Our Christmas to remember

Thank you to all who have sent cards, presents and good wishes this Christmas and I'm very sorry we've not been in contact with everyone individually.

Things were going pretty much to plan, the Christmas cake and puddings were made, all baking was finished and in the freezer, Josh's room had a floor and was mainly insulated, most presents were bought and some were even wrapped then the weather came.....

We had a first with our church being cancelled 2 Sundays running, now that's never happened before. The first Sunday we had a huge snowfall and high winds, the second was even more snow followed by the dreaded freezing rain. On Monday 23rd December we were all busy killing the turkeys for Christmas orders, we were doing really well having finished 14 out of 24 so we stopped for a break and to feed the animals. At this point we had had yet more snow which had turned to freezing rain again. The power went off with ice making trees fall on the lines. More than 50 000 people in New Brunswick were suddenly without power 2 days before Christmas. We were very fortunate that we heat the house using a wood burning stove so we were warm but we have a well for our water and the pump is electric so we were without water which makes life very difficult not just inside the house but trying to feed and water lots of animals too.
David got up early Christmas eve and while I delivered the turkey orders we'd managed to complete he and Isaac and Harri set to trying to kill the rest of them so we didn't spoil anyone's Christmas dinner. As I delivered the turkeys I collected fresh clean water for David to use and us to drink. By that evening all the orders were complete.

We had invited out friends the Lemmons for Christmas lunch so we really wanted the turkey dinner rather than beans on toast so we hatched a plan. While we were in town for our Christmas Eve service I cooked the turkey in the oven at my work. We were planning on cooking the veggies on the woodstove and having a simple dinner without all the trimmings. Just as we were melting yet more ice for water and digging the drive at 11am Christmas morning the power came back on, what a celebration! 2 1/2 hours later we sat down to a very yummy turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

Rich and Jen came for tea and stayed over till boxing day but went home feeling sick, Harriet then also spent boxing day in quarantine being sick too! fun, so far the rest of us are ok.

We were one of the fortunate ones to get our power back, there are still thousands without power, our friends the Warringtons being one of them. They visit us on a daily basis to borrow our little generator so they don't lose all the food in their freezer, to wash, have a coffee and shower. Our local village hospital is open as a warming station and the fire brigade have visited every effected home making sure they are ok and taking water for drinking and to animals too, they also have special heaters that they can heat up homes to stop pipes freezing and are offering food and showering facilities. Some homes probably won't have power  until the New Year. Just to add more spice to life we have another severe weather warning for Sunday/ Monday with lots of snow turning to freezing rain again, it looks like we may have to get the candles out again!

On the plus side it has been a Christmas we'll never forget and although it has been hard work it's also been fun.

 Our Christmas day walk Harriet with Shadow and Daisy also with her Shadow!

 Shadow!

Best buddies!

Christmas is coming the turkeys are getting fat!

Happy Christmas everyone.
Once again I've decided to write my blog instead of mailing a Christmas letter to you all,hope you don't mind too much. The parcels to UK and USA were mailed a couple of weeks ago but as usual they can't guarantee delivery in time for Christmas as I chose snail mail.

So I've been looking back on 2013 and trying to remember what exactly has happened.
Some of the highlights of the year are always visits from family and friends and this year was no exception. It's not just the fact that visitors bring us goodies from the uk...honest!
We had 2 lots of visitors pretty much at the same time, Steve and Jan came at the end of June and Mum and Dad arrived beginning of July. We had lots of fun visiting new places and even trying our hand at tubing as it was so hot.

We started renovations on our house this year, we took the wall down between the kitchen and dining room so the hot air from the woodstove could circulate better. We also gutted Josh's room and hoped to insulate it and have new floor, window and plasterboard done while he was away at camp...he's still sharing with Isaac!

From our little farm we sell eggs, pork, turkeys and rabbit. We can't keep up with egg orders, turkeys are good sellers when we have them at thanksgiving and Christmas, pork is selling steady, during the summer we had a special offer on and sold a number of whole and half pigs. The rabbits are still an acquired taste for some so sell slowly. We have tried our hand at making bacon and sausages too which are rather good.

A couple of weeks ago we had problems with a visiting bear trying to get his fill before sleeping for the winter. He was on our neighbour's front lawn early one morning, had to be chased up the field behind our house by one of our other neighbours on a 4 wheeler, emptied the garbage cans of our next door but 1 neighbour and rolled our big heavy wooden garbage box the next evening. Things seem to have settled down so we presume he's now sleeping as the weather has turned wintery. We had 1 day off school last week for icy road conditions and had approximately 15cm of snow fall on Sunday. We thought it might be the start of a white Christmas but it got warmer again and rain washed it all away.

first real snowfall this winter

David is still working as a support supervisor for Salesforce.com,which he enjoys. All his free time is taken up with running our little farm, building sheds, feeding, chasing pigs etc. He also fits in wood collecting, doing the sound at church, DIY and lifegroup each week.

I am still working for Partners for Youth, my role has changed again this year but it's all good! I'm now Education Coordinator which entails me teaching lessons up at the farm PFY runs and running the Making Waves program. I did my first Making Waves weekend in November which was great. I enjoy gardening, DIY, lifegroup, cooking a turkey each month for a sandwich run we do in the city and coordinating 'fireflies' which is the babies group at church.

Isaac is going to be 18 next month. He spends the majority of his time outdoors doing something with the animals.He plays on the school soccer team, goes to a youth lifegroup and has just started a new job on another farm in Harvey feeding their animals after school. Today he got his acceptance letter from New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) to do a course in refrigeration and air conditioning in September next year. He will move to the little town of St Andrews for the year then come back to do an apprenticeship locally.

Josh is in grade 11 and likes to do indoors, non smelly stuff! He likes anything to do with computers, plays on the school soccer team, goes to science club, debating club and junior firefighters.

Harriet is in grade 8 and loves to be outdoors, Her new puppy has arrived and is settling in well, we get sleep most nights and she cleans up after his little accidents! She is in the school cross country and athletics teams, the choir and does dog training with 4H.

picking up Shadow last week

All the kids go to our church youth group and worked at Springbrook Cranberry Farm over the summer and for the fall harvest.

Good news, walmart has opened a new superstore that has an English section, just look at the goodies we can get now and at a fairly reasonable price too

For those of you who have purchased a copy of my Dads book don't believe everything he says....I'm a great driver!

We are looking forward to 2014 and all it may hold. We are having a Woollin family reunion in July/Aug with Mum and Dad, David and Kathryn and family coming from the UK and David and Sarah and kids driving from Michigan.  David's parents are also hoping to visit in the summer too. We still have room for more visitors so feel free to come along.

Many blessings for 2014, keep in touch we love to hear from you all.