Christmas 2009.........

It sure was a full house here this last week and as half. We had the whole family home for Christmas.

It was a blessing indeed. Good food and good company. The only one not happy was the turkey. A lot of boardgames were played.
Coffee and hot coco were used to ward of the cold. Not that it was freezing mind you. The temperature was mostly above zero for the last week. It was more a wet cold. We did have a few flurries for Christmas. So at least it was white instead of just wet.
Yesterday the temperature dropped way down, and the wind picked way up. Then the snow came and we had a snowstorm. It was great. A person should have at least one snowstorm during the holidays I think.
Then came today and we had to say goodbye to Mary & Isaac and Matt & Amanda. Even when they left, it was still blowing pretty good. The bridge was closed to high sided vehicles. But, by the afternoon, we got word that they were well on their way.
So now we still have Dianna & Jordan with their kids, Micaiah and Elliyah. They are staying until Sunday. Pete is home until the 11'th of January, and that leaves Rebecca, Damaris and Caleb home with us.
From our family to yours, we wish you a very Happy and Blessed New Year. And hope that the Lord may grant you health and happiness in 2010.......

.................HAPPY NEW YEAR..........

Snow..............

Yes, the snow has arrived. It is after all December. I hope you are all ready for winter to come. Snow tires on the car. Shovels ready, etc. We enjoyed a wonderful snowy day at home today. We played a board game, made a snowman, drank specialty coffee's and had a lot of fun in general. 'Tis the season. I hope you and yours will have a safe and Blessed Christmas..........

No, they are not black and white. Its the snow, its so white, the camera has to get used to it yet. A view from the front of the house.

Can you see the snowman? It is about six feet tall. It was perfect snowman snow.

New Post.....

What to write. It seems like time just flew by this fall. Busy every day. Right from the day we got back from our trip to the States.
All the potatoes are out. The crop is really nice this year. Good quality, good yield. Now all we need is a good price.
Ellie and I are taking Caleb and Damaris to Halifax tomorrow. A bit of shopping, swimming, watersliding, eating and sleeping in a hotel. Back on Tuesday. So to all of you that still check in once in a while, thank you.
Hope to post some more news soon.............

Here in Cape May..........

Life is pretty good here, between spoiling the grand children and ourselves, we are quite busy. We are all doing great. Took lots of pictures. And thought I would share a few.
A picture of Elliyah
..and yesterday was Micaiah's birthday, he is 2 years old now.


Pake holding Elliyah...

West Cape May Point, as seen from the Fire Control Tower, a restored watchtower from the second WW. There were 14 of those situated around Delaware Bay, to protect shipping and munition factories up river.

The beach, at West Cape May Point. Notice the gravel beach, home of the Cape May diamond, a see through seaglass when polished lookes just like diamond.

A typical house in downtown Cape May. A lot of these are turned into B&B's. It is a very picturesque town. With a lot of history. Cape May recently celebrated its 400'th anniversary. It has been a favorite resort town for many famous people through the centuries............

New Baby......

Dianna and Jordan had a baby girl on Thursday August 27'th. Her name is: Elliyah Jade Spangler. She weighed: 7 lb and 13 oz. Length: 19 inches long. And blond hair.


Jordan and Elliyah..
Isn't she cute?

..These pictures courtesy of Dianna and Jordan..



p.s. See also new post below this one...............

Family reunion 2009............

This was our family logo that was embroidered on all the T-shirts and sweaters.It was a nice touch. Made for a nice group picture as well, (see below).The festivities were held from August 18 to 25. We had a lot of fun. Spend a lot of time together. Got to know each other again. Specially Tetcy, Ray, Craig and Joe. It was so awesome, and so much fun.
I took lots of pictures, so I don't know where to start. But in general, we saw a lot of family pictures like this putluck supper we had the first day. It looked really nice to have every one wear the same colour.

