At the Cottage!

For two weeks now we’ve been up on our piece of land in the Lanark Highlands, working on our new cabin.  Dominik’s brother, Severin, has flown over to help us.  He and Dominik usually work together in the autumn on it, when the kids are back in school in Austria, but this year it worked out to be in August.  He only has two weeks here so work is going full-throttle, with bacon and eggs every morning as sustenance for the workers! 

The windows are now framed in, as are the doors.  The centre brick wall is in. We found new bricks at a fraction of their value on a second-hand website.  This is the wall where our woodstove will stand.  We also have bricks laid out underneath it.  This should provide us with some good thermal mass to maintain heat in the autumn and winter.  The guys also installed all of the windows and also the door to where the porch will be. It is so exciting to see the progress here! I can picture how our cabin will look when it is done, and I can’t wait!  We want to make a cord-wood cabin and so the outer walls will take some time to finish, but we will have some temporary inside walls and insulation in the upper portion this fall.  With a wood stove inside it will give us a much longer season here in the bush! J  I have been making quite a few trips out to the lumber yard/hardware store.  The Timbermart in Lanark is great- very affordable and the people are friendly.  I wish that they had 'frequent buyer points' or something though.  We'd be doing well with them! :-)  I have also gotten to know Carleton Place a bit better.  Well, the portion of it which has Home Depot, Walmart, the gas station and the Tim Horton's.  After all, what more could you ask for?

While the guys were working, if they didn't need us, the kids could play and I could have a little down-time in the mornings.  I found some great cups and saucers at the second hand shop in Brockville (Thrifty's- it is amazing!) and I will make a bodum of coffee and have coffee and a biscuit in the late morning.  I think that I like the ritual of it as much as anything.  But having some time to relax and read my Bible is vital.

We have some new neighbours this year, as two properties near us have sold, and a third is for sale.  Our first neighbour is busy renovating his cottage and has been very nice.  Then there is a cottage for sale and we haven’t seen the owner at all.  Finally, next to him there is a family who come from close to Brockville!  They have a daughter who is Rebecca’s age and the girls are thrilled to have each other to swim and paint and play with.   Our boys play a lot of baseball here or go canoeing or fishing when it's not too windy.  One day last week the wind picked up after Jonathan was out on the lake with the two younger boys.  They were blown down towards the beaver swamp and were whistling with the life-jacket whistle for help.  I was thinking, typically, 'Why are they whistling?  They can't possibly have an emergency'.  Well, with a bit of coaching they managed to get themselves back to our dock. 

In anticipation of guests we have made some signs to lead to our cottage.  Just a simple arrow and ‘Vamos’ written in a bright paint.  But we needed four of them so we chose different colours just to mix things up a bit! J   Our one set of neighbours are going to do the same and then our road will really look like a typical Canadian 'road to the cottage'!   

Once this flurry of work is past then we will look forward to lots of visitors.   We will be able to take them out in the boat, either knee-boarding or just for a lovely trip down the lake.  We did that the other evening after work and dinner had finished.  There were two loons on the connecting lake who were calling to each other, back and forth, for ages!  The sun was setting and the sky was a lovely rosy colour.  Without wind the water is like glass and it is truly an idyllic setting.

I have our camping kitchen well set up with supplies, including a few pressure-canned meals that I made while Dominik and Jonathan were away.  These are very convenient but I think that I’ve concluded that they are not very cost efficient.  Until we have our own meat and produce the cost of canning, including the extra energy to pressure can, is really high.  On the positive side, these meals are healthier than ones in the store.  I tried to use my great-grandmother’s Dutch Oven to bake some sour dough bread but, unfortunately, I burnt it to a crisp!  It wasn’t too bad INSIDE the loaf but the outside was black.  I will have to try again and use much less wood or let the fire burn down a lot more before I attempt it.  My next attempt will be a pineapple upside-down cake.  This sounds great but we’ll have to see if it turns out!  That might be in a while because we've had a fire ban on now and it's been windy so we're not doing any real camp fires.  We have a separate wood-fired barbeque where we cook our breakfasts, but I would use our fire pit to use the Dutch Oven.  I guess the next experiment will have to wait a bit!  

