Pioneer Life

Alexandra's class has been studying pioneers so it wouldn't have been complete without a fieldtrip to Fort Langley. She decided that it would be cool to wear her pioneer outfit .... it still fit but it was quite apparent that she has grown since I made it for her! Her classmates thought it was a bit strange but once they saw the reaction from the people who worked at the fort - they were a bit envious. Everywhere they went, she volunteered and was chosen to try something out. In this picture she is using a spoke shave to shape a piece of wood that would eventually be a part of a barrel. Later she had a chance to play on an antique piano.

The fort had a great set of activities for class trips that kept the kids interested. At one station they had a 5x10 slat house to disasseble and then reassemble. The group that I was leading was able to complete the reconstruction of the house's walls in 4 minutes! At another station they had bales that simulated the fur bales that needed to be carried from the fort - even with them being made of styrofoam, most of the kids found that it got difficult to carry before they had circled the fort. Can you imagine carrying the real thing - 95 lbs or so?! At this fur station it was neat to touch all of the different furs (not one yuck from any of the kids - they were the real thing!) and I found out that those short lines on the side of a Hudson Bay blanket indicated how many beaver furs needed to be traded to get the blanket. Very cool! We ended off with gold panning and I had to give the panning demo a number of times because the kids thought that they would just dig through the sand with their hands. In the end they all walked away with a yellow "nugget".

The weather cooperated on this 338th birthday of the Hudson Bay Company .... a great day to be able to join in on a field trip!