Merry Christmas!!!!

We'll, it's down to the wire now...., Christmas Eve is only hours away for us! The tree is up, the Most presents are wrapped, and we are all filled with anticipation.  We have sausages (bratwürstel), Kaiser buns (Semmeln) and I've already made the Blaukraut.  The Stollen and Coffee Cake are ready to be enjoyed with some fragrant Coffee  or tea (we have both!). We will celebrate our Austrian Christmas on the evening of the 24th and then have our English-Canadian Celebration in the 25th. We even found a farm here to buy an organic Turkey! He's chilling on the back stairs now.  Last week we made our little Gingerbread Houses which we do every year. This year the highlight was going to the Bulk Barn to pick out the decorations!

Jonathan's

Jeremiah's

Josiah's (left), Elena's (right)

Rebecca's

 So, we're ready, right?  Well, the best thing that we've done since moving here is to have a Family Bible Reading time over tea, before breakfast. We have been reading in Luke, and we've only read a few verses at a time. We have learned so much about the birth of Jesus and all the events surrounding it. We found that there are so many things that we believe to be truth, that we believe actually happened, but didn't. We have heard things in Christmas plays, we've seen things on Christmas cards and we accept them. Most are innocuous differences, but it was really interesting, and an eye-opener, to see that sometimes what we're presented with isn't accurate. We always need to have the Bible as our ultimate point of reference.  So, we are thankful for the flexibility of our life here which makes it possible to have this morning time together! And this reading has us ready now for Christmas itself.

And, it's been snowing! We know that friends back in Austria don't have snow any more (sorry- shall we send some?)  but here we're still shovelling out! And we are all loving it.

We want to wish you and yours a very Merry and Joyous Christmas, as we celebrate Jesus birth and all that it means, with friends and family!

Homeschool and snow!

I know that we're not homesteading yet, but all that we're doing now is in pursuit of that goal.  So, we're really PRE-homesteading.  It's that part of the adventure.  I hope you'll stay with us and see how it all turns out!

I'm a bit behind but really you've not missed much.  The last week and a half consisted of homeschooling and driving around the area looking at land which is for sale.  First, homeschooling.  We started out without our main box of books, but that wasn't an issue as we wanted to go back to doing some basics with them anyway.  The kids enjoyed the first week, although they were ready for a break on Friday.  We have a routine now, Monday to Friday, which helps to keep us on track.  Tea, Bible reading, breakfast, then school.  We went driving every almost every afternoon last week to look at properties.

First, let's talk about breakfast!  We really missed having bagels when we were in Austria.  Occasionally someone would bring us a couple of packages but since they are really hard, or impossible (where we were) to come by, we're revelling in them now!   Especially Everything Bagels...with herbed cream cheese.  Or plain.  Or occasionally with crunchy peanut butter! We do switch things around for variety and economy,  with cereal or porridge.  Or cooked breakfast on the weekends.  When we have chickens, eventually, then we can start having more eggs again.  I'd love to have organic eggs here but the only ones that's I've priced so far were $7 for 12 eggs. I should check out the price right at a farm.  I know that we were really fortunate with eggs and milk in Austria and we are really missing that just now.  On the other hand, we have bagels here!

School is mostly just the mornings now, with music and some other studies in the afternoons.  Elena was learning about Blue Jays (the birds, not the baseball team- wrong season!) and so she made a model of a blue jay which weighs what the bird should weigh, has the right wing-span and she coloured it as well.  The kids are eager to learn about the birds that they see on the back porch of Grandma and Grampa's house, where they have a bird feeder.  My parents are great sources of information for local flora and fauna and we'll look forward to learning some things from them.  Grandma also sketches and paints, which we don't, so that's helpful too!

We took one afternoon to string up the Christmas lights.  The kids were so excited to get to do it that Dominik let them, more or less, decide how they would be hung.  It looks like we should be having a lawn party with them going from tree to tree!

