We have received several comments on our family photo this year, so I thought it would be interesting to write a post on its production.  Ever since our family outgrew the Walmart photo studio, we have taken our own family photos.  This year’s is by far the best we have done.  Thank you, David, for all the labour you put into this!  Jonathan, thank you for being his assistant!

     Many times we have taken our family photo in picturesque outdoor locations such as in front of the cedar hedge, against the “pierre du champ” wall of our house, or even simply by the spreading weeping willow by the road.  The reason for these being taken outdoors is primarily the fact that indoor pictures are very difficult to take due to lighting problems.  During this past year, however, we learned a bit concerning lighting from various sources.  So, David made the great attempt: a studio-style indoor family photo!  Accomplishing this feat required quite a bit of planning and preparation.  Our house does not afford any convenient photo background walls, so a background was constructed using a white sheet.

     Then the lighting needed to be arranged…  Nathanael’s construction light came in handy as did a motion detecting light that was at one point mounted on the barn wall and a worklight of sorts made a number of years ago from scraps of lumber, aluminium foil, and a halogen bulb.

     Then came the picture taking…  We probably took dozens of photos.  The camera was giving us some trouble with getting the colours right.  Shadows were also very difficult to eliminate.

After a while, we decided to change the background colour to black by using some Geo-textile left over from the construction.

And then the photo-taking session resumed…

Here is the finalist.

But even still, our expert photo manager had to do some alterations to perfect it.

     “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” Psalm 127

We are mailing all our family newsletters in the next few weeks, but we realize that not everyone that visits our blog necessarily receives our newletter. So, if you are interested in receiving an FFF&F (or if you do receive one and really don’t want to), just use this form to contact us. If you received one last year, there is a good chance you are already on our mailing list, but you never know…

   It was still dark out, but David and I had been up for some time. The beauty of freshly fallen snow enthralled me as I walked the short distance to the barn to care for our pet rabbits. I love winter! I shivered a little, though, as I walked. I really needed to get out my winter boots, especially considering what was planned for that morning. Excitement mounted as I entered the barn, placed a bucket of water in its holder, helped David move some large objects out of the way, and took a final glance at the prepared place. We were ready. Now, she just need to arrive – and that would be soon! We exited the barn together. As we glanced toward the road, we saw a vehicle pass, slow down, and stopped a couple houses down. It turned around and came toward out driveway. This was earlier than we had expected, but that was no trouble. I went to meet the expected arrival while David informed the others inside…

   For some time now, we have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of a new addition to our animal “family.” This morning at 6:30, she arrived! Since pictures would certainly tell the story better than my words, I escape the necessity of racking my brain for a way to describe it…

   This cow is a Dexter – the smallest purebred breed of cattle. She was so small that she could not be seen over the tailgate until one went right up to it. Dexters are supposed to be one of the best as family cows due to their small size, generally friendly disposition, economic feeding habits, high milk yield for its size, and excellent meat on calves raised as beef.  As can be seen, our cow is black, however, the Dexter breed also comes in “red” (more like a reddish-brown) and dun. Black is the dominant colour, so it is not impossible that we get a brown calf someday!

   We’re thanking the Lord (I especially) for all He has taught us through the process of preparing for this cow. It has been and, I am certain, will continue to be a wonderful, sanctifying experience! I have learned so much thus far (not just about cows)!

There are two times in the year when visiting extended family is considered important: Christmas and Thanksgiving.  We think of having our family over for such occasions as being hospitable.  But how many people do we have to have over to be hospitable?  Is 5 enough?  Or should it be twice as many people as you normally have at home?  Can it be immediate family, or must it be strangers?

What is real hospitality?  A good definition of hospitality is “cheerfully sharing food, shelter, and spiritual refreshment with those whom God brings into my life.”  So, whether we have 73 people over, or only a few, the important thing is sharing what you have with those whom God brings into our lives.

We had 73 people over the Friday before Thanksgiving, and then had all the Sherbrooke Gideons and their wives (about 15 people) over for an honorary supper on Thanksgiving Day.

But what would it be to have company without there being some kind of disaster?  The one I remember best is the turkey disaster.

The turkey decided it was tired of sitting in a pan of boiling liquid, so when I pulled it part way out of the oven, it promptly released that liquid all over the oven door, the floor and my feet, which happened to be under me as I was removing the turkey.  I am very grateful for Elizabeth and Jonathan who willingly helped clean up the mess.  Overall, however, the preparation went very well, and we had the opportunity of meeting a few new people.

Although almost all the leaves have fallen now, we did had some beautiful autumn weather this year.  Thanksgiving Friday was one such day so, as I was outside waiting for people to arrive, I thought I would take advantage of it to take some pictures of what remained of the beautiful autumn foliage.

colourful maple leaves

1 Peter 4:9-10 “Use hospitality one to another without grudging.  As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

   Chocolate chip, peanut butter, maple crunch, oatmeal…

      Big batches, little batches…

         Drop cookies, rolled cookies…

   What kind of cookie dough is your favourite?

   I can tell you what Sarah’s favourite kind was today, but it probably isn’t what you would expect.

   Mommy and I went out to get this cookie dough early this morning. I know, that sounds rather odd considering we are known for our homemade cookies and have been heard to condemn other cookies, but it was, nevertheless, the case this time. We are hoping for great sucess with this cookie dough.  We have never tried it before, but we have tried other things similar, so I think we can expect decent results.

   When we brought the box into the house, there was a general rush to the entry. Everyone wanted to have a look at this cookie dough. A lot of comments circulated quickly. Upon putting our “parcel” down, there was some discussion about keeping it out of the reach of Caramel (our cat) since he could potentially do some damage were we to leave it around. We think this cookie dough may last quite a while, so we have to find a good place to keep it.

   But now you want to know just what kind of cookie dough brought such excitement to our home today. Well, it is brown, but then most cookie doughs are, so that doesn’t tell you much. It doesn’t contain chocolate chips or even any cocoa. (I suspect I just lost a few interested boys.) It isn’t a highly uniform colour and would probably be described as slightly stripy, but it couldn’t be called swirly. There are no fruits or nuts in it; it is not an oatmeal cookie dough; it isn’t even made with flour.  In fact, I think I would dare to say that it is a rather unusual kind of cookie dough.

   Sarah, especially, was excited about this cookie dough, so perhaps I should put on a picture of her enjoying it…

   So, in the end, the best place for “storing” this special kind of Cookie Dough is the barn. In fact, that is actually why Daddy allowed us to get him. With the soon to arrive cow, we expect an increase of the mouse population in the barn and hope Cookie Dough will help to exterminate these unwanted intruders.

   Here he is in his new bedroom…

Sweet Cookie Dough!

Last night we had our first frost.  We did see it coming, so last Friday, we all got outside and picked the garden.  We have the habit of weighing everything we pick, so I thought I would take advantage of the fact and put some of the weights here. 

It was a beautiful fall day, with the leaves just beginning to change colours.

The half moon was hovering over the colourful maples, so I couldn’t resist taking this picture.

We didn’t plant all these pumpkins; some of them came up of their own accord in the compost pile.  I guess they liked the soil there: the pumpkins grew quite well!

All together, we grew about 200 lbs of pumpkin.  We grew almost as much tomato – 150 lbs.

We don’t know what type of apple most of our trees give, as they were already there when we moved here, but we think they are not grafted.  They do give excellent apples, though.

While we were picking apples from one tree, another picker came along.  You may have to click on the pictures to tell who it was.

We decided to wash the carrots right away to keep them from going bad too fast.

Carrots were not the only things that needed a little washing…

Let’s just say the floor did too.

Psalm 75:1 “Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare”.