The campfires were a big hit every night as well. The weather cooperated really well.
One of the highlites was the trip to Flowerpot rocks. It made us remember Mom and Dad, and how this whole reunion thing got started. Caleb and I went rock climbing.
He just loves climbing as much as I do. The rest of the week was filled with all kinds of fun things. At the end of the week, we wished for more time, but home was calling. So off we went, back to reality.........

Finaly, pictures of July 1'st.......

It was a nice overcast, but dry day. Just the kind of weather you need for festivities like Canada Day. No sunscreen, no sunglasses and no sunburn at the end of the day. Although it would have been nice to be able to have the fireworks. They were cancelled due to the wind being the wrong way. Right over the village. Fire hazzard you know.
But we did have a parade in the morning. We watched Julie go by on a hay wagon. Forgot the camera and the picture on the phone was too dark to use.
At noon the booths opened. A lot of people were gathered in the community park in North Rustico. Julie had a booth there as well. Being Miss Teen PEI and all, you got to have a booth on Canada Day.
There was also face painting. Caleb and Damaris took full advantage of that. In no time they went from two very respectable kids to: A Pirate and a Zombie. border Go figure.
They had lots of fun.
We took Tineke and Cassie along too. Here the three of them pose in front of the Canadian Flag. Mounted on a zodiak from the Navy..........

Happy Canada Day!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wishing all of you Happy Canada Day tomorrow. Taking my camera to the festivities toomorrow. Hopefully we will get some nice ones. Parade tomorrow morning, hope to see Julie on the float, stuff for kidds to do at lunch time and then a pool party with BBQ at Marten and Karen's.
And top it all of with fireworks in the evening.

Tree planting............

Some new faces on the blog. For those of you that think that I only do stuff with Pete, think again...........Here is Damaris holding up a little Eastern Pine, ready to plant. Below, Caleb said:" Does it really smell like a pine tree? Well, why don't we smell it and find out?"

This morning, we went with the Sea Cadets and the watershed group, and planted some trees. There were about a dozen cadets, and then a few people from the local watershed group. We had about 250 trees available to plant. They were donated by the government nursery. Planting happened on a property that we rent. It has a big man made pond with wetland all around it. An ideal spot to plant trees.All species native to the P.E.I.
A good time was had by all. Damaris asked:"Are those fishy things in the water tadpoles Daddy?" And after a closer look, yes they are. They had so much fun, it was hard to get them out of there. I don't know how much fun it was for the tadpoles.
Then it was back to the field where there was some heavy duty planting going on.
Planting is going well. Two more days should wind it up pretty well. The last two weeks we had really good weather. So a lot of planting was done.
Below are pictures of the Big Deere that we use to work the land. It pulls a Rez-Til.
A big rig that churns up the land and makes it fluffy for planting. Heavy duty pulling, it takes all 190 HP to keep it going at 7 MPH.And the last picture shows the other Deere with the potato planter. You can see how dry it is by the dust in the air.
I hope to get some pictures of the tuberunit planter yet. Maybe I will get them on next week. Enjoy these in the mean time.

Skill's Canada Competition..............

Not very ofter I write about Pete twice in a row. But this was a special occasion. By winning the provincial skills competition earlier this spring, he advanced to the nationals. And this year, they were held on P.E.I. Competitors from all over Canada, in a very wide range of skills gathered in Charlottetown for a two day face off. The category that Pete entered was called : Automation and Controls.Day 1

These pictures were taken about halfway the first day. A lot of work done, even more to be done yet. There were seven provinces and territories competing in this category.
It was amazing how many things were going on at the same time. The amount of talent gathered in one place was totally incredible.
Day 2
As you can see, the parts that were on the table yesterday, are now in the box, or cabinet as they call it. Looks complicated Pete. Glad you know what you are doing. Next came the programming of the computer part, called the PLC. And at 4:35 pm, time was up. And an exhausted bunch of guys started cleaning up their stations and wait for the judges. But winners would not be announced until the next day. Saturday, the last day of the four day event, got everybody together once more for the closing ceremony. It was held at UPEI. This was the long anticipated medal presentation. Here Pete found out that he had won the bronze medal. The medals were presented by
Mike Holmes. He was also one of the main speakers.
He was one of the judges of the carpentry skills. It was a good experience for everyone involved. It sure opened my eyes to the amount of talent God has given to all these competitors. May we put our talent to good use................

