'cause you live in some weird, maple-drenched foreign country around the other side of the planet der
Actually, Canada and Australia are culturally and politically very similar I’ve read and heard over the years: outside of the obviously warmer climate we have and different accents there’s a lot of similarities between the two.
The fact we have Eucalyptus trees instead of Maple ones blows of course, because maple syrup is godly shit I would use instead of sugar in everything if it weren’t so expensive here: 100% pure Canadian Maple Syrup here will cost you over $10 for like, a shitty little 100mL bottle - there’s cheaper maple syrups and nasty maple ‘flavoured’ syrups, but the real thing is very heavily priced, even though it’s in every supermarket.
6:20PM now - but no work tomorrow, so I don’t need to get up and do the routine.
Also: though it gets plenty cold in the Blue Mountains where I am and snows in winter, it’s not the same kinda cold as everything I know about Canada and I would love to love somewhere that I get snow all winter: be a pain in the arse but I would always rather the ability to get warm after being freezing, than be sweating and sticky and hot all day.
No I’m dead set serious that’s cold for here. I already have the long sleeve t shirt on.
We’d get about 3 nights a winter under 10C but always warms up once the sun is out.
I haven’t even OWNED tracksuit pants for about 10 years now, because I started buying those Bisley workpants with the secksee patches and now I don’t like any other pants.
Though, as I type this I’m sitting in what, socks, two layers of merino long-johns and a long-sleeve merino top and no pants at all.
Well, two pairs of pants, but not technically… they’re as soft as tracky daks, just not as baggy.
Doesn’t snow very often here though, even mid winter: nothing like the hot canadian chick would get, but it’s actually LESS cold when it’s snowing here than the days when there’s no snow or clouds: just a clear blue sky with that wind-chill-factor bullshit howlin’ through town - that wind’ll freeze the nuts of a brass monkey and no matter how much clothing you wear it always continuously blows your body heat right out from under your clothes the moment you step outside.
When it’s snowing, there’s gotta be cloud over (for the snow to form) and, iunno it only snows between -2oC and +2oC or something like that, so it can be -6oC WITH that wind and be WAY colder than any snow makes it.
(Can’t remember the exact numbers on that snow-range, but there’s a definite set range of temperature it’s gotta be for snow to fall - I just used -2/+2 as an example.)
You can find patches of maple trees where I grew up in Minnesota as well. My uncle had a pretty large streamlined processing sort of camp site going in the spring. It was called “The sugar bush”. They’d collect a lot of sap and make syrup and candies. Those candy things they made were like heaven to a kid. It was just like little hockey pucks made out of maple and sugar. Sometimes they’d mold them to look like maple leaf or whatever.
Since they’re gone now a few of my cousins do it every spring. I’ve never been a big fan of legit maple syrup on my pancakes or waffles but I know others love it.
It’s just yeah: the idea of a tree you can just hammer a hollow metal peg in to make sugary syrup flow out - it’s like fucking mana from nature that shit is
I don’t even EAT breakfast, though I’m about to start doing so - yet I would use maple syrup in my coffee and tea, on breakfast cereal, maybe a drizzle of ham sandwiches…
Here, we have endless different types of honey - whole WALLS of the shit in supermarket aisles to choose from.
But honey is TOO sweet: maple syrup has that warm, rich flavour and though it’s sweet enough to be a sweetener it’s not TOO sweet: yeah I love the shit.
I’ll add a reminder to my phone to buy some while shopping tomorrow actually - to avoid my getting back home THEN remembering I would’ve liked a bottle
I use my Craftsman drill along with a brass straw because it fits right in you don’t need to tighten it that much I took 2 mini wire ties and put them on the bottom facing different directions and clip them about a centimeter long each .
you could even use three if you want to get really frisky!
Me too one of the things I like about the homogenizer is that once it’s done you never have to shake again, even before a tank fill which I always did just to make sure the flavors, nic, were all melded. Just piping in because I’ve found using it a relief in many ways.
I bought a GC from Dan. I already had the RTX B&D rotary tool and a dremel workstation which I “frankensteined”, lol, into a stand. Holding the rotary tool in my hand was getting cumbersome especially with the arthritis.
Agreed. Saving money to buy mire flavors is preferred.
For me I use the sawzall method (you can find some red eco videos on YouTube)…but I use and electric carving knife with just one blade attached and two stainless plumber straps that you can tighten down with a small wrench.
I mix up 20 bottles every two weeks (well 15-30 depending on my mood and maybe if I missed a week). I just strap two bottles (15 ml to 30mls)…shake for about 30 seconds…let the mixes settle over night…then off to my holding cabinet.
I have been doing this for about 5 years…I have only lost one bottle because I didn’t tighten it down. For me this works like a charm because there is no way I would sit there and shake 20 bottles by hand.
As for air…welp…the air that is in the bottle remains in the bottle…I wouldn’t feel any difference in a mix after 4 weeks or more of sitting. The air incorporated would react just the same as sitting on top with a higher length of time just sitting in the cabinet.
If you absolutely must use a drill (still don’t recommend that) something I used a long time ago, before I realized turning my batches with those air bubbles was not good, I would fashion little stir ‘blades’ out of 24 gauge Kanthal or SS. It’s stiff enough to hold it’s shape and reusable by simply rinsing with water. It’s a better alternative than pipe cleaners.
Woot, I can’t believe you said that! I came up with a similar idea using 3 small bamboo skewers. Bamboo because it doesn’t allow bacteria to grow on it. Point is, the 3 together did a much better job of stirring without creating bubbles.
it will be at freezing point in Brisbane tonight 15C. I’m ready with the tracky dacks 
one of the things I like about the homogenizer is that once it’s done you never have to shake again, even before a tank fill which I always did just to make sure the flavors, nic, were all melded. Just piping in because I’ve found using it a relief in many ways.
