-ending, but needed to make sure we can access all parts of the property.

I have been waiting for a good stretch of weather to bring the unwanted furniture down the mountain from the cabin to take to the local Eco Centre. A little background. The cabin is small and had enough furniture in it to furnish a medium sized house. Two sleeper sofas, a huge couch, several chairs, three end tables and a dining table that seats six. The sleeper sofas smelled like a raccoon family died in them and two of the end tables where not needed.

Getting the sleeper sofas down the mountain by myself would have been comical to watch, but ball busting for me to pull off. Last fall I disassembled them. I figured if they were disassembled I could easily move them myself. The locals said I should have just burned them, but without having a solid water source I passed on that idea in case the fire got out of control.

Having a dry trail was key to having a successful furniture extraction mission. A wet trail would have doubled the time needed to make the extraction and would have destroyed the trails. This would have created more trail grooming work for me and more work is something I do not want or need.

The mission was a success and the cabin is more comfortable now that we can walk around in it without slamming our shins into furniture.

The next time you feel like you’re slogging along on a muddy trail being totally unproductive. Remember, dryer trails lie ahead.

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As you may or may not know—an opening statement I told myself I’d never use, but there it is—my wife and I bought some property last year. On the property is a sugar shack, which is basically a building specifically built to make maple syrup while hanging out and eating. Most sugar shacks have a space that houses the evaporator and then an open area for friends and family to hangout and eat. They are fairly rudimentary, but full of character. 

There are several family owned sugar shacks in our area. Each spring families gather to tap the trees and welcome in spring by making some maple syrup. Along the way good conversations are had, gin is drank and food is eaten. Mix all that with a lot of hard work and you’ll soon be rewarded with the sweet taste of maple syrup and a sense of fulfillment.

This year we decided to do a small run to get our feet wet before ramping up production over the next few years.

You see, making maple syrup is hard work followed by waiting, followed by hard work, followed by waiting. Let me quickly explain. First is the process of tapping the trees. We use the bucket method which means, hiking through the snow to each tree carrying buckets, lids, spiles and a drill. Once the optimum tree is selected a hole is drilled into said tree, a spile is gently tapped into the hole and a bucket with lid are hug from the spile. Then it’s on to the next tree, and the next, and the next. The second step in the process is gathering the sap or maple water as some call it. This involves hiking through the snow to each tapped tree with a bigger bucket and gathering the bounty each tree has decided to give up. That’s the hard work part. Once the sap is gathered it needs to be boiled down to remove the water. This is when the waiting game begins. 

The boiling process is the best part in my opinion. Feeding wood into the fire and watching the sap boil can be very calming until you reach temperature. Then all hell breaks loose. Maple sap turns to syrup between 217-219 degrees Fahrenheit depending on your preference of syrup thickness. The higher the temp the thicker the syrup. Now back to hell breaking loose part of the story. When the maple sap gets to about 212 degrees its all systems go. Filtering set up in place? Check. Bottling system in place? Check. OK! FEED THE FIRE.

For the next hour plus, wood is continually fed into the burner to get the maple sap up to the desired temperature. Once the optimal temperature is reached, the syrup is poured from the evaporator, put though the filtering process and then bottled. The reward for all the hard work is a sweet bottle of goodness. It’s something you need to experience to fully appreciate.

Then the process starts all over again. Gather the maple water, boil the maple water, filter the syrup, bottle the syrup. Repeat. 

Life can be a lot like making maple syrup. We work hard, followed by a bit of leisure, followed by more hard work, followed by a reward. We repeat this process year after year. In some cases the reward is nothing more than a cheesy tchotchke that leaves us unfulfilled and exhausted.

Don’t work for tchotchkes. Work for the reward that brings you joy and a sense of fulfillment. 

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It snowed the other day. It felt like the final gut punch from mother nature before she lifts me back up just in time for spring. Don’t get me wrong, I like winter, but it can beat a person down. I like the snow and the calmness that comes after a storm. The quiet plays with my mind. I’m I going deaf? Why can’t I hear anything? Then I hear the branch of a tree creaking in the soft wind. I realize my hearing is perfectly fine. Mother nature was just giving me a little nudge. Her way of letting me know everything is OK.

When the world starts ripping my my face off, I need to reset. So I walk. Sometimes I have a destination. Other times I don’t. The change of scenery heightens my senses. It clears the pathways in my brain and allows me to focus on the small things that are in front of me. A lone leaf laying on the fresh snow. The tracks of a rabbit across the deck. Fresh footprints on the sidewalk. I begin to focus on the things I normally would ignore because there is too much noise in my head.

It’s too easy to sit in front of a computer and go numb by the repeated bombardment of the lives and opinions of others. It’s too easy to sit in front of a computer, unable to focus because the noise in your head is so deafening that you contemplate putting on a helmet to contain the brain splatter should said head explode. It’s too easy to sit in front of a computer and have your opinions of the world shaped by the experiences of others rather than your own experiences.

Peel your face off your screen and take a walk with me.

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I glance at my phone. The display reads December 24, 2020. I wonder how can this be? I scroll though my social feeds. Zooming past political post after political post, I question the motives of those who are spending their Christmas spreading such nonsense. I shake my head, put my phone down and stare out the window.

Outside rain is falling. Yesterday it was snowing so hard I couldn’t see across the lake. The dampness brings a chill that only a fire can push aside. I split some wood into smaller pieces. It’s still a bit wet and smaller pieces seem to burn better. It’s been a cold fall, so I have already used all the older dry wood I had set aside.

A cat sleeps at my feet. I stare out the window. I was hoping to spend the day walking on the lake, but the rain is making that near impossible. I don’t mind being wet or cold, just not wet and cold. I read excerpts from Sandra Bernhard’s Confessions of a Pretty Lady while my wife cleans out her email folders in the other room.

It will be another quiet Christmas. It’s just the two of us so a quiet Christmas is normal. But there is a heavyness this year. While the second wave of COVID picks up steam my thoughts are with those who are fighting the fight of a lifetime and with those who will be spending this holiday alone while in the past they were surrounded by family.

Most will struggle to make this Christmas special. While this year has been ugly, I believe most of us did experience joy as well. The joy is what we should dwell on. Not the ugly.

My wish for this Christmas is for all of us to be grateful for everything we have no matter how small and fully appreciate what we are given in the future.

We wish you a safe and happy Christmas.

Be kind.

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