Monthly Archives: November 2014

Autumn gone by

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As Stephen mentioned in the last post, we already have snow on the ground here in Quebec and we’re expecting more! I’m sure there are some who would rather winter had held off a little longer, but I am one of those who is happily bidding farewell to fall and welcoming our snowy season. It is not that I don’t like autumn – far from it! But I do love winter too! (My favourite season changes as fast as the seasons change. 🙂 ) The freezing ground is certainly simplifying taking care of the cows outdoors and keeping those animals significantly less muddy.

The autumn season was a busy one. Most of the activity has been around home, however. Bringing in the garden, canning and freezing fresh produce, raking fall leaves, butchering the final batch of chickens, getting the turkeys in the freezer, (we broke our record with a 42 pound bird!) preparing for and buying laying hens, getting ready for butchering our 20 month-old steer, beginning on Christmas projects, practising Christmas music, all that while keeping up weekly Sunday meetings, monthly men’s meetings and monthly Sunday afternoon services at the nursing home.

Yet, despite all the busyness, there were still opportunities to take pleasant excursions. In September, Daddy and Mommy took short trip in the White Mountains together.

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The end of the same month, most of us went out for an afternoon with our cameras to catch some colourful photos. Jonathan’s made use of his new polarizing filter to catch a starburst on the sun!

But now, fall is behind us and snowflakes in the air put us in the mood for baking Christmas cookies. Already some are in our accessory freezer also known as coolers on the balcony. 🙂 The squirrel, however, must content himself with the remains of summer’s sunflowers.

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We look forward to celebrating the birth of our Saviour and are hoping for a nice, snowy Christmas!

Sliding Civics and Accent Accidents

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What good weather for accidents it is! We finally have our first few inches of snow: and what with fairly warm temperatures and freezing rain this afternoon, the roads have become skating rinks for automobiles. And to make things worse, it’s the first real snow in the year, so many drivers haven’t yet switched to winter tires – which increases the danger of driving on the already slippery roads.

Shortly after lunch, we saw signs of an accident on the other side of the street. After investigation, we determined that the driver was uninjured and awaiting a towtruck. The towtruck arrived and pulled his Honda Civic out of the ditch without much difficulty. The car was sufficiently undamaged that he was able to drive off – still spinning his tires!

Unfortunately, the sander made his run of our street during this roadside rescue, and had to pass around the rescue operation – which left an unsanded, slippery trap for any other road users. So it was no great surprise when only an hour or so later, a Hyundi Accent landed in the ditch about the same place. This driver too, escaped bodily injury, though they did tow this car away for repairs. No doubt if you live anywhere further up North, you have either seen or heard of an accident due to failure to put snow tires on – or even been involved in one! As I consider these accidents, however, I realise that many people around this world resemble the many drivers who have procrastinated putting on their snow tires. Many people, who have heard the Gospel message, have failed to place their faith and trust in Christ. They say, “Oh, I will get around to it,” and put off considering eternal salvation. But even as they say that, their day comes when their souls are required: thus their entry into the afterlife is summed up in that fateful word – unprepared.

But then there is another class of people on this globe, and that is people who have not heard the blessed Gospel message. These are those, who, as it were, did not know that the snow was coming. Why is this? I believe it is at least in part because Christians across our province, country, continent, and globe have failed to proclaim the truth. We have seriously lacked in our duty of “preach[ing] the gospel to every creature.”

It is high time for Christians to awake and proclaim the truth of God’s Word. It is high time for us to stop being ashamed of the Gospel and to stop setting our affections on things on the earth – to hold fast the Gospel and to love others by telling them about the Saviour who has died for our sins.

Behind the family photo

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So where was that photo taken after all? Yes, it was in Canada. If our 4-acres with a few cattle and poultry constitute a small farm, it was taken on a farm. And that it might have been shot in our barn was a good guess. The hay bales certainly give that impression and the lighting does look rather like what one might find in a hay loft. However, when we did our family photo, the outdoor temperature was only slightly above freezing and the barn wouldn’t have been much better – definitely not warm enough for the babies.

We had discussed several different backgrounds for the photo when the suggestion of hay bales came up. Of course the problem with that was the outdoor temperature. But then “someone” made a wild suggestion…

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Yes, we really did haul thirty or so hay bales into our living room! And “someone” didn’t get in trouble for creating so much mess. (But I did have to help clean up. 🙂 )

The concept actually came to me during the summer when I wanted to take a picture of our barn for a project. Stacking up a huge pile of hay bales in front of it would have taken a long time and work and furthermore there were already wrapped bales in the way. But the beauty of still photography is that what you think is in the picture does not necessarily have to be what is really there. It all has to do with the angle. When using such tricks, though one has to be careful not to call the resulting photo what it isn’t really.

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(I didn’t ask the cat and calf to pose – they just did it on their own.)

On the whole, I think this has been the most interesting of our family photos!

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Psalm 133:1

A Family Photo

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We’ve been looking forward to taking a new family photo this year. And of course, we wanted to have both babies in the picture! Such a special family photo needed a special setting or background. In the Appalachians would be nice, but hiking with babies could pose a challenge and there might be a lack of smiles by the time we arrived at the “perfect” place. A backdrop of Quebec’s brilliant fall colouring would be beautiful too. But unfortunately, the taking of this photo was delayed until autumn’s brilliance was all but gone and the weather was hardly suitable for a photo session. So in the end we chose to do something a little simpler.

Can anyone guess where this was taken? (Shh… to those who already know.)

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