The Siding Work Crew

This week one of our main events was the work crew of men that came to put siding on our shop. The shop had siding on the front but the other three sides were chipboard and it was starting to be effected by the weather.

Lester Weiler's son Jonathan was bringing a group of young men up from PA to go on a canoe trip North of Pickle Lake. They agreed to spend a day here and put siding on our shop.

They arrived Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday evening the siding was finished. They did run out of siding so there is about 8 feet on one side that I will need to do later when I get more siding. The shop looks wonderful now. We are so grateful for their help.

They were really on a guys trip. They had an old bus they had fixed up with sofas inside for seats, a house air conditioner mounted in the front ann a stereo system. They mounted a portable generator on the roof. The ran the generator as they drove to run their electrial equipment inside the bus.

Thursday evening I took them over to the river to swim. You can jump off the bridge into the river. It is about 20 feet from the bridge to the water. This wasn't high enought for them, so they drove the bus onto the bridge and jumped off the roof of the bus.

Here are some pictures of the group with their bus and the shop before and after.

'Tis the season

Blueberry season that is! Anyone who lives in the North looks forward to blueberry season. The month or so that you can go out in the bush and pick gallons and gallons of wild blueberries. We started picking this week. It is not the best year ever, but not the worst either. I was out about 2 hours this morning and picked about 5 liters. This afternoon Edith, Elaine, Whitney Oskineegish, and I went out for about an hour and a half. We picked over three gallons. They are wonderfully sweet and delicious. We usually freeze about 6 or 7 gallons and eat them throughout the winter.

This week I went to Minneapolis to help put together a plan for the mentoring program at the Institute for Global Opportunities. I am excited about that aspect of the program. There will be four sections to the mentoring program. The first semester will deal with salvation issues. The second semester will have a theme of current life issues the students are facing. The third semester will address the spiritual disciplines, and the fourth semester will deal with future plans and goals.

I got home Friday afternoon. Friday morning Whitney came to Sioux Lookout and Edith picked her up at the airport. She is the daughter of one of Edith's friends from Fort Hope. She is a year younger than Elaine and they get along real well. Whitney will be staying with us for a few weeks. She will also be attending a week of camp at Beaver Lake.

Dallas is at Beaver Lake Camp this week. He went on Thursday. Sunday eveing we will go over to the parents night that they have for each week of camp. I am sure that he is having a wonderful time.

Here are some blueberry pictures!

A couple more pictures from horse camp

Somehow these didn't get into my last post. So here they are.

Horse Camp Completed

The horse camp at Miracle Ranch finished with a program last evening. We attended the closing program and saw the things they campers had learned to do. Elaine participated in a musical cones competition. It was similar to musical chairs, except when the music stopped they needed to ride to the next cone and jump off their horse and stand by the cone. Elaine was the next to last person in the competition.

She also did horse vaulting which is sort of gymnastics on the back of a horse. She jogged beside the horse as it was trotting and jumped on its back. She then kneeled on the back of the horse with her hands out each side. Then she did a few other daring things before jumping back off the moving horse. She place third out of about 7 or 8 in that event.

Elaine and Dallas both bought some snorkeling equipment so while Edith and I were packing up the tents and camping gear this morning they went for a swim at the lake. We are hoping to do some snorkeling in the coral reefs in Haiti next month when we go there to visit Bethanie.

Also this week we were able to buy a used trampoline. Elaine has been saving her allowance for almost a year to buy a trampoline. We decided to look for a used one in Winnipeg. We found one that is about 4 years old for a lot less money than a new one would have cost her. We put it together when we got home this evening and Elaine and Dallas are having great fun jumping now.

We are glad to be back home again. We have been gone so much the last few months. This looks like a nice stretch of time for us to be around Sioux Lookout. Our next rip as a family will be to Haiti in August. We are eager to see where Bethanie is living and working.

The week camping at Bird's Hill Provincial Park was a good experience. It only rained one day. The biggest challenge was that it was so hot. It was in the 90's F. several days. It was nice to have the lake close by.

One day when it was hot we had finished eating a bag of pretzels. Edith ate some of the salt that was in the bottom of the bag. With the heat and all somehow it upset her stomach. A short time later she started to feel sick on her stomach. Just as she stepped into the bush to throw up Elaine was looking for her swimming things. She called out from the tent to ask Edith where they were. Edith replied, "Elaine,I'm busy right now, I'm vomiting, just look for them". That is my favourite quote from the week of camping. It helps that in a few minutes Edith felt better and Elaine had found her swimming things.

Horse Camp Continues

Elaine and Harmony are enjoying the horse camp. They have had very hot weather. It has been in the 90's F. the last few days. Today there are light showers and it is a little cooler. Hopefully our campsite won't get too wet.

