Mountain Lock Park

Grandma came by to visit during the March Break, and we went exploring! I had talked to Grandma in the past about finding this park, and looking around, and before she came I did a little Internet research to find out where it was - to my surprise we drive by one corner of it regularly!

If you are a St. Catharine's person, you probably already know (though I seem to have missed this for 13 years!) that Mountain Locks Park is just behind the Keg around Glendale! The City of St. Catharines even has a walking tour of this park, that we printed off and took with us!

Mountain Locks Park has the ruins and remains of locks from the first and second Welland Canals. Here is the group at what is left of one of the old wooden locks from the first canal. Part of the lock was rebuilt about 30 years ago, and even that part is falling apart now, the rest is just lines on the ground.

There are some really fun parts where you can climb on old parts of locks and weirs, if you are so inclined!

Or race along the top of an old lock, now filled in with brush. Some of these empty locks give you a feeling of how big they were, and these were all dug out by hand! Some of the locks have water passing through them still (see top photo), and there are also a few nearby buildings noted on the tour that played a role in early canal life.

I think Emmi sums up our trip to the park! Now we know where it is, I am sure we will be back, and there were a couple of stops on the walking tour we missed, so I would like to go back and find them!

Maple Syrup Days - the Volunteers

In the week of March Break, Emmi, Tim and I were volunteers at Agape Valley a couple of days. We all worked in the pancake house. Tim's job was to help here and there, and periodically to dress up as a giant bee and walk around shaking people's hands, and having his picture taken. Usually he was joined on his walk-abouts by another volunteer dressed as a giant squirrel. Although he did scare a few small children, he did very well as the bee! On his breaks he was able to play chess with other volunteers and eat pizza. Not bad! Here he is on one of his bee visitations.



Emmi was an "order runner". She had to stand by a window near the cashier and take papers with orders for meals from the cashier to the kitchen. It is an important job! She was a great worker!

I had one of the more glamourous jobs in the pancake house - garbage sorter. Volunteers would clear tables and bring me the garbage, which I had to sort into organics and the different kinds of recycling. Here is my station:

Interestingly, there is no actual "garbage" hole in this station, everything had a recycling or organics spot to go.

It was fascinating to work at the pancake house and see all the different (and vital) jobs needed to make it work well. There was a great spirit of camraderie, and we enjoyed our time there very much!

Maple Syrup Days - the Tour

March Break is maple syrup time! This year we added to our usual maple syrup experience by volunteering at Agape Valley. So this post will be in two parts, this is part one - The Tour. While Tim and David were bottling maple syrup in the sugar shack, I took Emmi, Ben and Pip on the maple syrup tour. One of our first stops was to see the traditional method of collecting syrup, in a bucket.

Although picturesque, it is not as convenient as the modern method, with tubes. Ben and Pip are happy to listen to our guide explain how the tube system works:

It was a pretty cool and wet day when we went on the tour, so we were very glad to get to the stop on the tour when we gather around the fire and learn how pioneers and First Nations people made maple syrup.

Once in the sugar shack, we were told how the evaporator works, and all sorts of useful information about maple syrup. Because I was the mom of one of the volunteers, I was able to go behind the plexiglass window to have a personal tour of the bottling stage. Tim demonstrated where David held the bottles that were filled with syrup stored in the large stainless steel vat.

Then Tim's job was to put on the tops, check for leaks, and pass the bottles down to the fellow who wiped them clean before the stickers went on. I was able to buy some syrup from the store that had been bottled by Marshes!

I returned with the little wiggles to the pancake house (where Emmi had been volunteering), she returned to work, and the boys and I enjoyed lunch! As I said, it was one of the cold and wet days, so we were very happy to be able to sit by the fire while we ate our hot pancakes and very local maple syrup!

Sunday Tea

Here's a little treat I baked recently for our Sunday tea! They didn't last very long!

Homeschool Retreat

We were "up north" (to me - Gravenhurst area) recently for a homeschool retreat. It was fantastic to experience SNOW in abundance! It was also great to hang out with a lot of other homeschool families, and have some good chats with the other moms! The older children were in a program that had classes and curriculum, their theme was the Olympics. One of their activities was making Olympic torches and having a torch relay. Here is Tim doing his part:



They were also taught some sports in a more formal way. But we also got to try out some winter sports on our free time. Here is Tim again, learning to cross-county ski! (I know his poles are way too big for him, but they were the only green pair, and Tim loves green!)

The little ones pretty played the whole day, and slept really well at night! Here is Ben on a large snow hill where a "luge" run had been created (luging only on your bottom please!).

