June 18 Loading Day

After 9 months in Ontario, we are "On The Road Again".....
Despite road construction the tractor trailer was able to access the house to load up our belongings.

Peter helped the movers with the loading...

Amazing to see the team work between driver and helper as they stacked many 5 cu ft boxes and furniture wrapped in blankets.....

and it arrived 2 weeks later here....

Our travel trailer fits nicely beside the house and we were able to slept in it until our beds arrived. Also, I'm adjusting to not cooking with a slow cooker but having 4 burners and an oven to work with! Hooray! The street is a court and is very quiet with elderly neighbours on one side and quiet neighbours around.

Once our BC house sells we hope to search for a rural property (without rattlesnakes) and settle for a good long while....those packing boxes will be sent packing!!

Family Gathering June 20, 2010

Henry and Joanne opened up their home, backyard and swimming pool to the family to celebrate Father's day, to wish Alan a wonderful European trip with Sarah, Theresa a wonderful journey west with Calvin and Jess, and to say "Goodbye" once again to Albert and Geraldine and Peter and Gideon before moving to Alberta. Henry and Albert managing the BBQ.
Mom and Geraldine...
....Peter, Aaron and Gideon finding some private space on the driveway...until Opa's camera appeared :)
Leah and Geraldine enjoying conversation and the pergolaWe had a lovely time together with our family and know that their prayers have brought us, by God's grace, to this point of adventure. A special thank you to Bernice Diane,her husband Gord (in yellow Tshirt),
and Thomas for gifting us with a photo/music cd "On The Road Again" -a sampling of family memories during our past three years of adventure! Thank you, it will be cherished and played frequently.

Farming field trip June 4th

We were invited to our friends farm to see the...

and to feed another farmer's lambs...


and then we were invited to view a brand new dairy operation similar to this photo

To use the term "farm" would envision a few holsteins in the field...but what we saw was automated feeding, cleaning manure, and automated recessed milking parlours!

More modern farms use recessed parlors, where the milker stands in a recess such that his arms are at the level of the cow's udder. The cows stand in two angled rows either side of the recess and the milker accesses the udder from the side, parallel, where the cows stand side-by-side and the milker accesses the udder from the rear or, more recently, rotary (or carousel), where the cows are on a raised circular platform, facing the center of the circle, and the platform rotates while the milker stands in one place and accesses the udder from the rear. There are many other styles of milking parlors which are less common.

It is astounding to see the modern technology in the dairy farms of today! The boys enjoyed observing calves, and the beginning of the birth of a calf. We will cherish these memories and our friendship with the Moermans.....now that we are in the wild, wild west!

June 2010 - Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site

Prior to leaving Ontario we took in some local history. Last fall we had read "The Last Safe House" by Barbara Greenwood which journeys through the lives of some child slaves in the USA and their story of escaping from "Egypt to the Promised Land" that is to Canada.

THE HISTORY

Born in Maryland, Josiah Henson worked as a slave for forty-one years. In 1830, he and his family escaped to Upper Canada (Ontario) via the Underground Railroad. Initially, the Henson family settled near Fort Erie, Ontario, where Josiah gained employment through a local farmer. The family then moved to Colchester, in Essex County, where they settled on previously cleared lots. After a period of seven years, Josiah Henson aspired to obtain his own land. In 1841, he moved his family to Dresden and helped to establish the Dawn Settlement. The settlement was established to provide a refuge and a new beginning for former slaves. Through his leadership, the British American Institute, one of Canada's first industrial schools, was founded. The school was intended for the advancement of fugitive slaves. Josiah Henson's name became synonymous with the central character "Uncle Tom" in Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. The novel sold 300,000 copies within the first year and helped to raise awareness to the brutality of slavery. Abraham Lincoln credited the book as being a catalyst of the Civil War. In 1983, Josiah Henson became the first person of African descent to be featured on a Canadian stamp. In 1999, the Government of Canada erected a plaque designating him as a Canadian of National Historical Significance. The plaque stands in the Henson family cemetery.

Below, Peter and Gideon in the church (exterior picture above).

A reading of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe is highly recommended for its historical facts of this time and the theology of the people.

Dirt, Machines, and Supervisors

Peter and Gideon and a neighbour boy enjoyed watching and learning about water pipes,



and 6' high concrete sewer pipes...








...observed backhoes moving heavy steal bins....




...and pushing, carrying and shoving very heavy metal reinforcements for placing inside the hole to prevent avalanche of the dirt....



...and tried out being supervisors without the white hard hat :)

17th Wedding Anniversary

We planned our celebration based on the weather forecast. May 1st was a beautiful, sunny and warm day. So we had our Italian anniversary dinner at noon at home so that we could enjoy the weather at the beach that evening.




My joy of 17 years.



Added joys....






Favourite pasttimes at the beach.....






















It was a beautiful evening to enjoy one another.

Icecream anyone?

The boys were very excited to be able to make icecream as part of their Astronomy Science study this semester. The ingredients are very simple: cream, vanilla for flavour, ice cubes and in another bag separate from the first, place rock salt. Place the cream ingredient bag inside the bag with rock salt and shake.....











and shake.....







and voila! Icecream! Guess what kind :)






Perhaps you are wondering about the correlation to Astronomy?? Well, comets have a combination of ice and stones which is the white tail or line you may have seen as they shoot across the sky - in actual fact, they are not shooting stars, but meteors disintegrating when they hit earth's atmosphere. (well that's what I remember, without the access to the text which is currently packed up).