Basically, the site owners do the hard work by providing the mining work already. Visitors to the quarry area fill a bucket of dirt and rock mined from the area quarries to sift through to find the gems.
The kids didn't mind the digging work at all.
Afterwards the kids sifted small amounts of dirt and rocks from their bucket through a screen.
Then dipped the screen into a tub of water to rinse off the remaining dirt before dumping their booty on to the table to sift through and look for the gems.
All the kids found some kind of tourmaline (black, green, pink and watermelon) but most were very small pieces.
But it turned out that one of the older boys in our group found a large piece of green tourmaline and was told it was worth quite a bit of money (over $500 for sure, with the guess it was really worth much more than that).
The trick of digging for gems is knowing what you're looking at. For instance feldspar comes in a bunch of different colors so identifying it isn't always so easy. The kids found a lot of feldspar that they liked and thought they could make jewelery out of it along with the tourmaline they found.
My girls had fun peeling the mica apart - there was a ton of it in the area.
G. got tired of looking for gems (she had a full baggie of them) so she decided to make designs with the smaller rocks on her table.
And we found that once you start digging it's hard to stop. Fino was as enthusiastic about the activity as the kids.
There was a poster with some of the more common gems found at the site. The kids found an example of each of these displayed the day we visited.
Thursday was the first time I'd ever traveled Route 26 beyond Gray/New Gloucester (Range Pond is about the farthest point we've ever gone on the road). So it was an enjoyable drive along the route to see all the places I've heard people talk about but had never seen first-hand.
For instance, Poland Spring's Preservation Park. There's some historical buildings as well as hiking trails and the kids and I agreed we needed to visit there soon.
Then there's the Oxford Plains Speedway where they hold the drag races. The girls and I thought it might be fun to check that out sometime.
We enjoy flea markets and yard sales and the Undercover Flea Market in Oxford (across from the Speedway) looked right up our alley.
Perham's is in West Paris and the kid's 4-H club is headed there later today.
We've heard Bethel has great cross country skiing and we saw signs for the Cross Country Ski Center at the Bethel Inn.
And of course Sunday River is just off the highway as well.
Then there was the silly stuff. Like the sign we read outside a country store.
I bought a pizza for my wife.
It was the best trade I ever made!
Probably an old joke for those in the area but I had a good chuckle over it and so did L.
L. also spotted a deer crossing sign with a red circle sticker on it's nose.
It turned out that the 2-hour drive to Grafton Notch State Park on the single-lane highway really wasn't so bad. Between the sights and the audio book ("Half Magic" by Edward Eager - the kids gave it a thumbs up!), it was a pleasant ride for all of us.
So I've mentioned we have had family visiting for 2 weeks. And man did we cover a lot of ground while they were here (they headed home to California yesterday amidst a very tearful goodbye for all the younger girls).
As you can see, we were REALLY on the move these past couple of weeks and took so many photos -- and had so much fun -- that there was no way to get it organized every night to blog about it all.
No one was a lobster fan but they all loved New England clam chowder at the chowder house in Old Port.
We took the crew hiking and geocaching near Diana's Baths in the White Mountain's National Forest in NH.
And no one remembered to wear their bathing suit. Of course it didn't stop L. from enjoying the chilly mountain water.
We took several trips to swim in the Saco River (and remembered the bathing suits!) which was a lot warmer.
We managed to get some crafting time in between adventures and the girls made little backpacks for their Webkinz. They wore those packs - along with their specially designed (by them) silk-screened t-shirts all around Boston. At least we could spot them from a distance...
We did a lot of archery in the backyard.
And played some volleyball.
But my brother-in-law and oldest niece spent all their extra time fishing. C. caught the most - >and biggest - fish during their trip.
And Fino used those fish as an opportunity to have multiple campfires in the backyard.
C. had a chance to milk a cow at Smiling Hill Farm during Open Farm Day.
And the group couldn't resist a chance to pick blueberries in Maine since they all love the fruit. I easily made cobbler 4-5 times while they were visiting along with some berry cheesecake.
I wonder how much we'll fit into next year's visit ...
This kids put together this slide show (with some help from me because it was an overwhelming number of photos for them) for our YouTube channel.
Our visitors didn't want to leave Maine without at least a quick stop to Old Orchard Beach to see the sights (including the Canadian license plates they wouldn't normally see in southern California), play the arcades and taste the pier fries. And a soggy afternoon wasn't going to stop them.
But as usual L. was true to her messy nature when eating fries.
