Clan of the River Drinkers

Been some time since our last update, has been a cozy winter up in the woods.

To set the scene, this morning we woke to 6" of fresh snow rapidly turning to slush under heavy rain. When I told John yesterday that it was going to snow his reaction summed up how we all felt about it.

"John its gonna snow tonight"

*John gets choked up and starts to cry*

"But whhhhy?"

The fall was a busy time, Jenny was enjoying the last of her parental leave with June, but starting to get restless and ready for work. In the office, the project I have been managing for the past 4 years reached substantial completion and we have started chasing funding for a number of new major capital projects. Amid the frantic fall in the office, I was promoted from Project Engineer to Manager of Engineering and Construction. The new role has allowed me to continue to grow at Federal Bridge and after 4 years I feel I have settled into a good groove, I find my work interesting and engaging and have become a well respected member of the team, it's a nice place to be at, and even with my increased responsibilities it still allows me a great deal of flexibility. Something fun I have been working on that I think you will enjoy: by scrimping and saving over the past 4 years I managed to bring the project in under-budget significantly, which allowed me to add in about $1.2M in extras this spring. My favorite addition is a roof top 75kW solar system. If you should find yourself crossing into Canada from the US in Sault Ste Marie, you will be greeted by a Canadian Customs building covered in solar panels. My personal response to current US attitudes on climate change :)

After my project hit substantial completion, I took 3 weeks of parental leave over Christmas and was off for most of December. Jenny started working a long term contract and me and June got lots of time for naps and cuddles.

In the new year, we started in earnest, working two jobs and June started daycare. In daycare, she rapidly became the daycare sweetheart and a favorite with staff and the other kids. John is a very proud big brother. Soon after starting the new year, Jenny was finally offered a permanent position. While its only a 0.175 of a full time role, its permanent and she can only increase. Supplemented with the 0.28 long term occasional position and whatever supply work they can send her way she is cobbling together enough work to keep her at the school everyday. She is now committed to working there for the next two years and in the fall she should see some increase in her permanent workload. After four long years, she has cracked her way into the permanent workforce and once she manages to get up to full time work load she will have a great job with job security for the rest of her life. Though very tough to get into, the teaching profession in Ontario are paid similar to any other profession, say an engineer for instance.

Adjusting to two parents commuting and working has been a challenge for the family but we have some coping strategies that seem to be working, we take turns taking the kids out on Saturdays and cleaning the house respectively. This gives us each a chance for some good adventure time with the kids and quiet time in the house and means we always have a nice clean house for 15 min on Saturdays before it all descends into chaos again. We also had 7 weeks of unused parental leave as we approached the last months before June's 1st birthday. So I took it and was off of 7 weeks in February and March. I could be found barefoot in the kitchen with my apron on most days. It was a lovely change of pace and eased the pressure on Jenny rejoining the workforce. Between baby cuddles and home renovations I kept the house clean, cooked all manner of delicious meals (with the ample time I focused on slow cooking various cuts of meat), did our taxes and found time for many museum outings and snowshoeing adventures with the kids. It was a humanizing break in the bleakest time of year and left us in good shape on the home front as I returned to work in march.

Canal skate with the goober patrol.

June's first birthday was a quiet affair with family and a few friends. In her red dress, she was the belle of the ball and spent the day running around between enthralled guests. By 6 pm she was deep asleep. We are struggling to make sure John doesn't feel displaced by her overwhelming presence, and while he gets the occasional jealous pang he is coping well and loves her deeply. She remains a ridiculously beautiful and sweet child who lights up the lives of everyone she meets with her impish smiles and giggles. She is fearless and imperious in her reign over the hearts of her subjects. She has been toddling around for a while and her new favorite game is to run with arms wide for big hugs. Up until last week she had the toothless grin of a hockey player, but last week we were delighted to discover her first tooth poking through.

Young Eylmer Fudd

Princess Pickles

Snowshoe adventures.

Spring, we are promised, is here, despite lack of evidence. With spring comes the gurgling up of all our annual ambitions for the homestead. While we are going to finally going to tackle the deck project (which is rapidly expanding to include foundation work), in the yard we are planning two very exciting additions. After finding myself on several wait lists we managed to secure a hive nucleus of honey bees, arriving in June. This year we will be trying to establish a healthy hive under the big oak tree by the wood shed. This will give us an excuse to focus on our flower gardens which Jenny has been readying herself for by reading a big glossy text on cut flowers. The other addition we are planning is some chickens. I am partnering up with Guy, who has a 100 acre farm 15 min away, we are going to get 40 meat birds to raise in his orchard, where he has some coops on wheels. An agricultural co-op I found will sell us chicks for $1.50 each for a late May delivery. We are also going to place an order for July for 8 layers, which at 10$ a piece will be 19 weeks old and ready to lay. That gives me a few months to design and build a chicken coop that will keep our girls cozy next winter. An opportunity to play with some passive solar design methinks. Bees, chickens, gardening and the deck project should keep us pretty busy during those long summer days. We aren't planning any big trips this summer so that we can save for a trip to Berlin to visit my mom next year, but we are still ambitious about getting out on the lakes for some canoe camping and backpacking over the long weekends of summer. I am planning a 5 day trip with my friends who I seem to see less and less of as we all settle into our adult lives (some of us at least). Jenny and I are planning a few family excursions as well but less ambitious in scope, we plan on finding a good rock by a lake to plant the family on for the weekend. Hopefully, Allison, Tarik and Hendrixs will join us. Anyone who wanted to dip a paddle in the pristine waters of lake country, sneak some honey from the hive, eat some fresh eggs or swing a hammer on our deck build would be most welcome.

Table with a view.

Johns reactions continue to re-ignite my own wonder and keep me laughing. I cherish our bedtime routine of bath, two books, two songs and lights out. I have found a wealth of old books from our childhood, many of John's favorites inscribed with Love Aunt Meghan and Uncle Chris, which John reverently has me read each time before starting the books.

In between books and songs we often chat about the world, here are few gems:

After a long and careful explanation of the relationship between chickens and eggs. How they hatch from eggs which come from chickens. John gives me a very suspicious sideways look, crinkles his nose up and says "No, I don't think so." I thought he would have see it himself, but the next day at daycare when I picked him up he was evangelizing, to anyone who would listen, about his newly discovered grasp of chicken life cycles.

Upon explaining to him the basics of bees and honey collection he gasped "That's.<long pause> INCREDIBLE." And has now firmly cemented his official stance that he "Is going to eat ALL the honey, and mama and papa can eat the bees."

Well sleep is in sort supply, illness frequent and chores unending. We have found, in child rearing a deep satisfaction that eluded me, much of my earlier life. Our days are filled with hard work and exhaustion but equal parts of joy, giggles and silliness. I think of you all often with a warm heart, and hope to see you all soon.