Sunday, July 11, 2010

additional photo's
















Some shots from the work the year before.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

The end






Well how to end this adventure. First wake up and celebrate Sydneys 1st birthday. Liam was the first to even remember as he asked if she could open her present. No fancy breakfast for sydney..we are eating the last of our groceries. She doesn't seem too notice though.I think she was just excited for the boat ride. Now the trip home begins. A few house keeping chores..pack the tools, laundry and garbage down to the beach, one last photo, and quickly put a coat of sealant on the fireplace rocks. I walked over and grabbed Ben's big skiff..took it around a loaded it up. By the time we added our two coolers of fish and all there stuff it was heaped. To the point of needing tie-straps to hold the dollhouse and vacuum cleaner on top of the empty jerry cans. But his boat is very impressive. Even with 6 passengers it raced off too Prince Rupert in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Mya and Lily met us at the dock with presents..ready to celebrate with Sydney. They played quite nicely while we unloaded the boat. Now the tearful goodbye...We have grown quite close to the Vanderheide family. It has been a real treat to get to know them so well. They have been such a blessing and a help to our adventure. The tears were quickly replaced with huge drops of sweat. The A/C ain't working and the temp gauge was all the way up to 37 celcius on the drive. The kids slept almost all the way to the wimbush house. Unannounced we arrived. Just in time for dinner. It worked perfectly...laura had a huge salad and we added some fresh halibut to the grill. Sydney finally got her birthday party..complete with ice cream cones.

Now we are home. We are extreme grateful for this opportunity. We praise the Lord for all his blessings . My one wish through this whole trip was that our small family of four would grow closer together. Experiencing God's nature, his gifts and challenges together has exceed my expectations. We are so much closer now. I glad to be able to share this trip with everyone out there in computer land. Now we want to share the cabin with you. We are already taking bookings into 2012. Thanks go out to my parents for allowing us the freedom to do whatever we could dream up..and taking Rudy. Thanks to Colin and Tamara for watching our house in Telkwa. Thanks to the people of Oona River for all your gifts of tools, time and tea. Thanks to Uncle Eric and all the others who commented so often and encouraged us when we needed it. We know this has changed us. Not sure what God has planned for the rest of our life..but we are excited.

Jon.Jana.Liam and Sydney.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

bonus day



Well we had tentative plans to leave for home today. But many differant factors changed our minds. Thursday morning is gonna work just fine for us. As a result..today was a bonus day. And what a day. Hot and hotter. Lots of sunscreen and a few sunburns going around. An absolute gorgeous day....All our bags were packed..the jobsite cleaned up..just enough food left to last one more day. So that meant we were free to play in the water. And play we did. Lots of splashing and boating. Liam had lots of fun in his improvised boat. Water is bearly warm enough..but me and Jana both took the plunge. The dearflies are out with a vengance..thankful for a bit of a breeze. All most melted trying to cut and split some extra firewood...so hot.Thankful that are insulated cabin stayed nice and cool. Perfect. One more day...........................................

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Heat Wave hits Oona


The heat wave that is taking B.C. by storm has officially arrived at Oona…just in time for my birthday!! Due to this momentous event Jon has allowed me the privilege of writing today's entry…and so I shall attempt to provide an entry that meets the high standard all of you blog readers are accustomed. Before Jon's loyal fan base chews me up for anything lacking in the following entry be assured that this is a one time event:) In addition to the blazing sunshine and blue sky I was completely spoiled by the well wishes of many family and friends…blueberry pancakes for breakfast from my adoring husband and Liam..a drawn out explore on the beach with my two monkeys…coffee-time birthday party with the better part of the whole community to share Jan's double chocolate cake decorated Oona style with a random assortment of improvised household candles…a beautiful bouquet…consumable gifts that have largely already been consumed..and wait for it..a singing card. The greatest gift of all though…sitting here this evening as the waves lap and sun sets thinking of all the wonders God has showered on our lives this past year. To think a year ago we hadn't even met Sydney. In every way God remains faithful and it's a comfort that each breath from here on in is in His hands.

Monday, July 5, 2010

enough fishing





Well today was our last day with Katie. It has been a blast with her here. She has been a big help..from building gardens with jana and scrubbing diapers in the surf ...to fishing halibut with me and trying to convince Liam to like her. It has been lots of fun. She flew out at 4:30..with a suitcase..full of halibut meat. This is such a great place to have visitors..we can't wait till everyone reading this can come out. This morning I took Ben's boat at 6am. Took Jana and Katie Liam and Sydney along. We went halibut fishing. A perfect morning..dead calm. We caught two halibut and one skate. The kids loved it. Sydney napped for a hour..right between the seats. Perfect. Liam's eyes were pretty big when I yanked in a flip-flopping halibut and proceed to beat it too death. Blood flying everywhere..he was quite impressed. I think he may be hooked on fishing.
The berries are coming alive out here. Salmon berries and blue berries. This sun shine is glorious for everything. The weather is starting to look to be a very promising this week. Going to be hard to leave.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Oona River Fishing Derby]






Well the fishing contines. Today was the Oona River Fishing derby. Our boat had Ben and Shannon and Katie Monai and me. We were up and at 'em by 5:30. Ready to catch the big one. Shannon was the hands down winner from our boat. We still brought home alot of meat though. Nothing over 40 pounds. The end time is 4pm. So we don't know who the winner is though. We did get a ton more crabs also. Going to be busy canning all afternoon. So much work all this fish. Sorry no progress on the cabin. To busy feeding my family!! But the rain barrel is filling up. Because it is wet and wet and more wet here. Definetly been raining here. It is good...gives katie the real west coast feel to it all. We just need to find her a jacket that doesn't soak her armpits everytime we go out!!!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

5am meat run


6 halibut and one cod back at dock by 7am.

