I had to take this fellow below to his new home in Cambridge, so I gathered up my son and we made a day of it.   Plus my hubby is sick and needs a quiet house so the longer we are gone the better.

We had fun.   :)

This image caught my eye as soon as we entered the gallery.   The striking colours and the blocked movement just drew me in.

My son's attention was drawn to this picture.   It's a neat picture isn't it?

We learned this this gallery were submitted projects from classes they had done over the winter.    Some were done by the teachers, others were done by the students.   They ranged in age from child to adult.   It was an interesting display.

We stood in front of this quilt display for quite a while.   My son saw faces throughout the quilt.  I admit it took me a while to see them until he started pointed them out.   In the picture I can see those faces clearly, but in real life it took a bit longer.  :)

Below is much of what we found displayed.   Some of it was really nicely done.

On the way out, the lady at the front desk advised us to go over to city hall.   Cambridge city hall was designed with a lot of green elements to it.  She said "wait til you see the living wall!".   Naturally we had to go check it out.   Can't say my lad was impressed, but I thought it rather neat.

Outside we found this neat display of fish swimming in a stream.   So we of course, HAD TO, sit with them.  :)

My lad and I had a great day hanging out together.    We saw neat art.  Enjoyed a nice lunch together.   Didn't do much in the way of school YEAH says a boy child, and ah... it was just great.  :)   We capped off our day stopping in at Sola-Scriptura, I visited with friends and found out that YES, I am approved to be a reviewer for them so I picked up three books.  More on them later though.  :)

Headed home where we had a quick supper, the lad went off to swim with the Cadets and I went to a meeting.     Sick hubby had a day almost entirely too himself, which we hope will help boost his recovery period.  :)

KICK did a trip to Fanshawe Pioneer Village this past week.  My son had a blast.    :)  While we were waiting for the program to start several of the children decided to have a snow ball fight.   My lad had a total hoot!   Much funner playing with a bunch of children than with your mom!  :)

They divided us into four separate groups.      This made sense as they had four stations for the children to go to.   Candle-making, Print shop, craft making, and Christmas Treats.   Our group started at Candle-making.

The children learned all about candles (I had all sorts of notes from this part and... my phone was killed off..notes lost).  So going from memory... To make candles from Beeswax was expensive so people tended to make tallow candles.  To make candle of decent size took up to three hours to make, ergo the draping of the wick over a stick so you could make more than one at a time.   The most favourite tallow was from beef, the least was pig.     Each child got to dip their candle three times which meant a small candle but all seemed pleased.   We learned that it was the job of the oldest child to keep the fire going, so they often got to sleep right next to the fire.   The average family would go through 3000 candle a year.

On the way to the next station the children stopped to read some of the names of men who died during battle in 1812 I think.

I have to admit, my son DISLIKED this station very much.   They had us make a simple craft and it simply did not appeal to him.     Putting a snowman's head on a doily was just not his thing.  :)  NOW.. .if he could have made it a jumping spider wearing a Santa hat he would have been delighted.  :)

WOOT WOOT!!!    Making gingerbread cookies.   Here the children learned that gingerbread cookies came about due to the queen wanting to find a way to remember the various people at a party.  Gingermen proved the way to do this.  :)    Each child was allowed to decorate one cookies with some white icing.   Delicious.  :)

Our final trip was to the press shop.   The children learned the history of Card making and how instrumental the printing presses were.   Did you know that in the past, Christmas cards were mostly handcoloured?   The printing press would mostly print the card (the basic outline) and then painters would fill in the rest.  They did this since changing colours took too long on the press.     Each of the children received a turn on the printing press where they made a red "season's greeting" card.

We had passed the "stocks" while going to the different stations and the children begged to be able to go back to them to try them out.   Here a couple of the children are demonstrating the use of the stocks.    

