Dancing & Hockey

Hello!
In this blog I will tell you how we survived the harsh canadian winter! ;-)  What we did on one day a week for one hour every week. The girls started Irish dancing. Jeremiah and I (this is Jonathan) played hockey in the local christian hockey league.
This is what Rebecca had to say about dancing:
``I enjoy dancing very much and am glad I learn quickly. You use different combinations of steps for different dances. Once you know the basics, you can pretty much dance every irish dance.´´
Elena also loved it and said some of the dances were harder to learn and also difficult. Rebecca and Elena both started out with soft, tight, leather shoes. But at the beginning of January (time flies, eh?) Rebecca excelled so much that she switched to the next level: hardshoe. Those shoes are the typical Irish ones with metal toe and heel. It makes the tapping or clicking sound which is, when properly done, a fine sound. Since every step is heard, timing and footwork are very important. The dance class also had a few performances. The first one was at the Santa Clause parade in November. We didn´t do a blog on that, maybe next year. It wasn´t what we expected. There were firetrucks, police cars, cars with advertisements, people dressed up like Santa Clause on a trailer, and mailmen giving out candies. The girls' dance class danced on a trailer in their costumes in the snowy evening to Irish Christmas music. They also had one at a school for parents, friends and family. Their biggest performance of the year will be at the hockey rink where Jeremiah and I played. They will be on stage with good music while hundreds of people are watching and eating exotic food. This is Brockville's ``local multicultura-festival.´´ We can tell you about that in another blog. There will also be a video coming with that.

Hockey started in September. The first time there was hockey I was running around in shorts and a
t-shirt. This was my first year playing hockey and my second real year skating. Jeremiah was very shaky on skates at the end of last year but now he is one of the better ones. The only thing we did related to hockey before this was playing with a tennis ball in the driveway. So our stickhandling and shooting was good with a ball. A puck is a lot different though, because it is heavier, it doesn´t bounce as nicely and isn´t round. My biggest problem wasn´t the stickhandling or aiming, it was shooting hard and high. I can shoot high, just not hard. My other biggest problem was skating all ways, even backwards and sideways, quickly and well. I would just trip and fall. Especially when I got tired at the end. I wasnt´t too bad though because I can skate quickly and keep the puck away from people. I did turn the puck over to others as well, especially against the boards when the puck just likes to slip and bounce away past a skate or stick, but all in all I think I did pretty well for my first year. Especially with faceoffs. I would do one every once in a while. One day I lost the faceoff and the guy doing it, he was also the coach, told me, half jokingly, a few minutes later ``Win it this time. Okay?´´
Jeremiah and I both are very good with stickhandling, deking, pulling it away and passing well. Jeremiah´s favourite thing to do is skate up at moderate speed and just pull it back and forth, not too quickly, and either shoot or pass. My favourite thing to do was to either stop all of a sudden and then continue or go the other way, depending on what the other player did, or get up close, pull it to one side and skate past.
The disappointing thing in my age category was the goalies. They were fine, they just never showed up together. The one guy would be there five out six times. The other goalie only seemed to be there when the other one wasn´t. Sometimes we were goalie-less. When we only had one goalie we had to try and hit the posts or the traffic cone that was put on the goal line. Some people said it was harder than shooting on real goalies, because you can´t make them move or fool them and they are small and skinny, compared to the goalie where there are a few big areas to shoot on. Luckily, somebody else volunteered for the tournament at the very end of the season. Otherwise we would have had only one goalie again!
Jeremiah also tried goalie for his age category. He did pretty well and liked it. He didn´t let in a single goal the first time he tried it. Eventually he wanted to try being a player and he scored three goals the first time he played offense again. He was put in defense a lot aswell, which was fine, but most kids his age prefer offence. Now he wants to be goalie next year again. We´ll see what happens. I thought of trying goalie for a few weeks, but after I saw how hard the one persons shot was I decided not this year. He hardly ever used his hard shot, but when he did you couldn´t see the puck. And he didn´t even wind back far!!!
At the end of our season there was an awards night where we all got a small trophy. I even won a puck signed by a former NHL player who is also a Christian: Chris Neil.
We had a lot of fun and are looking forward to playing again next year.
I was allowed to film on ice with our GoPro and the video below is from that.
I hope you enjoy it.

Jonathan in yellow

Jeremiah in black

Jeremiah shoots

Catching up!

Okay, so it has been half of forever since I last wrote!!!  I apologise.  We have a few different blogs underway, but with video content.  That takes a bit longer to get going.   So, let me catch you up on what's going on.

First, we have land!!! Okay, so I did write a bit about that before.  Well, we have been planning our build all winter and drew up as much of the plans as we could ourselves. Now they have been officially done and we have a contracter to help us get the foundation and frame up.  He will start the footings on the foundation and then Dominik can take over.  He will need more help with the framing so that's a bit more cost, but then we will do what we can when we can.   The septic seems to be a huge cost, just because they can charge that, so we're mulling over possibilities.  Well drilling is another thing, but as we really NEED water,  we will just accept it.

