Greetings to You.
Here's hoping you had a wonderful Christmas season and are looking forward to a great New Year!
We've been a mix of busy and relaxed.
Christmas brings it's own work but we were able to set aside house construction for a bit and have a little holiday fun beginning with a visit from my mom. She was here Dec 12-19th, so that's when Christmas started for us.
This year we enjoyed an experience we've never had before, we hiked out to the back "35" with a sled and a saw and harvested a couple spruce trees for decorating. Kinda cool to get your Christmas tree from your own property!
The Youngest got one for her room, partly since she has the biggest bedroom which can accommodate a tree, but also because we were trying to make the house as festive as possible for Gramma's visit.
There is a third reason.. we are the proud owners of two Christmas tree stands.
Being I knew we would have a real tree this year (our "backyard" is full of them) I snatched up a stand as soon as I saw one at the Salvation Army thrift store. All the stands were priced $4.99, except the one I picked. Of course it wasn't until I got to the cash that I realize that there is no price tag. I apologized and told her that all the rest were priced for $4.99. She gave it to me for $3.99 since I was honest. Cool! Discounts at the thrift store, I'm OK with that!
A couple days later, I am in the second level of the wood-shed outbuilding. One half of the flooring up there seems a little rickety and so I have "barred" it off with some orange, surveyor tape. All of us have walked across it at some point but I don't need guests falling on through and injuring themselves. Well, I guess I have only ever been up there in the late afternoon when the sun shines in through the west window making the East half look even more dark and scary and so between the rickety floor boards and the darkness I haven't explored that area of the building. Imagine my surprise and slight annoyance after just purchasing a tree stand, when I ventured up there in the morning with the sun shining brightly in the East window and what should I see at the far end of the rickety floor?
A Christmas tree stand!
Well, I didn't stay annoyed for long. Instead I quickly came to the thrilling decision that we'd have TWO trees and left it at that.
Along comes the prepping for Gramma's visit. The newer and much cleaner stand gets used in the bedroom. We'll clean up the dirty, wood-shed one when we put up the main tree later.
All goes well with tree number one. Although I gleaned from that experience that "installing" a real tree is much more work than one might guess.
The day comes for tree number two to grace our living room with it's beauty. I begin to clean the second tree stand only to discover that it had a hole in it and wouldn't hold water. Blah.
That'd be the reason John Smith left it behind in the first place I reckon! haha.
Well, we weren't about to take the first tree down to use the new stand and neither were we about to go without a tree in the living room. So we Macgyver'd a milk-jug into that leaky stand to hold water and after a little bit more "work" (albeit fun enough work) we had a not-quite-Charlie-Brown-but-almost-tree in our front room.
We were ready for Christmas.
Almost ready that is. I still had to put my wood-stove and skills to the test for Christmas baking. Thankfully my list of goodies has considerably shrunk over the years to only three or four special things that we are pretty sure Christmas can't be done without. I am of the strong opinion that far too much sugar is consumed at Christmas and being it comes at us from every which way, I refuse to be the main source, but I will make a couple things to keep up special traditions.
Well, the wood-stove complied. Christmas was safe again this year even with the challenge of making cookies in an oven that is 200 degrees in one spot or moment and 450 degrees elsewhere.
The trick? Small pieces of wood added frequently. DO NOT leave the oven and it's contents unattended. Make use of the timer. Rotate trays often. It was kinda hard not to be overly proud of myself as the baking was turning out. :)
Christmas brought another first for us. It was the first time in 26 years that our family was divided for the celebrations. I can't deny, I shed tears. Thank goodness for Skype and Amazon. Gifts were delivered and we could visit using today's amazing technology.
I had planned to have a Christmas greeting and walk-around video of the house to post on Christmas day, but turns out I had a doozey of a headache and even had to miss the festivities at the S.S.I.L's
The grand tour will have to wait.
But the place is shaping up. We had the neighbours in for "a bit of Christmas" and they were blown away by how much we have accomplished in such a short time.
I'm glad they were impressed. I'm still looking forward to the day we'll have a shower and bathroom sink.
Until then? We are becoming experts at packing our stuff for having showers at the S.S.I.L's. We rarely forget the deodorant or towels anymore and it no longer feels strange to brush my teeth at the kitchen sink.
But here's to the up-and-coming New Year and the day when we'll have more then one source of running water in this house!
And may your 2017 be blessed with something wonderful that you have been anticipating as well!
Cheers!
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Older than Canada eh?!
According to John Smith, the fellow we bought from, this house is supposed to be 170 years old with a hundred year old addition.
If that's so, part of it is older then Canada!
Canada became a country in 1867. So for almost thirty years before legal papers were drawn up making Canada a true country, people built, lived in this house and farmed the land. Sweat, laboured, bled, laughed, cried, hoped and dreamed. They probably worried about things like crops, having enough wood and food to get them through the winter and prayed for sick loved ones and ailing animals.
Babies were born.
Children grew.
Folks died.
And all the while, it was in the works for the country of Canada to be born.
Wonder how long it took for the news to reach this farm way out East?
Wonder if the people working this piece of land thought it would be a good idea or bad?
Turns out we can't believe everything John Smith told us. He did say after all that this place was "Tight" and that we "Wouldn't see many mice" in this house. Well, not only have we trapped close to twenty we just saw one running across the living room floor the other night! Twenty minutes later the Man-Son saw one up-stairs! So either that was the same mouse with teleportation abilities, or we have more than one.
So, although we want to believe John Smith was correct about the age of our house so we can brag about how OLD it is.....his facts don't add up to the story we heard from our neighbour regarding this place.
The great-grandparents of East and West Neighbours lived here. They are a little unsure whether Great-Grampa built or bought the house, so maybe it was twenty or thirty years old when they moved in? But this is what they do know.....
