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Seems it's time for new tyres on Franklin. He came with 175 60 R14s, I see the spare and the owner's manual say 185 55 R14. Our local tire shop found us a set of 175 65 R14s which will be a fair bit taller. Any thoughts? Thanks Merv.

All went well so until it happens again it will remain a mystery.

We had a flat tire to start the day yesterday but five hours of driving and Franklin behaved just fine. We have 9 hours to do today.

Not sure about the engine code or where it is located but it is a 1.4 liter 16 valve petrol engine. Hasn't done it again but we will be putting on a lot of miles this weekend so will see. Thanks for the tips on what it could be!

Franklin gave us a bit of attitude on Monday. The Missus was on her way home and he just up and quit running. The oil and alternator light came on and he coasted to a stop. She got out and checked the oil level but it was fine. Got back in and he started back up and has run fine since. I checked the battery terminals and fuses but nothing seems loose, wiggled the ignition key when I was driving but no issue there so... wait and see I guess.

Oh! We got that too!

Franklin hit his 1st big milestone today!

Maybe you would enjoy seeing a spring sunset to prove that all is not doom and gloom here! This is out the back door just now.

Just to show you we share our hobbies with Franklin, here he is helping out with another batch of sap. This is an old farm yard 1 Km north of us that has a number of Box Alders that I have been tapping for 3 years now. 10 gallons on the boil tonight!

Ah! You are perceptive my friend! It does indeed change the flavor. The sap as it comes from the tree is just faintly sweet with a definite woody/barky/earthy overtone. As you boil it down that woody/earthy odor fills the house and when the syrup is done it is absent in the final product. Just the sweetness is left with maybe a hint of a caramel/molasses flavor. Now as the sap boils there forms tiny whitish flakes that they call ash. Several times in the boiling process (we do it each time we change to a smaller pot) it needs to be filtered out. If you leave it in it really doesn't effect the syrup much but later it settles on the bottom of the jar and if you get it on your food it has a definite bitter/baking soda sort of taste. The North American Natives I understand concentrated it by freezing instead of boiling. Sugar is used in antifreeze and as you know has a lower freezing temperature than water. What they did was to let the sap start to freeze, skim the ice crystals off and repeat until they had the sap concentrated to the flavor they wanted. I have done this with milk but I have not tried it with sap. Time consuming process I'm sure but it would be interesting to compare the results!

First 5 gallons of maple sap off and on the boil.

Franklin made the trip just fine. Exposed him to a bit of Canadian culture! And yes we had seats in the nose bleed section. I just love scooting around the city in this car, it fits in places that nobody else does and what a treat in a parking lot - turns on a dime and gets change back!

We are not really in the maple syrup area at all and up until a few years ago I had never heard of it being done in Western Canada. The true sugar maples do not grow here but I remember as a child standing under what we commonly called Manitoba maples (Box Alders) and catching the drops of sap from broken twigs in the spring on my tongue and tasting the faint sweetness it had. I always wondered why it couldn't be one. Well, it can and we are not the only ones it turns out that do it. These trees do not produce the volume of sap that true sugar maples do and it is also a slightly different flavor. It takes 5 gallons of sap to produce 1 pint of syrup too. As a reward to Franklin for making it through his first Canadian winter we are taking him 3.5 hours to the big city to see the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra!

Spring has arrive in a big way this last week. After all the cold weather we are now seeing lots of days above zero with nights still dipping down to -4 or -5. Perfect maple syrup weather! Franklin is doing just fine in spite of muddy roads. Yesterday got up to 14C and we had a bit of a shower overnight with the temperature at 0.5 this morning. I hope it doesn't warm too quickly or the sap will stop running!

In the spring an fall when the temperature is closer to freezing you can make snow balls and snow men but for the most part unless you live in the coastal areas where the winters are mild the snow is too dry. When it comes down without a wind you can open the door and wave a broom at it and it all scatters but after the wind has had a go at it that's a different tale! It becomes very compact. I understand that our northern most native people had 11 different names in thier language for snow depending on it's age, temperature and how compact it is. This morning as I type this it is -37.8 out there. At this temperature the snow squeaks so loud under the tyres that you can hear the snow for up to a mile before you can hear the engines of vehicles coming. Sound travels a long way in the extreme cold. Traction is actually quite good at the lower temperatures too. It's not greasy like it gets up near freezing. The tyres will feel square and bump - bump - bump for the first few miles. The seats will be hard like park benches too! Power steering pumps growl and complain for a bit, older heater fans tend to squeal. The air is crisp and clear and everything sparkles with fresh frost in the sun. It actually has it's own special beauty - if you don't have to work in it!

It's the wind here that does it. Out in the open fields there would not be much more than 4" to 6" of snow. The wind picks it up and blows it across the country until it finds something to stop it. Trees, fence lines, ditches, roads, cars, machinery and buildings all get piles of snow on the lee side. So it does look like we get a lot of snow if you judge it by our yard but in fact you can almost walk across the open fields in your Sunday shoes.

Then silly me, I got a little too impatient trying to move a snow drift out of the way, hit too hard and fast and old David Brown mounted it like he was in love. Yup high centered with the snow holding the tractor up and not enough weight on the wheels. So out comes the shovel and time to clean the snow out from under it to get it back down on solid ground.

Nice to have Franklin back in circulation again!

Ha, ha! No oranges grown here for sure! Yes I am reminded every winter how balmy it must be in your country as I have a David Brown tractor and it is a BEAR to start in any weather below freezing. No glow plugs so ether in the intake is the only way to get it running. New the brake cables do not do that in the winter but the plastic coating on them is thin and easily damaged, cracks with age too so lets moisture in. Well I cleaned out enough room in the garage to get it in with the thought to put an electric heater under the back corner over night. Went to drive it in and... POP! The brake let go! Now just need to remember to not use the E brake until it warms up. Maybe pull them both off later, lube them up and put a hose over them to keep the water out.

Franklin has pulled another cold weather trick on us! The left rear tyre is locked up. I suspect there is a crack in the E brake cable, moisture got in there and it froze in the on position over night. My Rabbit used to do that too until I took the cables off, slipped a length of garden hose over them and put a screw clamp at each end. Need to get Franklin inside over night and thaw it out.

And yes it gets hard! Here is another for your amusement taken at a local park. Think about the relevance of that bottom sign and the irony that it was hit by the plow! 🤣

VW very thoughtfully put a thermostat and flaps below the cooling fan to regulate the temperature of the engine. They did that somewhere back near the initial conception of the design and it was refined over the years until it became pretty effective! In all the years we have driven the air cooled ones we have never had the coolant freeze up like just happened to Franklin! Yes we take the Buggy for a spin on occasion in the snow but it is not a regular thing. I thought you would be more impressed with the motorcycles, they were FAST by the way and took home the fastest time trophy by a good margin. Screws in the treads helped a lot mind you... Yes you can walk on the snow here, the wind bows it across the country breaking it up into ice crystals. It then packs just about as hard as sand. The horse in the above picture was standing on the snow on the other side of the fence. Cows will walk right over fences to freedom on top the snow and sometimes the farmers have to drive new posts into the snowdrifts and build a new fence over top of the buried one to keep them in. Here is a before picture of our old Jetta. Then one of it after a big blow. I show this one and tell people that after a snow storm out here you need a good dog to find your car!

After the snow plow cleared the highway.

And this is our horse about to step over an 8 foot fence!

Yes, layers is the secret! The snow can get deep here too. That would be a train stuck in snow drifts.