A Little Change

Ever feel that you need just a little change? Instead of all of the other important things that I should be doing tonight, I am blog-surfing - my own, and others. I am loving blogging, as a way to record parts of our days, and share our adventures with others. I think it is time to change it up just a little bit, though. Thought that I would try a new template. What do you think? If things look a little different around here for the next few days, bear with me. I may try a few others before I settle on one. Kind of like moving your furniture around in the room...

Boys Group - Survival Kits

N0w that we are truly into fall and are starting to settle into a bit more of a pattern with our days, many of the groups and co-ops that we all enjoy as part of our Homeschool group have started up again. One of William and Charlie's favourites is a group for boys that gets together (almost) weekly to learn, explore, and mostly just play.

Today the group got together for the start of a 4-week session on wilderness survival. We have such wonderful parents in this group, many of whom have volunteered to share their knowledge on the subject. Today everyone got together to learn a little bit about basic wilderness safety, and to put together a survival kit. In the next 3 weeks we will also be lashing together forts in the woods, learning basic orienteering, and practicing how to safely start a fire and gather edible plants from the woods. Really, there is nothing more fun for a group of 6 - 12 year old boys than this.

The kits that the boys put together were inexpensive, basic kits, with the idea that pieces can be replaced with better quality items as the boys get older, and can be added to as their needs change (at this point, the likelihood of any of them finding themselves alone in the woods is rather slim!!) We did make sure to cover basic safety information, though that could be helpful in an emergency - the importance of staying in one place, the priority of shelter and water over food, different ways to signal for help, etc.

Our kits included:

-rain poncho

-solar blankets

-flint

-candles

-fire starters (made from cotton balls and Vaseline!!)

-waterproof matches

-trail marking tape

-fishing hooks

-fishing line

-compass

-pocket knife or all-in-one-tool

-duct tape

-wire for making a snare

-whistle

-first aid kit- band-aids, alcohol wipes, compress

-needle and thread

-cork

- a serrated metal line for cutting wood

-small mirror

-piece of sandpaper

-magnet

-safety pins

-water treatment pills

-empty tin can

Everything even fit into a small lunch-sized bag!!

Of course, once the survival kits were finished, the boys all headed off into the park to 'practice'...

Charlie's Cuddle Blanket

I am not a really crafty woman, certainly not as talented as many of the knitters and sewers who have such beautiful blogs out there, but I can at least crochet (or knit) a straight line. I really wanted William and Charlie to have something Mama-made to snuggle with, so I set to work. A little while ago I finished Charlie's cuddle blanket. He picked out the wool himself in is favourite colour, and was thrilled whenever he saw me working on it. He loved the idea that I was working on something just for him (William's cuddle blanket was finished a few months ago). The blanket is not huge, just the perfect size to go around two people snuggled up to read a book, to cover over a little body napping on the couch, or to hide under for a giggle-filled game of hide and seek. The perfect blanket for a perfect (in my eyes, anyway) little boy.

Harvest Festival

After visiting the Headwaters Arts Festival in the morning, we headed over to a wonderful harvest festival at a local museum. This is a yearly event that we make sure to mark on the calendar...pony rides, threshing demonstrations, rope-making, a corn maze, sausage-making and a cider press, and corn husk dolls. I am told that the beef stew and apple pies cooking inside smelled heavenly, but we ran out of time before we made it to that part of the exhibit.

The rope making was definitely a favourite. William and Charlie came home and played with their 6 foot pieces of rope for the better part of an hour and a half - as a harness to climb the tree in the front yard, lassoing each other and the dog, tying them to anything that they could find, and playing toss and catch with the knotted ropes. We had a brief moment of panic when Williams high throw landed his rope securely about 15 feet up in our neighbours tree, but Daddy quickly came to the rescue.

Hope that everyone had as good a weekend as we did!

Headwaters Arts Festival

This morning dawned cold, grey and wet, so we headed to the (mostly indoor) Old mill in Alton. The mill was originally the home of the Beaver Knitting Mills, built in 1881. Now it is the home of a beautiful art gallery and sculpture garden. As part of the Headwaters Arts Festival, the gallery was hosting a theatre mask-making workshop for kids (which my boys decided they wanted nothing to do with!!) but we had a great time exploring the property and viewing the exhibits, none the less.

World Wide Market

After speaking to the farmer at the apple orchard that we visited last week, William, Charlie and I decided to go under cover and investigate a local grocery store. We wanted to check out just how much of the food there was Canadian (hopefully from local farms, or at least somewhere in Ontario) and what was imported. It was a great way to explore with the boys how the choices we make can have a big impact.

It was nice to see a fair bit of fresh Canadian produce, but we had a really hard time getting more info than that. With the exception of the pie pumpkins that came from a farm in Aylmer ( about a 40 minute drive) most produce was only labelled as 'Canadian" or not. Canada is a very big country....

We also were talking about the produce that was in season in our area right now...including wonderful fresh carrots...but this store only had produce of the USA carrots in stock.

This melon also came a long way to get to our area, when there are beautiful melons at the farmers market most weeks.

We were also interested to see just how far foods travel to get to our table....cheese from France, mangoes from Brazil, asparagus from Peru, tuna from Thailand, kiwi from New Zealand.

The boys had some wonderful questions and insights into the whole issue...William recognized that if we wanted to buy Canadian pineapples, we were out of luck, but that there were lots of choices of other fruits to buy that could be grown locally. They also remembered how many different kinds produce are at the farmers market every week...eating locally doesn't mean the same foods week in and week out.

We noticed that the more processed a food was, the harder it was to figure out where it was actually made, and where the ingredients were grown. And, we realized how hard some companies try to mislead consumers. William was rightfully indignant to find a can of corn that read "No corn sold in Canada contains preservatives" "Canada's Food Guide to healthy eating recommends..." and a web site of cangrofooods.ca (leading him to believe that the product was in fact Canadian corn) on a can of American produce.

All in all it was a very interesting afternoon. It sure will be great to head back to the farmer's market tomorrow!!

A few more articles on the subject...

How much of your food is local?

Sustainable Table

Grocers go independent to buy local

Buy local food directory

As an after thought...it will be interesting to do this again in February and see what we find in terms of 'fresh' produce...

I had a piece of this apple pie for breakfast. And I almost went back for seconds. Will you all support me in my claim that apple pie makes a suitable breakfast food on account of all of the fresh apples? Come on...it was homemade apple pie...can you blame me???

“Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.”
Jane Austen