Mary Breckinridge was a nurse who helped the people in the mountains by giving them medicine. She lived back then because they only had horses to ride. (We don’t do that now, we ride cars now.) They needed the medicine or they would get more sick and die. No one else had the medicine so only Mary could. She lived on one side of the Rocky Mountains and the others lived on the other side. The people loved her because they had been waiting for the medicine but when she got there lots of them had died.
One time she helped a little girl named Sue. Sue got sick because her grandmother had got sick and she had gone too close to her and got her sickness. Mary Breckinridge went to help Sue but Sue was already half dead. But she gave her medicine and then the part that was half dead healed. And her grandmother died though.

The end.

Before we moved to Calgary, we went to the Ford Museum in Windsor. We took Grandpa there.

In a pretend mini-garage, we found a car that you could fix. We slid under the car, holding mufflers. We removed the mufflers that were already attached, and attached the new ones we were holding. There was also an engine that we got to pour pretend-bottles of oil and fuel into. It was fun sliding under the car – we slid in from the back, crawled under the car, and popped our heads out of the engine!

There was also a big train that you could get on, but it didn’t move. The only part that you could go in was where the engineer sits.

We also got to make cars out of tinker-toys and race them down a ramp. There’s a gate that blocks the car at the top of the ramp, and when you open the gate, the cars can go at the same time. One of my cars had so many wheels, it was heavier than Gabe’s and went much faster so I won. Another time I built a mini-tow truck, and I could even tow Gabe’s car.

This field trip was super fun, I didn’t even know that I was still learning!

I’d like to tell you about an Excavator, which is a machine that helps you dig. It has a big cab where you can sit, and that cab turn in any direction. The cab sits on tracks that have wheels inside to help them move. They have tracks instead of wheels to help them move through mud and keep them from slipping and sinking in mud. Attached to the cab is an arm, not like a person’s arm, but an arm with hydraulics. At the end of the arm there is a metal bucket with metal teeth to help dig into the ground. They are sharp, pointy metal teeth – not like your teeth! And it’s a big bucket, like a scoop, not like a little pail bucket. It can dig much faster than you can, dig much deeper, it is much more powerful than you. It’s so much stronger than you that it could even pick you up! There is a piston with a circle on the end that pushes through the cylinder and when it pushes deeper into the cylinder, the bucket pushes deeper into the ground. Oil comes from a long pipe and goes into the cylinder and out a short pipe.

I’m not quite sure I understand how the hydraulics work, so I’d like to tell you instead about Toilets; I learned about these yesterday with Daddy.

A toilet is something you sit on when you need to pee or poo. When you are finished, you flush, and the dirty water is taken away. When you push the handle down, it lifts up the disc and the water in the tank goes down the hole that was under the disc. The water from the tank goes through a pipe and into the toilet bowl, and pushes the dirty water down the drain pipe at the bottom of the toilet bowl. As the water goes down to flush the dirty water away, the ballcock, which floats on the surface of the tank water goes down too. This ballcock is attached to a valve, which opens to let the clean water into the tank. When the tanks is full, the ballcock rises and pushes the valve closed, so no more water can get into the tank. Now, the dirty water has been flushed away, and the tank is full of clean water, ready for the next time.

Once upon a time there lived Grandpa. And once he took his dog out for a walk and when he was going home his dog stopped because he was looking up at a dot. It was small then it got bigger, and bigger, and BIGGER. It was a fly saucer! Then the flying saucer landed and opened the door. To their surprise when they saw the door open right in front of them…out walked Grandma! She brought out a shirt for Grandpa and a washing machine and started washing the shirt. She started to fan the shirt when she got it out to dry it off. Then she printed a picture of Grandpa and the word “Grandpa” on Grandpa’s shirt. Grandpa thought it was excellent. The dog was sad because he didn’t get to wear a shirt. Then Grandma asked Grandpa and the dog to go in the flying saucer and they went home. The End.

I do not like blue tuna melts. I do not like them with a belt.
I would not eat them on a train, I would not eat them in a plane.
I would not eat it in a box, I would not eat it at the locks.
I would not eat it in a cave, I do not think I am that brave.
But Gabey says that I should try it, and if I did that I would like it.
He says that they’re very yummy, especially when they fill his tummy.
So I tried a little bite, but it’s still something I don’t like.