Yesterday we took my sister-in-law and her family to Boston to see some of the historical sites. The four younger girls in our group decided to wear their newly made backpacks (they each made their own the day before) because it seems that L. and G. have spread their enthusiasm for Webkinz to their California cousins (it was our New York cousins who got my kids hooked). So each of the girls (except for G., she was more reasonable about the whole thing and had a smaller pack anyway) had to carry their Webkinz stuffed animals on their backs ALL over the city.
That would end up being a 7-hour walking tour.
Of course carrying junk around is nothing new for L. She HAS to have her 'special' something(s) with her wherever we go (from biking trips to hiking).
But L. wasn't content to simply carry her beloved stuffed animals in her pack like the other kids. Nope, she had to have one in her hands at all times.
On the T with CheChe the monkey (just like in Dr. Doolittle) and her cousin's Peanut Butter the pug.
The monkey climbed all 294 steps to the top of the Bunker Hill Monument in L.'s hands. And might I just add that we were all dripping sweat and panting by the time we got there....
... because that is one tall monument!
I think bumper stickers about climbing this monumement would be more worthy a feat to advertise than the Mt. Washington car climbs. (And sadly we looked but found no stickers for climbing Bunker Hill so we've decided to make our own.)
After a snack - we needed the energy boost! - we walked several blocks to our next chosen stop, the USS Constitution.
But the really over-the-top thing was that L. decided to rotate the animals she carried in her hands with what she had in her backpack so each of her special friends had a turn to see everything.
Note the swap to the duck posing with the cousins.
Exploring the USS Cassin Young WW2 battleship after the Constitution with Patty the duck.
The duck apparently liked the navy yard.
And the jellyfish we saw in the harbor.
Then it was back on the Freedom Trail to Faneuil Hall. And even though you can't see L.'s hand (she's in front of G. in the blue shorts), believe me that she had a stuffed animal in her hands then too.
And when we got to Haymarket Square, she had swapped the duck out for the monkey again.
But the duck was back by the time we made it into the hall to learn about its history.
I grew up just outside of Boston and am familiar with the sites along the Freedom Trail (I even spent some time following it to my workplace just after college) but I still found the www.thefreedomtrail.org a helpful resource in planning our day trip to the city. I knew we couldn't walk the entire trail with our big group yesterday so the detailed map helped to estimate how much our group of 10 could realistically see in one day.
We spent less than 40 minutes picking and managed to net a little over 20 pounds of strawberries. They were ripe and plentiful last night!
We were told that there were also some ripe cherry trees at the orchard and we couldn't resist picking some of those as well. We had never picked cherries before.
After eating one right off the tree and feeling like the enamel on my teeth was going to come off, I let the kids know the cherries were REALLY sour. And although my kids love sour stuff - including sucking on lemons and limes - I wasn't sure even they would like them.
But they had to try them and both agreed that they were in fact pucker-face sour.
It took L. nearly a minute to recover from the sourness of the bite she took.
We only picked two pounds of cherries and that was just enough for a cobbler. I had never made a fresh cherry cobbler before and decided to add some sweet wild blueberries to offset the tartness of the cherries (and to avoid having to add so much sugar - the recipe called for a cup and a half but with the blueberries a single cup was more than enough).
The kids and Fino gave the dish a big thumbs up and suggested we go pick more cherries today.
I guess we've got another favorite fruit season in our house now. I just wish it wasn't so time consuming to pit the cherries ...
CHERRY BERRY COBBLER Recipe
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons corn starch
3 cups sour cherries (pits removed)
1 cup wild blueberries
Add all above ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until it bubbles and thickens then transfer to baking dish.
In a separate bowl, add the following ingredients and mix just until combined.
3 Tablespoons shortening
1 cup flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
Drop spoonfuls of dough onto the warm cherries and then bake at 400 degrees for about 15-18 minutes.
Do you have a favorite berry recipe? Post it below!
Earlier this week we went to the living history museum, Strawberry Banke and there was so much to see and do that we couldn't do it all in one day.
The museum is in Portsmouth (NH) and has homes and exhibits from Colonial times to the World War II era. The girls were excited to see homes from the era of their favorite American Girl historical book characters.
We went with some friends and opted for the self-guided tour so the kids could explore the houses and exhibits they were most interested in.
There were interpreters at most of the houses and some were on the street. This woman was sitting in front of the Abbott Corner Store and had a lot of gossip about the town to share.
