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.
No comments:
Post a Comment