Sugar Shack

Our friend who owns a farm out near Plantagenet has been very busy over the past six years since buying the property, in 2020.

You see, when he initially bought the farm, he did so with the intent of creating a pastoral venue for special events. He was going to renovate the large barn into a hall that could accommodate wedding parties, graduation parties, and so on. He has an ice house that he has been converting into a guest house and I believe he had plans to turn a second barn into a larger guest house that could accommodate several people.

Unfortunately, when the derecho hit Eastern Ontario in 2022, it caused a lot of damage to our friend's farm. Both barns were severely damaged: the smaller and older barn was damaged so much that our friend had to demolish it, and it took years to settle with his insurance company to cover the repairs of the larger barn.

This year, he's been working tirelessly to bring the farm up to a condition that he feels he can sell it. Gone are his hopes of turning it into a special-event venue.

It'll be sad to not visit our friend when he does sell the farm but it'll be some time before he feels he's raised the place to a condition where he'll be proud to offer it.

One of the buildings on the site that has largely been untouched since he took over the farm and which was unaffected by any storms is one of the oldest on the property: a sugar shack. Our friend tidied it up when he first moved to the farm, and in the first spring actually harvested sap from the maple trees and made some delicious maple syrup.

He gave us some in a glass bottle that was shaped like a log cabin and we made short work of the syrup.

I've photographed the sugar shack many times over the years, in all seasons. But on our latest visit, we were treated with a colourful sky at sunset, and I was able to capture part of our friend's garden at the side of his house.

Samsung Galaxy S24 | 5.4mm | f/1.8 | 1/313 | ISO 25

I only had my smartphone with me but it was enough. This photo may be my favourite shot of the sugar shack so far.

I'm hopeful that I'll still have many opportunities to capture the beauty of this farm as the renovations continue. When the farm is sold, I'll have to find others to shoot.

Happy Thursday!