Apple Sauce and Syphon Falls

 Hello out there!

So this one is about a little adventure to Syphon Falls and a little about "Canning" which is something that we Australians don't have to worry about due to the mild winters. 
Canadians on the other hand have Canning down to an art. 

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SYPHON CREEK FALLS

 
As you can see this is not to far from the centre of town. It is a fairly short walk but it is only a partially developed track, and was a bit of a hike. 

There were a lot of beautiful things along the way so here are some photos of them!

This first one Kyran named King Lichen ("Li-king") as it was atop a stump and very bushy

So this is what we set out to see - the Syphon falls in all it glory!

The photos above were taken from half way up the falls. The pool that you see in the photos was half way up but in order to see the pool I had to climb up the side of the falls with a camera in one hand and a rope in the other. I think Kyran just missed videoing me falling and trying to not to slide the whole way down the bottom. 

The photo below is a photo of Kyran videoing me waiting for the opportune moment. This is followed by a photo of Kyran's disapproval of me climbing the water fall.

A nice looking cliff face!

So any normal person would have gone to the falls and then turned around and went back.
Well I saw a rockslide area and a clearing at the top and decided that we should explore that and see what is at the top... also much to Kyrans disapproval. 

This is the view from halfway up the rock slide!

Not Impressed! Haha.

Well in any case, here are some more pictures

This is a fun side note: The photo above in Kyran's hand is Muscovite and we saw it every where in this rock slide area.

Scrap, flake and ground muscovite are used as fillers and extenders in a variety of paints, surface treatments and manufactured products. The pearlescent luster of muscovite makes it an important ingredient that adds "glitter" to paints, ceramic glazes and cosmetics. 

For more information about this mineral see: 
http://geology.com/minerals/muscovite.shtml

This picture is of what we assume is a birch tree that have a ring of a different type of texture, possibly from damage of some kind (fire??).

[Kyran]
Here is a magnificent view from up on the hill we hiked up - still only halfway up the mountain, but we stopped here and sat in the dirt to take in the views and feel the wind on our faces. In the distance, all the way up the Shuswap lake, there is a bit of precipitation.

On the way down the hill after a little break up there, we came across a cute little snake! Mercedes picked it up and gave it a cuddle while I took photos of it.

Down the pathway home, here's a nice picture of the thin forest area. The trees are turning yellow! It's now Autumn, officially.

There's a troll on the bridge!! :) 

 

That's it for the trip to Syphon Falls, I hope you enjoyed the photography!


Lastly, as promised, the Apple Sauce!


We picked the apples fresh from Jody's (Kyran's boss's wife) trees and cut them up, worms and all! They were very organic!

We started with two large tubs of apples, and then we peeled and chopped them. 


























Then we added them to the pot (this is a smaller batch) with a little bit of water to keep them moist. 






 


Then we added lemon and sugar or honey (we used honey) to sweeten it - the lemon stops it going brown. Once they were soft, it was time for the canning.








Canning consists of bottles with two-part lids. The first part of the lid (as you can see on the left) is a flat top with a seal around the rim. This is soaked in hot/boiling water for a few minutes before using them. I should also mention that the jars themselves have to be sterile because canning has to remain germ-free for a long period of time. The whole process must be sanitary!

The second part of the lid (see left) goes on last. It screws on tight and holds down the top part to keep the seal. Making sure the lids are on tight, the jars are then placed in a large pot and boiled for ten minutes. In this case, the pot seen below is specifically made for this task - it has a rack which allows easy insertion and removal of the jars during the process.


After the ten minutes, the jars are removed but kept on the tray and placed gently to the side to cool down. They are not supposed to be moved for about 12 hours in order for them to cool and the seal to harden. 





At the end of the process, just like your vegemite lids you should be able to see the top bit depressed which indicates a full air-tight seal. It's important to mention that when you take them out of the heat, none of them will be depressed, but as they cool you will hear the lids pop and see the top dented in. If after they have cooled the top is not dented, then you know it did not seal so you should probably eat those first as they will not keep long-term (which is the whole point of canning).

After my canning experience (I'm sure I've seen Tia do this in Spain, but I didn't take notice) I asked around the girls at work for examples of how to can other fruits and veggies - turns out for most veggies you do not cook them before canning, you simply add them raw with salt water (brine) or vinegar and then do the boiling process, which cooks them at the same time. 

While we were waiting for the jars to boil, Jody showed me her cooking book, and the times that the jars should boil vary with what the contents are. If you are planning to can, please google how long to boil them for... Don't use me as an authority!

That my friends, is canning brought to you from Canada! Sadly, also the end of another blog entry. 

The next blog should follow some time in the next couple of weeks, and will cover our adventures in square dancing, Kyran's airsoft shenanigans, wild mushrooms, and moving house!

Stay tuned!

Salmon Arm Fall Fair

Hello again friends and family and welcome to another episode of traveling with the Findlaters. 

In this blog entry we went to the Salmon Arm Fall Fair.

