Be Careful What You Wish For

Yesterday I posted about "beginning a new chapter"; I did not realize then what the universe had in store for us.  Today I received a very surprising phone call telling me that after four years of waiting, we have finally reached the top of the list and are eligible for a spot in the french preschool associated with Liam and Seamus' school.  I joined the wait list way back when Seamus was two and then stealthily adjusted the name to Alistair when Seamus was finally old enough to enter kindergarten and had still not been offered a spot.  Imagine my shock to learn that there is a place for Ali beginning September 13th.  

And so it seems that now, instead of living my daydreams of soap making during Ali's nap time and taking long afternoon hikes with my not-so-baby-anymore baby, I will be job hunting and returning to the realm of policy making or academia.  I will be trading in my straw farmer's hat for my PhD thinking cap.  

We are going to go from everyone home all the time and no one home for most of the day!  Life is crazy, isn't it?  A new chapter, indeed.

One Final Sweaty Adventure

For our last field trip of the 2020/21 homeschooling year, we headed out on this very, very hot day to explore Upper Canada Village.  

Over the past year we have seen the ruins of several pioneer homesteads on our many hikes.  Today we thought that we would tie it all together with a visit to the pioneer village where lessons from the woollen mill workers, sawmill operator, baker, tin smith, hotel owner, tenant farmer, physician's helper and shoemaker could enrich our understanding of what it might have been like to be one of the early settlers in Canada.

The boys enjoyed the visit but, as usual, I am pretty sure their favourite part was the ice cream at the end.  It was incredibly hot here today and I must admit, I enjoyed the ice cream quite a bit too!

We have two more days of homeschooling left in our school year and then the boys return to "real" school this coming Tuesday August 31st.  They are registered and ready to go.  

Liam and Seamus are really looking forward to meeting their new teachers (not me this time, thank goodness!) and having school mates who are not each other.  I am excited too.  On some level I will miss being constantly surrounded by my boys every second of every day, but I am also very much looking forward to some quieter times and not being solely responsible for their academic pursuits.  A very strange chapter in our lives is closing and a new (and hopefully great) one is soon to begin!

Just for the Record

Let it be noted that Farmer Krystal can grow one heck of a nice tomato. 

A big thank you to my helpful harvesters who persevered in the heat to pick all these ripe and ready beauties.  These lovelies are destined for salsa!

Early Birds

When your kids are early birds, you are able to get in a 6 km hike before the public library even opens.  This is quite advantageous when you are in the middle of a seemingly never-ending heat wave.  Daily exercise done, weekly reading material collected, and it isn't even noon!

Day of Seamus, Daddy Edition

It was a bright and early departure this morning for
Seamus' day of fun with Daddy.
We did ALL the stuff.

Today's Day of Seamus started out with a quick stop at Princess Auto for snacks.  There sure are lots of yummy pepperettes there for all the hungry people in line.

 
Next, we made our way to Amigo Go Karts in Gatineau to race in a side-by-side Go-Kart!  So fun!

This was a dream come true for Seamus.
He absolutely loved it.

Next up, Dim Sum in Chinatown for lunch.

 Our afternoon adventures began with a Pirate Cruise!  No kidding.  Our swashbuckling scallywag "Spiderweb Seamus" had the absolute best time getting his pirate tattoo, manning the helm and shooting the water cannons.

It was so hot out on the water that we almost asked to walk the plank!  We took shelter from the blazing sun by ducking into an air conditioned movie theatre to catch a showing of Jungle Cruise.  It was a great movie and our first time at the theatre in almost two years!

 

The day was a huge success and we came home tired but happy.  Time for a quick dinner and then bed...YAWN.  Daddy is tired.

Crazy as a Beekeeper

Beekeepers are their own kind of crazy.  Not only do we voluntarily house thousands of stinging insects, spend ridiculous amounts of money on sugar to feed them and medications to treat their illnesses, and worry constantly about how they are doing, but we also suit up in crazy hot full body armour to check on them in 36 degree C August heat.  It is nuts!

This is the before picture. 
I was a sopping wet, sweaty blob by the time the inspections were complete.

In my apiary report for today: I successfully removed all the mite treatment medication, added more food to the weakest hive and checked each hive for eggs.  

My troublesome hive (also my best honey producing one) is still being difficult.  During the last inspection the queen was laying eggs in the honey supers instead of in the brood boxes.  Now the hive has decided that they do not like that queen anymore and is in the process of making a new one.  Ugh!  They are supposed to be laying their winter bees right now not raising a brand new queen bee.  Even though I do not agree with their strategy, I left them to their business for now.  However, if they don't get their act together quickly and start preparing for winter, I will have to merge them with another hive so they don't die.  Ugh bees!

Day of Liam, Mama Edition

It seems that Liam is equally good at planning a really busy day for us to celebrate the approach of a new school year.  It was a twelve hour extravaganza!

We started the day off with a tour of the Smith's Falls Train Museum.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and interesting and there were lots of trains cars and rail-related artefacts to see and touch.  The working telegraph machine was really cool and we learned all about rail fires and train hoppers!

After a shady picnic lunch along the Rideau Canal at Victoria Park, we headed off to Gananoque for our next adventure - a 2.5 hour Thousand Islands Cruise focused on the ship wrecks along the route.

We arrived ahead of schedule and were able to spend some time exploring Main and King Streets and both Confederation and Legion Riders Memorial Parks.

Our cruise of the St. Lawrence River was a big hit.  We got to experience a thunderstorm at sea!  We saw the Thousand Islands Bridge from underneath, Boldt Castle from all sides and Millionaires Row.

Cruising is hard work!  We were starving by the end and headed out for an exceptional supper of wood-fired pizza and creme brulee at the Purple House Cafe.

It was a practically perfect day.  My eldest kid is a pretty fun guy to hang out with.