Black Creek Pioneer Village: Revolutionary War Re-Enactment

What a thrilling day we spent at Black Creek Pioneer Village. There were skirmishes, a mock battle, encampments, and even homemade ice cream.

This was the first 'skirmish' in the village. The men on the left are loyalists and the men on the right are soldiers. It was very exciting seeing the history we have been studying and reading about come to life before our eyes.

Here the soldiers forcibly break up the loyalist settlers meeting. Lots of adrenaline and excitement.

In the second skirmish the soldiers came to remove a family from their home because the husband was fighting in the war on the other side.

It was quite dramatic. There was shoving and pushing, yelling and shooting. The little old lady who lived in the house was quite spunky and began beating the captain with her broom. Eventually, after pretending to leave and then returning suddenly, the whole battalion of soldiers entered the home and secured it.

The last excitement of our day involved a mock battle. We had a lovely time learning about this war, and also got to wander through the soldiers encampments. We learned about everything from making canvas water buckets to why soldiers hats had three sides (so their muskets wouldn't knock them off).

But by far our favourite part was....you guessed it....

The horses!

DMC

Archaeological Festival

We are so lucky. Last weekend, in our local area, there was an archaeological festival. The location was a conservation area that was a homestead in the late 1800's, where a blacksmith lived with his wife and 16 children! There were many exhibits and some entertainment, including musicians and a blacksmith. Our favorite activities were the horsedrawn carriage rides to and from the dig site.......
and of course the dig site.....
We dug up some cool artifacts including a button, a large square headed nail, and pottery. It was really fun, and something my daughter has always been interested in.

We tried two ways of digging for lost treasures: shovelling and using a trawl. We had to scrape the surface in thin layers, then put the dirt into a pail. After the pail was full, we put the entire contents into a sifter and shake-shake-shake until all the loose soil was gone. Then we searched for treasures.

It was a fun day, and one that my daughter (and I) will always remember.

DMC

Caterpillar Update

This has been a wondrous journey. Our three tiny little eggs have gone through some amazing changes. They began as teeny tiny caterpillars that could not be seen with the naked eye. They had white splotches on their backs and knobs all over their bodies. They ate and ate and ate...

Then they changed. We didn't even notice the change until we looked back at the pictures. The white splotches were gone, and they took on this new colouring, and grew enormously in just days...

Then, when they had gotten extremely big and plump, they attached themselves to the stalk of the plants (or to our kitchen cupboards) by a tiny silk thread. They stayed like this for about a day and then suddenly...

They changed. This is a chrysalis. Isn't it beautiful? Inside wonderful amazing things are happening. What a wonder it all is! So exciting.

The caterpillars began their transition into chrysalises while we were away for two days. One of the little fellas left the aquarium, and found a different place to settle. Can you tell what's different about him?

His colouring is grey to match his surroundings (the other two are both bright green). Amazing!

DMC

Caterpillars are Larva

The caterpillars have grown considerably. They have tripled in size in just one week. All they do all day is eat and eat and eat. We spent some time in our yard reading about complete metamorphasis and creating accordion booklets about the lives of these caterpillars. This will be our very first experiment with lapbooking.

DMC

Priming the Drywall

I finally got around to priming the new drywall in the basement today. I have already learned so much about hiring contractors (the hard way) and priming new drywall (the easy way).

Priming new drywall:

- use a good quality primer specially made to cover new drywall, otherwise, your new drywall will suck up the ordinary primer and you will end up using twice as much. Luckily, I did not have learn this the hard way, I learned it from a helpful salesperson in the paint department at Home Depot.

Hiring contractors:

- Don't choose the contractor with the cheapest quote--usually you are not getting a deal. Get the estimate and all promises of work quality and materials in writing. Make sure you hire a reputable contractor who has references which you check. Keep an eye on the work while it is being done, no matter how awkward you feel. Be careful that your contractor isn't hiring another contractor to do part of the work. It will be hard to decide who is responsible when the work is not done properly. These things I learned the hard way. I find myself saying "I wish I had done this differently" or "if I only had it to do over again" you get the idea.

To finish the room I still need to install quarter round at the ceiling to fill the gap, and baseboards at the floor, to cover the gap and to cover where there are screws that are not covered and some globs of mud.

One of their guys offered to do this work for me.....for another $175 plus materials.

Ah well, live and learn.

DMC

Three Mom's are Better Than One

We had four of our cats fixed. It has been about 10 days now, and my house no longer smells stinky from the boys marking their territory. I am so pleased. There has been another aspect of this that is just so amazing and adorable that I must share it.

We had two female cats fixed (and two males). At the same time, their mom, Miss Mew, was nursing a batch of kittens that were born April 23rd. This is the amazing thing....The day after we brought the newly fixed kitties home, Miss Mew allowed Bella (mostly white kitty in above photo) to come into her box with the kittens. A few days later, we found the kittens under my dresser with Blackie, our other female kitty.

Now the three moms care for the kittens together. All sleep in the box, watch out for the kittens, and even allow the kittens to suckle. It is so touching.

And then there's William. Here he is in the box with the babies, Bella and Blackie. I think this is adorable and very unusual. This is the cat who, two weeks ago, was spraying all over my house. What a sweetie.

DMC

Baby Caterpillars

These baby caterpillars are about .5 cm in size.

A while back I mentioned that we saw a butterfly laying eggs while we were walking in a natural area. We picked a small section of one plant on which the butterfly alighted and brought it (very carefully) home. There were 3 tiny balls on the sprig, each one a tiny butterfly egg.

About a week later, we looked and the tiny balls were split, and there were tiny grey/black things on the leaves of the sprig. They were so tiny we could only see them with a magnifying glass (I also needed my reading glasses).

Now, about a week later, you can discern what they are with the naked eye. Aren't they cute?

DMC