Last year we made a trip around Austria and also into Italy for our holiday. I made a trip to Rome with two friends.  I love Italy.  It is relaxed, classic, there are wood-fired pizzas, fantastic pastas and the people are very friendly.  This year, however, it is definitely out of reach.  But in memory of that it was lovely to enjoy some Italian wine with foccacia as an appetiser one day.  Two dear, wonderful friends from Austria were in Italy this past spring.  They each sent me a little bottle of Limoncello- a lemon liquor.  I have one in my kitchen there to remind me of our friends and of Italy.  There are times when I really miss life in Austria and in Europe...and so these little reminders are special. 

This last week my parents came up to visit with my cousin, Natalie.  She is my Dad's second cousin and I hadn't seen her in years!  We used to be at the same family cottage at Sharbot Lake when we were children. I was always so excited to see my older cousins there.  It was great to show her around our little piece of woods and could catch up on family news.  The last time we saw each other Rebecca was a baby, so there was a lot to catch up on!

Thursday was our last day there, as Severin was flying back to Austria on Friday afternoon.  In these two short weeks we were able to accomplish so many things.  We are thankful that Dominik's brother could come over to help, as he had done with Dominik for so many other years in the fall.  I am very thankful that Dominik can do these things himself as it saves so much money and allows us to make things and enjoy things that we otherwise might not be able to.  Being in the bush and building are also great opportunities for the kids to learn about nature, construction, weather, and so many other things.  It is so peaceful there.  

The time is coming when we will have to be back in town to work and to focus on school, but until that comes we will make the most of out little piece of Canadian wilderness!

A Road Trips to the Sault!

Now, you all probably know that Dominik and Jonathan left on July 3 for Austria.  Dominik was back to work for a month to work at two camps at Schloss Klaus- Teen Week and the Ten English Days (TED).  We LOVE these camps and usually the kids and I just run along with them throughout the summer.  It was odd to be left behind on this one.  But it was important that he go and Jonathan was able to camp at both. 

I added this photo of Dominik and Kerstin just because I love it!  They are a fantastic duo for planning fun and evangelistic youth events.  One of my best friends and my husband.  Love 'em both!!!

So, what do you do with four kids to keep them occupied and not thinking about what they are missing for the almost five weeks that the boys are gone?  Well, my answer was ACTIVITY!  Lots and lots of things to do.  This involved road trips.  I wrote last time about our trip to Michigan via St. Jacob's, and about the girls going to a horse-riding camp at Circle Square Ranch in Arden, ON.  Well, I picked the girls up on a Saturday and at 5:35 am on the Monday we were off, on the road to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.  I had lived in the Soo from the time I was 10 until I was 16 and there is one friend that we try to visit every time we're in Canada. 

The long road north- Highway 17. The Trans-Canada.

The drive up was LONG but uneventful.  Despite there being fires burning in many places in Ontario and the road having been closed the week before, we got through without incident. We did smell smoke once but didn't see anything of note.  We did quite a few stops in the morning- tea, toilet, coffee, toilet, gas, toilet!  You get the picture.  We managed to stop for lunch in Espanola and have a slightly longer break there.  That was around 2pm. 

Me and my GIANT Norwex travel mug!  Thanks Boss for the prize! ;-)

Lunch and a break in Espanola.

We have the Jonathan Park children's Christian radio series and we managed to get through an entire series on the journey north!  This really helped to pass the time well.  That and singing Rend Collective really louldy together! :-)  We don't generally use tablets or electronics to entertain the kids.  We have one tablet that they shard to play a few games, but the time allowed is really limited.  The kids are used to this and did really well on the drive.  We rolled into Lori's in Goulais River at about 1/4 to 5pm.   The kids were thrilled to be out of the car and running around, as was I!  Dominik encouraged me to take the kids up and to have a good visit with Lori.  Her kids have grown up now (I'm a late starter there! ;-)) and now she has chickens and goats and turkeys to look after.  Plus the two dogs and a cat.  To top that off, two of her goats were pregnant!  One was sure to deliver any day.  We were so hoping that it would be while we were there.  This was a fantastic place for us to visit!  Not only to be able to catch up with someone that I've known for a long time, but we were able to ask questions and to learn a bit about keeping these animals.  As we are hoping to get a homestead going ourselves- when we finally find land!- we will need this information!

