Andrew and Alex

Bruce’s Mills Conservation Centre

Yesterday, we went to the Maple Syrup Festival at Bruce’s Mills Conservation Centre. My mother got the idea from her online forums and then I found the exact location from the Internet. Initially I didn’t want to go because I already went to Forest Valley (an outdoor education centre) twice and know about Maple Syrup. I figured it was going to be the same thing as Forest Valley but the its website said there were real pony rides, horse wagon rides, and also dog sledding. That sounded very interesting, so I decided to go.

The Trip

There were two other families that also came with us, Sherry’s family and my dad’s colleague’s family. Sherry lives close to us so we drove there together. It only took about half an hour to reach the festival. The other family lives close and met us in the farm.

Horse Rides!

When we got there, it was pretty cold. I thought winter would be over by now! Why has winter come back for vengeance?! It had been above 10 degrees for a week and now it suddenly starts snowing? I jumped out of the car and it was sooooooo cold! I shivered with coldness, jumping and running around the car park to warm up. All we children ran to the centre and spotted the pony rides. My brother was so fierce normally, but when he saw the young ponies, he was scared and ran in fright. We found out the tour guide only comes every half an hour so we decided to go on the horse wagon ride until the tour guide comes.. It was such a nice ride! We could smell the nice country air and nature growing and moving all around us. The huge horses pulling on the wagon were stronger than a car, pulling a huge wagon loaded with at least 15 people. It was like riding huge dragons up in the sky, with no care or worry. The ride only took 10 minutes, but I wanted it to go on forever because it was so calm and refreshing.
The Maple Syrup Tour
When we were back from the horse wagon ride, we were just in time for the tour. The tour goes through various displaying sites along a trail explains the steps to make maple syrup from beginning to the end. The maple syrup is made from the sap taking from a maple tree. The guide showed us the sap buckets, explaining how the trees should be tapped and what materials we need to make syrup. He also told us that the tapping is the "old fashioned way" and nowadays we use plastic tubes to carry the sap to the sugar shack. he called the plastic tubes"Highways".
We also learned about trees and that maple trees can be hurt if you drill too deep, or too many holes. He also said we shouldn't tap the same hole for years because the tree will heal itself very soon and there would be less sap produced. The sap contains 3% of sugar and rest of are all water. To make Maple Syrup from the sap, you need to boil the sap to evaporate the water for 4-5 hours until it is exactly 66% sugar. He also told us that 40 buckets of sap equals 1 bucket of syrup and that's why maple syrup is so expensive.
After that, we went to a place where it displayed how the natives made syrup, by making a fire with stones around it and boiling it. He also told us a legend about how maple syrup was first made. Then we continued to another way the natives used to make syrup, having 3 cauldrons hanging and a fire beneath it. The natives moved the syrup from the biggest cauldron to the second, and then to the smallest where the making was complete. We got to taste maple syrup and my brother loved it. He took mom and dad's samples' and drank all of it.The last place we visited was the Sugar Shack. It was a little house with a two huge chimneys to evaporate the steam from the sap. There were about 5 sections that the sap was boiling in. After the sap get boiled, it flows to a small section and becomes ample syrup. Finally the tour guide took us to the shop and let us buy maple syrup products. I bought 3 maple lollipops made from the syrup and it tastes so natural!

Dog Sledding

After the wonderful maple syrup tour, we went to dog sledding. Again,my brother was scared and didn't go. Only Sherry, her sister, and me took the ride.
The dogs were fierce husky dogs with ferocious teeth. Although they were tamed and well trained, I was still a little bit scared. The ride was really fast!
I was saying "Oh yeah!"

The Campfire and Lunch
There was a campfire in front of the house. It was so good to sit down beside the warm fire after the long walking. We ate some snacks but we still feel hungry. So we went into the pancake house and had some lunch.

Dinner

After our friends were done exploring the centre, we went to their
house to have dinner. My friend had a Gamecube and we played Lego Star Wars on it. After we had a delicious meal of dumplings, we went home and slept soundly.

A cleric mage is healing me and my party members.

I am using slash blast to kill all bats in that area.

