For M’s birthday, this morning we filled the bathroom with balloons so when M opened his bedroom door, all the balloons spilled into his room:

Throwing the balloons around:

Our first stop today was the Wile Carding Mill:

The docent described the history of the mill, where from 1860 to 1968 farmers would bring shorn wool to be picked, carded, and rolled by machine:

The picking machine:

After talking about how the machine works, we carded wool by hand:

Once we had carded and rolled the wool, we learned how to spin it into thread:

The machine on the right was for making wool batting, and the machine on the left was for carding.

Once the wool was rolled by machine, the rolls were put back into burlap sacks, held shut using Hawthorn thorns:

Pulling thorns off a Hawthorn branch:

We went below to look at the seven-horsepower waterwheel that powered the mill:

According to the docents, this fellow has been stealing wool for his nest for some time:

The river that turns the waterwheel:

We drove east to arrive at the town of Mahone Bay to visit Amos Pewter:

A couple of the Amos Pewter artisans work in the shop.  Here we’re being shown molten pewter poured and then picked up:

The pewter molds:

These vases are pressed into shape from a flat disk of pewter using a lathe:

We looked around the shop:

Next door we visited a yarn store:

These slippers are knit and then felted with soap and hot water, shrinking in the process:

Continuing east and south, we stopped at Bay Hammocks to learn how hammocks are made:

The largest hammock in Canada:

The machines on the left make string out of 7 strands, and the machine on the right takes seven of those strings and makes rope, for a total of 49 strands:

Continuing south, we visited Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse:

The lighthouse rises from the granite shore:

I couldn’t pick a favorite:

The town of Peggy’s Cove:

We continued north and east to overnight at the Walmart of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where we stayed this past Shabbos.  See the trip map for today’s route and our current location.

We woke up to a foggy morning at the Walmart of Yarmouth:

We drove south to the Pubnico Peninsula and visited Dennis Wharf, where a “Living Wharf” demonstration was scheduled:

We first learned about mackerel fishing:

Holy mackerel, as they say.  The mackerel feed on the what falls into the water from the fishing boats when they process the fish out of the net at the wharf.  When this happens, they school in the cloud of food and are easy to catch:

M brings in two:

All the boats here are lobster boats, except for the net fishing boat on the left:

Bringing up a lobster trap:

There was a guest green crab in the trap:

A lobster from the trap:

M learns to use the claw banding tool:

This guy was in the trap too:

Learning how the trap works:

Next we learned about rope splicing:

The rightmost boat needed a paint job, and the fisherman’s wife told him if he didn’t paint the boat, she would do it for him.  He found it like this one day:

After taking advantage of a roadside dump station, we continued south to The Hawk Beach on the eastern shore of Cape Sable Island, the southernmost point of Nova Scotia:

There’s no shortage of fishing equipment that’s washed ashore:

An old lobster trap:

At low tide, the remains of a forest, drowned 1,500 years ago when this land sunk, are visible:

Cape Sable Lighthouse in the distance:

We had the beach mostly to ourselves:

We continued east to overnight at the Walmart of Bridgeport, Nova Scotia.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Today we stayed at the Walmart of Amherst and did homeschool:

As a chemistry exercise, the kids played a game of battleship using the periodic table as the board:

Not a bad spot:

We will head out tomorrow.