Skills Work - At Camp!

Fleming College, Peterborough

Okay, I tried another Skills Work! ® camp – this time in Peterborough at Fleming College.  The week was totally amazing!  I tried so many new things, and the college gave us a barbecue!  So awesome.

So we totally got to tour a TV station.  It was the local Cogeco station, and we had the run of the place because everybody was out for the summer.  We used all the cameras, we pretended to do our own talk shows.  It was so wicked!  I love TV, but I really liked learning the behind-the-scenes stuff, like everything that has to be done with lighting, sound, camera angles, and everything!  Cool!

I also got to try a plumbing workshop, which I’ve never done before.  But you know what?  It didn’t bother me at all.  Having tried carpentry and electrical work, and a whole bunch of other trades made me feel so ready for plumbing!  Our workshop leaders were Gord and Michael and they gave us all the tools and equipment to make CD/video game holders.  I never thought of using copper pipes for that, but you totally can!  My parents were so impressed!  And now it’s in our living room, holding all my favourite video games!

The next workshop we went into was carpentry.  By now, I’m pretty schooled at carpentry.  Our workshop leader was Simon, and I really liked his workshop, it was so different – we made squirrel feeders!  My mom says that maybe it’ll keep the squirrels out of the birdfeeder.  I hope she’s right because all the animals should get good food, especially in the winter.  We also made name plates to hang on our bedroom doors.

One of the coolest things I’ve done so far was tour the Canadian Canoe Museum.  I didn’t even know there was one.  Who would ever think canoes are so fascinating that they would start a museum?  But if you think about it, a lot of Canada was discovered and mapped by people using canoes to get around, so it totally makes sense.  Anyway, after we looked around a bit we carved paddles, which was super cool.  Maybe I should start canoeing when I’m done camp!

Our last workshop of the week was brick masonry with Wayne.  I bet I could totally become a bodybuilder by being a brick mason first.  This is definitely a job where you get huge muscles!  Everybody got their own work station and we built brick walls.  So much harder than you would think!  It was fun though.  I like things to be challenging.  It’s just boring if it’s too easy.

Every week, I get even more pumped for the next week.  I can’t wait!