Most afternoons last week we drove around and looked at properties which we had found online, or else we just drove the back roads looking at what is for sale.  We have been talking to the German Real Estate woman in Kingston, she is really lovely and it's fun when we view a property to have the entire conversation in German. :-)   So, did we find anything?  In a word- NO.  But we've learned a lot!  We were looking at one property which was on a great, quiet, dirt road, miles away in the country.  But there were high tension power lines there.  You know- the really big towers.  We thought that we might be far enough away on this property to not be affected by them, because we know that they do affect people.  You should read some of the studies.  Anyway, then we discovered that this power line is THE main east-west line for Ontario.  So, that was that.

Next property was again on a nice, dirt road (we like them) but only about 20 minutes from my parents.  North.  Not south.  That would be the States.  On this one we looked at soil quality and the acreage was good, but we could always hear the sound of traffic.  Highway traffic.  As one friend said to me when I mentioned it, "You didn't move all the way to Canada to listen to the Autobahn!".  How true.  But the final blow for this one came when Dominik started doing research online about zoning and planning and where the old and new garbage disposal sites are.  Now we can see where the rubbish is, where the swamps are, and how the lots are zoned for building or farming or just for city life.  This is handy information!  It saves us a lot of time.  This lot had 3 dumps (rubbish) within a small radius, and one of those bordered a swamp.  So, no again.  Interestingly too, the road was called, 'The Land O Nod Road'.  And I thought of sleep and "drifting off to the Land 0' Nod".  Sounds nice, doesn't it?  But what does it actually mean?  It is Biblical and means the land of the 'fugitive' or 'wanderer'.  This is where Cain fled to after murdering his brother.  Hmmm...... Wir sind von Österreich ausgewandert, aber, nein.  (we left, or wandered away from, Austria, but..no).  ;-)

Then, just on this Biblical-meanings theme for a minute, we were looking at the by-laws for building on a property up near Bob's Lake.  Lot 19.  For that we found that it was zoned for building a religious centre, including meditation cabins with a central wash house/toilet.  Really?  So we could start our own little camp or centre here?  Hmmm......  But then we discovered that we were looking at the by-laws for the wrong township.  (There were 3 in that county).

The best land to be had is in Northern Ontario, it seems.  I found a lovely parcel of 77 acres in Moonbeam.  Isn't that a lovely name?  What a great place to live!  And the price is right!  But it's over 9 hours from here.  Away from my parents and from our lake-side cabin. So, that's a non-starter.  For now at least.

My Dad came home and told Dominik that he's found one, out towards North Augusta, near to where my great-grandfather had a farm.  It is a great-looking piece of land but it's not yet an option. So, we're praying and waiting.  AND...now that it's snowed.....we can relax a bit.  I'm really glad actually, because it was getting hard- school then driving around and then all evening scouring the internet for land and information. I wasn't feeling relaxed.

On the social side of things, Jonathan and Rebecca were invited out to a friend's youth group for their Christmas banquet this week.  They had a great time and we're really thankful for our friends' kids who took care of them there.  They saw some of these youth then at church this past Sunday and the girls were invited to join in a Christmas craft afternoon after the service.  They both went and again enjoyed meeting people. We're keeping them busy here, especially with preparations for Christmas, but getting out with the youth is great.

And this morning we woke up to SNOW!  Lots of it.  The kids went out for a break in the morning but the real fun came in the afternoon.  They all bundled up and, with the 3 new kids shovels that I bought yesterday (yup, I knew that snow was coming!) they made a hill in the front yard and started shovelling everything!  Then Dominik got into the action with the snow blower.  He taught Jonathan how to use it and together they cleared the driveway and even some of the yard.  Why?  Because Dominik wanted to make a really big hill in the back yard for the kids to play in.  :-)  Then they all had hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows.  How Canadian!

