Beavers................

Hi all.
We have a problem. Beavers have closed off the culvert at the Le Clair farm. Damaris and I opened it up on Thursday night. But the water was too high to get the branches that were stuck in the culvert out. So the next morning we went back again, hoping to find the water receded. But to our surprise, the beavers had fixed the hole right up again.
This is what the culvert looks like. This is a picture from last year. In the top picture you can see how the water was running right over the driveway. Friday morning I went back to open it up again. The water would not flow good anymore because the culvert was plugged up bad. So I put two lenghts of sewerpipe in the dam. You can see the pipes in the water. they are about a foot under, weighed down by rocks. The ends of the pipe are drilled full of holes, so that they can't be plugged up too easy.
The upright pipe shows were the end of the culvert is located.
Damaris is looking on, taking some pictures today, as we had a look this afternoon. The culvert is completely gone now. All mudded over. It is amazing how crafty they are.
So for now, we are at a stand off. I hope that the pipes can keep up with the flow of the brook. Otherwise we are going to loose the driveway in a heavy rain.
Thanks for joining us here, and we will keep you up to date.

My oh my, how time flies................

I know it is a little on the late side. And I can't use the excuse that I had to wait for my pictures to be developed first. It is just, well we've been very busy. We had a wonderfull time in Grand Rapids with Mary and Isaac. The picture from the airplane is of Chicago for the final flight to G.R.(Grand Rapids).


Here are Mary and Isaac with the book that they Illustrated for Pieter Buma, whom we had the pleasure of meeting too yet after the graduation ceremony. And Mary by herself. That was a rare occasion. One is never far from the other.
We also had the pleasure of meeting Isaac's family. It was really fun to get to know them and spend that time with them before the upcoming wedding in August. The graduation ceremony was held at the Van Andel Arena.

Located in downtown Grand Rapids. Lots of room inside for all 900 graduates and their families. It was one of the biggest gatherings of people that I have ever seen. It was really exciting to be there.It was wonderfull to see how much things have changed from the time we brought our girl to Grand Rapids four years ago, and left her all alone. To see how God took care of her and provided her with all her needs. And so we have come to the closing of one chapter in their lives and soon the opening of another one.

The proud parents are looking over the shoulder of their children. It is great to see how God worked, building this relationship between these two fine people.

Grading potatoes at Blue Bay Farms Ltd.........

Here are some pictures of the grading line. The yellow belts in the front transport the cull potatoes to the cull bin. The red machine behind them sizes the potatoes in two sizes. Then the potatoes get washed again on the yellow(last) washer.
You can see the people grading in the back. After that the spuds go up this red elevator belt.

Here you can see the culls coming together. The hollow potatoes come out of the green pipe. Then they join the rest of the culls for their last ride into the cullbin.
Here you can see the guys, Reggie and Omke Marten, boxing up selects. In the background you will find Tante Tineke and Darlene grading at the Hagan sizer. Behind Darlene and in the next picture you get a closer look at the X-Ray unit.
This silver box is what it is all about. Not very big, but very expensive. It is amazing how fast it works. And it is very acurate as well. And here, the finished product rolls into the box. We are currently doing two different sizes of selects with the Hagan sizer, plus the hollows get kicked out at the first station. Station two and three are for select and station four kicks the bigger number one potatoes back into the regular tablestock line. Hope I didn't confuse you too much. Any questions, leave me a comment, and we will get back to you soon.
Thanks.

Spring is finaly here.....

It took a long time, but it is finaly here! Spring, warm weather, grass growing, flowers starting to push their way up. It was a great day.
Caleb, Damaris and I brushed Sapho today. She knows it is spring. Her hair is falling out in great heaps. She is our pet horse, and she is turning 33 years old at the end of the month. That is almost a hundred human years. The hair on her head is turning really grey. You can tell that she is getting old. She's not as fast as she used to be.
After taking Sapho's wintercoat off, or at least a part of it, we had a BBQ.
Complete with baked potatoes, steak and hot dogs. It sure was a feast. Then it was of to church again. We had a minister today from Ontario. He was here for the weekend, and preached two sermons today. If the congregation approves, then we might call him. Our regular minister is retiring at the end of July. So we need a new one. We wil see who God has in mind for us. May His will be done.

BLIZZARD...........

That is right, it turned out to be a snowstorm after all. Here are a few pictures to bring you up to date.

It seems kind of unreal, we didn't have a big storm like this all winter. And then to get one at the tailend. God sure has a good sense of humor.

The kids were having a blast outside. Altough Caleb didn't last too long. When the wind hits you, filled with ice pellets, well it hurts. I don't think he liked that very much.
I think it could be a while before we can go anywhere today. And then to think that the last couple of weeks all the snow was gone. We thought spring was here. Now it looks more like January.

We are definately going to remember this day. As the Easter Sunday Storm.
Well, we will have another cup of coffee, sit back, and enjoy the storm.
God's blessings to all.

A Blizzard? In April?

What is up with that? Can you believe it?
Of course it may end up not to bad, and blow over. But it is snowing right now. I guess we will see tomorrow morning how bad it really was.
We're supposed to get between 20 and 30 cm of snow. And then high winds tomorrow morning. It doesn't look too bad out yet.
Well, we will update you on that later.
So long for now, and may God Bless you.

These pictures taken at one o'clock in the morning. we still don't think it is going to amount to much. We will see tomorrow.

Spring is here............

Hi to all of you again. A few pictures from PEI. They were taken April 3 'rd, this year. We put the taps in the week before. And it has been cold ever since.
So the trees are not running too fast yet. We had a few good days last week. Amanda took the daycare kids out to the woods. They helped me to put the taps in the trees. Hang the buckets, and so on. We only did a few trees. Of course the weather turned cold again right after. So nothing was running until a few days later. Then the whole group went back to collect the sap and boil it down on the stove in the kitchen. And what better way to finnish the day then pancakes, with fresh maple syrup.

The snow is almost gone now. But everythings is still brown and dead looking outside. There is not a whole lot of frost left in the ground. So,when the temperature does go up, everything should green up quick.
I hope you all are enjoying some time off, and wish you the best for the rest of the weekend.
This is a picture of the old well house that used to sit overtop of the old hand dug well by the house. It is slowly falling apart.
You can also see that the trees are still bare, and the grass is brown.