Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year
from the Hanes Family

December 2009

Steve & Sylvie in St. Thomas, USVI

Steve

Still here, still healthy, and life continues to go pretty much as usual with only a few curves thrown in to keep my mental acuity sharp. I‘m not playing too much music these days, instead I'm geocaching and taking trips with Sylvie. I’m up over 7300 finds so far; Sylvie is catching up with 1237. I enjoy getting out with the gang mostly every Saturday for breakfast and a morning of adventures who-knows-where!

This year I flew out to visit Sylvie in Texas & Minnesota and cached there and all around. We took day trips over to North and South Dakota and Wisconsin (where we visited a Bison Ranch and bought Bison Jerky and pepperettes). Sylvie and I took a few cruises in April and October; we saw some lovely scenery as we toured the Carribean, once to Cozumel and once to San Juan.

Lisa is in Bracknell UK working at a Resort. Sylvie, Meagan and I took a trip over to visit her this past November. We did the tourist thing, sight-seeing around.

Meagan just bought a farm east of Ottawa and is looking forward to moving in this spring. I still hunt - brother Ron got a deer last year, but it was very quiet this year - fish, atv, and hang out at the cottage puttering around doing repairs and otherwise keeping myself out of trouble.

Steve

Lisa

Here I am in England – Who knew I would end up as a court entertainer for our Majesty the Queen - yep, of England!!!! Little did I know that my bluegrass heritage of playing with Dad and the band would lead me to be the entertainer on Thursdays!

Prince Charles even showed up at one of the evenings and he was amazed a that petite but friendly and enthusiastic talented Canadian could slap silly an upright base even taller than she!

I tried to have an audience with the Queen herself, but she seemed to prefer classical music - although she did appreciate my own created and interpreted adaptation of “Stay” (please check my family’s facebook page for this link).

I have gained a lot of experience since I arrived here in Bracknell more than 4 months ago, My skills in hand gestures during loud band music at the pub allows me to serve my clients and impress them with my quick and accurate service.

I have learned to speak with a great Cockney accent as well as a Dublin accent as the evening progresses – and I am considered as a flagship representative of all Canadians (even though a friend of mine, Jamie, has convinced the British subjects that all Canadians are cute, gregarious and very friendly!)

My plan is a multi-dimensional one – first off, to bake in none-other than Chef Gordon Ramsey’s kitchen – yes, a tall order, but remember – I am CANADIAN! The other aim I have is to collect more than XX,XXX dollars to eventually return to the Hamlet of Barrhaven and open my own little high class bakery and convince my great mother and father (know as Mama and Pops) to work FOR me – (yes, FOR me!)… One can only hope!

So until my return in June of 2010 to celebrate my birthday and spend time with my parents (AKA fund dispersing agents and supporters), my sister (uber sibling and soon-to-be farmer of excellence) and all my friends - - - I hope you a year of great happiness, mediocre desserts (so you can feast on my fabulous creations!!!!!) and happiness –

Hopeful Queen-choice baker and bluegrass entertainer - - LISA!!!!!

PS My Mom made this up as I could not send her my update in time –check again as I correct her assumptions and statements!

Lisa

Meagan's new home on 70 acres, east of Ottawa.

Meagan

Hello fine people, it's time for my yearly update! And what an update it is. The biggest event that occurred in the past year was my purchasing of my first home, a 70 acre farm near the town of Alfred Ontario, halfway between Ottawa and Montreal. It was pretty much love at first sight, but in house form! We'll be moving in sometime this Spring. For now the farm will be a hobby farm only, an uber extended garden if you will, but if things go well I'd love to move it into a part time job! We're not sure yet what animal friends will be joining us or when, I'm pretty much open to any and every animal, but we'll start with the simple critters like chickens. Personally I want to get my shepherding hobby going ASAP so I'd love to add some sheep to the mix, and considering the current homeowners have sheep and goats on the land, we know the sheep are relatively secure to start with.

A farm! What a change from the city life! Many have asked where this sudden change came from, what inspired this, why would I want to go and live on a farm? A large part of it is curiosity, the desire to do everything, to try anything and everything, to see if I can do it all myself. Growing your own food, caring for your own animals, doing as much as you can without the help of others, actively learning new things all the time - to me this is the core of the word "living," and for myself at least I feel it is a far better use of my time than living in a city and having a city life where a lot of the work is done for you already. Nowadays I can get the benefits of both city and country life, such as high speed internet on a farm, which means I can do things like set up a webcam feed inside the barn and let everyone peek in and see the cute animals :)

Another part of why I've made this decision is my increasing love of crafts of all types. Last year I took up sewing and created some quilts and bags, this year I fell in love with fiber arts - not just knitting, but making the yarn, dyeing it, making felted items, and of course the sheep and goats themselves! For our birthdays this summer, my mum and I visited a farm in New York called Juniper Moon Farm (www.fiberfarm.com/), where the shepherd, Susie, introduced us to her flock of sheep and goats and taught us various ways of dyeing the yarn produced from those very animals. When we came home I decided to try my hand at making the yarn itself from an uncleaned fleece which I bought off of a local sheep farmer named Danielle. That was certainly a learning experience, a bit of a smelly one too! The hobby ballooned when my mum stumbled upon an antique spinning wheel, which was soon joined by another antique yarn making device. While I'm not the fanciest knitter, I do love producing the yarns and adding wonderful colors to them, and hope to expand into art yarns (crazy yarns with all sorts of colors and stuff in it) in the future.

So that's been my life this year pretty much - learning new things about animals and farm life, trying new arts and crafts, and taking steps to secure a future where I'll be able to continue my love of learning!

For those who love pictures, you can find tons of them on my Flickr account: www.flickr.com/photos/mizuhana/
And for those who love words, you can read tons of them on my blog which can be found at www.meaganhanes.com.

It seems my 2010 will be full of adventures, I hope you make your 2010 into whatever kind of year you want it to be!

Meagan

Sylvie

Here we are at the end of 2009 - what will 2010 hold for all of us? Well, I hope a lot of health (important), happiness (even more important), love (the UTMOST importance….)

So what did the last year offer us Hanes family members? Well,

A lot of changes… can we say - - time off of work due to burnout (this would be for me!)
Trips (including two cruises for Steve and I! We LOVE cruising!!!!)
Family time in England to spend time with Lisa as a family – super time!!!!
A new aspect of life (ie, goats, lambs offering their wool) and Meg and I getting hands on experience of this great lifestyle?
Meagan buying a farm house and land where sheep, goats, pigs chicken and possible alpaca(s) will roam?
How about some quiet times for Steve and I to accustom ourselves to be “two again" as our little fledglings left the nest?
Discovering that there is a world out there outside the corporate environment??? (gasp, this is truly for me, Sylvie!!) - -

Life is grand – we have two unbelievable GREAT daughters – fabulous young women – that we couldn’t be more proud of – I have great friends, Yayas, Monica, Sylvie G, Mary and Ron, mutual friends, and geocaching friends (as Aldy and Model12) - - - and, let’s not forget a Kimmy cat that rules our house!

What else could we wish for, but love, health and happiness for all!

Sylvie