Hi Everyone,

I trust that everyone has has had a good week.  We had a really nice week….its been relatively quiet, meaning no snow for a change.  Its been so nice to wake up and see the sun rise and not have to shovel.  We will be receiving a used snow blower from Ontario, I can’t tell tell you how happy that makes me.  A wonderful mentor of mine, my retired youth pastor offered his older snow blower as a “late wedding gift”, all i have to do is make arrangements to get it sent here:). Thank you God and Thank you P Murray:)

The used truck that we thought would be available for Rusty turned out not to be such a great deal…..and there is a bit of a story behind this.

So for those of you who don’t know we thought we would have at least another year out of our mini-van and were ready to pick up a nice pick-up truck for Rusty but as things would go the mini-van decided that two trips to PEI and the “getting to know” the island was plenty enough for her.  It would be more money to fix it then it is worth, so just before christmas we had to go and shop for a new “used” vehicle for me to drive, something reliable and get a little more old then we wanted pick-up for Rusty.  So off we went it took us 3-4 days to get the suv (because of a winter storm) but we found me a nice reliable ford escape…..I loves her…….. So on our journey to find a new vehicle we also shopped for a pick-up, as Rusty really needs one for the reno work on the house and for general contracting the he will be doing on the side as well.  So on our hunt we met Eddie at Hemphill GM…..nice guy….couldn’t help us find a suv for me but was on the outlook for a pick up for Rusty.

So we got a call from Eddie last week to check out a used truck that came in, so off to Summerside we went, the truck was coming in at 4pm so we went for a bite to eat and some grocery shopping to kill the time.  When we got back to the dealership the truck was there but we just had to wait until the client that left it behind left……so we took it out for a quick drive to check it out and came back….but since it was late in the day and dark we wanted to come back the next day to check it out better.  On wednesday morning we went in to check out the truck, as we parked the car and were ready to go in….I said to Rusty lets pray before we go in so God will lead us to the right vehicle as He did with the escape.  As I prayed I asked for wisdom and peace and the knowledge to know if this would be a good truck for Rusty and if it wasn’t that we would know and that He God would lead us….I also prayed again that God would lead us to the right church on the island and that He would make it very clear as to where we should go.  So we met with Eddie and it turned out that the truck was in a bit worse shape then originally thought and that it would not be the right fit for us….which is fine…but we have another lead on another truck that would be coming in soon….so we said keep in touch with us and let us know.  Again Eddie said if we needed any help with anything to check with him he knows a lot of people and would help us:)

So we went about our regular routine getting ready for this and that and I was on facebook Thursday night….getting caught up…..I saw the new post for Summerside Community Church….it was for the new theme for 2014…..I liked it….. as I am following them online….been watching the videos of the testimonies and sermons online…..they are a different church which I really feel I want to be a part of.  So in the comments I saw a comment from one of the attendees of the church and she had the last name Shea……wow…..could she be related to eddie I wondered because I think that’s his last name….and we did make comments to one another (rusty and I) what if we see this person at the church we going to?…..I checked out her profile and sure enough…..we Rusty and I saw a picture of Eddie on her profile……wowwwww……that’s pretty cool.  God is kind of funny and really that’s cool…..we had feeling about him…..so we saw Eddie at church on Sunday morning…..and all we could say was what a small world…..God lead us to some one from that church……signs of where to go? probably.

The church is very different from what we are familiar to but they love God….serve Him…are very family oriented and love on you …… very welcoming, the worship was really nice too…….

I can see Rusty and I being involved at this church… and funny….they are in a new church building program…..they have a property with an existing building that they are renovating in to a worship/resource center.

So cool how God does lead you and how you can feel like you fit in and can be apart of it…..and funny how God also can lead people into your life fro greater purposes too.

Anyways back to the reno we are gonna start ripping out walls this week, getting a bin and respirators etc.  I am so excited….i can’t wait to get going……i feel like i want to entertain people but we need to be a little more renovated first:)

Like i said earlier the weather has changed, it has been warmer and we have lost most of the snow that we got the last couple of weeks.  Between the rain, wind and warmer temperatures the snow banks have significantly reduced….its so hard to believe….the sunshine is a welcome….i can’t say enough how beautiful it is to lay in bed in the early morning and wake up with the sun rising on our faces….i keep the curtains open on the east side of the house we watch the sun rise and the birds at the feeder…..truly beautiful…..i keep forgetting to take pictures…..will try to remember:)



We also compiled our seed list from Veseys Seeds…..I know its only January……but with all the nice weather i am so excited to get our seed order in and get the beds ready for planting…..its gonna take a bit of work but it is going to be so worthwhile.  We saw a couple videos online of putting together hoop houses to start some planting early.  It reminds me of some of the driving reasons why we moved here.  The ability to be more self reliant grow our own foods, can, preserve etc.  its gonna be a blast.

I do have to say, i really enjoy baking our own home made breads, baked goods and dog treats too.  There is a satisfaction in knowing what is in your food…..working on it and seeing the end result.

Oh ya …… Russ loves the home cooking too:)

Well, I better go for now.  Russ fell asleep on the sofa….and i need to stoke the fire for the night.