We had a great time at Fanshawe Pioneer Village.   We were the first group to go through their Christmas program, which was great... we didn't need to use broken cookies and got to ask lots of questions.  If you have a chance to go to one of their programs, go for it.  :)

Did you know that people with penicillin allergies generally cannot work at a mushroom farm?   NO?   You didn't!   That is just one of the many fascinating facts about mushrooms that I didn't know before.

The reason people with penicillin allergies tend not to be able to work at mushroom farms is due to the sheer number of moulds that mushrooms are susceptible to.   Green and cobweb mould are the most common types.

Hmm.. what else did we learn?
Mushrooms can carry a variety of diseases, so growing them in a sterilized environment keeps them clean.  The farm we went to had a big fire a while back and since then moved away from wooden beds (which apparently are still quite common) to these metal beds we see here.

They were stacked I think about five high with about two feet clearance between each row.   The higher ones are accessed with a lift (more on that later).   Whitecrest only grows cremini and portabella mushrooms and these mushrooms can double their size in a 24 hour period.   I got the impression that if you buy these types of mushrooms any where in southwestern Ontario they are most likely from Whitecrest, just sold and packaged differently depending on the needs of the marketer.

Three pickings are taken before the bed is retired.   People often come on Monday mornings to pick up the leftovers as it makes a great bedding for gardens and what not.   Each picker has a number and puts it with the bin that they pick.   Not all bins are the same, depends on what the order is calling for.  

This section of the bed has been treated with salt.   It kills the mould and gets rid of "wet spots".     The picture beside is another illness mushrooms get, I just can't recall the particular name they used to describe it.   They have to keep a strong handle on mould because if they don't it can quickly overwhelm a mushroom farm.   That gets really expensive really quickly.

I happen to love mushrooms and made that fact clear to the presenters and they graciously allowed my son and I to sample their merchandise.   Mmmm... Fresh picked creminis... YUM!    We had a hard time restraining ourselves after we got permission to enjoy them.   I thought it interesting how many of the moms along didn't like mushrooms and the noses wrinkled at me when I (and my lad) enjoyed them.

Did you know that if you leave a mushroom in the sun for five minutes you will get your daily dose of Vitamin D?

You can even run them under a UV light (at least I think that's the light they used) and they will get 300% Vitamin D which will carry over into the store until they are purchased?   neat huh?

They are also investigating ways to make more use of mushrooms, from putting them into burgers, grinding them into a powder and adding them to breads, stews, soups, and other things.   They are such an excellent source of vitamin D that it's a great way to add vitamin D into your food.  And if you grind them up, seriously.. are you going to notice??

Above is the lift.  Each of the children in our group was able to enjoy a life up and down the racks.   My son tried hard to convince me to go on it but I'm not into heights and therefore declined the invitation.

Things my son remembers
1. It's not good to inject mushrooms with water
2. Whitecrest ships alot of it's mushrooms elsewhere to be used by other companies
3. mushrooms can pick up Salmonella from the ground

We were taken through the various sections of the plant.   From the growing rooms, to how they move the mushrooms from one part to another, the chilling room (if you change the temperature of a mushroom too quickly you will lose one week off it's life), to the packaging area.   It was quite a fascinating tour.  I have to admit, I hoped that they would send us each home with a package of mushrooms but it was not to be.  :)   It was a good field trip and if they do it again next year.. I'll happily attend (and munch on mushrooms again).    You do know they have only 19 calories in one cup right?

I don't know if any of you know about the Donnelly's.  I first learned about them when I was in my early teens.   The book made in impression on.  

Irish families.  Area in turmoil.   Murder at hand along with a complicit constable.   The Donnelly family virtually wiped out in a single night.

My son was of an age where he could learn about this part of our local history, so when we needed to make an unexpected trip into London, I took advantage of the time and stopped in at the Lucan Museum on the way there.   I did not know it did more than tell the story of the Donnelly's, but also of the local black settlement.