There is a lot to get through so lets just dive right into it!

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SALMON ARM FALL FAIR

This one is a bit of a dedication to Mercedes' side of the family who are mad keen with all the old things so here they are:

A wood Gas powered Truck

Exactly how it works can be seen in the photos below but basically you put in wood and then it becomes coal which burns as well, but the process of doing all this creates a flammable gas that is used to power the vehicle's engine with a combustible natural gas.

A Coal Gas powered Tractor
A little like the truck above however this one skips the wood part and just uses Coal which also releases the flammable gas that is used to power it. 

We got talking to what I assume was the owner of one or both of the above mentioned contraptions and he mentioned that this is what was common in the Scandinavian area during the WWII era due to fuel shortages. So there you have it another FUN FACT!!

Next of course are the tractors! I'm not going to say much about them except that most of these were very well done up  and as you will see even had shiny bells and whistles.

 Look at the wheels on the Ford!! first time out the shed!

Add caption

That's the end of the tractor pictures! We promise!

Below is how one's laundry set up would have looked once. All that scratching and plunging and wringing and rinsing no wonder Tom Sawyer got in so much trouble.  

Now an iron collection! They say that people can collect anything - well here is the evolution of the iron! Growing up the way I grew up, I have seen a few versions of these before, and some others I have not seen.

 

This one below took the cake! The owner was very proud to show us this one! In fact he even took the top off to reveal to us that the "asbestos" was in its original condition. 

In such a situation one tries not to look alarmed but still takes a step or two back while checking for the direction the wind is blowing.

Surviving all that, we tested our luck on this machine - it appears much like the pumpkin cutter that I have often seen used back home however this one was used to chop up corn stems etc. and then fed to the cattle or they were added to a silo to sweeten up before feeding to the cattle. 

If you have time you should check out the video!

Sorry it appears that the Video got up loaded without editing so just the first few minutes are good. 

While we're in the old stuff section, this next machine was used in the wheat elevators to determine how clean your wheat was and thus how much it is worth. I'm sorry it seems that we only got a video of it so here it is. 

 
I guess here is as good a place as any to mentioned that the whole reason we were at the show was that we got roped into volunteering. So here we are! our job was to drive golf buggies around with money between the "treasury" and the different entry gates to the fair.

Here's the threat that winter is soon approaching

Chuck Wagon races - That's what they call these little fellas.

Next up the hay maze, I thought that this was the neatest thing! Mate if I was old enough and small enough this would have kept me happy for awhile!

Here is a car that was on display: it's a little Citroen.

Well this machine to me looked like a hay-bailer but in retrospect I never did see any hay bails come out of it. My revised analysis of this machine is that it is used to take the harvested hay from the harvester to the truck or a hay baler. 
I could be wrong, sorry guys I did not get the opportunity to ask any one about it as a was suppose to be busy at work.
But in any case here's a video maybe you can decide for your self. 

 
Next up was the shearer. What are the chances of finding a shearer in a tiny little town who is shearing sheep right before a Canadian winter starts and who also happens to be an Aussie!!

I felt sorry for the sheep who were newly naked and about to freeze over the next few months but what can you do. 

 

Alright then, now on to some more of the animals that we saw:

These cows were part of a project between the local community and the dairy.  There is a program where children each get a calf to look after and they are in charge of feeding and looking after these cows. So as you walk along the stall there are children standing beside or laying with their calf and they can tell you all about them. 

FUN FACT: A cow is not a "Cow" until it has had a calf, until that point it is considered to be a heifer. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos taurus. - Wikipedia

This poor mother pig - It was huge though!
Then there was a pizza eating competition. I have never seen a food eating competition before but it seemed to me to be a bit slower then I had anticipated, that or they have never been as hungry as I have.

Thank you for your patience as we get to the end of this blog. Overall it was a larger fair then I had expected it to be; there were arts and sewing and baking which was good to see, but I think that if I'm around next year I might have something to enter myself!

 


The grown produce section was interesting, they had giant sunflowers and tomatoes and beats and zucchini and lots of other things. 


But I must say that the Pumpkins leave a lot to be desired. 

If anyone wants to send me some seeds from those giant pumpkins back home I think that I might also have a pumpkin to enter next year as well...

But really don't send me seeds I do not wish to be deported just yet!

Then there were Clydesdale horses that were ridden in sync and who knows how much time those girls put into perfecting that!

One thing that I did learn and I think that I might get into in the near future is Gold Panning!!
Here is a video of the guy showing me how to do it:

Then just to finish off with a happy cute note there was a tent where you could pat little chickens and rabbits.

Ok well that is it for this blog folks. I hope that you enjoyed it!

The Salmon Arm Fall Fair was a big day out and heaps of fun so if you are ever in the area at that time of year it is worth a look. 

The next Blog should follow soon after this one as we have been up to a few things lately, so keep an eye out for that in your feed over the next few days. 

At the bottom here is a video of Dan the One Man Band.  Enjoy :)

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