We moved from Austria to Canada and now have a very different life! We're finishing our house, we are trying to provide as much for ourselves as we can, and we homeschool. It is all an adventure!
On the first Friday in July we went to a wedding here in Austria. In fact it is because of this wedding that the kids and I are able to be in Austria at all! Dominik would have been coming to work this summer again at the Schloss, but I would have been in Canada with the younger children. However, as his brother was getting married, we all very happily flew over! We have had Severin with us in Canada quite a few times and he has worked closely with Dominik on the plans and the building of our cottage. We were so very happy when he announced to us that he and Ruth were going to be married.
Unpacking the sawmill together.
Building our cottage with Severin.
A wedding in Austria sounds romantic from the start, but this wedding was taking place in a ruined castle which dated back to the 12th Century! It is situated on a hill overlooking the Danube river, and the reception was to take place in a large, open stone room- such as one might find in an old castle. One of the most amazing things, especially when you come from Canada, is that this large room had large open windows without screens. They're not needed as there aren't really any bugs to speak of. There might be the occasional mosquito, but I didn't see any that night. We could lean over the stone windowsill and look out across the Danube valley in the gathering twilight. The lights of the towns along the river and the starts broke up the darkness.
Looking down the Danube.
The castle as dusk approaches.
Bars on the windows.
Yes, this is a toilet.
The wedding was a very small and almost informal affair, considering that it was in a castle. Only immediate family and a pair of friends were invited. It was cosy and relaxed, and it gave us an chance to catch up with family that we hadn't seen since our move overseas. You can enjoy the photos and look up the website for the castle, if you like. www.ruineaggstein.at
It is open to the public and they have a restaurant in the courtyard. There are also river tours from further upriver, taking you through the Wachau region, which is famous for its wine and its apricots.
Preparing for the wedding.
Severin's neices lead the way for
His first view of his bride!
The Rittersaal is ready for the reception.
Guests after the ceremony.
Our five children.
The boys and the bear!
Cousins! Benjamin and Paul are missing though.
Dominik and Benedikt.
The party is beginning.
Lighting the torches.
We roasted marshmallows before the kids left for bed!
We want to finally get an update out on what we've been up to- it's been quite a lot!!! We haven't written because it's been so busy. We are now in Austria, visiting friends and getting ready for a family wedding and for summer camps.
We were busy enough in Canada with me working full-time and with home schooling, maple syrup-making etc., but then at the end of April we started clearing the ground for our house!!!! We spent the winter drawing up the plans and dreaming of how our house would be. It was and is still exciting to know that we will have our own place. I'll include a few photos here but we will expand on the house-building theme when we return to Canada. We have done a bit of planting- some berry bushes and some apple trees. I have a lot more planned, but building was so time-intensive that we didn't manage anything else. These photos will show you the work that was done between the 3rd of May and around the 10th of June. When we go back then we will get the windows and doors and many more things!
The footings
Apple blossoms!
The floor is in!
Kids working together!
Grandma's inspection.
Our head planner and builder.
It is a family project!
Boys on the roof!
Inside with the trusses on.
Lilac blossoms from our land.
Ready for the roof.
Laying the first sheet of roofing.
The view of our driveway.
We'll report more when we get working again!
So, Dominik and four of the kids flew to Austria 5 days ahead of Jeremiah and myself. I finished up my last day, well, half-day, of work and then went straight to the airport. I arrived in time to be one of the surprise guests guests for a good friends' farewell party here at Schloss Klaus. It was wonderful to come here, and also to see friends that we were away from for a year and a half. The last few days have been full of visits and memories. The oldest four children have each visited their old school classes, catching up with teachers and students alike.
The altar in the Schlierbach church.
Rebecca and school friends.
Frescos in the church.
We also visited friends who live up in a stone cottage in Obergrünburg. They have a great view of the Alpen foothills.
We were at my in-laws but since the weekend we have been staying in a room high up in the Burg (fortress) part of Schloss Klaus.
We used to live here (der Mauth)- in the top at the back.
The view from the garden of the Mauth.
Schloss Klaus as seen from the Mauth.
I will have to count the stairs from the parking lot to our room, but we're really quite high up. The view is amazing!
View from our room out the back.
The view from our rooom to the front.
Our room in Schloss Klaus- 'The Ark'.
If anyone wants to see more of the area, look up Klaus an der Pyhrnbahn, Austria on googlemaps. You can also check out www.schlossklaus.at
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.