We also were able to snowshoe, play hockey, go tubing, and - new for all the Marshwiggles - go ice fishing! One of the camp staff drilled a number of holes in the ice of the lake, and set up these interesting fishing poles:

There is a line coming down into the hole, with bait on the end, and then when a fish bites it, the top of the pole bends down. You are supposed to be quiet near the fishing hole, so as not to scare away the fish! While Pip and I were out looking in one hole, another one several metres away suddenly bent down, and we all rushed over! The staff member (Andrew) started gently pulling up the line, as he got the fish close to the hole, the fish started to wiggle violently, and then - it bit the line! Andrew thrust his hands into the (COLD) water and flipped the fish out on to the snow! Wow! It wiggled around - to the great interest of Pip and other children who had gathered around. Then Andrew took his drill and made a little pond for the fish (not connected directly to the lakewater) and the fish stayed there for the rest of the afternoon. Here a group of boys keep an eye on the fish - it was a northern pike.



In spite of all the talk about eating him for breakfast, I have a suspicion the fish is still swimming in the lake (quietly returned by Andrew after we all went up to supper). Here he is - the hero of the hour - the fish:

We returned home with many damp mittens, but it was worth it!

Skating at the Park

We were en route to the Post Office recently, when some of my children decided to take a short-cut through the park. They got very excited, got down on hands and knees, and started brushing away the snow. They had found a huge puddle that had frozen, and then been covered with snow!



We know the puddle well, it is fantastic fun to wade through in the spring, it comes up alarmingly high on the rubber boots, but never over the top. And we have had fun in winter thaws jumping on it and breaking through the ice, but it had never occured to us to skate on it in cold weather! The next day we were back with shovels and ice skates!



The shovelling was warm work, but after a while we exchanged boots for skates and put our coats back on. The rink is small (smaller than the arena we usually go to!) but remarkably smooth. It is also reassuring to know that should the ice crack, we will drop down about 15 cm to the grass underneath, which in spots can be seem clearly through the ice. It was a lot of fun! The next day we were back, made the rink a little larger and enjoyed another skate! We'll have to see how the weather holds, because I think we may be back again this week!

End of January

The end of January all ready... wow! I still write 200, and then pause, go back, and sneak a 1 in between the last 2 zeros - but at least I am pausing now before barrelling ahead with a 9. We're still here! It has been quite a month in the Marsh annals. We spent the last half of December, and the first half of January dealing with David's health. Thankfully, we have some answers now, and are figuring out what life will look like now.

From many perspectives, life is back to normal - David's back at work, school is continuing, we are enjoying the outdoor weather (see above photo!), are making plans again...

In other ways, things are quite different. There are whole new regions of the human body that I know a lot more about, I have a much better understanding of how hospitals work, and I feel thankful for so many more things that I think I have been taking for granted. Here are a few:

1. Our Friends and Family (Our Support Network in brief!) - Whether they are church, homeschooling, have blood ties, or some other connection - we have a pretty amazing bunch of people out there who were quick to offer anything we needed. From snowshovelling, to laundry, babysitting, or delivering a Thermos of tea to the emergency room, we were covered. It is humbling to be so supported. How did I take all of them (you) for granted?

2. The Peace of God - I don't think I can fully describe some of the moments I have lived through in the past 6 weeks. There is a despair to being up in the night, when you are incredibly tired, with a person who is in so much pain they just want to give up. There is an anxiety to hearing "there is "something" there" and wondering what exactly it is. It is unnerving to walk in to a hospital time after time, past the signs for "oncology" and "palliative care" wondering if I will be turning down that hallway in the future. It is hard to sit (anywhere) in a hospital and wait -for your name to be called, for the doctor, for the test, for the result, for the next IV drug... It is wearing to try to be two places at once - to feel you are not just wanted, but needed, by two groups of people at the same time, and most of your time feels like it is spent in driving, and parking. And we won't mention laundry, dishes, meals, the afore-mentioned snow, school schedules, funerals, parking tickets (grr), and bell choirs. However, through the trials I can testify that I had peace - anxieties, worries, yes - but under it all a deep peace that we were in the Lord's hands, and this was all from Him. No panic. Good sleep. Not sure what was coming, but knowing that He would give what we needed to meet it. Now, this is something I did not take for granted at the time, I was a little amazed how peaceful I felt, but I know that I do not always acknowledge the peace the Lord gives in my day-to-day life.

3. Prayer Support - We had a lot of people praying for us, including David's aunt who is a nun and 64 other sisters in her community. And I believe that the peace I felt, and the way the household didn't fall apart, the energy I had, and the quick recovery David is making is thanks to a huge amount (probably more than I know) of prayer. I know I have taken prayer for granted in the past.

4. How Good We Have It - The Haiti earthquake hit the day after David was admitted to hospital. What a great way to get some perspective. And I know people who have gone through, and are going through, much worse with the health of their loved ones. I can take my life for granted, the good things God has given us. A trial can quickly establish perspective - we have it so good.

So these are some things I repent of taking for granted, and I am sincerely thankful for. There's a lot more I have learned, but that may have to wait for another time!