VIew from the building site to the road

Sunset on our road

  

Sunset through our bush

More open area at the front of the acreage

Woodpile left on our acreage

Playing in the snow in February

Now, no matter how far we get with the house this year (we would LOVE to be in by Christmas but that will all depend) we are still able to start planning our fruit and nut trees.  There are a couple of old apple trees there but we don't know if they will produce anything.  We also don't know if they are regular or crab apple trees.  We took some time in the winter to consider what we want to plant this year and where to order it from.  In the end we ordered a Sweet Sixteen Apple tree, a Lautz Apple tree, 5 Blackberry stalks, a Northern Pecan, an English Walnut, some blueberry bushes and a Sweet Cherry.  Now, I know that in our area there is a fungus which attacks the cherry trees and that many sweet cherries don't survive because of the climate.  This one is supposed to be much more hearty for our climate zone.  As to the fungus, we will work on some organic prevention for that.

A few weeks ago we started some seeds inside, and as soon as the danger of frost is over we will be able to plant the others directly into the ground.  I am not much of a gardener, thus far, but I'm working on it!!!  My Mum has a lot of ideas for flowers around the house and on the property.  She has already been scattering seed for grazing hay on top of the snow in one field.  Apparently that's supposed to work too!  I made sure that we have included plenty of herbs and flowers that we can use medicinally in our list of 'must-have's' for this year.  That includes Nasturtiums (Kapuzinerkresse) to make 'Farmer's Penicilllin' (Bauernpenizillin)! :-)

Last weekend we went out and did some trimming on one big apple tree and this past week Dominik and Jonathan chain-sawed and cleared all of the scrub brush and little trees which sit where we want to place our home.  They have also taken down a few in the bush and are already stocking up firewood.  Jonathan got his chainsaw for Christmas and he is happy to be using it now!

And yes, he is wearing safety trousers for chainsawing!

Homeschool is going on well.  Elena is already finished her math for the year and is almost finished her German too.  We will be giving her a special project to work on then, probably in biology.   Dominik and the kids tapped some trees up at the cottage and they will go back this week to boil sap into maple syrup.  This is definitely a favourite activity!  The time in the bush will also give Elena and Jeremiah a chance to work on tree identification and maybe look for some animal trails as well.   We have deer, moose, fox, coyote and likely even bear and elk near to the cottage.  Now, the likelihood of seeing these isn't high, but just knowing that they are around is exciting!

Yes, they're walking on the lake! :-)

The short-cut (winter only) to the car.

Winter or summer, breakfast is the same.

The boys dug out the sap evaporator!

The cabin in winter. Thankful for the woodstove.

Elena drilling a hole for the tap.

Jeremiah's turn.

Rebecca hard at work.

Rebecca hard at play. :-)

Speaking of animals, I completed my Firearms Safety and Hunter's Education courses this weekend.  I really enjoyed doing them and hearing a lot of stories of hunting and being out in the bush.  Half of hunting is being out in nature, appreciating the wild and learning about the habits and habitats of animals.   If people want to be really aware of their surroundings then it would be a great thing to try.  For us it will mean, not only an education in these things, but also the chance to feed our family free-range, 'happy' meat.  I have loads to learn, about techniques and equiptment etc.. and we are all looking forward to that journey.

I have been working at Heritage Community Christian School in New Dublin since January and I am loving it.  The people are great, the kids are lovable (even the difficult ones) and I love being involved in a ministry.  I also have some hours at the thrift store which supports the school- Thrifty's.  I mainly help with organising the books.  I love that too.  So, if I have to work, this is a good job for me.  At the beginning it was a huge adjustment being away from the kids.  For them and for me.  But now we have, for the most part, gotten used to it.

We attended a charity dinner for the Christian school.

Dominik's brother will be getting married in Austria this summer so we are all flying over!  We are SO excited to be able to see family and friends again.  We will be over for a while as Dominik will be working at the Schloss again for Teenweek and the Ten English Days, so our house-building project will be on hold.  When we return in August we will be back to it!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Dear Friends and Family!

We are exceptionally behind on things this year and so we wanted to just briefly write to wish you a very Merry Christmas!  We have been in Canada now for over a year and we have had so many different experiences.  From swimming, skating, baseball, soccer, hockey and Irish dancing to camping and road trips and summer camps, we have been trying to experience as much as possible while enjoying the differences here.   We still miss aspects of life in Austria- first and foremost our friends and family.  Secondly, the bakery!  But we have tried to make up for these things as best we can! :-) 

We have two pieces of news to share with you.  First of all, we have purchased a 16 acre (about 6.5 ha) piece of land.  Now we have the winter to plan our home and begin building in the spring.  It is amazing to see what burocracy there is when you want to build.  I think that I most look forward to purchasing a good washing machine- a European model- because there IS a difference there.  That sounds either boring or very motherly but, if you were in my position, you would be eager for that too! :-) 

Secondly,  I have accepted a full time job as a teaching assistant in Heritage Community Christian School.  This will start in January.  I'm excited to start working there, especially as part of my job involves sorting books every morning at their thrift shop!  This is a great shop and we do go there first whenever we need something. 

We are house sitting for friends over Christmas and are thankful that we have three bedrooms to use.  We also have a wood furnace here and the warmth is lovely.  Jonathan and Rebecca have each taken on a paper route in Brockville though, so we still have to drive into town frequently to get that delivered.  They are mostly enjoying it, and Jeremiah likes helping on Thursdays when there are extra flyers to be delivered. 

We want to now wish you a very Merry and Joyous Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour! 
With love,

Cathy, Dominik, Jonathan, Rebecca, Elena, Jeremiah and Josiah