Elk Farm - Day 36 (Tues 24 Sep)

Another perfect day and our first sighting of a Robin in the garden (a rather larger bird than our Australian version).


Kathy and Mike had wonderful educational plans for us - a visit to the Regal Point Elk Farm, run by  one of their Wiarton Rotary friends, Eric (a truly remarkable man).

This gateway was awarded the status of best sign in Canada. Hidden in each tree are an elk, porcupine, squirrel, raccoon, stack of pancakes,  jar of maple syrup, knife and fork.



Mike, Kathy, Eric and John in front of Eric's beautifully maintained old, timber barn.

Elk horns - a new set every year.
Eric handles pallet loads (his innovation) from both his own farm and from other farms in Canada and USA. The different colour comes from the variety of tree that the bulls rub their antlers on. Products from the antlers include pharmaceuticals (in their "velvet" stage) and dog chews.

 

 

Eric's system of handling pens includes a padded, fully automated clamp pen for holding the elks for veterinary and other attention.

 

The cows are artificially inseminated then run with a selected bull elk, both as an insurance that insemination has been achieved and for social behaviour.

Young bulls. 
Those with really large antlers will be sold to hunting lodges in Quebec (and elsewhere)  where trophy hunters pay huge amounts to hunt them (like $50,000).



The other major business of the farm is maple syrup production. The sap is line tapped from the trees in season and processed on site.
 

Automated log splitter to fire the refinement process at hotter than boiling water.

 

Grandpa's cauldron - how it used to be done.

 

A maple syrup festival held on the farm is a major fund-raiser for the Rotary club - pancakes, "taffees"  whipped in snow, maple floss ...  great fun.

Other interests of Erics, as well as mountaineering, family and Rotary, are his own cross-country ski trail and  the black holes on his property that lead to underground caves.
All this is in Eric's "retirement".
.

 

 

A giant puff-ball growing in one of Eric's paddocks. Edible when young and white, they later become yellow coloured and poisonous  (like this one now).

Old school-house with a difference - purchased with this mural in place  by another Wiarton Rotary couple (not from when it was a school).