Feeling prepared for winter ....

We just got given a very old, but working, freezer, which is now ensconced in our garage happily freezing two lambs and 1/4 cow for the winter. We were able to get a really good price on 1/4 of one of these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_cattle

Supposedly the meat is divine, but we'll wait and see. All I know is the only time I've had a t-bone steak since we moved back to Canada was at a friend's party a couple of years ago, and we have three packages now!

I managed to locate our first firewood supplier by looking through my old day planners. They had taken a couple of years off, but the nephew is back in the county and really trying to make a go of his business. He is a GOOD supplier -- was able to custom order my wood from what he had available (beech = good, hardwood maple = good, ironwood (aka eastern hop hornbeam, not the ironwood of the South) = EXCELLENT! We had lousy softwood last year from a neighbour (but were in a pinch so we were grateful :-) ...) plus some donations (thank you guys!) but it was a patchwork kind of season. We just had our chimney cleaned and this is the first year it has actually been dirty; too much low temp burning wood. And oh, the ash build-up with softwood!

School is going well all around. Claire is LOVING grade 9 (do they make Grade 8 really boring on purpose I wonder???). She has a great Venture class, and the subjects she has been worried about are not an issue at all so far. Alison is enjoying her classes, although doesn't get any anatomy this term in science and the rest of her favourite subjects are next semester. They are looking forward to trying out for "Romeo and Juliet" next month. Alison continues her Saturday job, and is also helping out at Blumen for Taste of the County, a big "eat local" promotion that is county wide. Both girls are presently getting their passports ready for possible trips next summer.

Iain is having a great school year as well! I've chosen pretty much the perfect curriculum for him in every subject we do at home ... his attitude is getting better and better and (YAY) he really is getting interested in what he's learning. Not sure what about institutionalized school killed his desire to learn, but it's so good to have it back :-). It has also been awesome that he can attend Sonrise Christian Academy for their home school program. The new teacher they have is awesome, and Iain came home last week saying that he LIKED soccer (let's not talk about his public school phys ed experience, where if you're not skilled, you are ridiculed by the other kids and in some cases, even by the teacher :-( ). They are also using amazing (and very boy friendly) curriculum for French ... Iain spent over an hour last night studying it for fun!

Life is good ... and fun :-).