Fort Henry

Fort Henry is a very old fort in Kingston, Ontario. Built in 1832, Fort Henry is a nice place to visit and you can have dinner there and be served by a "servant soldier". We had a very nice dinner in the "Officers' Mess".

After World War 1, the fort fell into disrepair and was restored in 1936. Fort Henry is now designated as a National Historic Site.

Kingston, Ontario is a very historic city. There are some very fancy castle-like homes there. These historic homes have turrets and ornate decorations on them that give them a grand feeling.

Reid's Dairy

Reid's Dairy is a very popular milk company. It also has tasty ice cream. The factory is located in Belleville, Ontario and is open to the public.

Stores that sell Reid's Dairy products are everywhere! They even bag milk under the brand of Neilson. In this picture they are bagging milk. After it is in the bag, the bags go into the green plastic crates. The crates travel along a conveyor belt and take a trip to the distribution centre where they are loaded onto trucks and distributed all over Ontario.

Life of Aboriginal Peoples

The life of Aboriginals is an amazing and spiritual one. I visited a native village. Its exhibits and reproductions of longhouses show the lifestyles of Aboriginals 500 years ago. The Ontario Museum of Archaeology is in the middle of a residential area. Surprising for its kind!

The Aboriginals lived in longhouses. The longhouses were usually about 20-40 meters long. The inside of a longhouse had rows of beds and 3 firepits that were used for cooking. The Aboriginals had a very interesting life. There were originally 14 longhouses in the village. The village had a palisade and lookouts to watch for enemies. Near the entrance there was a maze so it would be hard for enemies to enter into the village. Aboriginals still exist today throughout Canada.

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Castle Kilbride

Castle Kilbride is an amazing work of the Victorian-Italianate style of architecture. It was built by James Livingston in 1877. He was a very successful business man in the area. This mansion lies in Baden, Ontario.

The inside with the grand hall is spectacular. Even the "smoking room" was grand. Every room in the house had a grand feeling.

There was a belvedere at the top. It was painted green and red. It has a slate roof. The belvedere was there so that the man of the house could watch over his fields - in this case, flax fields.

The library, with its painted tassels, look as if they were real. Laura's toy collection is displayed in the cellar. The interesting floor lamp is a piece of art.

In 1988 the house had deteriorated and it was abandoned. The furnishings and toys were sold off in an auction. A heritage group restored the house to its original splendor and it was designated a National Historic Site. Most of the furnishings and toys were brought back to the mansion. Only 65% of the original furnishings remain while the remainder are from the same period of time but not original to the house.

The house is amazing. You can try going to visit there. It is open from May through December. You can see all of the beautiful furniture in the house.

The Wonders of Vinegar!

Vinegar can be used for a lot of things. Vinegar is very useful actually and is an eco-friendly cleaner. Try these experiments and you will be amazed:

• Drains - Use 250 ml of vinegar once a week. Let it stand for 30 minutes and then flush it with cold water. This will deodorize your drain.
• Microwave ovens - Boil 60 ml of vinegar and 250 ml of water in a microwavable container. Let cool and then wipe the oven clean.

Vinegar was discovered over 10,000 year ago. Vinegar is a good cleaning fluid but it is also tasty on french fries!

Siamese Cats

Siamese cats have always been in cartoons as twins and the cartoons are kind of right because they are crazy cats!

Here is a picture of my crazy Siamese cat!

Spider Webs

This spider web is a spectacular "art of nature". The kitchen for a spider - and it is also a spectacular scene.

The spider web catches the light from the street lamps at night. The performance and the speed of a spider when an insect hits its web is a beautiful sight.

Nature is beautiful!

The Welland Canal

The Welland Canal connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario and provides a transportation route for large ships to pass through. We saw a large ship and we followed it all the way from Lock 4 to the end of the canal. It was fun to follow it. The navigator even sounded his horn and waved a BIG hand at us from the "bridge". The ship is on its way to Italy.

Winter is coming soon and the St. Lawrence Seaway will close to boat traffic so all of the ships are hurrying to get through the Great Lakes and out to the Atlantic Ocean before the waters freeze.

Fort George

Fort George was an important military site during the War of 1812. There were many battles fought there, including the ferocious Battle of Fort George between the British forces that were stationed there and the American forces that were just across the river at Fort Niagara.

The fort was captured and over-taken by American forces in the spring of 1813 and then taken back over again by British forces later the same year. After the war it was abandoned by the British and fell into ruin. In the 1930's, restoration began. It was designated as a national historic site in 1921.

http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/on/fortgeorge/index.aspx

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is a great place. You can visit the falls - you can go behind the falls and even ride a boat called the "Maid of the Mist". The Maid of the Mist is named after an ancient aboriginal woman who fled her village and road over the falls in a canoe. Her name was Lelawalo.

The Niagara Escarpment is a long, high, steep rock cliff that runs from Manitoulin Island in the north, through Ontario to Niagara and into the United States. Niagara Falls is the point where the water in the Niagara River flows over the edge of the Niagara Escarpment. The Niagara River connects two of the Great Lakes - Erie and Ontario.