The other perk of the snow is that more birds are coming to the feeder.  Today we were all excited to see male and female pair of Cardinals coming to eat.  Every time there's a new bird there Elena will run and get the bird/wildlife book to look it up.

So, besides this running commentary on what we're doing, what can I tell you?  We are adjusting to things in Canada.  We are really enjoying some aspects, all the things that we were looking forward to.  Especially the time together, the weather, the bagels!  I think that we miss the recycling in Austria the most.  Especially because in Upper Austria we recycled almost everything!  And we even had food waste which was collected weekly.  And the plastic was sorted into an insane number of categories- loud plastic, quiet plastic, hard plastic, etc.  I know that most other European countries aren't close to that either.  Canada isn't alone in that.  But it takes some time to get used to just throwing things out that we always used to recycle.   I look forward to trying to cut down on packaging and growing our things ourselves, as much as we can.  But we'll see how that goes.  First we have to buy land!

And, in case you're wondering, no, I haven't found a job yet.  First of all, we're on holiday so we haven't yet any stress.  Plus, Christmas is coming.  And lastly, but most importantly, the government here hasn't yet reactivated my Social Insurance Number, which I need to work.  I guess they're still trying to figure out if I've stolen someones identity or if I'm still me or whatever.  It was dormant for over 5 years so it has to be reactivated.  Good thing I'm not desperate for a job! :-)

Christmas is coming- are you ready?  Christ is coming back- are you ready for that? 
Have a great week!

Burocracy and Land....

Es tut mir leid- ich habe noch nicht auf Deutsch geschreiben.  Wir haben gerade so viel zu tun und ich schreibe so langsam und so schlecht auf Deutsch. Ich werde es versuchen...aber vielleicht kannst du es trotzdem mit Google Translator lesen?  Ich habe es aber nicht probiert.  Vielleicht kann ich ein bisschen übersetzen....die anderen schlafen gerade .... schau wir mal!  Schöne Grüße aus Kanada!


Hello dear friends and family!  We've accomplished a lot this week but before I start I want to get back to the question of SALT. :-) The salt in question is the one that we found in my parent's cupboard. My friend Lori texted me photos of her salt, also in Canada, and there's absolutely no sugar in it.  I've learned that it is worthwhile to read lables here!  We've ordered a bunch of Himalayan Salt so we're sorted!

Ich habe letztes mal geschrieben dass wir manche Probleme mit dem Essen haben weil so viel Zucker in allem drinnen ist.  Sogar im Salz!  Aber ein paar Freunde haben gesagt es ist nicht bei allen Marken so. Sehr gut. Und wir haben Himalayan Salz bestellt. :-)

Jonathan's happy Saturday pancakes- with Elena's creative help.

My brother's cat which lives here.  The kids love her.

On Monday morning we went to get our Austrian driver's licences traded in for the Ontario Licence.  We had been to the office before, the Drive Test office, but we were sent away to get an official translation of our licences.  Even though there were a few languages, including English, on the card, we still needed to pay an offical translator to do the job.  This received via email we promptly went off to complete the task.  Well, the office was quiet, we were in luck- no waiting.  But then...the guy...under aged 30 but not very impressive. He didn't really make eye contact and he definitely didn's smile.  He said, "Yeah, we can probably trade your Austrian licence.  I guess we can give you a years credit."  And we said, "Pardon?  What do you mean with a years credit?"  And he looked half-annoyed and said, "We can probably give you a years credit."  Such a great explanation.  You can just imagine what we're thinking.   So then he turns away and starts to make a call, to ask someone how to process our request.  Nope, he doesn't know which binder the information is in.  After his call he starts to try to find it.  I suggest that the woman that we spoke with the first time knew about it, and this annoyed the guy further.  Ah well.  Finally he finds what he is looking for, consults with whomever on the phone and tells us that we can have FULL credit for our driving.  So wait, that means that he first just wanted to give us a licence which said we have only one years experience???  That's completely laughable.  Well, once he go going on the paperwork, he wasn't too bad.  Then he seemed, at least, to know what he was up to.  But he still never made eye contact with us.  So, Dominik first, then me.  And here comes the best part.....Guess what?  On my previous Ontario licence I was 'Catherine L.'. On my Austrian I was just 'Catherine'.  This constitutes a name change.  "Well," he said, "for this I'll have to take 3 photos and it will take about 15-20 minutes to take the 'L' off and then put it back on."  Yes, he really did say it.  And we could have burst out laughing! In the end it didn't take 20 minutes, but the entire experience was rather absurd.  If only he had realised that to smile and be friendly and to admit that he didn't know how to exchange a foreign licence (because really, how often would he have to do that?) then it would have been fine and professional. Anyway, having temporary Ontario licences in hand, we left and drove off to look at land.

