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.