On Remembrance Day the older boys and Dad pruned most of the orchard. Here are some pictures:
They had two chainsaws and a reciprocating saw going.
Joshua with an armload of branches.
A row of branches.
The skid steer with grapple.
A load of branches.
Micah standing in front of the huge branch pile. Time to roast hot dogs!
Joshua just recently finished his second year of Journeyman’s carpentry.
One of the things Josh did was frame this roof together with another student.
During his course the SK Polytech got the carpentry students to build a house for Habitat for Humanity. Click here to see the picture in the PA Herald and here if you would like to read the article.
Here is a short video of carrot harvest 2015:
The long rows of carrots. This year we rented several acres of sandy land a couple of miles south of our house. The carrots were planted with a one row garden seeder. Weeding took place on hands and knees down all the long rows. Needless to say, it took a long time!
Through out the season the carrots were watered with a high-pressure sprinkler system from the nearby Arma slough.
Getting ready for a day of harvesting. The harvester pulls the carrots, takes the tops off, and then conveys them over to crates that we built to store the carrots in.
We had some big carrots, some were much larger than these average sized ones!
We built a carrot washer a few years ago but it was starting to need repairs on a regular basis plus getting small for our needs. Because of this, we built this new washer which is about 3 times as big as the old one.
The carrot washer in action.
Joshua and Jesse also built a pallet dumper to dump crates of carrots. The pallet dumper is attached to the skidsteer which we purchased, and allows us to rotate the crates. In this picture Andrew is dumping carrots into tote bags for storage. We were thankful to have finished carrot harvesting on October 26th.
Here is a picture of some crafts I made for a few seniors in town.
I tried to make this look old by mixing together some strong coffee and tea. I let the papers soak for about five minutes then drained off the liquids and put them in the oven at 200 F until the edges curled up (about 7 min.)…and there you have it, old paper!
May God bless you this Thanksgiving!
June 11, 1918 – September 12, 2015
My grandpa, Frank Derksen, age 97, died peacefully at Goodwill Manor Care Home, Duck Lake on Saturday, September 12, 2015, following a 2 month stay in the Rosthern Hospital. He was born in Osterwick, South Russia. He immigrated to Canada at age 5. He was well known and respected in the Rosthern area, where he owned and operated Rosthern Agencies, until age 72. Grandpa was actively involved in the church and community. He will be missed by his family. Here are a few pictures of him.
His 90th Birthday!
His scooter which brought him all over Rosthern and even out into the country!
We thank God for the many years He gave to our grandpa!