3 Goats in a pen.

The roll of the eyes!

Meat chickens.

Josiah trying to pet a Silkie.

On Tuesday we went into my friend's workplace and saw how lenses are cut for glasses, and how they are fitted into frames.  The kids found that really interesting.  Then, after a pizza lunch (there is great pizza in the Soo, owing to the migration of many Italians there after the last war- or so I'm told! ;-)), we picked up another high-school friend and took the kids to the park.  They played and we caught up.  We also drove by two of the streets where I used to live when I was a teenager.  I found that really interesting.  It has been a lot of years since I had seen either house and I don't know if a lot has changed or if I just rememer it differently.  And.....Lily the goat did not deliver her kids on this day, but she was looking very FULL!

Lori, Ruth and I.

Bellevue Park Traffic

While we were in Austria Rebecca started writing to a girl in Lori's church and on Wednesday these pen-pals were able to meet!  She and her Mum and one older sister came by for a few hours and we had fun making new friends.  All too soon it was time for them to go back- they have animals to take care off too- but now the girls will be better able to write each other having met.   And again, no baby goats this day.

Pen pals and a game of Life!

The last full day of our visit was just a relaxing day at the house.  The kids were able to do a craft which Lori and her husband had organised for their church's Vacation Bible School- and it was quite the craft!  They made a bulliten/chalk board!  The frames were assembled but the kids had to paint and decorate them and put the cork on the board.  Jeremiah and Elena worked together and Rebecca with Josiah.   They really enjoyed this and now we have a permanent reminder of this visit to our friends! 

Happy campers!

Coincidentally, friends of ours from Brockville were heading out west to Calgary and had planned to be stopping to camp just 40 minutes away from where we were staying.  We invited them to drop by for a quick visit- more for the novelty of seeing them there than anything else.  In the end it WAS a very short visit but they had a little tour of Lori's animals too.  This was great because Niki also would love to have a homestead- she is a step or two ahead of us as she already has chickens.  It was almost like a petting zoo for the kids.  Loir also has three really different-looking chickens.  They are Silkies and they are SO fluffy!  They look like they are wearing little furry, Russian hats on their heads.  The children really enjoyed holding them.  The kids all ran around together, which I'm sure was a good thing before they got back in the car and before we got ready for an early bedtime.  The children looked in on the goats, but neither Lily nor Rosie were looking like delivering.  Again.

Eastern Ontario travellers.

Girly chicks.

Josiah and the Silkie.

Lori's educational chicken time.

The lovely Silkie.

The next day, Friday, we rose early and had to drive home.  Lori was sending her meat chickens off to the butcher that day, so after they were packed up we packed ourselves into the car and bid them good-bye.  But with warm butterscotch-chocolate chip muffins to ease us on our way!  Thank you friend!

70,000km going 70 kmh! :-)

We had another uneventful, 11 1/2 hour drive back to Eastern Ontario.  It actually felt pretty quick that time!  I checked our messaged when we arrived and....Lily was in labour!  It looked as though she had waited for us to leave town before she delivered.  Hours later she brought three lovely kids into the world.  So of course Jeremiah asked if we could go back to see the baby goats- but I said no.  It might have seemed faster but it wasn't THAT quick!  It was definitely time for a rest from driving and running around.  Now it was time to start getting ready for Daddy and Jonathan to return to us!!! And so we have.    Our visits north are always relaxing, educational and edifying.  They leave me with good memories and make me want to plan for another visit. :-)

