The first weekend back we packed up and headed from New Ross/Butlers Lake for a weekend with Chris and Heather who own the cottage we stay in. We called in to Ross Farm Museum and visited all our usual haunts - the kids love the school house with the slates to write on, and we all love a good covered wagon ride! It was such a gorgeous day - quite different to our winter visits....
The wagon driver dropped us off at the Cooperage and we hung out with the cooper for a bit watching him making barrels. It is amazing the effort that used to go into absolutely EVERYTHING. They have a sawmill on site that just cuts staves (barrel sections) and timber shingles for the roof's and walls of the buildings on the farm. The tools in the cooperage were fabulous, and the kids were well taken with a little rocking chair that had been made by the previous cooper's great great grandfather for taking to hoop camps (they all got together and cut/made the barrel hoops). An old little chair..
We walked up and had a look in the sawmill and checked out the hops garden. Back in the day every house had a hops pole and they used the hops as an accelerant for yeast (among other things :) ). We called in to the old house and Amelia tried her hand at spinning before we headed out to the lake.
Chris and Heather had all their toys out, so not long after arriving we were out paddling around the lake in their canoe and trying out our new toy - an underwater camera! Alex has laid claim to it, and has taken a ridiculous amount of photos of the lake bottom and himself... The canoe was awesome too. We went out into the open lake (their cabin is down an arm) and had a lovely time checking out the other cabins and the fabulously gorgeous views. Back at the cabin we took advantage of the hammock and took a look at the beavers accommodation that had been exposed when the neighbor shifted his wharf back into the water. Looked very cozy! an amazing amount of wood involved tho..
The highlight of the trip for the boys was Heather dusting off a Pokemon board game that her son Kyle has back the first time Pokemon were popular.. They fell on it and pored over it every moment they weren't in the lake. It remained a solid favorite for the entire holiday and even now (writing this after school has started) I come down most mornings to find them playing one or other permutation of it :) Amelia has caught the Pokemon bug too and spouts constant nonsense about rapidash, pikachu and charmander.... sigh!
The next time we visited the lake the lovely neighbor let us have a go in their paddle boat, which was exhausting for me and endlessly exciting for Amelia and Owen who could climb all over it but not effectively reach the pedals... Was hilarious watching Alex and Owen take it out by themselves - the slower it went the harder it was to steer.
Our next visit to New Ross was for their 200 year celebrations (the town has been in existence for 50 years long that Canada!) We camped at Falls River and drove over to New Ross for a day of lumber jacking, parades, country music and a good old 200 gun salute which involved the locals all getting together and firing off antique rifles. All in all hilarious! My favorite was the competitive Christmas tree cutting and wrapping :)
The second day we packed up camp, had a swim in Falls Lake and headed to Ross Farm for lunch and a bit of history. They had gone all out and there were masses of people wandering around in period costume. They even re-enacted the poor beggars who lugged the first piano in overland from Chester. Was a great celebration for a little town - great to see the community all getting together and having such an awesome time :)
One of our spare (!) days we abandoned Matt at work at drove up to Lunenburg to visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. It has been closed the last two times we were in Lunenburg and it was great to finally get there.
The kids were very taken by the fish tanks, and the models of the ships. The highlight tho, was finally getting to play on the whale out the front. It has always been winterized when we have been there and it was great for them to see what was under the wraps! On the way home we stopped at Queensland Beach for a swim and another play with the camera :) Amelia insisted on rolling/scooting around in the sand and had so much of the damn stuff in her togs and hair that I don't think we are EVER going to get it all out...
Next highlight was Not Since Moses. I've been looking forward to this since the first time we visited the Bay of Fundy and it was just awesome! Not Since Moses is a run along the seabed of the Bay of Fundy during one of the lowest tides each year. I went for the 5km having not done a lot of running and not sure how I would get on thru the mud... The kids all wanted to give it a go which was great!
I drove the kids up to get to Five Islands in time for race registration and to take in the views and celebrations going on. The kids enjoyed playing washer toss and chasing each other around while I sat and enjoyed the GORGEOUS views and the live music.
We climbed the obligatory lighthouse and took some photos at the finish line before heading for the campsite to get the tent up before Matt arrived (he flew in from somewhere that evening and followed us up). once the tent was up and dinner had been eaten we took a walk down to and along the beach, keeping an eye out for fossils and seaglass. A guy showed us what looked awfully like the imprint of a fish in a rock - very cool. Amelia startled a couple of older ladies by busting out a few lines of 'Highway to Hell' at the top of her voice while picking though the rocks :)
We were up early to get sorted and down to the carpark/shuttle to the start line. The mosquitoes were unbelievable - clouds of the damn things! The shuttle dropped us at the start point, which we soon realised was right across the mudflat from the campground! If we were to go back next year I think we would just walk across closer to start time... Anyhoo. we parked up and had our breakfast while we watched the tide recede. My race started just after 8 and was a heaving mass of pink (the race shirts were bright pink - so they didn't lose anyone I guess!) After about 20m running along the top of the beach, we turned down into the mud, though a stream and back out into the mud on the other side. The only respite you got was when we went around the headland and were running in the water! There was a water stop at the turn around point - a boat that they had moored out there and was now beached in the mud :) - and a solid slog back though the mud back to the finish line! I have to say I really enjoyed the distance...it was over and done with really before I knew it!
The kids all ran in their ages groups - Amelia only ran about 50m but was super pleased!! None of their runs were very muddy but they all aquitted themselves well and were proud to pose with their medals afterwards.
Owen was up next in the sheep riding event. The announcer made them walk like a sheep to the other end of the arena which Owen wasnt so happy about! When his turn came Owen got settled onto his sheep and clung on like a pro. Unfortunately the handler gave the sheep a sharp shove to get it going and it tripped and fell over as it tried to get away, tumbling itself and Owen into the dust. He got some nasty scrapes on the leg but was pretty good about it (with tears!). Alex's event was a sheep chase - you had to get three coloured ribbons off the sheep to finish. It was (of course) a mad crazy free for all with kids and sheep running everywhere. Some of the older nimbler kids managed to get to the ribbons, while some of the more opportunistic ones picked up bits of ribbon off the ground! A job well done by all tho. All three were well pleasd with the tickets they got to the fairground rides as a prize. The rides were hot, dusty and reasonably successful. Amelia loved about half of the stuff she did - the carousel and the truck ride being her favorites.
Alex LOOOOVED them all - particularly the gut heaving spinning whirling kind of ones..... Owen kinda liked some of Alex's ones but was happier a little closer to the ground and going a bit slower! We watched the truck pulls for a while (to placate Matt) and headed off to set up camp.Next day we headed over to the Museum of Industry again. This time there were people everywhere doing talks about this and that, so we got to learn all about the old train, how the workshop worked, how to run and printing press and a bunch of other interesting stuff!
The end of the month saw an end to the summer break and the baseball season. The boys both really enjoyed their time and it was lovely to engage in a bit more of north american culture!
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