The Syrup Update

I am so sorry that we have not posted a blog in such a long time. It has been well over a month. But now we have finally got another blog and a video. 

I already wrote a blog about the sap and everything, but did not say anthing about boiling. I stopped with drinking sap. A nice slightly sweet taste. But now to boiling.

Almost everyone, (I have not heard otherwise) boils the sap over a fire. In a video about boiling syrup, somebody said you could do it with propane, but be warned, it will get expensive. We boiled the sap over a fire. Who would do otherwise, when there are trees and brush and wood waiting to be chopped up or burned? Because maple sap has only got a sugar content of about 2% it takes a long time to boil. Since 40 litres of sap equal 1 litre of syrup there is a sugarcontent of about 66% in maple syrup. The boiling is not that exciting, because you mostly just make sure that the fire is really going, so without further a do, we present a video about making maple syrup.

Why was it a bad season? At first the temperature would not go above 0 degrees Celsius, later it did not go under 0 to drive the sap back down the tree. 

We hope you liked the video and will hopefully be posting another blog about sports and summer activities soon.

Have a great week!!!

Jonathan

Love Stinks!!!

No! Don´t worry. Your children don´t stink. (Well, not normally). It´s not a relationship that stinks. It´s different.  The founder of the 'Love Stinks' campaign, a good friend of ours, was visiting his aunt in Africa. There he saw terrible things happening. People dying of sicknesses, infections, people getting killed, a woman was even killed by a crocodile and this witch doctor was rolling around bones to find out who should be punished. When our friend came back, he looked into his closet and started thinking about all that we have. We have sooooo much food. Many people in Africa suffer from hunger. A lot of people starve to death. We have sooooo many clothes. Many people in Africa only have one shirt or none. So, he started thinking. What if some of us wear one shirt for five days?If people in Africa have one shirt all year round and can hardly ever really wash, (never like we wash ourselves) why should we not try it? And so the 'Love Stinks' campaign was born!  This is an opportunity given to school children and others in the community to spend five days wearing one shirt, completing various activities and reading a daily thought and Bible message, while also raising money for various local charities.  One overall charity is chosen each year and over the five days other charities are also highlighted.  This year the focus was on the elderly.  All of these activities are aimed at prompting people to think about those in situations less fortunate than our own.  Empathy and understanding are hopefully gained and money and other practical donations are given to these charities.  So, no showering or washing and wearing one shirt for five days. That can (in some cases) get pretty stinky. If you are working hard and sweating it is harder.

If you are just sitting in front of a fire, reading a book, waiting for the maple sap to cook down to maple syrup, but doing nothing else, it´s easier. (More to the syrup later on). Every year in "Love Stinks" money is collected for a local charity. Last year it was the Brockville food bank. This year it was Brockville Palliative Care. But how do you collect money? Beforehand everyone finds sponsors that will pay you to wear the shirt for five days. But also some people walk door to door and ask for money. Now for Rebecca and I, (Jonathan here again) this was pretty weird, because in Europe nobody walks door to door for anything. We were a bit nervous at first, but after a while it went all well. Some let us speak, thought for a bit and then said yes or no. Others said no immediately before we could explain, and others found excuses like: 'I would like to, but the shower is running and I cannot give you two seconds of time', or, 'I was having a nap and now that I am up, I want to go to bed again and cannot listen to you'.
Every day there is a devotional to do and a 'Love Challenge'. On the first day it was fasting from everything (that is food and drink) except water. The second day was finding all the spare change around the house to support a Christian bus program (taking students to visit seniors in Senior's Residences). The third day was bringing clothes to donate to the Salvation Army. The fourth day was putting tape on glasses to make visibility worse. Putting ear plugs in to hear less. Taking popcorn seeds and putting them into your shoes to simulate aches and pains. And finally, putting on rubber gloves and wrapping rubber bands around your knuckles- all to see how it may be for some older people. I even tried to make pizza dough with everything on. Losing eyesight halfway was the hardest thing for me.

Making pizza dough

Almost every day there was a charity supported by doing the Love Challenge, but overall all the money collected went to our local (Brockville) Palliative Care. Syrup news next time!

Have a great week!!!

  

The Busy, Snowy Month of April!

Ich weiß, ich weiß!  Ein Monat ist schon vorbei und wir haben NICHTS geschreiben!  Entschuldigung.  Wir lieben und vermissen euch....  Und jetzt werde ich alles erzahlen!  Auf Englisch! ;-)   (ja, ich wieß dass ihr kann alle Englisch verstehen!  Besser als wann ich auf Deutsch schreiben! :-))

So, where was I?  Since going skiing we have actually had a lot going on.  First of all, it has been winter here.  THE WHOLE TIME.  While Austria was enjoying warm winds and lovely flowers, except for that one cold snap which only lasted two days (!), we have been looking at snow.  And more snow.  Then a wind storm.  And then an ice storm.  Yes, some places even lost power and church was cancelled because it was just too icy.  That was just last weekend!  Now the weather has realised that it is the end of April and has warmed up nicely.  Thank goodness!  The sanity of a lot of people was depending on that!

