Day 123 Stirling, ON

August 25, 2019

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We had blue skies, warm temperatures and even a little tailwind today. The countryside was a little more scenic today, too.

In addition to dairy farms, we also saw "electron farms" today. We've seen a few in the last couple of days.

The old collapsing sheds add atmosphere to the countryside.

I was a little surprised to see that this barn was still in use. It wouldn't do much to keep the animals warm in cold weather.

Pedaling along one country road, we saw another cyclist out for a ride. We slowed down (not many people pedal more slowly than we do) and had a nice chat with the delightful Fay.

Fay - warm and friendly and a veteran cyclist

We were concerned that our route today started with a stretch of 29 miles without a place to stop. We had plenty of snacks and water, but we like those convenience stores. At about mile 25, we were happily surprised we came upon the Signal Brewing Company. It is housed in a former distillery- Corby's, which someone said had been one of Canada's largest distillers-and has a gorgeous location right on the river. We were greeted by a very friendly guy, who turned out to be the owner, Richard. He was interested in our trip, so we talked with him for awhile before we ate. The food was delicious and we were very glad that we stopped there.

Corby's memorabilia in the entrance hall

In the town of Stirling, we visited Farmtown Park, which celebrates the agricultural history of the area.

There was a lot of information on the dairy industry from farming to cheese and butter production. We saw something completely new to us, the "Dutch clock".

The Dutch clock was used for cheese auctions from the 1950's through the 1990's. The clock ran backward, starting at the highest price and bidders rang in as the price decreased to the level they chose to bid.

Many of us remember home milk delivery, but I'm guessing none of our readers recall horse-drawn delivery vehicles.

There were tractors and plows and lots of other farm machinery.

There was a Heritage Village which was supposed to represent a farm town in the 1920's to 1940's.

While you could not enter most of the shops, they all contained nice displays with period settings and merchandise.

The gentleman here, Norm, told me he used a pump like this in 1936.

Once again, the people we met were the highlight of our day. There was Fay, the cyclist, Richard, the brewery owner and at Farmtown, we enjoyed meeting these folks.

Jack, Farmtown president and summer intern, Kaitlyn

Visitors to Farmtown, Jim, Dorothy and Norm

Norm's wife, also Dorothy, didn't make the picture, but deserves mention. She and Norm spent many years wintering on the Gulf Coast of Florida and we had a good time talking about places past and present they remembered.

This was a good day!

Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 4,620 miles (7,435 km)

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DAVID FAULKNERWhat a great day!
I'm old enough to report we received our milk by a horse drawn garage.
The milk was left on our porch and in the winter the tide was popped off with the cream rising to the top. I'm a touch older than I look!
The cheese clock usage was very interesting
Dave
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4 years ago

Michael and Diane RuddockAlso showing my age, but in Hamilton 1947, milk and other goods were still being delivered by horse and wagon. By the curb in front of my grandparents house was a large, cast iron horse watering trough, a common sight in those days. We used to feed the delivery horses from the grass catching bag of our hand mower.
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4 years ago