There was a great “Getaway” deal at Blue Mountain Village: $100/night for a studio room. So we were there for 2 nights. It was our first time ever going to Collingwood/Blue Mountain. Upon arrival, we were stunned by the European style village and the skiing slides. What a beautiful place. The children always like living in a hotel/motel and although we had the smallest room in the village, it was good enough for us. We had a great dinner at a restaurant in the village. The kids rode the bikes in the village and we had our first try at BeaverTail. Next day we went to Collingwood museum, walked the main street (Hurontario) and visited the harbor. The kids then had a good time riding the bikes on the Georgian Trail. We hope we can return next year for the Gondola ride and outdoor swimming pool.
We were at the farmer’s market the other day and a lady was selling soap made from goat milk, with herbs, essential oils added. That triggers the kids and us to think about keeping a few goats. There are a couple of advantages:
goat is smaller and easier to keep than cow
we can make goat cheese and soap with the milk
clean the pasture
purchase price is cheaper than cow
may be goat meat?
I remember buying goat milk from store and honestly I don’t like it. However, some people claim that fresh goat milk does not have that “goat” taste and is richer and easier to digest than milk. Well I am going to borrow some books from the library and see how this works out. Anybody raised goat before? Let us know.
After 2 month’s work, the sun porch is finally finished. My in-laws, children and of course, Kay, have all taken part in putting this up. Now we have to figure out a way to block the sunlight when it is sunny because it is very very bright. The manufature does sell the sunshade accessories but we would like to see if we can make our own. Any suggestions?
There is a very good Christian retreat center 30 mins north of us called Fair Havens. During summer time they provide very reasonable accomodation, programs, worship and meal service to the public. The campground has a beach, canoeing, swimming pool, biking trail and a gold course. We went there on a Saturday, which is free admission. The children enjoyed all the activites, especially when everyone was able to catch a small fish.
Yes, Viviana is 5 years old! We thank God she is a happy, healthy, normal child. Kay baked her a special cake. As you can tell, she enjoys the cake very much. God bless you Viviana.
We have decided to add more living space to our small house. Originally we had a qoute of 250 sq.ft. addition for $50000. Although that contractor charged excessively more than others, I figured the average would be $30000. Still, that is a high price to pay. So, after much comparison, we decided to add a sun porch on the deck. Sunporch is a company that manufactures various sizes of enclosed sunrooms that can be mounted on deck or concrete slab. It is cheaper than a 4-seasoned sunroom because it is lighter and simplier to build. It is not meant for winter but we will insulate it as best as we could.
We bought the 6′ x 15′ model.
However, as soon as we started to check the level, we figure our deck is sliding outwards. In other words, it has been sinking all these years. The deck was built may be 10/20 years ago. There are no concrete foundation, the joists are supported by a huge beam, which in turns is supported by some wooden blocks.
We hired a contractor to fix this for us for $400. He jacked up the deck, dug holes and put screenings in the middle and both ends. Then he placed a 2’x2′ patio slab and concrete pier block on top. He then put a 4×4 in the concrete pier block and attached exisiting joists to the 4×4. He also installed a GFCI outlet on the brick wall.
Because the wood boards are so old, they are wrap pretty bad. It took us 3 hours to lay down the base channel onto the board and make sure they are level. Everyday we build one thing or 2. The children help out as well. Slowly we are seeing progress 🙂
Here is where we are going to put up the sunporch.
The support columns.
This is the concrete pier block that should fix the sinking problem.
Odelia is helping us to put in the screws. We are so happy to have extra hands.
This year we bought 5 bush cords of firewood. Anyone burning firewood knows that 5 bush cords are a lot of wood needed to be stacked. Natural gas is definitely cheaper, cleaner and more efficient way to stay warm. However, living in the country on a farm, burning firewood in winter seems to be an icon for rural living. Dirty and hard work it is, but also good for the children to help out and learn about teamwork.
Praise God for making Melody better. Her eczema/allergy is not fully healed yet, however, it has been improved greatly. We do not have to tie her hands for most of the nights now. In addition, she is very active and happy most of the time she is awake. She likes to stand, which is good for walking. Kay has been eating some apple and banana and it seems Melody can take it.
It has been a tough whole year since she has the eczema. We don’t get enough sleep at night. We have to constantly hold her the whole night. Someone has to watch her during day time. Some homeschooling subjects need to be pushed back/delayed. Kay missed several Sunday worships because Melody’s eczema was too bad. However, these were not the toughest part. The most challenging part is the criticism and comment from relatives and friends. Almost every person who sees Meldoy questions why we don’t bring her to the doctor. Why don’t we give her the chemical cream from drug store? It seems like we are doing nothing and we don’t care for Melody.
How I wish that they can see the struggle we have during the numerous day and night, taking care of her. How I wish that they go through huge amount of research Kay has done in boosting Melody’s immune system. How I wish that they see the tears from the whole family when Melody suffers. Thank God that Kay and I stick together on our goal to give only natural treatment to Melody. We turned down sincere offers from well meaning friends to give her steroid cream, knowing it would further weaken her body. Anyway, there is hope if we have faith in the Lord. And although God did not heal Melody sooner, we believe He is teaching us a lesson here.
We have learned to pray, laugh, feel sorrow, look after Melody together as a family. Everyone in our family gains the credit of helping Melody to get better. Above all, we know many brothers and sisters in faith have been praying for us consistently and we are sincerely grateful for your prayer. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5:16) Please continue to pray for total healing of Melody.
We apologize that we haven’t been able to update for quite a while. As you know, summer is the busiest time and we have been swamped with different projects and activites. We will be more diligent from now on to update our blog. Thanks for visiting us.