Graduation 2009......

Congratulations to Pete. He is officially graduated from Holland College as an Electromechanical Technician. He finished top of his class. And received the Proficiency and Initiative reward. Way to go Pete. Just figured I would share that with you.Right now he is working on the farm, but next week he is going to enter the National Skills Competition. They are held on PEI this year. That should be a good challenge for him. Opening ceremony on Wednesday, two days of competition, and then the closing ceremony, just like the Olympics. All the best Pete.
On another note, I meant to post some pictures yet of Dianna and Micaiah's visit with us a few weeks ago. My, how time flies. Well, here are a few of them. We had a great time. It was so much fun to have them around. A real privilege to see our grandson again. And my, how he has grown.
Relaxing by the fireplace.
Have to go for ride in the tractor before he goes back home to New Jersey.

Driving the tractor with Pake.
A few more years, and he will be a pro.
Three weeks was a nice long time, but all things come to an end, and so did the visit. Until we meet again, hopefully in the end of August when, the Lord willing, we will welcome the arrival of our next grand child. Sorry Dianna for taking so long to get these pictures on.

The Faith of our fathers............

Today was a great day. We were able to witness Pete, Julie, two of Pete's friends and the whole family Best profess their faith in Jesus Christ publicly. The family Best was baptized as well. It was really good to see. They came to us from a different religious background. And all this, on the day that we remember that Jesus rose from the grave. We pray that they will not stray from the path that they have chosen to start on today.
Afterward we had a get together at our place for more coffee and cake. Followed by dinner and dessert. It was great to have the house full off people again. I'm sorry to say, I have no pictures of today's happenings, but the following link shows the video that the guys and Julie made together with pastor Chad. In the video are Julie, Klaas DeBoer, Feije DeBoer and Pete. Klaas and Feije are twins. Enjoy.........

Snowmobiling at it's best......

That would have to be in New Brunswick. Pete and I went there last week together for three days. We had a lot of fun. The weather was really good. Thursday was a little cloudy and the trails were slushy, as it was above zero all day. But it froze hard overnight. So the next day the trails were froze solid. This presented a bit of a problem with lubrication for the track and cooling for the engine.
We decided not to leave until late morning. Which proved to be still problematic. But by mid afternoon , conditions were getting better. We had decided to go to Mount Carleton this day. When we arrived there, we were able to take the sleds right to the top.
The view was awesome. We could see for miles around. Above you can see Pete, on top of the world. To the left , a view from the mountain.
It was beautiful up there. How awesome is our God, that he created such beauty. You really got a sense of that up there.
This next picture shows how trucks and snowmobiles share some of the same roads. The trail up about four feet higher. And this would go for miles and miles.
And, all good things must come to an end. Here we are, packing up again for the trip home. We had a safe drive home and found all was well at home. But a lot of snow had disappeared on PEI. Only to see more snow again overnight. I guess our spring is not quite here yet. Contrary to what the calender tells us............

More Ice............

This is like dejavue,it was last year around the end of January,that we had the same kind of weather. I had the same kind of pictures then. We did not loose our power this time however. Eventough the ice is still on the trees and powerlines. Also, the temperature tonight is going down to minus 15, windchill factor of minus 22.
This picture shows the strain on the post. It is bending under the weight of the ice. Hope she holds. It would be a cold night to lose our power.
This is the tree in front of the house, a big sugar maple. All covered in ice. You can see the house in the background. It does look very pretty with the sun shining on the ice. God sure knows how to decorate.
And this last picture I took early in the morning through the trees beside the road on the way to work. It is so beautiful everywhere. Not the best for snowmobiling though. We are getting some more snow and rain over the weekend. Saturday will be the first day that the temperature is supposed to go above zero. Maybe the ice will fall off the wires then..........
p.s.
See also next post, I did two posts in one week. Have a great week people, and thanks for your visit.