We started our tour watching a video about the Donnelly's and their history.   They came from the Tipperary part of Ireland.  An area known for it's rough people.   The Donnelly's did not change their ways when they arrived in Canada.   They were a rough living family that frequently skirted the law.   They wanted land, but couldn't afford it, so simply squatted on a piece of land and called it their own.   

They frequently quarreled with their neighbours.  If trouble were to found they were bound to be in the midst of it, but as people are, they were no different from many of their neighbours.  

There are a lot of discrepancies in the stories surrounding the Donnelly's from the date they arrived to just how events transpired that resulted in their deaths.   The museum had some facts, this website has others.   Suffice it to say, Mr. Donnelly was not a man to back down from a fight, and he'd do whatever he could to come out on top.... even if that meant murder.

As events went, a Catholic Priest was called into the area after the old one passed.   This priest took a strong disliking to the Donnelly's and wanted them gone.  He formed a group of men with the intention of settling the region down (which meant settling the Donnelly's down).  A constable came into the back door of the Donnelly house and handcuffed the strongest fighter of the Donnelly lads and then let in the rest of the gang.  The Donnelly family (save a daughter and visiting 11 year old lad) were beaten to death.   At the museum we were told the lad and the girl both lived but the website says the girl Bridget died.   Which is true I don't know.

At the household of another Donnelly family the first Donnelly to answer the door was also shot to death, the rest stayed quietly in the house as the gang did not know that more were there visiting.   The house was burnt to the ground.

NONE of the perpetrators were brought to justice and the Donnelly family was just gone.    People killed, murderers staying free.    It is an horrific tale regardless of what all the facts are.    It is a sad part of our history.

We learned that one of the things the Irish liked to do for fun was hit each other with Sticks with knobs on them.  These were for the lads to use, the lasses would use socks laden with rocks.   It was just part of what they did.    That information helps me to understand the violence these Irish folk lived under.

I found it deplorable that a constable would take part in the murder of a family (handcuffing the fiercest fighter of the family, and going in the backdoor to do so).   AND that a priest would get his back up and form a group with the purpose of getting rid of the Donnelly family.     Just not a good thing that. 

The rest of the museum (the main part) not the outbuildings, was about the black settlement.   They had quite a few displays set up.  Here is one of them.

Out back they had a house, NOT the Donnelly house (as it burned to the ground), but a house of a similar style.  It was interesting to go in.   They even had a bedstead of a similar style.   So my son could hide back under the bed just like the lad in the Donnelly killings.     My son said.. "I would have put a lot of stuff in front of me so no one could see and would have been so very quiet mom".   My lad, almost the same age as the lad in the tale from time past.   What a horror for that lad to live with.

I am not so sure that I would have a less sensitive and young child go through the Donnelly museum, but it was interesting,   And opened my son's eyes to how grudges can spill over into some nasty business.

Over this past week I've been busy.. so has the whole family.     My hubby with struggling to feel well as he's fighting some type of bug.

My lad in keeping up with his mom.  :)   We've been gone from the home TOO many days and it kind of caught up to us today...so we had a relaxing day just fiddling at home.

So what all have we been doing?

My son has done some schooling with Stinky Kid math...he's got a firm grip on Associative, cumulative and distributive properties now AND has done some learning about stopping and starting videos until he understands what people are talking about... breaking it down into smaller bits.   He still has some work to go on it, but he's starting to figure it out.  :)

I've been a tough mom this week too.. making him work on his Veritas Press course as well.  He enjoys it but we got diverted too much last year, so he's got some catching up to do.  :)   He's doubled up most days this week except when he was working hard helping mom clean the house.

We needed to make an unexpected EXTRA trip into the big city this week so I chose to make a detour at one of our local museums.   We went to the Donnelly Museum and spent about an hour there.   The Donnelly Museum is part of the Lucan Heritage Museum.  Half is devoted to the Donnelly Story, the other half to the Black Pioneer Village.  Interesting place, I'll be doing up a separate post for it.