Now, what have we been doing?  We have been concentrating on homeschool.  With horrid weather outside we might as well get along with it inside.  When the weather is really nice we will want to be out and not doing school.  If we keep going like this then the kids will all be done their whole curriculum by the beginning of June!  Yeah!  That would make us very happy.

Jonathan and Rebecca have signed up to play baseball for May-June-July.  There are very few girls playing, so I've heard, so we're eager to see what it is like.  Jeremiah is signed up to play football (soccer).  They are looking forward to it all!  Elena would like to do dancing but I still have to find a course that she could join.  We will end swimming lessons this month to make space in the calendar for these other sports and then re-start in the autumn.  The kids have really enjoyed swimming, which makes me really happy.  That is one thing that we didn't have as much chance for in Austria, in the country-side, so we are really thankful for it!

Dominik and Jonathan have gone up near Westport twice to help a friend, our former pastor, with some construction work on their cottage.  This was great for them both and especially for Jonathan to do some physical work with the men. :-)

Our search for land continues and although there is one possibility in the works, nothing is definite.  It is hard to wait (for me, Cathy) as we have so many plans to start working on.  But wait we will and we know that the Lord has something there for us.  It has been a good time for my parents to get to know their grandkids better and for us all to experience a 3 generation house.  It has both benefits and challenges for all involved but we see it as a good thing.  Dominik has been renovating the downstairs bathroom and now has the tile finished in the shower.  To find time between school and other things can be a challenge but we are really enjoying seeing how it takes shape!  Photos to come!

In February we started going to the Thousand Island's Baptist Church here in town.  We haven't looked back!  We were met there by such friendly, funny and like-minded people that we felt immediately at home.  We have been there for less than 3 months and yet it feels as though we have known some people quite a lot longer.  It is great to have a church family where you talk and talk and talk after the service until you realise that it's 2 in the afternoon and maybe you should all go and get some lunch!  Proving that it really IS a FELLOWSHIP church! ;-)   We are really thankful for that.  The kids have gained some good friends, as have we and we look forward to what the future will bring there.  

Austrian and English Easter goodies for Easter! 

At Easter we were invited to friends for lunch and there Dominik and another guy there were asked if they might want to be in a play in Brockville at the Arts Centre.  They needed a couple of German policemen.  Well, Dutch policemen speaking German to Dutch Jews whom they were arresting!  It was for the Diary of Anne Frank.  Dominik and Richard (from Holland) both said yes and it has been a fun and interesting experience having them involved.  Basically they had to go on stage, yelling in German, throwing and messing things up, and arrest the people.  Dominik has been practicing for the last 40 years just to get the accent right! ;-)  Rebecca went to see the play and really loved it.  She was shown around the set by another actor who spoke German with her!  The woman's parents were from Hanover.  So, we got to meet an entirely new group of people through that experience.

 Dominik is second from the left.

Through our contact in this church Dominik was asked to play violin at a friend's father's funeral at the beginning of this month.  He played violin for 15 years but that was a very long time ago!  In fact, in all the time that we have been married, I have rarely heard him play- unless helping Jeremiah as he learns violin.  There was never any time.  Now that he was asked, he got out the violin and was practicing A LOT.  We all really loved it.  He played "Sunrise, Sunset" from The Fiddler on the Roof and it sounded great.

Your update is almost complete, as it is finally NOT snowing, Dominik, Jonathan and Rebecca are now up at our piece of land north of Lanark and are trying again to make Maple Syrup!  We thought that we would have posted a blog about that over a month ago.  Down here near Brockville the season is long over.  But up at our place it has continued to be cold and the sap was never running.  It might be too warm now, as the weather has so rapidly changed, but I hope that they can at least come home with another litre or so of syrup. To say that we were able to make it ourselves is wonderful!

Speaking of making things ourselves...we made Mohnflesserl!!!!  They are one of our favourite breads from Austria and we adore eating them- especially for breakfast!  Dominik found a website from and Austrian baker and he loves it!  I can't wait to make them again and to try another Austrian recipe.

Now for the final bit of news.  We have been really enjoying being together with the kids over the last few months.  We have enjoyed not having to go out to work and to have meetings taking away time from our family.  This season now has been a gift to us.  But of course, everyone asks, "What are you doing for work?".  Finally I have an answer.  My Life Coaching Course is finished, I have a website set up for that and I hope to find a way to launch that shortly.  As well, I have decided to become a Norwex consultant.  You Austrians will find this really funny because it's selling cleaning products!  Yes, you would love them.  And I, the relaxed Canadian Hausfrau, will be selling them!  The company is committed to reducing the use of chemicals in the home and that is something that we have always thought important.  Please pray for me as this will be a big learning-curve, doing sales parties and the lot! I am very excited about it though, especially as both of these projects/jobs allow me to set my own schedule and continue to be with the family.

The websites are:   cathyvamos.norwex.biz   and  https://sites.google.com/view/christianlifecoaching/home

And that's your update for the month of April from us here in Ontario!  I hope that the next blog will be full of Maple Syrup!  Thank you and please do keep in touch with us too!  Ein GANZ GROßE LIEBE GRUSSE AUS KANADA!!!!  xxxxxxxxx