Niagara-on-the-Lake

Niagara-on-the-Lake is a nice little town. It's historic and it even has a memorial tower in the middle of the street for all of the Niagara-on-the-Lake citizens who died in the wars.

It was the first capital of Upper Canada from 1792-1796. The Americans took over the town during the War of 1812 and burned it to the ground when they retreated in 1814.

The whole town is laid out in a grid pattern with 4-acre blocks - actually, it's a lot like Savannah, Georgia in that way!

The picture is of the Prince of Wales Inn. It is a luxury hotel. I have not stayed there yet, but someday I will! You can also go into the Prince of Wales hotel and learn about its great history.

Bird Kingdom

The Bird Kingdom Aviary is a very nice place to visit. There are birds "high and low". There is a huge room where birds fly everywhere! Some of them are exotic and rare. The room is like the "rainforest". There is also a room for small birds to fly around, a reptile exhibit with quite a few ducks too, and a section for nocturnal animals like bats and owls.


There is a historic house in the building and it's called the "Javanese Tea House". It was carved completely by hand out of teak wood.

Fernando is an iguana that sits on the floor in the reptile exhibit, near the exit. He's a very friendly iguana. There was also a small iguana at the entrance and he was friendly to pet.

Bruce Penninsula

The Bruce Peninsula Wind Farm is a spectacular place. Majestic windmills turn as the breeze blows. As well as being majestic, these windmills generate electricity too. In addition to wind farms, they also have a nuclear plant.

I was experimenting once with a wind mill kit. I found out that windier spots can make an LED light installed in the windmill glow brighter than a small breeze. There is also a wind farm in PEI which I visited last year.

I will see you next time on my blog.

Eildon Hall, Sibbald Point, Ontario

This old grand house lies in Sibbald Point Provincial Park. It also has neighbours like the log cabin and Castle Dangerous as it is now called. Eildon Hall is beautiful outside but it is really something special inside. The antique furniture, the grand stairway that leads upstairs and the thick log walls of the original section of the house are spectacular to view.

I think this house will last for generations to come.

History of the House

The house started out as a small log cabin and then Susan Sibbald decided to extend it and in its day it looked like a grand castle that leaped from the ground. Now it has been reduced in size and turned into a museum, but its beautiful architecture is still in tact. A picture of Napoleon's brother looks down at you from the grand stairway.

Lyme ticks!

Lyme ticks are dangerous. They make lyme tick disease. They numb your skin so when they bite you, you don't feel it. If there's a lyme tick in our bed, you are going to be in trouble!

They are found mostly in the north-eastern United States, but also Ontario, Nova Scotia, PEI, Manitoba and British Columbia.

Lyme ticks can cause terrible disease and even death! My grandpa's friend Kat is going to die soon because she got bitten by a lyme tick when she was camping two years ago.

If you think you have been bitten, it is important to get medicine from the doctor really soon.

Biltmore Estate

This is Nicholas reporting from Florida.

I visited this castle a few days ago but I want to talk about it right now.

Biltmore Estate is a very nice estate. It has a farm and it has a castle that is very beautiful and has 250 rooms.

My favourite part of the castle was the big hall which they used as the dining room.

My favourite part of the visit was holding the chicks at the farm.

I had fun at the estate. See you next time.

Dangerous Fire Ants!

This is Nicholas reporting from South Carolina. I've discovered some new ants - they are called "fire ants". They can sting you and they can even be deadly!

How to prevent getting bitten by a fire ant:

1. Don't go near their nests. (Fire ant nests can be under bricks, logs or just a big hill that looks like a mound of sand up to 40 cm high.)
2. If you see a fire ant, don't touch it! They will bite you.
3. Don't let you pets near them.

Candy Math

Hello - this is Nicholas again. I've got a new way for math. It is called "Candy Math".

Candy Math is when you take your favourite candy and you do math.

How it works:

Step 1: Take your favourite candy.

Step 2: Draw number sheets. Take 10 sheets of paper and draw the number 1, as big as you can on the first sheet. Then draw the number 2 on the next sheet and so on.

Step 3: Use the candies for math by putting the right number of candies on each sheet. You can also add two sheets together and count the total number of candies that you have so that you can practice adding.

The Water Jar Experiment

This is the first of many posts by Nicholas. If you're a Mum or Dad who is homeschooling your children and using lots of worksheets, you will change your mind once you listen to my ideas!

SO - let's get on to our first experiment...

1st step - take a jar

2nd step - fill the jar with cold water (reminder: always make the water COLD - as cold as you can get it)

3rd step - put the jar, filled with water, in a sunny window - what do you think will happen to the water?

4th step - wait for 2 hours

5th step - pour the water on your wrist - is it warm or cold?

ANSWER:

The water will have warmed up. Why? Because the sun's radiation heats it up. You can google that to find out more about how that works.