Wir haben unsere Österreichischen Führerscheine für die Kanadischen umgetauscht.  Der Mann dort war unter 30 und er war arrogant.  Er wollte uns nur ein Jahr Erfahrung auf unsere neuen geben.  Und DANN....weil auf meinem alten Führerschein in Canada mein Name 'Catherine L' und in Österreich es nur 'Catherine' war, musste er eine Namensänderung machen.  Mit 3 Fotos!!! Er sagte dass es 20 Minuten dauern würde, dieses 'L'  runter zu tun und dann es wieder rauf zu geben!  Unglaublich! 

A snowy field for sale.  Anyone?

We started last week to look online at different properties which are for sale.   On Sunday we went out after a fine post-church Swiss Chalet meal with my parents, and we had a rather unsuccessful afternoon of looking at land.  On Monday however, after the licence debaucle, we had a rather good time.  It was clear and cold but sunny, and there was very little left of the snow on the ground. It has been wet here so that's also good for looking at land.  Then we can tell which ground is swampy and what's good.  We drove around and looked at 7, 4 interesting and 3 complete fails, one of which has already sold.  But it was good to get out of town and to get an idea of where we might want to settle.

Wir haben Grundstücke angeschaut, nach dem Gottesdienst und nach einem guten Essen. Wir haben nichts gefunden.  Am Montag, nach diesem Führerschein tausch, sind wir wieder los gefahren und haben 7 Grundstücke angeschaut.  Manche waren gut und manche überhaupt nicht für uns.  Aber es war super hin und her zu fahren um zu überlegen wo wir vielleicht wohnen möchten.

So, what do we think?

This really is a sign to watch out for Seniors! 

We had decided on the weekend that Dominik would go up to our property in the Lanark Highlands to overnight with some of the kids.  The Tyvec (like a plastic wrap for houses) had come off during the last winter and we have been eager for months now to get to it and fix that up.  Because we still have the walls to build on the cabin we don't want the snow to get in and start things rotting.   So Dominik, Jonathan, Rebecca and Jeremiah went up on Tuesday and I followed on Wednesday with Elena and Josiah, to have lunch, do some work and trade out kids.  They had had a good night in our little mini-cabin (3X3 meters, built when Jonathan was a baby) and were even too hot due to the great woodstove.

Our original 3X3m cabin and outhouse.

Staying warm. 

The lake is already frozen!

All tucked in and ready for bed!

On Wednesday I ended up driving through a little snow squall before emerging back into the blue skies and sunshine in Perth.  It was kind of exciting, making me feel like I really am back in Canada again!  Once at the cabin we had our lunch and then I helped Dominik put the Tyvec wrap back around most of the cabin.  He finished the last little portion the next morning with Jonthan.  I drove home with Rebecca, Jeremiah and Josiah while Elena and Jonathan stayed on for the night.  We also went the next day to the indoor playground at McDonald's to try it out.  It was great.  Tall and a great place for the boys to run up and down!