Since then I've been pressure canning some food (not a good thing to do when you're tired and haven't done it in a while.  HOW MANY things can go wrong in one evening???) and I sorted out my garden.  I had bean vine which were growing wildly but weren't producing anything, so they're now out.  I moved some horrible strawberry plants- no the berries really weren't very nice, and made a space for my herbs which were completely overshadowed by a run-away cucumber vine.  Yes, I did plant too much in the garden this year.  I have only one raised bed to work with.  But now at least it's looking better and I'm learning.  I hope that by next year I'll have an actual field to plant in!  Because homesteading without a home just doesn't work very well. ;-)

Thank you for stopping by and reading our page!  I love seeing that we have people who have read our page in Africa or Russia or South America.  Have a good week and God Bless!

Strike!!! Out!!! Safe!!! and Goooooooooal!!!

If you play a sport you are likely to hear those words. Unless you play volleyball or american football. But these are the words that we hear when Jeremiah is playing soccer or Jonathan and Rebecca are playing baseball. I (Jonathan) wanted to play baseball since we moved here. Rebecca wanted to do the same, but Jeremiah could not decide until the last minute. In the end he started playing soccer. I miss soccer a little and would like to play it when possible, but I also enjoy baseball.
I started playing baseball with only a soft-toss experience and friendly game, no stealing bases. Also, I only played it only a few times a year. In the first few games I had a hard time hitting the ball and getting it into my glove on funny or normal hops. Now I still have some difficulties but I have improved. The soccer that Jeremiah plays is nothing like the World Cup. It might be a bit faster on the smaller field, but almost every person on the team cannot wait for the ball, they can only all pile up and try to get it. Jeremiah has already scored one goal though. And he likes it.

Thank you Jonathan!  He wrote the above before he left for Austria.  Now he will be getting ready to play more baseball at the Ten English Days camp at Schloss Klaus, which will begin next week.  These past months of living in Canada have been all about having new experiences.  When spring came we knew that the kids would want to get involved in some summer sports.  Jonathan and Rebecca ended up in two different leagues for baseball, based on age, and Rebecca was the only girl on her team!

Rebecca's Team- the Diamondbacks

  Jonathan played on a team with one boy that he knows from the youth group, so that was a good start.  They both had a big learning curve ahead of them, with all of the terminology, the Canadian-isms ("eat it!!", "good cut" and so on), as well as learning when you could safely come off base, steal, and when to and not to slide.  They both had great coaches and nice kids on their teams.  After I had seen some of the teams that Jonathan was playing against, I was even more grateful for that.  Rebecca's games were all played within Brockville. There were 4 teams in her league and they ended up coming in second in the play-offs at the end of June.  Jonthan's league was for 13-16 year olds and some of the away-teams (they played up to an hour's drive away) were a LOT bigger in size than their team.  I mean in body size.  On one team we were amazed because they were playing against a guy with a beard!  Really?  Some were nice, some were not nice.  The same applies to the parents.  It is amazing how crude and horrid some parents can be when feeling competitive.  What an example to the kids!  Well, we saw them acting accordingly.  Some well, some not.  All-in-all Jonathan loved it and was sad to know that he would be missing games when he flew to Austria.

Jonathan's Team- The Nationals

Our soccer experience with Jeremiah has been a bit different.  At his first game we showed up and the kids just went onto the field and ran around chasing the ball.  No coaching.  Now they at least say who is a forward and who is defense, but I'm not happy with their coaches.  Besides that their only practice is 10 minutes before the game, they have said some things to the kids which have not been good. Such as last week.  "Don't worry about that kid in goal.  I coached him last year and he's afraid of the ball!".  Great.  So then I've had to sort that out.  The coach and assistant are pretty rough.  Jeremiah will probably be doing baseball next year.  That's alright as he loves baseball too.  But he does well with soccer and understands where he should be when.  Alternatively we've heard that there are soccer clubs outside of Brockville which actually teach the kids more and have a real practice.  To be fair to Brockville, I have seen better coaches on opposing teams.  Oh yes, and all three kids ended up as a number 5!!!  What are the odds?

