It’s Sunday night at 10:37pm. I am sitting at the kitchen table, and all is quiet - everyone else is in bed. Tonight we ended the night watching the Mario Bros. movie while eating venison chilli on the coffee table. We had to frequently take breaks to knead bread, stoke the stove outside where we still boiling sap, close the chickens in and make sourdough banana bread muffins for lunches tomorrow.
At this time last year, our sailboat was anchored in Matanzas Harbour (Fort Meyers), and we were staying with our friends and neighbours near Marco Island to escape some rough weather, and to have a visit with them. We then continued on sailing up the coast for another 5 weeks.
On and off over this year, I have been thinking about this blog, and about how much I enjoyed writing it while we were away. It was fun to write about all the little things we were noticing and learning and it was fun to have my family editing and adding to it, and hearing back from everyone who had a chance to read it. I have thought about how surprisingly connected I felt when we returned, because I was able to have meaningful conversations with so many about shared places we had visited, or stories about specific parts of our trip and how it related to their experiences.
Please don’t misunderstand my connected feeling for meaning that I didn’t miss anything about home. There are so many things that it has been wonderful to come back to, and that provide the meaning and purpose for our day to day lives. But I really enjoyed reaching out from wherever we were and connecting with friends and family.
And so I thought I might try continuing and see how I feel about it. I so enjoy seeing updates on what others are doing, as it inspires me with new ideas. I like sharing for the same reason, that hopefully it inspires (or warns!) people by reading about our experiences.
I have hesitated to write another update because we are now home, and although it seems as though an unfathomable small number of things happen every week, they blur together and don’t specifically seem to stand out to write about. But while I sit here waiting for things to bake and boil, I figured it would be fun to put down a little update.
It is wonderful being home this year.
By wonderful I mean that we have time to be fully a part of groups and activities. To participate and volunteer. To reconnect with family and friends. To slowly build skills and food stores. To work on small projects and plan. To feel a part of the community. The weeks have gone back to sometimes feeling like a race, with lots of “get to bed!”, “what will we make for dinner”, “did you remember to close the chickens in”, “I noticed a funny noise the car is making and I think we might have to take it into the shop, again….”. But somehow, even though we so enjoyed all the travelling last year, and we look forward to someday doing more, it has made us appreciate the choice to be here and doing the activities and day-to-day tasks that we’ve chosen.
A Bit of a Catch Up
So what have we been up to this school year. I’ve put down a few points that feel relevant and that stick out. These are a few of the highlights:
Jeremy and I did a long distance row while the kids were at school one day. About 34km. Through Lake Rosseau and Lake Joe. It took about 4 hrs, we had a swim partway through, and stopped at Port Sandfield Marina on the way back.
Robin took part in her first rowing races. These were in Gravenhurst and in Peterborough. She raced in some very tricky windy conditions in Gravenhurst and held her own with no problem, and looked just incredible (parent speaking) racing through in Peterborough.
We spent a week moose hunting, and a week deer hunting, I did all the kid taxiing and joined in occasionally, and Jeremy was able to spend two solid weeks hunting. We’ve been working towards taking more time to do this and this year was a great year.
Our kids joined the competitive nordic ski team at Arrowhead (Arrowhead Race Crew - we can’t recommend it enough), which led to all of us getting to train and ski twice a week at Arrowhead. Our kids got excellent coaching and were able to be part of an amazing crew to attend races in our Southern Ontario District. I logged just under 240km of nordic skiing, which included two days of about 45km each. I’m sure the kids skied at least this many kms.
Two deer were hit on the road right by our house (at different times) that we were able to gut, skin and butcher ourselves, rather than having the meat go to waste (one of them happened this morning!). It was really fulfilling despite being a bit intimidating to go through this process. Of course we wouldn’t wish for this to happen, as it is a painful and traumatic experience for the deer, but since it happened we are happy to learn how to use it rather than waste it.
We’ve been able to join so many things again, as well as some new ones. Basketball, badminton, theatre, band, climbing, music lessons, volunteer fire fighters, lions club, choir, biking and downhill skiing.
We made the most of the epic snow. We were able to get some lake skating in early on, we hit the Rideau Canal, and this was the best year yet for the lions skating rink in Port Carling. But the snow, wow, the snow. It was a lot of fun - and we helped out neighbours and friends as much as possible - because we know not everyone was feeling the same level of fun about the snow.
We’ve had so many great times with family and friends. Biking in Niagara, Winterfest, Hidden Valley, Power outage adventures, Christmas and Hallowe’en, Family Day, so many great memories.
And now
We start logging walking, running and biking kms instead of skiing and snow shoeing
We boil sap, plant seeds inside and line up a new batch of baby chicks for the spring
We enjoy theatre shows, band concerts and the beginning of rowing season soon!
We plan for our businesses to make the most of the warmer seasons…..and the cycles continue!
Below are a few pictures from the past months. Thank you for reading, and I hope you’ve had a year of growing, thinking and experiences that you’ll enjoy looking back on, in order to continue to shape your days into the projects and activities of your choosing.
~ Kathy
