Most people love honey.  God gave the Israels a land flowing with milk and honey.  There is no doubt that unpasteurized and organic honey has great benefit on us.  In addition bees are vitally important in agriculture. Without their hard work, pollination would be greatly hindered and consequently we might not get apples, pears, strawberries, squashes….

A recent acquaintance Michael is an experienced bee keeper.  He was looking for a place to relocate his bees and we thought this is great opportunity to learn and watch how beekeeping is done.  It is an amazing experience.  We see how the hives and internal frames are constructed.  We see firsthand what a queen,  drone or working bee looks like.  We learn that you can safely handle the bees most of the time without any protection, although I did get stung.

The bees are a wonderful gift from the Lord.  The highly organized hexagonal honeycomb speaks out loud and clear that there is a Master Creator that gives the bees the ability to build such an amazing structure.  From Wikipedia, the hexagonal shape means high geometric efficiency.  There is no way the evolution theory which talks about randomness and chances could give rise to such supreme structure.  Only wisdom from God can achieve that.

We are waiting for the wonderful honey the be enjoyed at the end of summer!  Yum yum.

The mother rabbit was pregnant again this spring and gave birth to 4 baby bunnies.  In April, she gave birth to 5 bunnies but the weather was not warm enough and they all died.  Things are different this time.  All of them survived and grown into cute little bunny.  All of us are happy to see new lives being brought forth by God and Tiffany is the proudest of all because she takes care of the rabbits everyday, rain or shine.

We have decided to build a see-saw for our children.  We are going to show you the basic steps how to accomplish this.  It is very simple and cost around $50.  Your kids will LOVE the see-saw built by dads.  Email us if you need advice or tips.

With the size of our family ever increasing, we decided to open a new garden area. This time, we will not use the Sqaure Foot Gardening method; rather we would follow the Wood Chips path. The new area is behind the original house and it is a relatively flat ground. So everyone helps to lay down newspaper, shovel compost and wood chips. Then Dad pull the materials in the trailer with the tractor.

We are going to plant space demanding plants first: squash, pumpkin, watermelon and melon.

This is our new garden!
Cantaloupe.
Pumpkin.
Spaghetti Squash.
Watermelon. I am skeptical if we can grow watermelon successfully here because of our short summer. Giving that watermelon from the south cost less than $4 during summer, this is more or less an experiment.

Recently some friends sent us a link to a documentary film about gardening. It is called Back to Eden. You can watch it for free online. This is an eye-opening film that “shares the story of one man’s lifelong journey, walking with God and learning how to get back to the simple, productive methods of sustainable provision that were given to man in the garden of Eden. The organic growing system that has resulted from Paul Gautschi’s incredible experiences has garnered the interest of visitors from around the world.“

We are so inspired by Paul’s submission and willingness to follow God that we examine why we have not had the success in our gardens since we moved to the country. As readers of this blog can browse through our timeline of our garden each hear, we have tried many different “systems”. But I always feel that I am a slave to the garden. Weed, pest, drought, clay soil, frost ….are all against me. Now I realize that I am fighting the battle all by myself, depending on men’s knowledge. I never asked God how to farm. I always looked up books and the Internet.

Paul has taught us again that we should always go back to the Creator, the Holy One who creates everything, including the garden. Who knows better than the Lord how to grow a plant? Thank you Lord for showing us an important truth: ask for wisdom. Jesus never holds back His abundant blessings on those who trust and obey Him, even in planting the garden.

We found a recycling company who gives away free wood chips so I have been hauling my small trailer once a week on my way to work to pick them up. It is hard work and everytime I can only get a small amount. But I am very grateful that I can get this for free.

Wood chips in the trailer.
Wood chips dumping beside our garden.
Wood chips applying around our fruit trees. Hopefully we can start to get some fruits next year. We have watied for 5 years!
Before applying wood chips on grass, remember to lay several layers thick of newspaper. If you are going to start from scratch and plant, be sure to also lay some soil in between the newspaper and woodchips.

"Dandelion!!!  Dandelion!!!", the children shouted excitedly, jumping back and forth between me and the spot that they picked the flowers, busy showing me their treasures.  It was last Saturday when we went to Markham to have lunch with grandparents.  And these flowers were along the roadside where we parked our van. 

"Yes, dandelion!  Ok, children, we have to go, get in the van now.", I said. 

"But I want to get more!  Get more!!" 

"It's OK, we will have a lot in our backyard!!" 

Our children finally got in the van unwillingly….

Yesterday, the day was warm, and we spent some time outside.  And my children were busy like bees!

"Dandelion!!!  Dandelion!!!", they shouted.  Busy picking this and that….  The older ones were thinking of eating them, and the younger ones were thinking of putting them in a jar with water.         

It's really interesting when you compare their response with most of the adults, "OH, NO!!!!  More dandelions AGAIN!!!"

The children see, they see the beauty of these flowers, as their hearts are pure.  They admire the beauty of nature as it is, but not trying to conform the nature to their own way of thinking.  And I believe, God talks to the little children, and let them know that these little yellow flowers are treasures, gifts from God.

The first time I learned about the amazing properties and nutrients these dandelions have, I was bewildered.  I was in total disbelieve.  "Is that true?  Is this really talking about the little yellow flowers that we see everywhere?  Basically just EVERYWHERE?!?  And the very flowers that we had a hard time trying to get rid of??"  I think I was also having a hard time to believe that something that good can actually be reached so easily, and for free!!

That's the nature of God.  He loves us so much that He, indeed, gives us many treasures for free!  The sunshine, the rain, the air, the songs of birds, the dandelions…….most importantly, salvation.

Spring is here, and dandelions are already greeting us along with robins.  May I challenge you to google the benefits of dandelions, and be amazed by it every day this coming warm season!

Another family gave us 2 rabbits, one white/black and one pure black.  They are both 2 months old when we took them.  Since then they have been living in a big box in the basement.  Now they are 3 months old we decide to move them outside.  We enclose the rabbit hutch with 6-mil vapour barrier to keep the draft out.  With the mild winter this year, the little rabbits are doing fine so far.

Inside the hutch is also a covered box with straw for extra shelter.
The whole hutch is covered with clear vapor barrier.

Because of the weather and other activities going around the home, we had to build the rabbit hutch bit by bit.  Finally I have nailed down the plywood sheathing and the shingles are ready to go.

Tiffany is nailing the shingles.
She has to use both hands with the hammer.
May be she would fix the roof of the house someday too.

People would generally think that boys like to play with guns and swords while girls would play with tea sets and dolls.  However, there are always exception.  I first purchased a Red Ryder BB gun.  Then I purchased a better Remington Airmaster 77 (with scope) that can shoot .177 pellets and BB at the same time.  Now they all want to take turn to shoot tin can and sometimes pretend that they are soldiers.  

Personally I want to get a powerful rifle that can hunt small game and kill racoons, but then I would need to get a PAL so for now I would settle with the Airmaster 77.

I can't wait until Joshua to grow up and see what he would choose…….gun or doll?

We have a family friend who raises rabbit for meat. I thought I would do something similar for our family and let the children keep some rabbits as pet and meat. So I set out to build a 2-compartment rabbit hutch that can accomodate up to 4 rabbits. All the lumber I used are 2×4 spruce, coated with a non-toxic wood treatment stain. The size for each room is 3x3x2 (WxDxH). The sloped roof is just plywood wuth shingles.

Tiffany is helping me and she would be the primary rabbit carer.
This is the side of hutch.
Using .5 x .5 hardware cloth for fence.
I use joist hanger to attach the rafter to the front post.
I use nail plate to connect the rafter to the rear post.