Different Seasons

Although both PG and Chilliwack have Fall and Winter they are both very differently feeling seasons with the same name. We are feeling more settled now and have been enjoying the different seasons of life that God has placed in our lives. I've been enjoying the rhythm that our lives have found so far, while still being able to just "go with the flow" of a larger household and flexible work schedules as well. 

Trying to add a few more breakfast options for Jade besides oatmeal, egg waffles (made with mostly eggs) has been a hit and gets made almost every morning now. 

Got into the routine of making a smoothie after we come in from the hobby barn, took a few days but Jade finally took to them. 

Brothers working together, keeping the farms and side business running while Opa is out of town.

These kittens have been the highlight of a lot of mornings for the girls. (very thankful that they have all survived Jade as she struggles to learn gentle)

Jade, always the more outgoing one, was willing to ride the lawn mower with Uncle Luke.

Hazel has had a few Aunty Elise Piano lessons

Jade is learning new words every day, and puddle is definitely on the list!

Another morning kitten catching. 

Hazel wanted a picture on top of the haybales.

Playing in the leaves with Aunty Elise

If we take it slow, Hazel is starting to be willing to try out some of the machinery. 

More leaf piles

Enjoying the fall weather with some friends. 

Kitten cuddles

When we moved and rehomed the dogs, we promised Hazel we would get bunnies instead. 

We are settled enough now that we had the time to make that happen. We ended up with two sister bunnies.

Hazel named hers Dandelion.

And Jade's bunny, Marsha. I have found it rather amusing that Hazels bunny is cuddly and Jade is much more jumpy and likes to explore. 

Jade has been rather thrilled with all the large puddles, and although it doesn't really look like winter, the wind was nippy so we had to combine our winter and rain outfits.

Feels a bit more wintery with the Christmas decorations going up and the dark but cozy evenings. The girls got to help decorate their first Christmas tree and have been quite enchanted by it. Definitely missing the "real winter" feel that PG often had, but not minding the mild weather while doing the hobby barn chores!

 

Phase 3: Rebuilding

With the structural issues fixed with the roof and joists the new plywood was able to go in making it look and smell nice a fresh.

Spent some time in the afternoon with Jared moving around the appliances in search of any kitchen layouts we would like as we had the ability to put them anywhere at this stage in the renos.

A dry afternoon! So we were able to tackle the little garden shed and overgrown shrubs around Jared's office to be. 

Very happy with the results. 

(Always a bit of double guessing in me as we cut branches and remove trees)

A pretty sunset

Dad and Jared installing a new hydro pole in preparation to upgrade the electrical on the property. 

Bathtub ended up coming out, and the girls discovered a nice tunnel into the living room. 

A little bit of reframing and the fridge found its new home, nice and tucked away. There is also a bigger landing at the bottom of the stairs now as they got moved back at least a foot. That move also allowed for more headroom coming down the stairs which much appreciated by Jared. 

The utility room door was made bigger so we can fit the washer and drying through there.

Opa found a nice used kitchen at a new and used store. Jared and I got to play kitchen tetris in the evening to find a workable lay out, which was quite fun. We even had some extra cabinets to make an island with. And even if it doesn't quite work out this way in the house, it is such a pretty kitchen I'm sure it will look nice any which way!

Phase 2: Demolition, Part 2

After the kitchen came out they moved on to drywall and insulation removal. Which revealed several structural and electrical issues. Dad called in framers to take over from that point. 

In these pictures the framers had already been busy and put in a proper beam to support the upstairs bedrooms. 

They straightened things up enough that this piece of paneling upstairs popped out a bit and doesn't line up anymore!

 Had some good laughs while reading the original insulation, old newspapers from 1951. I actually found it comforting when it was observed that not much had changed in the world. Wars or threat of wars was still happening, housing and living prices were rising, drugs were a issue back then too and all the same kinds of headlines that we read today. It was nice to know that what is happening today is "nothing new" and knowing this gave less reason to worry about what was going on in the world and just trust that God has it in his control. 

We could just see the tree cutters out the front windows.

Once they were finished the one at the front then they gave the large walnut tree a trim...

A very big one! The branches use to reach over the shop and cover a lot more of the driveway. Though it does make me a little sad, and I can sympathize with Hazel when she says "Mommy, I liked the tree better the way it was". The walnuts that were falling off of this tree were still in black casings rather then popping out of their green husks, so I'm hoping this will be a good reset for the tree. 

