Recently, we have had several great times of fellowship.  Monday, the 31st, we had the opportunity of having some friends who are missionaries to Quebec into our home and had a good time of music and fellowship with them.

Sunday, we were graced with the privilege of visiting the Taylor family at their farm.  We were greatly blessed by their warm hospitality and the time of fellowship.  And the food was delicious!    In the afternoon, we were also blessed by the arrival of the Garfats and, much to our surprise and delight, James Staddon, who was visiting the Garfats.

Here are some pictures of the scenery.  On the way there, we passed a snow plow that apparently was getting too ambitious, and decided to clear the ditch.

Several of the guys decided to climb one of the silos and got a view from the top.  It would have been a lot nicer if it had been a clear day.

In the evening Mr. Taylor, accompanied by Daddy, went to pull a smaller snowplow out of a ditch with Mr. Taylor’s tractor, so the rest of us did some sliding.

The evening of Monday, February 7th, we were honoured to have the Garfats and James Staddon for supper.  We had a wonderful visit and were very blessed by the time together!

1 John 1:7
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

All right, I hear tell that there are people out there dying of curiosity because of the post about our talking tree.  It’s OK, you can have one too, if you like, though you might prefer to do it next Christmas.  Talking trees can be quite nice.  Ours actually turned out being more than 10 feet tall, but we then had to cut it shorter so that it could stand up in our house. 

At first glance, it may look like many typical Christmas trees, but a closer examination will reveal that such is not quite the case.  Rather than the typical ornaments found on Christmas trees, this tree’s décor consists of individually created paper decorations, each containing a Biblical passage that touches upon speech.  That is why we called it a talking tree – because each tree ornament was a “talking verse”.  This has become a sort of Christmas tradition for us.  Each year we choose a different topic.  For example, our first nine years were dedicated to covering each of the aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23.  Once the topic is chosen, each person finds verses that go with that topic and makes about half a dozen to a dozen decorations.  You will notice from the pictures that certain individuals prefer the computer’s chirography over their own.

Our hope in having this ornamentation hanging on the tree is that people will read them and think about these verses.  Another result of this kind of decoration is that the Christmas tree stays up much longer than many people’s trees.  We generally don’t take it down until it seriously starts loosing needles.

It has been some time since we did an update on the construction that has taken place around here.  As normal, that is not because nothing has been happening. It seems that joining the extension to the existing house is the longest part of building an extension.

Once the floor was finished, we still had to put the sill in that makes the join between the old house floor and the extension floor.  Daddy did most of this touchy work.  He started by taking a circular saw to the floor (not something I would have like to do!) to make the hole the right size.  He was also the one who had all the patience to plane down the rough-cut boards until they were smooth – by hand, not with an electric planer!  He then cut them to size, sanded them, and made a rabbet on the bottom and a chamfer along both sides on the top.   Finally, he inserted the glue and lowered the sill into place.

We have also finally finished the window sills.  We realised that with sills that wide someone was sure to sit on them some day, so we decided to make them fairly sturdy.  They still aren’t specifically designed as seats, but if someone does sit on the window sill, they should stand up to it.  (And they should stand up too. )

You may notice in the above pictures that the baseboards are yet to be installed.  Once these are installed, as well as the door frames, mouldings and bathroom door, I think the big room will be complete!  Today, the baseboards, door frames, and mouldings are being stained and varnished.

The bathroom is looking better and better.  The wall switches have been installed.  Now the wall tiles are being installed.  It is not as easy to keep tiles on the wall as on the floor, but they are smaller tiles, so that helps.

Psalm 95:3 “For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.”

Now that the floor is finished, the piano decided that it liked the looks of the new room and has made itself at home at the far end, near the future stairwell opening. 

You will notice in the picture that we were rolling the piano on some old cardboard boxes.  This is because one of the piano coasters does not roll very well, and we didn’t want to scratch the newly installed floor.  This move took place partly so that we could play music for the local Gideons.  A banquet is planned for Thanksgiving day (Monday October 11).  You may also notice that there is some basil drying on a blanket in the background.  We had a hard frost recently, so all the garden produce has been moved in.

The most noticeable change was not the absence of the piano in the living room.  Rather, the most noticeable change was the great improvement in sound incurred by the move.  I suppose this may have something to do with the fact that all the books were taken off the top, too.    It needs a little tuning now, but in spite of that, we all appreciate hearing the piano from all over the house when it is played.

Psalm 95:1 “O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.”

Apologies must be made to all our readers, especially those who have been faithfully checking back week after week only to find that the Frazer family hasn’t been posting as often as they should have been.  Of course, excuses could be given, and indeed we have been busy, but still, this should come to an end.  I mean the long delays between the posts should come to and end, not the posts.

A post is on its way, I will assure you, and should be appearing shortly.