Over two and a half years have now gone by since we began building an extension onto our house.  Though closed in before the winter of 2009, much work remained to be done.  Over the winter months, many things were accomplished indoors and the coming of the following summer took us again outdoors to finish the siding.  However, as time progressed and the large room upstairs was rendered fully functional, activity diminished and the construction all but came to a standstill.  After a long stretch of time, a few things took place: the installing of the staircase leading from the large room upstairs to the basement, and, more recently, the plastering, painting, and installing of mouldings between the old and new sections of the house, completing the upstairs part of the construction other than the area around the stairwell.

   This past week saw the beginning of another step...

... the basement! Actually, the work began during the early part of January when Evelyn took the initiative to start cleaning the place up so as to make space for construction activity. Thank you, Evelyn, for once again putting your God-given organisational skills to use for the benefit of others! And before you say, "That is cleaned up?" concerning the above picture, let me assure you that, yes, it is remarkably cleaner than previously. I'll leave you to guess what how the place looked in December.

   The first wall to go up was the one by the stairwell. This was a little finicky because the drywalling had to be perfectly flush both with the stairwell and the not-yet-installed wall. So, though it may sound odd, the drywalling was placed before the framing for the wall.

   After that, things took place in quick succession.  The wall dividing the basement in two was built most of the way across.  For the moment, we are leaving an access through it. The reason for this will become evident later on. The hardware store delivered the wrong size of drywalling - 12' sheets instead of 8' ones - but we are working with that.  It can be a little tricky to lift it into place, but Nathanael knows techniques that make it easier. Thank you, Nathanael, for all the time and work you have invested here!

   Rapid progress was made Wednesday and yesterday as wires were run, strapping was nailed to the ceiling, and two dividing walls were put up.

   It is exciting to see the construction recommenced. Even as we build, we are reminded that though we may labour to build, we labour in vain unless the Lord is the One Who builds. (see Psalm 127) And there is more than simply the physical building going on in a home...

   "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." Ephesians 4:11-16

     We have received several comments on our family photo this year, so I thought it would be interesting to write a post on its production.  Ever since our family outgrew the Walmart photo studio, we have taken our own family photos.  This year's is by far the best we have done.  Thank you, David, for all the labour you put into this!  Jonathan, thank you for being his assistant!

     Many times we have taken our family photo in picturesque outdoor locations such as in front of the cedar hedge, against the "pierre du champ" wall of our house, or even simply by the spreading weeping willow by the road.  The reason for these being taken outdoors is primarily the fact that indoor pictures are very difficult to take due to lighting problems.  During this past year, however, we learned a bit concerning lighting from various sources.  So, David made the great attempt: a studio-style indoor family photo!  Accomplishing this feat required quite a bit of planning and preparation.  Our house does not afford any convenient photo background walls, so a background was constructed using a white sheet.

     Then the lighting needed to be arranged...  Nathanael's construction light came in handy as did a motion detecting light that was at one point mounted on the barn wall and a worklight of sorts made a number of years ago from scraps of lumber, aluminium foil, and a halogen bulb.

     Then came the picture taking...  We probably took dozens of photos.  The camera was giving us some trouble with getting the colours right.  Shadows were also very difficult to eliminate.

After a while, we decided to change the background colour to black by using some Geo-textile left over from the construction.

And then the photo-taking session resumed...

Here is the finalist.

But even still, our expert photo manager had to do some alterations to perfect it.

     "Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." Psalm 127

   It was still dark out, but David and I had been up for some time. The beauty of freshly fallen snow enthralled me as I walked the short distance to the barn to care for our pet rabbits. I love winter! I shivered a little, though, as I walked. I really needed to get out my winter boots, especially considering what was planned for that morning. Excitement mounted as I entered the barn, placed a bucket of water in its holder, helped David move some large objects out of the way, and took a final glance at the prepared place. We were ready. Now, she just need to arrive - and that would be soon! We exited the barn together. As we glanced toward the road, we saw a vehicle pass, slow down, and stopped a couple houses down. It turned around and came toward out driveway. This was earlier than we had expected, but that was no trouble. I went to meet the expected arrival while David informed the others inside...

