it's time

I took this picture a few weeks ago and now it's time to post it. Our great friend, Danny, has pulled out all the stops and this huge celebration is about to take place. His band has arrived from Germany and things seem to be humming along. We're all pretty excited!

got it!

My "Mennonite Girls Can Cook" cookbook came in the mail yesterday. It looks amazing! Of course it's full of wonderful recipes but the real goodness comes from all the personal anecdotes written by the ten women who contributed to this treasury and knowing that all author royalties will be donated to charity to help feed hungry children.

the rise continues

The flood is nowhere close to being over. The crest is on its way and should reach Winnipeg any day now. In the meantime communities such as Morris, where we were visiting family on Sunday, are on alert and prepared to deal with the rising water. There are currently 1954 people evacuated from their homes in southern Manitoba.

The whole town is surrounded by water. The US border is 40 km south of Morris.
There are many "islands" of farms and homes.
This is looking east across the freeway which heads north. As you can see it's completely under water.
The dike at the north end of town is already closed. This is the south end and they are ready to close it up at a moment's notice.
The Morris River plays its part in adding water to this already dire situation.
This is the bridge into Morris. Our brother-in-law, Ron, who lives in town said that in 1997 the water covered the rails on the bridge and people were boating over it! The wind was fierce, creating 3 foot waves which were splashing over the dike.

Just where it goes.....nobody knows.

HE is risen - HE is risen indeed!

Christ the Lord is risen today

Alleluia!

Sons of men and angels say:

Alleluia!

Raise your joys and triumphs high

Alleluia!

Sing, ye heav'ns, and earth reply

Alleluia!

- Charles Wesley -

sugaring off

Last week Howard and I took a bit of time (between grad banquets and ceremonies) to enjoy the Sugaring Off Festival in town. All the trees around the museum and many in town have been tapped and the sap has continued to run due to the unusually cool weather we've been having this spring. We learned last weekend that once it warms up the sap will stop running. Never knew that before. After a hearty Voyageur breakfast of eggs, fried ham, pancakes, and bread we made our rounds.

Home spun wool with hand made items.
The taffy pouring on the snow. Fortunately it had snowed the night before otherwise this process would have been a bit more difficult.

The original homemade product from our little village. I also learned last weekend that the longer the sap is boiled the darker the maple syrup gets. This is maple syrup in its purest form.

back at it

Subbing was a bit slow last week which gave me time to get a small project finished up. I will post some "completed" pictures once the project has been delivered.

grad weekend

It was a full but good weekend. We were honoured to have been invited to attend the graduation banquet at Providence College. It was there that we found Howard's counseling professor, Steve Masterson, from almost 23 years ago. Howard last saw him over 15 years ago. It was a great reunion with him and his wife. Steve was at the graduation to receive the Alumnus of the Year award from the college.

Then another surprise was meeting Dr. Larry Crabb. He and Steve are old, old friends but neither knew the other would be at the grad this past weekend! Larry was there at the invitation from one of the college graduates so it was quite a surprise for everyone. We had the privilege of meeting him and were so impressed. He is really a wonderful and kind man. What a treat, especially for Howard, to finally meet him. The lady between these two counselors is also a counselor. Cindy studied with Howard in both college and seminary and actually lives in our town with her family. Her eldest son graduated from Providence yesterday.
A pretty handsome bunch.
And then there's Tim. Tim is one of ours - a BFA grad. And here he is graduating from college. He has faced his share of adversity in his young life and we are proud of what he has accomplished in spite of it all. And it was really special to catch up with his mom a bit too. It was a good day and a good weekend.

april showers bring may flowers

Hmmmmm......... or is that "snow showers"?

what i love about canada - part 3

Here's one for the "only in Canada" category. We are in the midst of yet another federal election campaign. The leaders' debates were scheduled - one in English and one in French - for Tuesday and Thursday of this week. So what do you do when the Montreal/Boston game opener of the first round of playoffs is scheduled for the same night as the French language debate? If you're a French Canadian you would view this as a rhetorical question. You reschedule the debate, of course - which is exactly what happened. Tonight the Habs take on the Bruins and there will be no conflict with the political ponderings of those pesky leaders. The debate was moved to last night - the game will be played tonight. No one messes with hockey. Only in Canada, eh....

the rising of the red

This is not the Red River, but it is a pretty significant amount of water considering this is the ditch beside a highway.

I took these pictures last week when the fields looked more like lakes than places to plant crops.

Yesterday I went by the same field and most of the water has now disappeared.

Our own creek is pretty swollen.

But it doesn't seem ready to burst over the dike yet which is a relief to see.
This is the Rat River which also runs through our town. Gotta love the name of that river. This is what it looked like last week.
There are many roads and highways in southern Manitoba which have now been closed due overland flooding caused by the Red. Many homes north of Winnipeg have been flooded due to ice jams and water backing up. It's a rather dire situation.

they're back!

We are quite delighted that the honkers are back. Howard and I saw the first pair in our town sometime last week. It seems that they are making their home here as we've seen them flying over our house several times since - at least we think it's the same pair!