Friday, July 2, 2010

more halibut..and oh yah katies here!!




Well went fishing all day. Tried hard for salmon never a bite. Guys at Edye Pass have been catching coho though. We did do some halibut fishing. Five minutes later we had our limit. Seems to be quite easy to catch right now. I was having so much fun I nearly forgot about Katie Monia flying in at 4pm. She is her now and ready to live the Oona dream..she even brought her own fishing rod (very good first impression)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Canada Day






Happy Canada Day!!

Sure glad we saved the canada flag tattoos we found a couple months ago. Never really thought we would seriously stay here this long. But here it is July..and we are stilling having fun. But we are making plans to return to the "real world" or "reality" as some poor misguided people like to call it. Probally next week we will drag ourselves back into carseat and disposable diaper land. For now we plan to enjoy the rest of our time too the fullest. A friend is flying in tomorrow for a visit. Fishing trips and adventuring boat trips are getting planned for this weekend. Hopefully the weather co-operates.

As for today. Bright and early this morning we gathered our dirty smelly selfs and crawled out to the Vanderheides. Today was laundry and bath day. Thanks Ben and Shannon for letting us abuse your brand new laundry room and doorless/walless bathroom. As Jana and kids got clean I tackled the yellow cedar log. Yesterday I pulled it around (on the high tide) to Ben's boat house. This morning we lifted it out of the water and cut her up. First used ben's mill to saw it into 8x12 beams. Then pack it over to the new woodmizer mill and cut the beams up into 3/4 x 12. The boards turned out great. Way more than I thought. After a little bit of work with a router they turned into perfect shiplap siding. Now the dilemma…do I let them dry before I put them up. I really want too to do it before I leave…but maybe I should dry pile them and return in the fall to put them up. What do i do???

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

beachcombers




Well we fought and pryed and struggled to get a big chunk of yellow cedar off the beach. But by high tide me and Liam were proudly towing our trophy around. Just another day at "ons tweede huis."

Monday, June 28, 2010

June 28th






Our weekend was spent working/helping the Vanderheides move into there new house. Lots of fun hanging out with the whole community. Potlucks dinners after a hard days work. Saturday was a all about moving heavy objects..washer,dryer, three freezers, four beds, bunk beds, TV's, fuel barrels, tables, chairs, piano, book shelves, whole extra set of kitchen cupboards, spare sink, you name it we moved it. Lots of guys..makes the work easy. In the process of moving I managed to steal a few items when Ben wasn't looking…mostly a set of oars for our skiff (because I broke one)…some solar panels (that came off a sailboat that sunk…any guesses if they will work after being submerged..nobody has tested them yet)… and a dry box for our old pickup.

Sunday we had to start sheeting some interior walls and hooking up all the appliances. Must have been about 10 people scurrying about their house hard at work. A modern day barn raising.

Monday morning I snuck back to the house for a couple more hours. Just wanted to finish sheeting the kids bedrooms..by 11 we ran out of material. So they are gonna have to live with 80% sheeted walls. They hope to be sleeping there tomorrow.

After lunch it was back too our cabin. I brought over a boat load of lumber. We are hopping to hook the kitchen sink to the septic tank this week. But rather than bury the sewage line (too much work) I am building boardwalk over top of it. Should be just dandy. We also had some kayak visitors who braved the west coast weather too check out our building progress.

One story of note (sorry no pictures) which we will refer to as the "crane incident". Also happened over the weekend. Along our trail to town there seems to be a spot frequented by sandhill cranes. Actually quite big birds when viewed from six feet away. Jana was walking alone with the kids when the incident happened. The crane ran towards her with wings extended in an obvious aggressive intent. Jana ran back down the trail. The crane gave up chasing her. But when she tried to return it came back at her. Not to be deterred (jana really wanted to go to town) she grabbed a big stick and advanced. The crane tried to intimidate but she wouldn't have anything to do with it. She yelled..screamed and swung her stick valiantly. Apparently the crane feeling he had met his match allowed her to pass. So anyone visiting beware.

Friday, June 25, 2010

burn it all




Today was the day to burn our brush pile. Jana has been asking for weeks to burn it up. But there hasn't been any rain in a long time. It rained a bit last night and was nice and calm today..no wind. A perfect day to burn. (Jana mentioned something about a burn ban she heard on the radio) In my defence I never heard anything at all. Anyways it burned up great. Now Jana can kick her garden plans in full gear. We also were getting tired of eating on the floor. So we finally built a kitchen table. So nice to have a proper meal for once.