Way back in April, when I was in New Hampshire, Mark and the boys had a project to work on.  The boys’ classes were reading a book called Pioneer Cat.  Making covered wagons was not required, but mine decided it was something they definitely wanted to do.  I took these pictures right after I got back and then completely forgot to share.

Make note of Will’s bison herd, as well as the man with the weapon.  There were several other “characters” that went with Will’s wagon.

The wheels?  Margarine tub lids.  As you can imagine, those were made by my husband.  He’s a genius.

Did you know that wagons were often painted blue?  Or that the wheels were often painted red?  I didn’t either.  I came home nad saw these and thought the tree of them had flipped their lids.

One of the suggestions for the project was to try to use recycled materials.  In addition to the margarine tub wheels, the base of the wagons and the “frame” for the cover are cardboard boxes, and the covers themselves:  those are old flyers from a town festival from 10 years ago.  The previous homeowners had left them behind and we had only recently discovered them inside a cupboard on a top shelf.  We have lots of cupboards and shelves in our house.

The boys also worked on a journaling project in conjunction with their Pioneer studies.  As near as I can figure, they were given a prompt that told them of certain events that had happened on a particular day and they had to right in a journal as if they were a kid on the wagon train.  Joe hasn’t brought his home yet, but Will’s is awesome.  They also had to illustrate their journals and you have to look closely, because the detail and humor he injects is pretty amazing.  8 year old humor, of course, but humor nonetheless.

I’ll have to try scanning a page or two.

I’d better go get working on that embroidered quilt.  The quilting is done, now to bind it.  I had intended to (a) follow the marked lines and then (b) add in some filler or flair of my own.  I got done with (a) and realized that it didn’t really need (b).  That (b) would be overkill on this project.  Keep It Simple Stupid.

TTFN-

Suzanne