Maple syrup time

Our neighbor Jean Marc makes the BEST maple syrup and every spring we look forward to the party at his sugar shack. 50 t0 60 people turn up bringing pot luck goodies and enjoy a great feed with copious amounts of sweet syrup,.... eggs poached in maple syrup, ham baked in maple syrup, maple baked beans....mmmmmm.

When the sap has boiled to just the right consistancy, some is ladled onto a bed of snow where it hardens into the most delectable toffee.

It can be rolled up around a popsicle stick for a disolve in your mouth treat, or even better, dribbled on ice cream.

On the home front, I have been working on a movable chicken house for perhaps 4 birds. There will be no bottom in the structure so the happy hens can scratch and eat grass and clover, bugs and worms. This is one of those projects that evolves to use up scraps and leftover wood and plywood from other projects and is sort of made up as one goes along.

I seem to be going from one job to another, spring is such a busy time here. The raspberries and blackberries have been getting a thorough pruning and there's another construction job going on at our summertime shop at the local wharf.

The "carpenters" who built the place 5 years ago neglected to use pressure treated lumber so we tore out the rotting plywood floor last week and this week the black moldy rotten joists are coming out. What did they think would happen to wood sitting in wet gravel??