March 31st is a good, good day!

Harriet made plasticine pictures at school and taught me how to make one. This is my 1st attempt.

PEI Lighthouse painted in acrylic

Our new house!!!

The last few weeks has been a roller coaster of emotions with the climax being a fantastic day today....yipppeeeee.

Last time I blogged I mentioned David's job interview with Radian6. He was meant to hear within 10 days if he'd got the job or not, by day 10 he hadn't heard then the news broke that Radian6 had been bought out by Salesforce.com. This made for a very tense time waiting. Today he got the call saying he'd got the job and is to start on 9th May. This is fantastic as it means a regular income and some health benefits which are a must as dental fees are huge and no one gets anything free not even the kids.

As you know we've been living here at Yoho since September and as the weather is warming up it will soon be time for Kevin and Dianne to move back for the summer. This has meant we've been looking for properties with more urgency recently. Our dream farm will have to wait awhile but until then we've been looking at properties with some land so we can have some animals and a veggie plot. Things are a little different here when buying a house. Firstly you get yourself a Realtor who shows you round all the properties you show an interest in. Then you phone to make an offer and the fun starts. Our realtor, Randy came round and spent 2 1/2 hours filling in the forms to make an offer, he then left with a cheque for $1,000 a gesture to show that you're serious about the offer! The first time we offered after the 24 hours allocated for the negotiations we couldn't agree a price so the cheque was voided and we walked away from the deal. We then waited and 3 weeks later they got back in touch with us willing to negotiate again. Today after all the negotiations we have agreed a price and if all the checks are ok we will be moving soon. In Canada you can move in 10 days from agreeing a price, as the vendors need another property it may take us a little longer. All exciting stuff though. So our little house is 2km from Harvey, it is an old farmhouse with 3-4 bedrooms and 2 acres of land.

My jobs are going well and are quite fun. We have to give the young man in our care lots of opportunities for physical exercise, this means I'm getting lots of exercise too! On one of our walks this week I actually saw crocus' growing in the grass, I love spring. The weather is much warmer during the day. Today we got up to 12 degrees but it still freezes every night and there's still lots of snow and ice to melt. Tomorrow 15cm snow is forecast, I hope it's an April fool!

Sugar bush

The farm at Kings landing

Our horse and cart ride

Pouring the maple taffy onto the snow to cool quickly

Spot the water wheel in this picture!

Harriet & Maeve on the horse and cart ride.

Isaac & Maeve eating the maple taffy

Grandad Woollin's privvy!

This week has seemed ever so long, although the time change has meant it's light till after 8pm which is lovely. We have taken advantage of this and gone walking on an evening a couple of times, there is still lots of drifted snow but the roads are clear and the sun has been shining most of the week making it feel very spring like. We got up to 9 degrees one day and it made me smile seeing someone in shorts! We are seeing lots more grass appearing all over but it looks very sad and brown at the moment.

I officially started both my afternoon jobs this week, one I found very frustrating and I have a feeling I may be counting the days down till I finish in June. The other was great, very positive and lots of fun so I'll be sad if that finishes in June!

David's job interview went well and he will find out if he's got it in a couple of weeks.

As I had no market again today we went out to Kings Landing, an historical settlement not far from here. They were having their annual sugar bush weekend. This is when the days get above 0 degrees and the nights still freeze so maple syrup can be harvested from the trees. The sap is boiled over a fire then ladled out onto clean snow to quickly set into a mapel taffy, this is very like soft toffee made with black treacle. It is very yummy. All the people were dressed in period costumes ranging from 1820-1880 depending on the age of the house they were in. We had a horse and cart ride and visited the farm of course.

Time change

Isaac's incubator with 20 hen's eggs in.

Just to let everyone in UK know we put our clocks forward last night so for the next two weeks we are only 3 hours behind you all. A good time to skype or phone.

March break

Old girl Bess

The bobcat/ Canadian lynx print outside our house.

This week has been a lot quieter than usual with it being March Break. This is the last proper holiday before the kids break up on June 24th. They do get bank holidays over Easter and a holiday for Victoria day in May.

We've had lots of rain this week so our snow is melting quickly the only problem is when the slush freezes over again we struggle to get the car out of the drive!

We went to our friends, the Warrington's farm to help them eat their last pork joint! It was very yummy. Harriet went with Jen & Maeve to the clay cafe in town (like doodlepots) she also had a sleepover with her friend Destiny. Isaac & Josh went to cricket practise and are playing in a mini tournament today with Rich.

Isaac has bought his first batch of hens eggs to hatch in his incubator today so hopefully in 3 weeks we should have some little chicks.

We woke up this week to find footprints in the snow round the back of the house. It looks like we had a visit from a bobcat or possibly a Canadian lynx or a cross between the two.

David's work situation hasn't been as good as we would like so he's been applying for other jobs. He had a telephone interview this week and has a face to face interview next Friday with a local company called Radian6. It would be a customer support role and if he is successful he would start in May.

Both my new jobs officially start this week which is quite exciting, I've had to write in my diary where I need to turn up for work each day as I'm bound to get it wrong some day!

Bess is struggling to eat hard things now but soft foods disagree with her so she's had to go onto posh dog food for mature dogs!

What a 'Silly Goose'

Raining & Yoho melting

Josh was poorly sick and fell asleep on the sofa so Harriet set him up with her baby and took photos of him!

I did a really silly thing this week that I won't be doing again. I was carrying a basket of washing to my car and couldn't be bothered to change into my snow boots so went out in my crocs, it hurt alot when I fell down some steps onto my back and ended up with the basket ontop of me. I went later to the little hospital in Harvey as I was worried about the tightness in my chest from the fall. Thankfully I got the all clear and had to take lots of painkillers to stay comfortable, it's much better now.

I went to a meeting at the school the young man I'm going to be working with attends. While I was there I was offered a job working in school with him 2 afternoons per week! That means after March break I will have 4 part-time jobs including the market until June then it will be all change again. I got the call to go to market on Friday afternoon so I spent all that evening baking and didn't go to bed till nearly 1am! It was the best market since Christmas so I was very pleased I went. Josh deserted me as he's had a man cold this week so I took Isaac with me.

This weekend we've had real rain, yes spring is coming. The rain washed away inches of snow and we can see puddles on the lake now. Harriet was so happy she ran out to play in the rain saying it was just like Keswick! We even got excited about seeing some patches of grass appearing where the snow had been shovelled.

This week is March break so the kids are home, or coming to work with mum or dad some days. David had a little more work last week so we hope that continues.