Hace frio!

Our two month visit to Canada is, unbelievably, almost over! We've been having a splendid time in the snow and out of it, resting, working, playing and socializing. It has been a great blessing to spend two months away from the responsibilities of home, and to have time instead to recuperate, relax and enjoy each others company. Of course, we haven't totally turned into couch potatoes! Preparing mentally for Chile is a given, but we didn't really think about preparing physically -  it just 'happened'.

This year is probably the first year we've ever lost weight over Christmas instead of gaining it.

Abella between two greenhouses, in full winter regalia.

The week before we arrived, a storm dumped an additional foot of snow on what was already here. There was so much snow that one of the greenhouses was in danger of collapsing and Grandpa mentioned that he'd have to clear them all ASAP. So after the weekend we donned our snow gear and bumbled around to the green houses like great, fat bears. The greenhouses couldn't hold our weight, or we would have climbed to the top and slid all the snow down. However, we discovered that lining up along the side and drumming against the plastic dislodged sections of the snow. If it wasn't frozen to the plastic, the snow would slide down with a soft 'thwump', often right on top of us. There was a lot of yelling involved, and a couple of snow fights, but it wasn't long before our arms began to burn. Oh my, we were sore that week! There was always a section of the greenhouses that snow would be frozen to, which meant we needed to use a special long-handled snow shovel to dislodge it. We found out the hard way that normal shovels break the plastic. This was just the beginning of our 'conditioning'.

Before we cleared the greenhouses we cleared pathways. This is Dad in his jumper suit.

During the first week we began to fantasize about making an ice rink. Our original plans included a full size rink with a fort around the outside, arches, towers and slides down the inside of the walls. Our dreams always reach for the furthest stars! We had all the materials for our new ideas, but little did we know how much energy it would take (which is probably just as well.) Dad started by using a bobcat to clear extraneous snow from in front of the house. Unfortunately the bobcat left massive tracks in the remaining snow, and the clearing looked more like a choppy seascape than the first step of an ice rink. We let it freeze overnight while we tried to figure out how to proceed. This first quandary was solved by an old pallet that we dragged around to flatten out the wheel marks. Us kids got to sit on the pallet as it was pulled by the bobcat, which was fun. If we didn't hold on for dear life, we'd fall off; and if you fell off you couldn't catch up again, not even running! Unfortunately we over did it again and ended up with deep ruts. We raked that clearing, sprayed it, and threw it around. We trampled and pushed and shoveled, but progress was oozingly slow.

early stages yet.

Madd, struggling with an edge of the greenhouse plastic. When it was stretched out properly, it looked like a river spreading away in the distance. This is the plastic we used as an experiment, for the rink.

It wasn't unheard of to see someone working in a T-shirt and snow pants, despite the -12 degree temperatures. We ended up dragging plastic off a greenhouse to make the ice on. We made a lot of bumpy ice before we realized the surface went downhill, so we put another foot or two of snow down to level it out. Indeed, I'll spare you the full agony of the process for 'all's well that ends well'. The rink took us almost six weeks to perfect, but we now have a smooth surface for broom ball and hockey, and almost anything else you can think of! Except for curling, haha. It isn't that flat. (For all you Aussies, curling is a sport rather like lawn bowls or marbles on ice. Apparently it originated in Scotland.) Dad bought us hockey sticks and two pucks for Christmas, which was basically a dream come true. Ever since we saw The Mighty Ducks when we were kids, we've wanted to play hockey!

Our first proper hockey game with friends. In the background is a dragon sculpture. We decided against the fort.

Our conditioning didn't finish with the completion of the rink either. Upkeep of our amazing rink includes shoveling it off when it snows, which seems to be every second day, and dragging the hoses out to refresh the surface after a few days worth of games. We learnt yesterday that you shouldn't hose it when the temperature is below -20, because the water freezes too fast, with air bubbles and bumps. Blast! After a dump of snow the little girls like to shovel pathways on the rink to play Tip on. It takes at least an hour to clear after a heavy storm. Thus the hard work continues.

Sunset reflecting off a corner of the rink. 

Meanwhile, Spanish remains the flavor of the month. For those of you who are wondering, we're learning Spanish from a program called Rosetta Stone. It's based on the idea that full immersion is the most effective way to learn, and uses photo frames, recorded voices, grammar, and voice recognition for pronunciation. As an example, four of the first words we learnt were ' the man', ' the female', 'the boy' and ' the girl'. There were four frames with a man in one, a female in another, and so on. A voice said a word and we had to click on the boxes until we got the right one. Later on we repeat the word ourselves into a mic, and we can't go on until we say it correctly. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of brain power to firstly figure out what the word is, then remember it for future sentences and review.We've had a few troubles with the program, but as a whole it's been a really good investment. We have some Latin American Language books too, dictionaries and the internet.

Mum is way ahead of us at Spanish...

Christmas was a quiet time as half of us had a tummy bug; but it was a good time full of joy, and reflection on what God has done on our behalf. The company was excellent and the presents unique. As we are traveling, it took all our ingenuity thinking of gifts that would be small enough to pack and useful enough to be worth the extra weight!

Christmas morning. We love our grandparents!

 There is so much more that we could write about, but for now we bid you Adios! We expect to post much more frequently in Chile, but this is a good opportunity to get used to the system of blogging.

Thank you for your prayers, they are greatly appreciated!