blessings and counting

^{We awoke to a sunny, Saturday morning in Sudbury. After sleeping in slightly, we grabbed some breakfast and headed to Dynamic Earth – home of the Big Nickel. We donned our hard hats and headed 500 feet below the earth for a tour of an old and modern day mine. We were thankful we were not a 19th century family living in Sudbury for Joshua and Joseph would be making this trek daily for 10-12 hour days with no safety lights but a candle on their helmet. Dynamite, candles, helmets and picks were to be purchased individually and the daily wage was $1.60. Much has changed to improve upon the safety of our miners, but it is still a daunting and dangerous profession. We maxed out our admission at Dynamic Earth by arriving when they opened, leaving at closing time, watching all 3 movies (how nickel is mined, the history of Sudbury and Planet Earth: Caves), trying all hands on activities and of course trying our own hand at panning for gold. Joshua shows great possibility at this task (is this because of all the episodes he's watched of Alaskan Gold Rush or just natural talent :) He found the most pieces the attendant working there has ever seen in one day. In fact, he was kindly asked to put some back for future patrons :) Samuel and Isaiah spent most of their time in a hands on area that simulated a mine while Abigail tried her hand at driving a computer operated excavator. This has been a wonderful day of learning and exploring, but we can all admit that we are definitely excited about tomorrow – going home! :)}

^{PS Happy 35th Birthday Shika and Happy 45th Wedding Anniversary Mom and Dad. We love you!!}

^-Katrina-

an early morning, and eager new form of amped up amphibian Isaiah, ready to spend as much time below the surface...!

before the tour of the mine started, people had the chance to drive in actual cabs, of the large dump trucks, and diggers, as you can see from the image below, there was a line forming and Abigail would not be denied...

in the damp, and dark people were a bit glossy eyed and did not know what to expect....I found out five times that wearing a hardhat is for a reason - not just for show. 

Samuel, walking in a mid-century style mine, the improvements here were cedar beams with were much safer then pine.  At the end of the tour, there was a replica rescue capsule like the one used to rescue the miners in Chile mine....

I have no real comment, other than I'm convince that this stretch of water has been panned before, it also could be my technique, or the pressure of the new gold rush.

^{Today we went to the big nickle mine in Sudbury, it was amazing to see the mine how it was 100 years ago and then to see what it was like in the modern day. After the tour we went down to the “hands on” area, which included a pan your own gold that I was able to unlock the code to find the most gold out of anyone in my family. For the rest of the day at the mueseam and I was able to successfully drive the simulator exavater. Tonight I am very excited about getting home and look forward to pulling into out driveway tommorow afternoon.}


-Joshua-

we were looking for Abigail for quite some time before we realized that she was deep in thought, and moving actual equipment in the tour area underground, this simulator  actually controlled a sample machine in one of the  shafts we saw earlier in our tour. 

we had a luxury of empty movie theatres, with everyone getting to pick out the perfect seat...

with a constant, sulphuric acid smoke stack in the background, I wonder how many neighbourhoods in sudbury throw things out containing nickel (or any metal for that matte) knowing what work is involved in the mining, smelting, and refining stages, I know for me personally, its hard to just look the other way.