We then headed up to London and stopped into see our French student who had to leave us due to severe allergies to our cats!     The lad had made him a gift and he had forgotten a few things at our place so he got them all back.  Tuesday he had archery and had a blast.  Apparently the instructor did some shots as well "FROM WAY BACK MOM!   AND HE GOT THEM IN!!!!"   This means of course that his instructor is REALLY good.  :)  (at least in one lad's mind).    It still makes me smile at how much this boy loves going to archery, I suppose it shouldn't though, as solitary sports are what he likes best.  :)

What else did we do this week?
In all my spare time I cleaned  our school room.   This room is the dumping ground for everything we don't know where else it goes at the moment.      So it gets tools, and paper and books and all kinds of interesting stuff dumped in it, and then I get fed up and clean it out.   Took me quite a while to get it done this time, usually one day of concentrated effort gets the job done, this time it took three... but part of that was due to the "hmm, where can I put the stuff from the guest room"????   I finally figured out putting a book shelf in the lad's room was the answer, which meant the Lad's room needed a thorough cleaning.   And since that wasn't done well since end of May... it was a fair effort as well.

The biggest stressor for my boy was that his snake skins remain undisturbed.   So on one side we have the snake skins, then a book shelf, and pictures on the wall.   Our book shelf has a rather unique placement (on top of a storage unit).  But it's all good, the lad is happy and I'm happy too!    AND all my lad's creative element stuff is safely ensconced in the book room.   So our guest room is ready for our Brazilian student, our book room is mostly ready AND the bonus of having my son's clean as well.   Job well done for a week eh?

BUT our week was NOT over!!

Yesterday was the Zurich Bean Festival.     Our here LOTS of white beans are grown and one of the local towns hosts an annual festival.  The highlights for my guys are two fold.... the classic car show and the frog jumping competition.

Today I needed a relaxing day at home, so after church this morning, instead of making a trek out to the Pinery for lunch and a swim or walk, we stayed close to home.   I was feeling a bit "off" so tried reading for a while, tried resting for a while but was feeling to jittery overall for that.. so I cleaned the kitchen cupboards.  I KNOW I KNOW.... as my mother would say "OP SUNDACH!!!"  (ON Sunday!!!!).

But my cupboards are clean, my family is blessed and I no longer feel jittery.   I don't think that God will be disheartened by my working on the Sabbath day.   I even made myself some tea and yes.. I've a post coming on my favourite tea maker too! 

This past Wednesday I needed to make a rabbit run up to Toronto.   We took the opportunity to take in the Royal Ontario Museum.   My son wanted to see stuff on Rome.  We've been learning a lot about Rome lately and seeing the exhibits just added extra depth to his learning.

The lad was quite intrigued by the Roman Statues that he saw.  He really paid attention to how they changed over the years, asking good questions about why some had the noses missing, others had pupils in the eyes and others did not, so we needed to research why that was.   Did you know that the statues used to fully clothed?   They painted the statues in the past, so they didn't need to add pupils.  Over time the paint has worn off.    We saw a good amount of materials from the time of the Romans, the coins, the oil lamps (one in the shape of a dove!), items for the Lord's Supper, statues, various dishes, and more.  Throughout they had these handy monitors that you could use to learn more about churches like the Hagia Sophia (the lad was curious about that since he's learned about it in his studies).   He stopped a fair number of the monitors and just listened to them for a while, occasionally calling me over to listen to one he particularly enjoyed.

There was no way we could cover the whole museum in one day and still get home in time to relax before bed and what not, so we picked and chose what we wanted to do.  The lad wanted Rome, I wanted Egypt, we all wanted to see the mammals, and dad didn't otherwise care as his broken hand was causing him pain.   He still took the time to explain a couple of things to the lad that he didn't quite understand.

We had a great time and would have no problems going back again.  "I enjoyed that mom" was my son's response when we left.  :)   I liked hearing that.  It felt a bit rushed going through, but it was neat to see many of the items that we saw.   Below I've posted a bit of a slideshow of the highlights.