Camping for Thanksgiving

Drake and Maetia

Helping with the dishes

Michael and Maetia in the tent

Hiking the marshland trail

Well we had our first camping trip with Maetia. We had always planned to go sooner but with her colic we were afraid she would scream all night and then this summer she slept better but we had no time. So we decided to go now while we have time and to a place we hadn't been. We went to the Highlands of Prince Edward Island and saw Acadian forest, sand dunes, and remains of 300 year settlements. The autumn leaves are changing and even with the crisp wind we were able to do a lot of hiking and enjoy nature. We also brought our dog who loved the exercise but not his new 'gentle leader'. We highly recommend this for dogs that pull. It worked so well and our walk was much more pleasant.
Maetia slept pretty well considering our tent size. Putting up the tent brought back a flood of memories of travelling in Australia and New Zealand beyond just living in a tiny space. What a great experience.
The second night at 6 degrees Celcius we bundled Maetia up so tight she couldn't move (and she moves alot when sleeping) so we had to strip her down and let her use our body heat to keep her warm instead. It was cozy. After camping we went to my sister's home for Thankgiving dinner and a warm night in a house. Maetia played with her 4 cousins and we caught up as sisters need to do.
As farming goes we are trying to get organized for next year; finishing up in the fields, putting on manure, ordering chickens, revamping the cold storage and wash shed, and preserving all the veggies we have left for winter.
We are finishing projects around the cottage like insulation, landscaping, putting in the wood and installing gutters. All good to have done before the snow flies!

We are currently struggling with the decision of how to get closer to our land that we are farming. It is a 20 minute drive every day each way. We are saving money by living in the cottage and we do love it here. To be closer and save time and gas, we would like to build a home on our land but the home we want is made of straw and is run by solar and wind power. It would have recycled timber and doors. It is 1.5 km down the lane has a beautiful southern exposure with a gentle slope of the land and two streams. All of these things we want cost more money that we have or else are not up to code (illegal). We could do some of the illegal things if we lived far enough away from the road but the expensive things would have to wait and long drive ways are expensive when they don't already exist. We have looked at buying a mini home to put on our land for the time being but we would loose too much money from what we have invested. We have tried to buy the houses that are existing and near our land but no one wants to sell. We are currently trying to design a small cheap home in the front of our property that could be converted into something else later (possibly) but we know that we would probably end up staying there for the next 15 years or so at least. So do we build a home for us and our teenagers that we don't have yet? Do we make it small and add on later? Do we put in the foundation but not finish it all right away? We have laid out floor plans and by cutting out 6 feet we would save almost $15,000. But we are told that we will need this space and we will regret it. We will have a hard time paying for our mortgage even with Michael doing most of the work and making it a very basic simple home. All of these things are exciting, scary, difficult choices that we are just thinking about a lot so we thought we would share it (our life) with you.
Oh and if you didn't hear it yet, we are having another baby. We are due in the middle of February and feeling great!! Just another thing to keep in prayer!