And the interpreter at the Shapiro house had the kids convinced that the house was really hers and that she lived in it. She was a wealth of information about immigrant Russian Jews in the early 1900s and the kids spent a lot of time asking questions and hanging out in this house.
L. struck up a conversation with the cooper and found out that he made the barrels she had seen at Old Fort Western in Augusta last fall.
There were lots of flowers in bloom during our visit but the extensive gardens around the museum promised quite a colorful and impressive display in mid- to late-summer.
G. had her camera and we have lots and lots of photos (many more than we needed) of fancy beds, kitches and other "cool stuff" inside the homes we visited.
The kids also had a chance to play some old-fashioned outdoor games like Rolling Hoops and Game of Graces.
But then an interpreter came along and set the girls straight on the "proper way" to play the Game of Graces. Apparently they were using the shorter rolling hoop sticks instead of the longer, thinner Grace sticks.
And the girls' hoop activities continue as they're dancing with the more modern hula hoops during their dance recital tonight and tomorrow.
This year L. had her chance to page at the State House with other 4-Hers like her sister did last year. The UMaine Cooperative Extension had some fun displays and give-aways at the State House that day and L. and a few other 4-Hers did some lobster racing.
Then L. and Fino tried the spruce gum and both had a serious gag reaction.
While I decided to stay with L., G. and Fino headed over to the Maine State Museum for the morning. She took a ton of photos of the gemstones on display and when I was downloading the photos from the camera I began to wonder if she saw anything else there.
In reality she took 24 photos of the gems, "not THAT many mom!"
The kids and I are working with a group of 4-Hers volunteering to do some trail work at Wolfe's Neck Farm this spring. We attended a meeting yesterday at the farm to walk the existing trail system to get a sense of the work needed to be done and what the kids could do.
Of course the meeting was planned a while back and we didn't anticipate at that time that yesterday would be one of the coldest days of the year.
But we were prepared wearing all our warmest cold weather gear to hike the trails and the temps didn't bother the kids a bit.
Laying down on the icy snow wouldn't have occured to me, even wearing my snowpants and warmest mittens. But hey, they're kids and they simply couldn't resist goofing around in the wooden structure.
They also did a lot of sliding - intentionally - down the hills when the adults stopped for a minute to talk about a particular area of the trail.
Who needs a sled when the snow is frozen solid?
This got the top score for sliding hills yesterday.
Sliding fun on the icy snow
And being 4-Hers, they couldn't resist spending some time in the barn. They used a pole to break up the ice in the goat's water trough. And after discovering that the cows had heaters to keep their water from freezing it didn't take G. long to wonder if we could get a heater for our coop. There's no question she has a tough job in the winter with our chickens and ducks' water.
The kids also enjoyed feeding the cows and sheep hay.
"Cow king of the hill!"
And the kids spent some time communicating with the sheep the Babe way. They did a pretty good impression of "BaaRamEwe."
Weird cow eyes, BaaRamEwe and flying hay
There's a variety of programs for kids of all ages at the farm throughout the year if you've got an animal-lover in your family. Education programs at Wolfe's Neck Farm
Yesterday the kids and I meandered down the Merrimack River in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with my mother and her friend on a houseboat-type craft.
The boat, dubbed "The Treehouse," on the public dock in Newburyport.
It was a little chilly for a swim but it didn't matter. The kids were enamored with The Treehouse and found plenty to do aboard.
What kid doesn't love the singing fish plaque? Every time L. passed by this one hanging in the galley, she had to hit the button to play a song and stick her finger in its mouth.
Taking pictures always keeps the girls busy. We have about 20 pictures - no exaggeration - that G. took from the sleeping quarters below deck like this one.
L. enjoyed driving The Treehouse and even the first reluctant G. enjoyed her chance to do it too. Actually G. was driving the boat on our approach to the public dock and it was suggested she turn over the wheel because the boat traffic was heavier and the buoys much closer together.
"No I got it," she said.
It took a little more convincing from the real captain of the boat to turn over the controls.
Captain L.
We did a little window shopping once we docked and the kids found a shop that sold tons of fairy stuff. They've already put in their Christmas present orders with Grandma.
And of course we had to stop at an ice cream shop for a frozen treat. Since we can't find a good Italian Ice in Maine, we opted for some in Newburyport.
Note to self: Lament about being land-locked in June next year in hopes that all our family and friends offer to take us out on their boats to cruise Sebago, Casco Bay and the Merrimack River again next summer.
