Let the Fun Begin!

Climbing an Ice Storm Tree

Today Ray and I and the six younger children headed out to the land. We wanted to drop off Ray's old work truck and the travel trailer. The plan is that next June we will move into the trailer and will work from there. That is if the house has sold. If it has not sold, then we will still stay here for convenience sake. (Showers)

Ray's old truck was going to sit there and eventually be used by Dane. It is 20 years old with 500,000 km on it! Well, it has just been given a new lease on life. It will have a snow blade attached and become our new snow plow. The older boys will love it because they will get to drive it, since our driveway is so long.

Okay, I have to answer some questions and make some statements. As to what a well-witcher is, Kelly, ask your mom! :o) She knows of them from in the States. They hold a willow stick or a metal stick and they can feel the pull of the water. But trust me, we will be blessing our land before we move on to it! To cover all bases! *smile*

Denise, just imagine this land filled with daisies and dandelions and wildflowers!


There are so many poplar trees that it will be gorgeous with the lime green leaves filling their branches! I know that the land looks barren and butchered right now, but you have to imagine it when we have cleared so much of the dead wood and when the spring comes! It will be a sight to behold. And trust me, I have already made it clear the things that I plan to do. I am not going to worry about relying on Ray, who will be much too busy. No, I am going to hire myself the people I need to finish the landscaping. It might take a while, but I will get it done. I intend to have a beautiful lawn leading into a glorious meadow!

And as far as internet goes: My heart almost stopped on Sunday night when a friend dared to suggest I wouldn't be able to get internet. HUH?! Nope. Not. Never. Yes, I will! Do you think God would take me back to the country and then strand me without my dear friends at the end of my email? Or my blog! Not likely. *smile*

I called a couple places today, and I have a guy coming out on Monday to see if he can get it. I then have a back up of a satelite guy coming out after that, if necessary. I warned Ray that I didn't care if I had to build a tower myself - I am getting my internet. *grin* (and just for you all to know, I barely use the 'net' - I simply blog and visit with friends via email, but then the kids need the internet for their schooling - so I am not addicted, but I could not imagine going without it!LOL!)

When we arrived at the land today, the first thing we did was decide to try to measure out how many power poles we would need to get from our property line to our house site.

Our trailer, truck and all the kids land toys delivered for winter. The timing is remarkable. We put the house on the market and were able to remove the undesirable items from our property and park them on our land. This way our home looks nice and uncluttered.

We decided to walk to the entry way to our property to measure the power poles, and it was so neat. Anyone who knows me knows that I am the type to have a golf cart in my home to walk from one side to the other. Much to lazy! *grin* So what was I doing buying a property where I might have to get some exercise?

Because there is something to walking through a park that you own! As we walked past this great big pond we could see that the ice has begun to form on the top. Oh, how heavenly this will be in the winter: ice hockey at one end and figure skating at the other. Actually, if you could see the pond, it is like a large curved tear drop. So the hockey rink will use the big rounded portion and the skaters will get the rest. What you see above is part of the hockey rink. God is so good!! We have tried for the last 10 years to make a rink in our yard. First we started with plastic and 2x4's and it sort of worked. Then the last three years we have used the sports court we build. It was pretty good, but it wasn't iced property and it didn't get thick enough. Now, we have a real skating rink!

We had a 200 foot tape measure and the guys took turns holding one end of the tape and measuring out 150 foot sections. We had budgetted for nine poles at about $2,000-$3,000 per. Well, by the time we were finished measuring to our preferred site location we were up to fourteen poles. Ouch!

The plus side of this is how wonderful it will be to be this far from other houses! But yet, remember, we are only 5km from a main highway and 10km to town! How radical is that! Dreaming, I must be dreaming. *grin*

But we are willing to do this because we really want to be off and away from the road easement that runs through our property, plus we don't want to be near the fence, nor too near the train track, nor stuck in the woods. So that made it a bit more limited. Besides it is a beautiful spot!

After we had finished measuring out the poles we plotted out where we wanted the house. We put it in such a way that my kitchen and schoolroom look out onto the meadow. It sits so that that part of the house faces the setting sun. We will have a verandah running off the master bedroom overlooking the meadow and the setting sun. The other side of the house will face the distant lake in the valley. That too is a beautiful site. I have told Ray that we really should consider putting a verandah on that side of the house too! He commented that we could later connect the two verandahs with a verandah on the south side.


This is our view of the lake from our property. This is what we will see from our east side verandah.

These are swans that we saw on the lake. Austin had written a note to a friend asking for pictures of swans so that he could draw them. He is an amazing little artist with a talent that was just discovered. So it was wonderful when we drove past the lake and saw swans!

After we had done plotting out the house Ray asked if we wanted to go exploring. I can't describe the feeling when you clamber through grass and trees and brambles and know that it is *all yours*!!

As we mosied along I was looking for a hill. I was hoping to find an area that the children could sled on. I found it! I could envision it when it was cleared and full of snow and children. How small our little hill would look in our present back yard! laugh! And they have been so content here. Just imagine!

Traipsing Through the Underbrush

A very wide hill full of mess. Yes, one more project to clean up. But oh, so worth it! While we were clambering back through the 'jungle' and exploring other views and hills, we heard a "toot toot", and someone exclaimed, "That's the train!"

We began hot-footing it. Actually, everyone but Briton and Ray, began hot-footing it as fast as we could up the hill and across the mess in the general direction of the train track. Since we had no idea where the train track was other than 'It's coming from over there?' we weren't very speedy. We could hear it rumbling past, and I stopped to listen to the squeak of some part of the train, and I just loved it. I couldn't believe that that wonderful sound was coming from our property!

I could just see my children out there waving to the conductor, as he travelled across the meadow and marsh.

Young Boy Watching the Train Passing

As I arrived back at the truck I saw a site that I am sure to see again. Boys on the land...

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