William & Mary McMillian married, lived here and started a family. Then sadly William died at a young age leaving Mary alone to raise four children.
(Now this next bit of history is where the claims of John Smith don't add up.)
Shortly after the death of her husband a Ship's Captain approached Mary and made a proposition he, being a widower with children himself, needed a "helping hand". He would double the size of her house if she would care for his four youngsters. Being he was "away at sea" for long periods, the children needed a mother. Mary agreed to the arrangement and the addition was built.
See how the seventy year gap between the main house and addition don't jive. If Mary and her husband built the place, she would have been an elderly lady before the addition was built, I don't think she would have taken on anyone's orphan children, no matter how well behaved they may have been way-back-when!!
So either William and Mary bought this house when it was a few decades old or John Smith was embellishing. Being John is on a "drink-daily" plan, he isn't getting my vote!
It's been suggested that we could possibly find out the age of our house at the local governmental offices....but I haven't the time for that.....I'm OK with just saying and knowing that our house is OLD.....over a hundred years old.
I do sometimes wonder about the eight children that were blended together to make one family. How many were girls? Boys? Their names? Who got what rooms? What did they do with their days?
When the Youngest mentioned one day that she was having a hard time organizing all her stuff I suggested she look back to the original children of this house for inspiration. They wouldn't of had much, maybe she could narrow down her belongings? She didn't jump at my suggestion, but it is kinda cool living in a place with history.
Even if you are unsure of all the details it's still inspiring to know that years ago people did with this land the very things you hope to do, live off it.
If they could keep this place up-and-running for well over a hundred years, in the days before running water, indoor plumbing, electricity, refrigeration, gasoline, motor vehicles, grocery stores and fast-food: then there is a good chance, with a little determination and lots of hard work and learning we can figure out how to be less dependent on those things as well.
We have become Stewards of a bit of earth where there will be a mutual caring for one another. What we put into the land will be given back to us. It's part of God's plan and provision.
Round and round goes the circle of life.
It truly is a marvel, Earth, this creation of God's.
It's been recycling long before blue and green boxes and government up-pick programs.
After all this was God's promise to man-kind after the Flood.
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22
We believe God's promises to be so reliable that we have big plans for gardens and orchards! And we have all winter to map it out.......
If that's so, part of it is older then Canada!
Canada became a country in 1867. So for almost thirty years before legal papers were drawn up making Canada a true country, people built, lived in this house and farmed the land. Sweat, laboured, bled, laughed, cried, hoped and dreamed. They probably worried about things like crops, having enough wood and food to get them through the winter and prayed for sick loved ones and ailing animals.
Babies were born.
Children grew.
Folks died.
And all the while, it was in the works for the country of Canada to be born.
Wonder how long it took for the news to reach this farm way out East?
Wonder if the people working this piece of land thought it would be a good idea or bad?
Turns out we can't believe everything John Smith told us. He did say after all that this place was "Tight" and that we "Wouldn't see many mice" in this house. Well, not only have we trapped close to twenty we just saw one running across the living room floor the other night! Twenty minutes later the Man-Son saw one up-stairs! So either that was the same mouse with teleportation abilities, or we have more than one.
So, although we want to believe John Smith was correct about the age of our house so we can brag about how OLD it is.....his facts don't add up to the story we heard from our neighbour regarding this place.
The great-grandparents of East and West Neighbours lived here. They are a little unsure whether Great-Grampa built or bought the house, so maybe it was twenty or thirty years old when they moved in? But this is what they do know.....
William & Mary McMillian married, lived here and started a family. Then sadly William died at a young age leaving Mary alone to raise four children.
(Now this next bit of history is where the claims of John Smith don't add up.)
Shortly after the death of her husband a Ship's Captain approached Mary and made a proposition he, being a widower with children himself, needed a "helping hand". He would double the size of her house if she would care for his four youngsters. Being he was "away at sea" for long periods, the children needed a mother. Mary agreed to the arrangement and the addition was built.
See how the seventy year gap between the main house and addition don't jive. If Mary and her husband built the place, she would have been an elderly lady before the addition was built, I don't think she would have taken on anyone's orphan children, no matter how well behaved they may have been way-back-when!!
So either William and Mary bought this house when it was a few decades old or John Smith was embellishing. Being John is on a "drink-daily" plan, he isn't getting my vote!
It's been suggested that we could possibly find out the age of our house at the local governmental offices....but I haven't the time for that.....I'm OK with just saying and knowing that our house is OLD.....over a hundred years old.
I do sometimes wonder about the eight children that were blended together to make one family. How many were girls? Boys? Their names? Who got what rooms? What did they do with their days?
When the Youngest mentioned one day that she was having a hard time organizing all her stuff I suggested she look back to the original children of this house for inspiration. They wouldn't of had much, maybe she could narrow down her belongings? She didn't jump at my suggestion, but it is kinda cool living in a place with history.
Even if you are unsure of all the details it's still inspiring to know that years ago people did with this land the very things you hope to do, live off it.
If they could keep this place up-and-running for well over a hundred years, in the days before running water, indoor plumbing, electricity, refrigeration, gasoline, motor vehicles, grocery stores and fast-food: then there is a good chance, with a little determination and lots of hard work and learning we can figure out how to be less dependent on those things as well.
We have become Stewards of a bit of earth where there will be a mutual caring for one another. What we put into the land will be given back to us. It's part of God's plan and provision.
Round and round goes the circle of life.
It truly is a marvel, Earth, this creation of God's.
It's been recycling long before blue and green boxes and government up-pick programs.
After all this was God's promise to man-kind after the Flood.
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22
We believe God's promises to be so reliable that we have big plans for gardens and orchards! And we have all winter to map it out.......
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