Dominik, Jonathan, Rebecca & Jeremiah sind auf unser kleines Grundstück gefahren- um zu übernachten und zu arbeiten.  Am Mittwoch bin ich mit Elena und Josiah hingefahren.  Ich habe ihn geholfen die Tyvec Folie rund um unsere Hütte zu wickeln.  Dass der Schnee nicht hinein kommt.  Es war dort kalt, aber schön.  Auf meinen weg hinauf sind wir durch einen kleinen Schneesturm gefahren!

Bacon and eggs. Yum!

Our last few days have been spent trying to rearrange our things into a small and compact space.  We received most of our boxes in the post which we had shipped from Austria, and we were ecstatic to get the rest of our clothing back!  Today I bought 28 hangers and they're all full now.   Since we want to buy land and build we know that we will be here with my parents until the spring, so we are trying to organise and contain ourselves as much as possible.  It is an adjustment for my parents to suddenly have a family of 7 move in with them, and we are very grateful.  So far we seem to be getting used to each other!

Gestern und Heute haben wir probiert unsere Sachen besser zu organisieren und zu lagern.  Wir haben nicht so viel Platz und wir werden sicher bis der Frühling kommt dort sein, und es ist wichtig dass alles ordentlich bleibt. Auch für meine Eltern.  Was für ein Schock wenn 7 Leute einziehen!  Aber bis jetzt geht alles gut.  Wir gewöhnen uns an einander!

Today, to finish off the burocracy bit, we went to 'Service Ontario' to apply for our provincial health insurance.  The lady there was really lovely and we had a nice chat as she processed all 7 of us.  No we just have to wait until February for it to kick in!   Then we walked up to 'Service Canada' to apply for, or in my case, to reactivate, our social insurance numbers.  As it happened, Dominik received his straight away but I'll have to wait to be processed as it was dormant for more than 5 years.  This is in case of identity theft.  My new immigrant husband received his first!  Our big laugh here was when the woman asked Dominik, "And do you identify as a male?".   Unbelievable.  I certainly hope so!

Wir haben auch heute alles fertig gemacht für unsere Ontario Gesundheitsversicherung- so wie die E-Karte.  Die Frau dort war sehr freundlich und es ist schnell gegangen.  Dann haben wir was anderes gemacht bei 'Service Canada' und eine Frage für Dominik war, 'Identifizierst du dich als Männlich?'
Hmm....ja.  Er hat 'JA' gesagt! 

Today I spoke to a Real Estate woman and when I mentioned Austria she switched to speaking German!  She's from Germany and we will meet her tomorrow.  What a coincidence!

Die Maklerin (weiblich von Makler???) ist eine Deutsche!  So, habe ich heute mit ihr Deutsch geredet.  Meine Eltern haben dass ganz witzig gefunden. Ich auch! :-)  Wir werden sie morgen persönlich Kennenlernen.

We've been running around trying to get paperwork in order..I still have a bit to do, but we did have the time at the cabin, I made our Christmas pudding and I had breakfast with a friend (without kids!!) this week.  We're off for coffee at friends tomorrow morning and then on Sunday we will visit the church family where we were married and have lunch with friends there. It will be nice to do some visiting.  AND......homeschool will officially begin on Monday.  Hence the big push to get everything done and dusted before this weekend.  And then I will start looking for some sort of job.  Hmmmm...... 

Wir haben so viel zu tun gehabt, und wir haben noch mehr zu tun, aber wir haben auch Spaß gehabt!  Bei unser Hütte zum Beispiel.  Und ich habe eine Freundin zum Frühstück getroffen, morgen treffen wir uns mit Freunden, und am Sonntag werden wir unsere alte Gemeinde besuchen.  Am Montag fängt Homeschooling richtig an, Dafür wollen wir alles organisieren was noch zum Organisieren ist. Und dann werde ich Arbeit suchen.  Hmm....

Good night!

So, have a great week!  More news soon!

Ich wünsche euch eine schöne Woche!  Bis Bald!