Time to Update the Cabin

Mandi, Drew and Daryl spent Friday night at Cultus so they could be upandattem first thing in the morning. Cint, Max and I arrived in the afternoon. Julie had been there during the week to get things rolling.

The cabin, which has been showing signs of wear and tear these past few years, needs some love. Tough love.
So with hammers, screw drivers, elbow grease and determination, dad`s `gingerbread` mouldings were removed. Despite the fact that I took 300 photos and kept being called back out to the lake to see how the sun was lighting up the trees on the far shore, I DID contribute to the project by weeding the gardens. It`s an annual job, sadly.

The stairway is going to be redesigned, so the hedging cedars needed to be moved.

Ps 133: 1 How wonderful it is, how pleasant, when brothers live (work) together in harmony:

They were replanted on the other side where a partnership was formed... Mandi held the tree; Drew used the shovel:

Is there a verse about how awesome it is when cousins get along?

This morning we sang a song with words that said something like, "if we didn't sing praises, the rocks would shout His name"... and that's what I think the trees do in the fall. They are using all their splendor to praise His name:

(The neighbour's weeping willow)

(Our weeping willow):

Happy kyackers on the lake:

Happy boy walking on his hands:

The O Boys, working together:

Their proud mom is holding the camera.

A barenaked house:

All my life my dad had a workshop filled with sawdust, tools and mouldings. He was happiest when he could putz around in there, being creative and messy, designing 'gingerbread' for the Victorian homes he wanted to build.

In the end, he only built two... the first one became "Billie's Country" and the second one is their retirement home. All those extra doodads got attached to any structure he could screw them to. So the cabin at Cultus ended up getting laden with Victorian extras.

We removed them all this weekend.

And burned them.

It was sad for me because none of us really appreciated them, and we were only too happy to get rid of them. This was dad's signature. It's what brought him joy. And it was his 'gift' to us... a cabin that was not 'plain' - it was fancy.

I guess it would be like having my kids burn all the photo albums I've prepared for them. The process of putting them together has brought me joy. The evenings spent editing and deleting and ordering images has been time consuming and costly, yet I'm doing it as a gift to my kids so that someday they can look back and see how good their childhoods were.

Maybe caring for the albums, prints, and framed pictures will be a hassle none of them want, so they and their kids will have a bonfire and burn them all?

I guess I'm OK with that.

Photography is my thing.

It might not be their's.

Dear God,

Thank you.

For the fall and the trees and the leaves and the colours and the lake and the gift of seasons you gave to us.

Thank you.

For the kids and their energy and their enthusiam and their youth and their ideas and their contributions to our family.

Thank you.

For dad and mom and all the gifts they have given us - gifts of love, of faithfulness, of service, of opportunities, of family.

Thank you.

For this cabin and all the memories it holds, for the love with which it was built, for the times of happiness still to be had there.

God, we pray that you would feel welcomed in it. That we would use it for Your purposes and Your glory. That you would be pleased by all the activities that take place inside it. God we pray that all those who enter through its doors are welcomed by Your spirit of peace.

Amen.