Reid woke up at ten to six on Sunday morning. Since we were all in the same bedroom, Ken and I woke about then, too. As soon as Reid’s feet hit the kitchen floor, she was talking about going outside. I’d left the windows open until about 4:00 and the overnight temperature of 7 degrees Celsius made the cottage chilly enough that I knew to turn down Reid’s request to eat outside. We used the microfurnace to warm the kitchen and I cooked sausages (Reid’s favourite) and Reid made toaster waffles. I had to explain to Reid how the toaster worked first. She knew where to put the toast but not how to “flush” them. We have a toaster oven. She did a great job with the waffles and had fun, we’ll have to have them more often.
Ken dropped Reid and me off at Upper Canada Village just after 9:00 and went off to watch ships going through the locks. I saw more than enough ships go through the locks when I worked at Fort George and we decided that Reid wouldn’t enjoy the experience yet. We’ll take her to the Rideau Canal locks in Ottawa instead. Reid and I hadn’t been to the village in the morning before; we’ve always left home after lunch so that Reid can nap on the way.
In the morning, the costumed interpreters are busier in the morning or at least busy on different tasks. We saw some walking calves to the apple orchard to let them graze and using the pump to fill buckets for the trough. There were others raking the grass that had been cut the day before and some gathering corn and stalks for the oxen. We also got to see the men in the bakery punching down the bread and putting it in pans. The coals were still in the bread oven and I was able to point them out to Reid.
Over in the cheese factory, the man was stirring the milk as it cooked – it looked like pale orange cottage cheese since they’d already added the dye. Not so appealing, really. He explained about the process and also that the vast majority of cheddar cheese – more than 90% – is made in north eastern North America. He also told us that cottage cheese and cheese curds weren’t widely eaten until after pasteurization became the norm because of the “bad” bacteria that was in the milk. When I asked about aging cheese, he said that mild cheddar is aged from 2 to 6 months, medium from 6 months to 2 years and old for longer than 2 years. He said that in the 1860′s the main rule was not to eat the cheese before 2 months to be sure that the “good” bacteria had had enough time to destroy all of the “bad” bacteria.
We also saw a couple of men setting cauldrons to boil over an outside fire so that they would have lots of boiling water when they slaughtered the pig that afternoon. I didn’t mention the purpose to Reid, though, and while *I* saw the pig being cleaned and cut up later, I didn’t draw Reid’s attention to it. I’m sure she could have handled the sight. The area was clean, the people doing the work were respectful and it seemed sort of clinical. I didn’t think Ken and I were up to all of the questions, though. I don’t know enough about the finer points of running an abattoir or porcine biology.
For the first time ever, Reid and I took a ride on the carry all – a horse-drawn wagon that takes people around the village on a guided tour. Reid had never expressed an interest beyond watching the horses at a distance and there has always been lots of people on it. We were there before the crowds and it seemed like a good idea to propose it. The man driving told us lots about the buildings we drove by and also about the animals and crops – not so much that our brains filled up but enough to make it interesting. There are still buildings that I’ve not been in for 5 years and so it was good to hear what I’m missing.
We went into the print shop and saw a woman making posters for the Fall Fair that will be held on September 15 and 16. One announced the fair and the other warned “Beware of pickpockets”. Apparently some pickpockets followed a fall fair circuit since people carried much more cash when they went to the fair than was ordinarily the case. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this process before. Reid could relate to inking the stamp and had wide eyes as the press was retracted and the paper pulled off.
We stopped by the house where we saw the lady spinning last week and they were dying wool with walnuts. At the end of the process, the walnuts looked like charred black balls and the yarn would be a black-brown. Other than the cauldron over the fire, though, there didn’t seem to be much to see. The extra woman was weaving at a large loom but Reid wasn’t interested in watching her though she did watch the woman at the spinning wheel for a bit.
We noticed two swings in the backyard of the house next to where the wool-dying was happening and so made a point of going there. It amazes me that we’re still discovering things after all of our visits and I wonder what I’d do with a guest who had only a single visit. Reid had lots of fun on the swings – two ropes hanging from a branch with knots at the end and a wooden board between them. The one was too low even for her but the other was just right. I kept reminding her to keep her bum lower than her knees and she kept telling me to push her. It was a perfect activity in a perfect environment. There weren’t other kids waiting for a turn and the sunlight filtered in through the leaves of the apple tree.