Now, for a general update. Jeremiah and Rebeca both celebrated their birthdays in June.  Jeremiah loves and uses his hockey net every day.  Rebecca received a real spinning wheel!  Dominik had to fix a part of it but it works and she has some wool to practice spinning with.  I foresee that getting more use once winter comes again!

We spent a bit of time up on our land in the Lanark Highlands (Ontario, not Scotland! Actually, Lanark in Scotland is lowland, isn't it???) .  As June progressed the bugs decreased in number and it became less difficult to be there. By the time that Dominik is back in August, and we move up there for the month, it should be easy with the mosquitoes.   Josiah caught his first fish there- with his first cast from our little dock!  He caught a nice sized pike.  And we ate it! :-)

Beans and Chips away from the Mosquitoes

Camo Man!

I started trying pressure canning in order for us to have some nice food up on our land, instead of having to rely on bought canned food.  We don't have any refridgeration there, as we're off-grid, and although things left in the ground stay cooler, we still couldn't keep meat for a long period of time.  I canned some chili- raw pack!  And also some chicken breasts.  I will use those to make a nice creamy sauce for rice or pasta.  I will try to do a bit more before we head up there in August.

Dominik and Jonathan flew to Austria on the 3rd of July and will return on August 6.  That leaves me as a single parent of four children for just over a month.  In order to keep everyone, myself included, entertained, I have planned a few road trips. :-)  We went to the Waterloo area to see my former supervisor from when I was working up in Pangnirtung, Mary Bender.  We had a great catch-up time and then went to the St. Jacob's market and for a tour of a Mennonite farm as well.  After that we were off to the middle of Michigan to see the Pickett Family- on home for a short break from work in Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq.  Their kids are about the ages of ours and we had a lovely time, relaxing and catching up.  The long drive home after wasn't too bad either.  Although Toronto traffic is bad even on Sunday mornings. 

Working together again!  The dream team!

With Mary at St. Jacob's market

The next week we were involved in our church's Vacation Bible School, where I had been asked to organise the snacks- according to the program that they had purchased.  So, although limited as to what we could do, we (my friend Heather and I) managed to make them at least slightly healthier.  A fact that some kids didn't appreciate!  There really are many levels of culture here in Canada.  Those of us who want to eat organic and self-made food have totally different palates than those who are constantly eating processed and sugar-filled foods. 

VBS Picnic

This week the girls are at Circle Square Ranch in Arden, Ontario. They were so excited that they had been planning their packing and activity choices for weeks!  Rebecca even sewed her own sleeping bag!  What a project that was.  Dominik helped her as she had no pattern.  It is their first time at this camp but I'm confident that they will really enjoy it.  Christian program with nice counsellors, a lake and horses!!!  What more is there?! :-)  I will pick them up on Saturday and then on Monday morning EARLY we will be off to visit friends north of Sault Ste. Marie.  This will be another catching-up visit as I haven't seen my friend in four years!  The winter isn't the time to drive up there, it will be about 12 hours with stops, so this is our first real chance.  Baseball and soccer schedules kept up close to Brockville up until now.

Finally, we've caught some bees!  Remember the bee traps that Elena built with Dominik?  I've included some extra photos here.  One of our traps has bees in it!  We went over to see them yesterday and we're very excited about it!  Now we will see if any of the other traps do the same.  Two families who used to have bees, but the bees died, have found that bees have come back this year, but into the old hives and not into the trap.  (Please understand that it's not really a 'trap' but alternative accommodation until the bees are moved into a hive.  They do fly in and out as they would in a hive.). We're just pleased to hear that the bees are coming back a bit.  I have really noticed a lack of bees on the clover in parks and so on.  The amount of pesticides and sprays being used are really ruining our ecosystem.

Finished bee trap

SO, that is our blog for today.  Sorry for the inconsistency of it.  I hope that this sports and catch-up one will be soon followed by another blog. Thanks for reading!