Edith, Dallas and I have been doing things during the day while Elaine and Harmony are at camp. Yesteday we went to the zoo. Dallas enjoyed playing with the prairie dogs. One came and crawled up on his lap.

Today we went to the Royal Canadian Mint and took the tour to see how they make coins. Dallas held a gold bar that was worth over $400,000.00. We didn't get to take any home!

The children have also been doing a lot of swimming during these hot days. It is nice to be camping near the lake.

Tomorrow will be the last day of horse camp. We are planning to attend the program they present for the parents at the end. We will be going back home to Sioux Lookout on Saturday.

Manitoba Horse Camp Begins

We are now in Manitoba for the Horse Camp at Miracle Ranch close to Winnipeg. We are camping for the week at Bird's Hill Provincial Park. We are hoping for a rather rain free week!

Elaine and her friend Harmony Beardy are attending the horse camp during the day.I drop them off at 8:30 in the morning and pick them up at 5:30 in the evening. Monday was the first day. They had a wonderful time. They learned to saddle a horse and rode for about 3 or 4 hours. They curry combed their horses. They both thought it was wonderful. Elaine could hardly get done talking about it last evening. She rode a horse named RD in the morning and another named Commander in the afternoon.

In the park where we are staying there are miles and miles of bike trails. We brought some bikes along and they are having a great time riding bike. We went swimming at the lake last evening after the girls came back from camp.

The camp lasts until Friday. Friday evening they have a barbeque to which the families of the campers are invited. They also do a bit of a horse show. Elaine is planning to do a thing called horse vaulting. She says you run along side the horse while it is trotting and then do a few hops to get in rythmn with the horse. Then you jump up on the back of the horse getting your legs both on the far side. Then you jump off the far side. It sounds like something she will be good at doing!

Back to the farm

Our neighbours are really nice people. They are believers and we enjoy living next to them. They often take care of our animals when we leave for a trip. This week they ask if we would care for their animals while they go to a family Bible camp.

When Bill was showing me the ducks, geese, turkeys, chickens and pigs, he asked me if I have any experience with animals. Well, yes, I do. I have experience playing cowboy with the ponies and chasing the sheep around and around the pasture. We would crowd them against the creek and then slide off the backs of our ponies and roll the sheep.

I have experience forking silage down from the silo and feeding the steers. Of course, there was the summer we kept shooting the one bull with Dale Boll's BB gun until he was scared to eat any more.

I have experience with chickens too. Lester and I got them drunk with grandpa's cherry wine. We thought we killed them, but they slept it off. We would also spin them in egg baskets until they were dizzy and couldn't walk. I have lots of experience with chickens.

I don't think it would have been wise to share too much about my experience with animals before my neighbour left for Bible camp. He might enjoy his week at camp more if he doesn't know all about my experiences with animals.

I have experience with rabbits, pigeons, and a host of other animals because my Dad wanted us boys to have work to do. I remember once when he got audited by the IRS. Lester and I were quite interested because a government man came out from the city of Lancaster to our house. I remember he and Daddy having records and papers spread out over the kitchen table. Finally, the IRS official asked, "But Mr. Burkholder if you lose money every year on your farming operation, and your main income comes from your job, why do you keep farming?" My Dad said that he kept doing it in order to have work for his boys. After the IRS man left we assured him that he didn't need to kept losing money so we could have work. We would be happy to not have the work. He kept farming anyway.

Actually, living on a farm and caring for animals is a good thing. It does provide opporunities for fathers and children to do things together. Caring for an animal is good preparation for parenting, and being a responsible person on whom others can depend.

So, This week I have been brought back to some of my childhood roots. It has been fun. And while we are reliving childhood experiences it is time to get out the rubber tired wagon too!

Another Trip Almost Completed

Another trip is almost over. We did a lot of things in the past two weeks. Participated in SMBI WATER training week. Attended Monika Bacher's wedding. Made our annual visit with Eugene Sommers. Met with the study group I am a part of. Visited family. Participated in a few promotional meetings for the Institute for Global Opportunities. Attended the annual Stoltzfus family cabin.

We left the cabin about 11:30 Sunday night and drove through the night. We did stop and sleep at a rest area for an hour. We got to Marathon Ontario last night by 7:30 PM. We covered 1700 kilometers. We still have about an 8 hour drive today.

I was reminded of how many friends we have in so many places. Seeing Jennifer and Darren at the cabin, visiting with my sisters and being with the Stoltzfus family reminds me of how the people I enjoy the most and love to be with our our children, sisters and brothers and in-laws. We really are blessed in many ways.

Now we get home and need to dealwith an overgrown lawn, a neglected garden and the things that need to be done around there. Sunday we will be going to Kenora for the prison services and then to Winnipeg where Elaine and her friend Harmony Beardy will be attending a horse day camp. Needless to say she is very excited about it.