My favorite game is Maplestory. It is a free online multiplayer game which you can download from the official website: www.nexon.net. There are six worlds you can play in and in each world there are twenty channels. These six worlds are: Bera, Scania, Windia, Bellocan, Broa, and Khaini. Each world has its own forum and from there you can view new updates and your rankings.

I have a level 32 “Spearman” in my account, a level 11 “Swordsman”, and a level 4 “Beginner” that will soon become a thief. In level 8 you can become a magician and then in level 10 you can choose to become a warrior, thief, or bowman. You must train the right stats to become the job you want. After you get your first job advancement, all jobs can achieve the second job at level 30 by passing a test. Every goal is the same, you must collect 30 marbles by killing monsters. There is also a third job advancement which you can achieve at level 70.

I am training on fire boars.

There is a Cash Shop that you can use real money to buy really cool pets and equipments and 1000 NX, which is the Maplestory Cash, equals $1. Characters can also have fame, which is how famous he or she is. I already have 30 fame!

My stats and equipments.

My other stats are 95 strength, 56 dexterity, 7 luck, and 4 intelligence. Warriors only require strength and dexterity. I can hit 285 max normally but with a power strike I can hit 624. I am also in a guild, which is a clan. My guild was named Oldskool and the leader was also named Oldskool.

Lots of my friends played Maplestory: Soheil, Harry, Winston, William, Jason, and Kenny. Most of them are still playing.

I love Maplestory!

Skiing is one of my favourite sports. I started skiing in 2005 at North York Ski Centre, Earl Bales Park. Canada is a very good place to ski because it has a very long winter with a lot of snow. I came from Singapore where there is no winter and thereby no snow at all. So you can never ski there.

Skiing is a sport that you wear two skis on your feet and slide down a hill covers with a giant blanket of snow.

In order to secure your feet on the skis, you have to wear ski boots first, so that the boots can be fit into the skis.

You also need poles to ski if you are an expert at skiing. When we first started learning skiing, we started on a small hill with a rope lift. On that hill, we learned how to stop and turn. After that we moved to the big hills. The age for skiing didn’t really matter because even little children about only about 6 years can ski better than me.

When I go skiing, the weather is always very cold. I have to wear a hat, gloves, a coat, and snow pants. Last week, it was so cold that my hands were almost frozen and became so wrinkly when I came back. I really need to buy snow goggles and wear a scarf.

In ski centres, they make fake snow from ice when there is not good enough snow on the hill. In my ski centre, I saw the huge pipe that blows out all the fabricated snow. It looks and feels very much like real snow and just as good enough for skiing. It never get dirty since nobody is walking on it. From a far view, the delightful snow looks like heaven, with angels flying down the hills.

In my skiing class, I have two friends: Sherry and Manuela. Sherry is my mother’s friend daughter and Manuela is from my school class. They are pretty good skiers but they did not make it to Exp 3. This is my class from Exp 2, now I am in Exp 3.

The first time I went to ski at the big hill, my designated teacher was absent so that I had to join another class in which most students already know how to ski down the big hill. At that time, I wasn’t ready to ski down the big hill yet. When I went down the hill, I couldn’t stop and I crashed into the snow pipe while the teacher tried to stop me. I got a big bump on my head and the medical group came and helped me put ice on the bump. It did not hurt but it made me dizzy.

I like skiing because it is really exciting and fun. It is exciting because it is a fast sport. I sometimes even think it’s funny to fall into the snow! Do you know how to get back to the top of the hill after skiing down the hills? There is a chairlift machine at the bottom with people directing it. You need to partner up with someone and go on it. One time, I found nobody to partner up with so I went out by myself. The watcher shouted to me not to come up all by myself. However, once, I saw a boy about six years old going all by himself and the watcher did not say anything!

There was a time when I really hated skiing! One time when we were going to go up on the chairlift, it suddenly stopped! We all thought it would be fixed in 5 minutes but after half an hour, people started walking up the hills! We all decided to walk up so we took off our skis and slowly walked up the humongous hill.

I really like skiing because of all the fun and exciting things. Hanqin Tengda Associates Inc. brings this story to you.