The last two weeks on the Farm

Harvest on the Ford farm was mere hours from being finished when....it started to rain! So we will leave tomorrow with the work almost done.  Dominik has had a great time driving the truck or the combine, helping Paul and Dwayne (son-in-law) and the kids have enjoyed riding along!  Combining is peaceful, maybe monotonous work, until something happens. Let's see...you could drive into a slough (water), plug it up and have to manually empty it, you could (as one neighbour did) drive over the land where the oil company recently installed a part of the pipeline, and sink the combine! Occasionally nature sends something alone like a deer or two....or a moose!  Why isn't there a 'Farmer at Harvest' reality show? It would be as exciting as the others!

J, R & D saw a Moose checking out the field.

Our days have taken on a bit of a routine here, as they should.  We have concentrated on homeschooling in the mornings, sending Elena, Jeremiah and Josiah outside to play.  They're much less of a distraction that way, and  outside with the kittens is Josiah's favourite place! He has even been sharing his snacks with them!  Because Jonathan and Rebecca worked so hard at getting the bulk of their schoolwork done here they went out with Dominik tonight for their first (in their memory) visit to Dairy Queen! Jared met them there and they enjoyed talking his ear off. Jonathan spent a day on the farm with him and has found a great role model.

The new classroom

Jared is the Alberta farm guy who hitch-hiked his way from his farm all the way to Istanbul! On his way he dropped by our place in Austria so it has been wonderful to see him here and to meet his parents and sisters. We spent last Sunday afternoon on their farm, eating bbq'd burgers, chatting and entertaining the kids with quad rides with Jared, horse rides with his sister Alana (& Jeremy!), and all sorts of things.  We had a great time and I especially enjoyed seeing the cabin that Jared is building because it is quite close in size and plan to the one that Dominik is building for us. Finally I could see how ours could look!

Jeremiah, Jonathan and Jared

We've really appreciated being near the church here, not just because it's a nice and easy walk on Sunday, but because the minister and his wife have 3 kids for ours to play with.  They have a Jeremiah too! Elena and (our) Jeremiah spent a few mornings playing there while we were homeschooling. Elena and Jil are only a month a part and had a great time together.

Jil and Elena, new friends.

Thinking of new friends, even Josiah has found one- and I don't mean one of the kittens! He is really taken with Rachelle and Dwayne's little baby, Amelia. As soon as she is here he wants to go to see her and will even give her a kiss, if encouraged to! :-) Babies with babies are sweet!

Amelia and Josiah

In our first week here we went to Lazy Bee Honey, run by relatives of our hosts, and had a great tour and demonstration of how they collect their honey.  We left armed with honey and sweatshirts (thank you!) and some great learning for the kids- and us. Who knew that you can order bees from New Zealand???  This week we were back for a meal with a bunch of the Ford Clan and a look at the small animals. Chickens (various), Ducks, kittens, horses and a donkey made it interesting for the kids. We enjoyed the great farm-grown food and getting to know some people better.

Our next 'field trip' was to a Hutterite Colony in the area. The Hutterites are a bit like Mennonites and Amish except that they live communally. They do everything together from cooking and gardening to farming and child care. They do have their own family houses though. They were kind enough to give us a tour around their large and spotlessly clean community center, school and dairy. They have some very modern equiptment and, although they dress in an old-fashioned and 'plain' way there is nothing old about their technology.  Interestingly, the Hutterites come from Austria and, when there aren't any outsiders around, they speak German together.

The day care nap room at the Hutterites colony.

A very modern Kirchen.

In the Hutterite School.

Such a clean calf pen!

Milking time in the colony.

Rebecca has been asking to sew something for ages and I've kind of put her off a bit because I'm just not that good at it. But we were in the craft section of Walmart and found some really great little fabric bundles- just enough material for a project. We bought one and she has now cut out squares to make a little quilt and a pillow! Everything is cut and she can baste things together in the car. We will see where we find a machine to sew it on!

Cutting quilting blocks.

The great thing about being here on the farm, well, one of the great things, is that the kids can go out driving in the fields on the quad! Supervised, of course (don't worry grandparents)!!!  Jonathan and Rebecca have both learned how to drive the quad safely. So, when Dominik went to check on the cows he could take the younger ones on the side-by-side and one of the others could drive alone themselves.  The side-by-side is also a great way for me to go visiting and Josiah even knows which button to push to start it!

Now that combining has ended for us, Dominik and Dwayne took the kids shooting today.  They made a little target and put it up and took turns with Rachelle's .22. They loved it and did pretty well.  Too bad that I was cooking Schnitzel at the time at the time so I couldn't compete :-).

Now our farm time has come to a close. Having a little taste of life here was great. Of course, it is great because we have been so warmly welcomed into peoples hearts and homes. Our social calendar has been full. We're thankful for the fellowship here and hopefully we can return the hospitality when people here come to see the beauty of Austria! We are off know to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Southern Alberta, and then, on Tuesday, we go further and cross over into the States in Montana.  We will be posting more often then, we hope, writing as we go. Thanks for reading this- we hope that you enjoy the journey!