   For some time now, we have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of a new addition to our animal "family." This morning at 6:30, she arrived! Since pictures would certainly tell the story better than my words, I escape the necessity of racking my brain for a way to describe it...

   This cow is a Dexter - the smallest purebred breed of cattle. She was so small that she could not be seen over the tailgate until one went right up to it. Dexters are supposed to be one of the best as family cows due to their small size, generally friendly disposition, economic feeding habits, high milk yield for its size, and excellent meat on calves raised as beef.  As can be seen, our cow is black, however, the Dexter breed also comes in "red" (more like a reddish-brown) and dun. Black is the dominant colour, so it is not impossible that we get a brown calf someday!

   We're thanking the Lord (I especially) for all He has taught us through the process of preparing for this cow. It has been and, I am certain, will continue to be a wonderful, sanctifying experience! I have learned so much thus far (not just about cows)!

   Chocolate chip, peanut butter, maple crunch, oatmeal...

      Big batches, little batches...

         Drop cookies, rolled cookies...

   What kind of cookie dough is your favourite?

   I can tell you what Sarah's favourite kind was today, but it probably isn't what you would expect.

   Mommy and I went out to get this cookie dough early this morning. I know, that sounds rather odd considering we are known for our homemade cookies and have been heard to condemn other cookies, but it was, nevertheless, the case this time. We are hoping for great sucess with this cookie dough.  We have never tried it before, but we have tried other things similar, so I think we can expect decent results.

   When we brought the box into the house, there was a general rush to the entry. Everyone wanted to have a look at this cookie dough. A lot of comments circulated quickly. Upon putting our "parcel" down, there was some discussion about keeping it out of the reach of Caramel (our cat) since he could potentially do some damage were we to leave it around. We think this cookie dough may last quite a while, so we have to find a good place to keep it.

   But now you want to know just what kind of cookie dough brought such excitement to our home today. Well, it is brown, but then most cookie doughs are, so that doesn't tell you much. It doesn't contain chocolate chips or even any cocoa. (I suspect I just lost a few interested boys.) It isn't a highly uniform colour and would probably be described as slightly stripy, but it couldn't be called swirly. There are no fruits or nuts in it; it is not an oatmeal cookie dough; it isn't even made with flour.  In fact, I think I would dare to say that it is a rather unusual kind of cookie dough.

   Sarah, especially, was excited about this cookie dough, so perhaps I should put on a picture of her enjoying it...

   So, in the end, the best place for "storing" this special kind of Cookie Dough is the barn. In fact, that is actually why Daddy allowed us to get him. With the soon to arrive cow, we expect an increase of the mouse population in the barn and hope Cookie Dough will help to exterminate these unwanted intruders.

   Here he is in his new bedroom...

Sweet Cookie Dough!

   During Daddy's two-week of vacation earlier in July, he made time for serveral outings, one of which - the hike in the White Mountains - has already been mentioned. Another trip took place last week - a round of the Montreal Biodome and Botanical Gardens. The Biodome is a facinating place featuring flora and fauna from the tropics to the Arctic, however it focuses primarily on Quebec's wildlife and natural habitat.

   After lunch we headed out into the botanical gardens. First we stopped by the greenhouses where we saw all kinds of unusual plants - banana trees, date trees, vanilla plants, and even some carnivorous plants.  We also spotted some "wildlife" in there - a young gerbil! It was obviously used to people and didn't mind my picking it up to get it off the path. (It was so tame that some people were concerned that it would have someone step on it.)

  Then we began to explore the outdoor gardens. They are so spread out that it is impossible to see everything in one afternoon.

   The fish in the above picture are, believe it or not, goldfish! Yes, given a lot of space they will grow to be quite large. The little boy on the side was fascinated by them. He wanted to try touching them, but his father said, "No." He did not heed his father's command, however, and tried... ending up head-first in the water. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right." Ephesians 6:1

   Of course, in gardens for display there are sure to be flowers and where there are flowers there will certainly be photos taken. Here are just a few.

"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." Isaiah 40:8