P.S. i just remembered something……when the  guys from the excavating company down the road came to start up the  excavator that has been here since we had the well dug…..Wayne’s son was telling us a story about our house.  He actually looked at buying it about 30 years ago…..but bought another house instead:)  But he did tell us about when they were kids they used to walk home from school in Hunter River or Fredericton .  The old lady that lived here, i am assuming great aunt Jeanie  made sure she had hot drinks and cookies for the kids that passed by the house in the winter so that they could warm up and make the last part of the way home warmer…….all i could think of and Russ took the words out of my mouth…”it sounds like something that I would do”….so you never know what the walls of this ole manse would say if they could speak:).  It warms my heart to hear these stories, they are like treasures that i am keeping in my heart.  God obviously meant so much good to come out of here……i hope that in the future….its a place whereby refuge can be sought ….comfort can be given….and that we are used by God to help others:)


Bye for now from the beautiful Island of PEI and from the Old Manse….

Love you guys
xoxoxo

So just before Christmas Rusty and I were looking for unique gifts to add to our very not unique gift cards that we were sending to family this year.  You see since we have had so many changes the last couple of months the biggest of these being our move to PEI, it has been a whirlwind bunch of weeks…..  So foregoing the usual thoughtful hand crafted gifts for Christmas we had to do something a little simpler.  We were at the Saturday farmers market in Charlottetown meeting up with our wood guy and a particular booth caught our attention…John McFarlane runs the booth and he has so many cool unique gift ideas and PEI books….Rusty found the book “Letters from the Manse” by Joan Archibald Colborne….it caught his eye cause…we live in a former manse.  We picked up the book for Rusty’s mom…..so when we got home i perused a couple of pages and then read the book cover to cover …….it intrigued me deeply.  What a wonderful story of two people who started out on a beautiful life together in ministry.

This story is the account of  2 years of their lives in pei and it really made me think nostalgically especially cause our home was a manse back in 1920’s….about 20 years before Joan’s story……. well to make a long story short I think I might like to try a little penning and writing and telling of the story of Rusty and I here for the very first time in PEI.

I am thinking that once a week, like Joan, I will write a letter to friends and family like in the olden days talking about the life we’ve lived each week:)  Some of my letters will be sent by mail and a copy will always be posted here on my blog.  I want to bring back to life some aspects of the olden days as we embark on this journey and try our hand at being more self-sufficient as well.

So I decided the January would be an awesome time to start this journey of new beginnings:)

so here we go:

January 5, 2014

Hello Folks……

Its been about 6-7 weeks since we officially became residents of PEI.  We arrived November 14th, 2013 and checked into our hotel….crashed because it had been a long drive from Whitby, ON.  we had to be up early friday morning so that we could get to do our final inspection of the house and meet with the lawyer to make things official.  So everything went well and we now own our very first old farms house in pei.  Since that time we dug a new well….unpacked the moving van, set up a new temporary bathroom…..roughed in new plumbing for the well, got our water heater up and running, installed a new wood stove, stacked 2 cords of firewood and settled into new life as islanders.

We have had 5 nasty snow storms in 2 weeks around christmas…..shoveling more snow then we know how to deal with but have taken it all in and have met some really nice people along the way.  We celebrated our first Christmas in our new home and skyped with you our family which made the distance feel not so far after all.

So know that we have had a chance to catch out breath, I look back thinking wow a lot has happened:).  So much that it would take a couple blogs just to catch up on everything so I will start with this past week for now.  In the past week we celebrated new years, skyping with you guys has been so nice.  So now that the holidays are behind us we take a step forward and prepare to get going on the house.  Well Rusty got a call from Eddie, a used truck salesman and hopefully he will have a nice used pick-up for him:).  This pick up is going to be so useful for the renos of the house so we are so excited:)  We have had a nasty cold snap…..its been so cold the last couple days -25 and -27 with a windchill of -38 and -39, we have never experienced such cold:(  thank God for the woodstove it is wonderfully toasty.  So we are getting stir crazy to start renos on the house, Russ has been at his drafting table drawing up the current floor plan of the house and discussing the changes we want to make to the rooms.  I can’t wait to see the end result…. we will take lots of pictures as we go and let you all know how things go.  Today was a warmer -9 and sunny.  Russ was out in the yard shoveling snow like usual and he heard a screaming noise he looked around and found a huge bald eagle ontop a evergreen tree across the yard on Orville’s side…..incredible…it was there for a while…..then we discovered fox foot prints all around our property we can’t wait to see it in person.  so when we were out in the yard…we decided we would go for a short ride….we went to Cavendish National Park it was beautiful between the ice chunks in the ocean shore, the sun set the wild fox it was a beautiful end to a beautiful day.  Well by my next letter we should hopefully have an update on renos….and the truck……  In the mean time….don’t forget to let us know how things are going on your end.  We always appreciate updates on our family and friends.  So I must go and stoke the fire….and get ready for our next freezing rain/rain/snow event for tomorrow…..love you guys…..hugs and kisses

Vanessa & Russ
The Old Manse
Pleasant Valley, PEI

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