Fino, being the land-lover that he is, wasn't so keen on the idea of cruising Casco Bay on his friend's new sailboat at first. I jumped at the chance and coaxed him into it. I love boats and being on the water and this was an opportunity the girls and I didn't want to miss.
The afternoon was fabulous and we all had a great time.
The kids have been asking us for years to buy a "house car" and have a fixation on any cars or boats with sleeping quarters. So during our 3-hour boat ride, they spent a lot of time below deck playing house. Once I evenutally coaxed them above deck, they enjoyed sitting up front and checking out the sights.
Unfortunately we only spotted birds on seal rock yesterday.
The girls and I were highly amused at this seagull's perch. Our friend said it wouldn't be so funny if it were our radar. My car knows the mess a seagull can make first-hand.
The kids enjoyed the new perspective on their favorite rollerblading trail at Bug Light.
L. enjoyed the lighthouses and pointed out that they were in order of height - Portland Headlight, Portland Breakwater and Bug Light - when we spotted them all along the shore. My camera's lens wasn't wide enough to capture them all in a single shot.
The girls and I decided we were going to take a ferry ride to explore Fort Georges another day.
Our friend said that this water taxi was making a larger-than-acceptable wake while passing us. The kids asked, "what's a taxi?" Yup, they're growing up in Maine.
We have some friends visiting from out of town and since they read my blog, they had a few requests, including a trip to Mackworth Island to build fairy houses. So yesterday we visited the island and thoroughly enjoyed the picture perfect hiking weather.
The comment of the day was, "Wow, this fairy village is much bigger than I realized." Yeah, my camera has never really caught the size or many interesting details of the village. And in case you were wondering if the kids enjoyed themselves, I think this picture says it all.
Today we headed to the Topsham Fair since it was one-ticket ride day. The kids also wanted to see their projects in the exhibit hall. They were pleased with their ribbon placements but much more eager to go on the rides and get some fried dough and french fries. And the adults in our group were just as eager to eat our way through the fair.
Our usual treats were tasty but we felt the need to expand our horizons and try our first deep fried Twinkee and Oreos. You know, we don't like enough greasy, heart-clogging food already.
The Oreos were the hands-down favorite. The Twinkees' cream melted into the cake and the chocolate and whipped cream was just over the top for us.
The fried Twinkees were served with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. They really know how to add caloric intake with these.
It was another water-logged Saturday morning for us and our friends. Last week we were swimming in Sebago together, this week we were having a ball on the waterslides at Aquaboggan.
The water slides were great and the kids went down, and climbed back up, those slides at least a few dozen times in the four hours we were at the park.
And the wave pool was just as much fun as the slides.
And if you asked me who had more fun at the park - the kids or the adults - I'd have to say it was real toss up.
It doesn't matter what toys you bring to the beach, it's the random item that captures a child's attention. Our friends invited us for a dinnertime boat ride and picnic on Sebago Lake and packed a bunch of toys to keep all our kids entertained so the adults could relax.
But even with all the careful planning of my friend, it was a paper plate that her 19-month-old found fascinating -- and threw like an ultimate frisbee pro.
I have loved spending time on Sebago Lake since I was a teenager. It was great to spend some time on a boat with my kids and now watch them enjoy it. We don't have a boat right now but I'm working on Fino to get one.
The kids loved the boat ride around the lake and letting their hair "blow dry" in the wind. Then when we anchored at the Sand Bar, they spent nearly all their time in the water swimming and playing with barbies.
We eventually dragged the kids out of the water for dinner. And then dads built a small campfire afterwards and asked the kids if they wanted to toast marshmallows. As usual, the kids definition of "toasting" meant lighting marshmallows on fire. I can't say how many times I've tried to show the girls how to get the marshmallows golden brown but they don't care. They want them hot any way they can get them - and as soon as possible.
Here's a few more photos from our Sebago Lake boat trip. Did I mention how much I love Sebago?
We drove around Frye Island.
The Sand Bar has a couple of fire pits and was a perfect dinner picnic spot.
Yeah, nothing better than enjoying a sunset on the lake.
We went right out to Dole's Orchards after my earlier entry this morning. When we got home L. washed the strawberries, G. made whipped cream and I made the shortcake that we really like (we substitute some of the white flour with oatmeal flour to make it a little healthier plus, we all love oatmeal anyway).
And voila!
Fino better get home early tonight to get his strawberry shortcake - the girls and I have already made more than a dent in the 11 pounds of strawberries we picked today.
Do you have a favorite strawberry recipe? Post a comment - we'd love to have some new recipes this season.
Subscribe
Questions/Comments
