Thursday 10 November 2016

Autumn on the Farm

Autumn on Waupoos Farm

What a journey God takes on in life if we allow Him to!  We've officially been here on the farm in Ottawa for almost 3 months and we feel so blessed - aren't we the ones that are supposed to be blessing others?  God is always taking care of us.  



This blog post will be mostly a photo journey and I'll let the photos tell most of the story.  We begin with Benedict's birthday in August when we went to Parliament Hill for the first time.

Benedict turns 7!




 Here are the famous Locks that brings boats from the canal down to the river.




An interesting fountain on Parliament Hill.

 They had a free showing at 9pm of the history of Canada that was amazing!







 Regular Farm Duties

Being one of three families that live here at Waupoos means certain responsibilities.  We are each given two cottages to take care of, a section of lawn we have to mow (about 2 hours each), trimming, feeding and caring for animals, gardening, cleaning, maintenance, plumbing, mechanics, electrical, and then looking after renters and cottagers.


 Renters:  those folk from the community that rent our facilities.  This is a major source of revenue for us.
Cottagers: those families that are low income that come to our retreats and summer camps - they are the reason Waupoos Farm exists.




Here are a few of the sights of the 200 acres we now live on:







 On Tuesdays I teach drama to the children of a few families, another mom teaches them biology, and the other mom teaches them art.


Feast Day of St. Isaac Jogues: (Sept. 26th)

As is our family tradition, we cook bannock over the fire as we remember and celebrate our Canadian saint who died bringing the faith to the Indigenous people.




 Sept. 29th: Michaelmas and Winter's 11th Birthday

As is traditional on Michaelmas, we used apples as a focus in our celebration.  We had harvested apple crisp and made apple art.


 These are Winter's friends here at the farm: Isabella and Maria




Oct. 5th: Feast Day of St. Faustina and Rebecca's Birthday

We began with a special breakfast and presents from the children.
 

Then we went to the old Manotick Mill for a picnic.







 Homeschooling

We continue to do a classical curriculum with the children.  They are usually finished everything by 1pm.  For science this term, we've been naturalists and tracking the changes in nature and using field guides to name the plants, trees, mushrooms, insects and birds in the forest behind our cottage.  Here is Winter doing just that.



And in the process we discovered an old old well.


Here is Tristan finding out the type of mushroom we found.











Predators:

One of our main predators is the raccoon.  They like to sneak into the barn and kill the chickens.  We caught one and shot it and the kids wanted to see what the inside of a raccoon looked like.  So we skinned it and a biology lesson on the organs of a raccoon.



Planting tulips:

 De-burring the Sheep:  We have a plethora of the common burdock and the sheep get burrs in their wool that have to be clipped out.




Metcalf Carnival:

We had a bit of fun entering contests and enjoying the small Metcalfe carnival.  Metcalfe is a village about 20min. from the farm.


A lady saw our 6 children and was so impressed that she gave us a bunch of tickets for free to use on the rides!




 But the real highlight was watching the demolition derby live!  Cars smashing each other until one is left working - awesome!



 Thanksgiving

We had the cottages filled for Thanksgiving, as families with low incomes joined us for the weekend. We had a plethora of activities and opportunities to 'Pray, Work, and Play' together.  This is our motto. Simply, we believe that if a family will pray, work and play together, they will stay together.  Our goal is to strengthen families or rather to provide the opportunity to strengthen your own family.





 Enjoying the Autumn:

Winter learned how to drive the quad.


 Katie with her friends Clara and Sophia.

 


Our long drive way.

 Our home.



 All Saints Party at Waupoos

Can you guess which saint they are dressed as?


 Tavi: St. Pope John Paul II


 Winter: Bl. Jose Sanchez del Rio

 Benedict: St. Dominic


 Katie:  St. Zelie Martin

 Tristan: St. Damian

 All Souls Day/All Saints Biffert Party

Doughnuts (the original "Soulcakes") come from the Medieval traditions of All Souls Day, so we enjoy doughnuts on this day!












 And now Autumn is coming to an end and we are preparing the farm for winter.



 Family Updates:

We've been here now for three months and feel very blessed to be here.  The community that comes along with the farm is rich and we feel very welcomed.  

We are attending St. Clements in Ottawa.  It is of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and we enjoy a rich liturgy in the extraordinary form in Latin with confessions before every Mass!

Tristan, Winter and Benedict have joined a Catholic scouts program called the Knights and Ladies of St. Jean de Brebeuf and we are just learning about all the badges they can attain.

Kenton has finally received his certification to teach in Ontario (he applied in March) and is trying to get on the substitute teaching lists of the various school boards. 

Thank you's:

God is very good and is looking after us. We are working to rebuild our lives after being gone for so long and it is mind-blowing how much 'STUFF' we need to run a family properly.  We have been able to buy some furniture and had dressers lent to us for while we're here.  We had some major work needing to be done on the van and a local mechanic was very generous with us and helped us out a lot.  We also had some generous folk from AB help us out financially.  At the end of the day, we are continuing to live on less, learning to do ministry as family missionaries, staying out of debt, and trusting God.  Thank you to all of you who have been a part of these graces.

If you'd like to sponsor us in any way through the coming months, we'd be very grateful. 

God bless all of you abundantly!

Sincerely,
Kenton, Rebecca, Winter, Tristan, Benedict, Kate, Tavi and Thomas