Surely the Jerusalem Artichokes are the tallest plants in our garden, besides sunflower. In fact, they are within the same family.  The tubers taste like potato, but you cannot cook it too long because they would become mushy.  I don't think I would grow this next year because it just takes up too much space given its size.  I would rather grow potatoes.

When its leaves turn yellow, it is time to harvest.  Simply pull the whole plant out.
These are the roots or tubers we are going after.

As our girls are getting older, we encourage them to start their own small business. We believe they can learn diligence, accounting, creativity, marketing and communication through producing something to sell to others. This year, Odelia is selling eggs, with assistance from her father. The following photos show how she starts the egg business from the beginning.

Dad has brought a total of 14 ready-to-lay layers from Queensville Farm Supply.
Odelia is laying down shavings on the coop floor.
Odelia is spreading the shavings evenly across the floor.
Odelia is putting straw in the nest box.
Transferring the layers into their new home.
The layers studying their new home.

The bunk bed is almost finished now. The only thing left is the ladder. Although it is rough and sometimes not exactly square at the corners, I feel a sense of achievement of making something by hand for my children.

And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. (Ps 90:17)

This is what it looks like after putting it on top of the lower bed.

Five years ago, I built the lower part of a bunk bed. Now with 3 more children the Lord has blessed us, it is time to finish the top part. This time though, I have accumulated better tools and so the process is somewhat faster than before. I can also enlist the help of the children in this project.

Viviana helped with painting a coat of clear finish.
Shoshana painting.
Sonia painting.
The bed is pretty basic, built of cedar post as legs and pine boards as sides.

Praise the Lord that our first son, Joshua, was born on June 26, 2011 at 18:39.  Mom was having a cold during labour but God is merciful; He kept the active labour under 4 hours and the push was under 10 minutes.  Now Dad finally had someone on his side.

Joshua 1:9  Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

It’s our prayer that baby Joshua will grow up to be strong and of good courage, being a mighty warrior for the Lord, knowing God’s promises well in  his heart.

Thanks for all your prayers.

A while ago we purchased 2 cages in order to catch raccoons. I set the trap without putting anything in it but guess what, the next day we caught a wild rabbit. The kids were excited and tried to feed it carrot. A friend came over in the afternoon and offered to butcher it. I always wanted to try rabbit meat and so I observed how he did it. The rabbit “screamed” so loud as he grabbed it from the cage that it startled both of us. We never knew a rabbit can scream. Anyway, after he was done I sake the rabbit in salty water for 24 hours and cooked it for 2. It tasted like chicken and but the texture was close to lamb. Very delicious!

Now a couple of weeks have passed and the slip is tall enough for me to snap it. I put the slips into a separate container and wait patiently again for the roots to grow. When the weather is warm enough, I will plant the slips directly into the garden. One thing I learn from a book is that it would be very helpful if we place a clear plastic film tight on the soil where the sweet potato is going. This would warm up the soil much quicker since we only have a short growing season here in Canada.

For the past 2 years I was unable to grow any sweet potatoes from my garden. However, I am not discouraged. This year, not only did I order 12 sweet potato slips from a farm, but I am also trying to start slips myself. You see, growing sweet potato is different from growing potato. You can tak a small potato and plant that in the soil. But you would have to start slips, or small shoots from a sweet potato in water, and then plant these slips in the soil.

We had missed quite a few times this year to go on a cross country skiing, either it rained or it was too cold. We prayed to God to give us a good day in March and He answered our prayer. I took a day off on March 14 (which I had to request a month before) and the weather was perfect. 0°C and sunny. So we drove to Horseshoe Valley Resort near Barrie for our big day.
Kay and Shoshana and Melody went for snowshoeing (only Kay) while Derek and the older girls went for cross country skiing. We had a wonderful time in the morning. After lunch, we tried a different route which was 3.8Km, which turned out to be too long for the kids. For the final 30 mins, I had to literally pulled Viviana, Sonia and Odelia back to chalet. It was a week’s worth workout :).
We had a wonderful time there.

We have an early winter and lots of snow in Ontario this December. One quiet morning I decided to capture some country scenes with my point and shoot camera. I have to admit that Kay’s idea of getting a DSLR camera would be better in this situation. But then I think how wonderful God’s creation are and how marvelous our human body is. Our eyes are tiny, but they are more sophisticated than the most advanced camera (except the zooming part). Best of all, it doesn’t need to be recharged after so many hours of usage. Truly we are fearfully and wonderfully made.