We watched horses going in a circle in order to power a saw that was cutting logs. The one horse is grey and a favourite of Reid’s. I thought it was a white horse but the handler said that it had black skin and a white coat and was grey. A white horse has pink skin and a white coat, he said. The other man talked to Reid about the bark that was coming off the log and let her smell and touch the wood shavings that had fallen below the blade. No, not when the saw was working, when the horses were having a break.
We ate lunch at Willard’s Tavern, where we usualy have tea. I checked into the Harvest Barn, which is more cafeteria-like, but the prices were pretty much the same as Willard’s without the ambience or the view. I had a ploughman’s lunch plate and Reid asked for stew. She ate some meat and dipped her bread in the gravy and then spied my boiled egg. Since she asked politely if she could have my “fancy” egg, I happily let her have it. She didn’t like it and had trouble swallowing the bite and so I offered her a bite of just the yolk but that wasn’t right either. Of course, I had to taste it then and discovered that it was a chilled, pickled, hard-boiled egg. Pretty different from the warm, non-pickled ones I give her at home.
After lunch we went over to see a bit of the singer who was at the family activity centre as part of the special event. We were really there for the marionnettes but had some time to kill. Reid listened to one song but didn’t seem interested and I offered to go play outside. She shook her head and cuddled close and I picked her up. Before the next song was over, Reid was asleep. I carried her to her stroller and she stayed asleep while a nice lady put the back down for me and then when I lay her down. We went to the quiet, shady spot of the path we’d walked down earlier for the first time and I sat on a little bench and wrote about our hot air balloon adventures while Reid slept for 45 minutes. I’m lucky that Reid isn’t ready to give up her nap, since it’s required at daycare. I also enjoy the quiet time (okay the chance to nap).
Ken picked us up at 2:30 and we all went to Prehistoric World. A one-kilometre long path runs winds it’s way through some gardens and a forested area and along the way there are cement dinosaurs of various types. For the first 2/3 of our visit we saw dinosaurs that looked similar to ones we remembered from school but had different names. There were a few sentences describing each dinosaur and so I’ll have to conclude they were properly researched. Still we were glad to see the Brontosaurus, Triceratops and T-Rex. We wondered if there was such a thing as “new dinosaurs” to go along with “new math”. The first dinosaur that really caught Reid’s interest was just being built. The wire frame shape was complete but the cement hadn’t yet been added. Ken dubbed it an “incompletasaurus” and we took a picture of it. He had names for the other dinosaurs, too. My husband has some trouble imagining cement dinosaurs as the real thing and he has a wicked sense of humour. Some of his alternate names were very funny.
We finished up digging in an “archaeological” sand pit. I’d read about it on the Prehistoric World web site and so had brought buckets and shovels. As we dug for dinosaur bones – okay, we were making castles, Reid wasn’t interested in digging for bones – a little boy came over and asked to borrow a shovel. He said please without prompting and we had a spare and I encouraged Reid to say, “yes”. His mom was somewhat horrified. I told her that he’d asked nicely and it was no trouble and then went back to playing. The sand pit was Reid’s favourite part. Without it, I’m not sure that she would have been as positive about the visit. If she was a dinosaur fanatic, like many preschoolers are, she would have enjoyed the range of types of dinosaurs. Parents see cement statues but I think the kids can imagine them alive better.
We had hot dogs and salads (good purchase ;+) and chips for supper on the deck at the cottage. I think the cold of the previous night killed the flies or maybe they were all sick with colds in their little fly houses. Either way it suited me. Reid had a hotdog and bun, until the bun “broke” and was unfit for eating (at least according to Reid). Then she smiled at her dad and convinced him to let her have the left over hamburgers that he’d been planning to eat. Ken is amused that Reid is such a carnivore. To be completely accurate, she loves meat and dairy products, likes most fruit and veggies and could take or leave bread. Oh, and she loves rice and pasta – will eat a plate of spaghetti noodles with nothing but parmesan cheese or a mound of rice.
There was a 3 year old and a little one about 18 months old, both girls, in the next door cottage. There was a little toddler boy a few cottages down. We saw some shy smiles exchanged and the other 3 year old girl said, “hi” but Reid didn’t speak. Reid is a reserved kid. She has some good friends at daycare but she isn’t the sort to run away hand-in-hand with someone she just met at the park. It’s funny. She likes to be in crowds but not necessarily talking to the other people.
We played more of the Winnie the Pooh Goes Together game and went to bed relatively early. Ken sat up in the kitchen reading and since Reid fell asleep so quickly, I even managed to get up for a while. We’d had such a busy day that I stayed up only long enough to have a hot chocolate but it was still an accomplishment for me.
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Cottage life, part 2 « Tales of life with a girl on the go