Gutes Neues Jahr 2018!!!!!

Hello from a cold and snowy Canada!  (okay, all of you in Canada- you know what I mean :-)) .  We were sympathising with Austria over Christmas since they had spring weather and we had to keep digging out of the snow.  We would have loved to have shared it with you!  :-)

We had a lovely Canadian Christmas this year, a very relaxed one. We managed to stretch the day out, we enjoyed our turkey and we enjoyed just having time together.  We skyped with friends and family in Austria, Los Angeles and Calgary.  The kids were sending and receiving messages with friends through my Whattsapp and their school messaging site.  It's been great keeping in contact with people that way.

Austrian Blaukraut, Wurstel & Semmeln (not as good as Oma's!)

By the tree

Canadian Turkey Dinner with everything!

So, we had a lot of snow.  And then cold.  Both are new to us at Christmas (not to me but to the rest). Dominik and the kids had a blast taking the snow from the driveway, as well as some from the back yard, and making a huge snow hill in our back yard.  It kept snowing and they just kept on shovelling and using the snow blower.  The hill got higher and higher!  Then, about a week later, when it was nice and cold (at least -15 degrees C), they dug out a snow cave.  A nice BIG snow cave!  It could sleep 4 people.  But it hasn't yet because then the weather got colder and dropped down to -27 at night.  But it was supposed to be feeling like -34 or something.  That's the great thing about Canadian weather reports.  It will tell you how cold it is and then add how cold it FEELS LIKE, just to make you feel braver and stronger about feeling cold.  Usually it does have to do with the humidity or with the wind, and it's always fun to hear it when it's really cold.

We have also been enjoying some of our presents which we received at Christmas.  There were the usual things, you know, the nice Christian western romance novel (or collection of stories) set at Christmas.  I really enjoyed that little fantasy every evening.  Jeremiah got a Minions version of the game 'Trouble' and it's great because he can play it with Josiah and Elena quite happily.  They play for hours with the Playmobil.  Seriously, they imagine so many things and can play undisturbed for hours.  This can be quite handy!  But the two best...so far the most-used things are.....ready?  5 Krazy Karpets (plastic pieces to go sledding on- they have handles hence turning a piece of flexible coloured plastic into a sled!) and a GoPro!   We have taken these two in combination and have had hours of sledding and filming fun.  On top of that, before we left Austria we made sure that we had purchased some sort of video editing program.  Dominik cut a LOT of videos while working at Schloss Klaus and now he has been teaching the kids how to do it too.   Today we started videoing the birds coming to the feeder.  This might be a part of the homeschool program as well as it is amazing to see how a bird actually flies- when you get to see it all in slow motion!    For now we'll let you see our first video of 2018- Sledding with the Castle's.  Thanks to them, Emily and Andrew and kids, for having fun with us!

New Years itself was pretty quiet for us, especially as there aren't any fireworks to watch.  Now, a clarification for the Canadians/Non-Austrians reading this.  In Austria every year over 10 million Euros is spent on fireworks just for New Year's Eve.  Yup, that's a lot!  I used to visit Dominik's parents with our kids (he was working) for the celebration, not just because it was nice to be with family, but because the neighbours there spent a lot on fireworks.  We just had to look out the window or step outside (sometimes carefully- watch for falling debris!) and we saw a spectacular show!   When I stayed in Klaus and celebrated with friends, I could watch the fireworks from our village, the next village and also you could see the sky lighting up behind the mountains since the villages back behind them were also shooting a lot off.  Someday we will have to experience a Vienna New Year's (Silvester).  Then we can enjoy punsch stands, other snacks and a fantastic and government-sponsored pyrotechnic display!  So, back to Brockville.  Nope, nothing.  Okay, it was really cold.  -25C.  They had also cancelled some of the activities in Ottawa, Calgary and other cities because of the cold.  But the fireworks would go ahead.  But no, for us with a bunch of small kids, the idea of standing around on Parliament Hill in Ottawa at midnight when it's that cold????? No.  So, we stayed in.  BUT.  And here is the great 'BUT' in the story.  Our great friend Miriam Merz showed us the fireworks from Klaus live as it happened!  Usually we celebrated together, when most of the staff were involved in the New Year's retreat, like Dominik and Kerstin and other friends, so it was nice to kind of, in a way, be able to celebrate with Miri again this year.  And we got to see the fireworks!

This was our first year to have this holiday as a family, completely undisturbed.  Usually Dominik had to be back at work on the 27th.  The Silvester retreat was big and busy and great fun, but a huge amout of work too.  It was wonderful to have the time together but, at the same time, it was odd not to be there,  Still, we were in contact with some people on the team and it made us feel a little closer.


That was our holiday.  We had Christmas and New Years and now we're back to school.  We are both reading the Permaculture Book (by Sepp Holzer- an Austrian! ;-)) and are getting lots of good ideas. Elena has a book on bee keeping.  Rebecca received a book on keeping horses and ponies. We have a homesteading class and Rebecca is eager to learn how to cook more and more.  But we still don't have land.  We know that we will likely have to wait until spring because there would be too much risk involved in buying something covered in snow. (Right, Patrizia?  :-)  She told us the story of a German who came to Austria and saw a lovely snow-covered field with a pile of hay on it.  He managed to buy it and then went back to Germany.  When he returned in the summer he couldn't find his field- it had been a frozen lake!  So, we're not going down that road! :-)).  But please pray with us that we find the right piece of land at the right time and price.  We're pretty calm and patient but it will be a great relief to have it and to get going!  Thanks!

God Bless in 2018!  We will be back with more soon!

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!