After seeing how other DIY additions were done we got a little nervous about how the living room was built, so the framers continued their work over there. 

Once again adding proper beams and supports.

When they removed the floors they found the a whole collection of gardening pots in the crawl space. Note the pile of stuff outside the glass doors....

Having a bit of a hard time envisioning a kitchen and dining area, especially when there are several different configuration options available and more walls keep getting removed. The fast progress has been really fun to see and we are getting closer and closer to putting it all back together!

Shop, Sorting and Sea Shells

With the house being more of a construction zone, I have been focusing more on sorting through the shop. All of the furniture from the house and office got moved into the shop to get it out of the way of renos and I have been sorting and selling or donating from there. 

Sometimes I have to remind myself to just stay focused on the first layer of stuff and not get overwhelmed by all the things behind it. 

And then I look up and have to start my mind game all over again, haha. So many items hiding on the upper shelves and rafters. 

The house, shop and office off to the side all have had some questionable structuring, the one 2x4 running the whole width supporting the shelf and the garage door just fits in with the rest.

But overall I am making some progress, a few large donation runs have been made. Some furniture has been pickup or sold. Some items I'm hoping to keep, or at least keep till I know I don't need them, other items are making there way into somewhat sorted piles of garbage, selling, donation and 'i don't know what to do with this'

This beautiful shell collection was left in one of the upstairs attic storage areas. While trying to decide what to do with it, we unpacked it all. It has kept the girls very entertained. Sounds like we will try keep a few and then a couple teachers are interested in rest. 

 

Food, Friends and Hobby Farming

Lots of grape vines on the property. It's been fun (and very therapeutic) doing a little bit of gathering.

The old owner left a juicer behind, so we got to try it out on a few of the grapes we harvested. Very yummy, and even better if you mix it up with a few other juices. Also discovered an apple tree as well, and made a small amount of apple juice from the few apples that were left. 

A PG friend game to visit while they were down visiting family, and soon Hazel was showing them around the property. I'm very glad that Hazel has adjusted so well so far (way better then I ever expected her too). 

In the process of trying to decide which grape vines should stay and which could go. We (Oma/Mom and me) decided to pick a laundry basket of grapes together and try make grape juice by boiling the grapes and mashing them rather then the little juicer. We probably would have been able to process them all had we stuck to one laundry basket, but I brought one and Oma brought one and soon they were both full! We learned that de-stemming grapes is very time consuming, but also made 3 very large juice jugs full of yummy grape juice that we got to share over the few family events happening that weekend. (we did run out of time though and only made it though about half of each of our baskets)

Family from Smithers was down for a visit, Hazel had not seen them before (at least not old enough to remember). But she warmed up much quicker then expected despite the large amount of people around and really seemed to have a good time. 

Hazel has also grown a lot during and after the move, so we went to the shop to find some Sunday boots that would fit. And what did we find tucked in one of those boots? a long lost favorite little pink bear!

Tired of renos and sorting items for the day, but still wanting to spend time on our property, we started clearing away the grape vines from the shop's back door. 

Hazel was content making flower juice. I love when she just plays and makes things with what she finds in the yard!

Much better! Now I can walk into the shop without ducking under grape vines and walking into as many spider webs!

Playing on a trampoline at a friends house, though we didn't maintain that much contact over the years we had see each other once and while. It was nice to have a catch up visit and see our two "slow warm" girls slowly warm up and play together. 

This is Dad/Opa's hobby barn. A wonderful place to head to every morning!

It has a nice spot inside where you can watch the chickens. There are a few other pens as well with different stages of meat birds too. 

Hazel and Jade really enjoy collecting eggs when they don't need to walk through 90-100 chickens to get to them. 

So far our cats are still sticking around.

And Custard had 5 kittens that we found behind the hay bales (poor cat must have been moved pregnant). I was surprised that they are all so similar looking, so far all the kittens litters have had more variety in coloring.  

Quite a few years ago Dad/Opa gave me a sign that said "Home is where the barn is" with a horse head on it. Though there are not any horses in this barn a lot of concepts are the same. There are animals that need to be cared for and fed, routine chores, the smell of feed and hay, a place to go that just makes you relax as soon as you walk though the doors.