The Gift You Are

Proverbs 15:6            "The house of the righteous contains great treasure..." NIV

Many years ago, when I was living and giving at 90 Forest Cove Drive, I received a greeting card with this Scripture in it.

I had provided 'hospitality' to the person who gave me these words of appreciation.

When thinking of great treasure, what do you think of? I have expressed myself, to a few people, in the song 'the gift you are,' a little known song by a long ago famous artist...

as a way of saying... 

'Don't you know how important you are compared with 'stuff?' 

You can never be replaced by a 'thing.' Think of a list of things you, currently, have in your house. The list will be long, I'm sure. Now, imagine, that each of those 'things' was a gift from someone... even if you bought everything yourself...

Just pretend.

You know what comes to mind when I 'do this exercise' of gratitude?

I see the people who carried the gift into my house. So many times, I see my weary child coming in the door, at the end of a day, carrying food of some kind so I could prepare a meal for all the tired and weary 'worthies.' 

If you really want to bless someone, look them in the eyes, and say... 'You are worthy of this.'

Now I'm crying.

The reason I wrote my novel was... 

I was trying to write a current story to represent our walk of faith and to make the Bible come alive in our every day plodding to that eternal purpose of a life... the allegory, I thought, was brilliant because it was historical and yet, current. 

I wrote about my life experiences, with humour, yet challenging ideals and maybe even 'traditions,' because traditions really can get people... stuck.

So, as you ponder the gifts you have received, in life, ask this...

Was it the giver that I appreciated or the gift? We can, of course, appreciate both... truly, can we even have a gift without a giver?

 

Rental Hell

EBell seems to think they can extort money from good people who always pay their bills.

So, I used to live on De la Morenie Street, in Winnipeg, and that was a very difficult place to live. I was treated very badly there.

Now, I moved out the end of June, 2022. I was living here, where I now am, and Bell telephone service suggested I owed $3.00. So, I disagreed, and believe I have paid up fully.

Today, they seem to think that I owe $103.00. That is impossible. 

How do I deal with these extortionists?  

Where's the H? in G u e n t e r

 This is how I painted my shed floor when I owned 90 Forest Cove Drive. It was a striking gold and black 'Harlequinesque' pattern.

Don't get too excited thinking I wrote some racy love novel; you know how all those church women are! It's historical fiction so you brush up against love, of course, but I let your imagination grow as you read it! My goal wasn't to get your libido going; my goal was to get your brain going... matching my fiction story to your historical knowledge.

I wish I could show you my old year book photo of my 'science project' which had the theme of the atrocities of war... Grade 8, I think. I was one of those 'early' readers who became a writer, the theme still resonates in my novel.

My folks have both passed away now. My dad lived to be 93, my mom almost got to 89? I was told that the family name used to have an 'h' but, somehow, in all that European settlers moving the 'h' was dropped... I'll try to confirm with the person who stole the family history attache case. I know there was a very cool passport from the 1940's that had my Dad's occupation as 'farmer,' When I was growing up, everybody only knew him as a carpenter. So, farmer to carpenter with  Mom's encouragement in reading, I became a writer.

My Favourite House

 This was, definitely, my favourite house, 90 Forest Cove Drive, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

This is where I wrote my novel. Do you know how many years it took to write my historical fiction novel? Over 3 years. That's a long time, isn't it?

I had this house built in 1986. My brother needed a customer and I became that fortunate client. Every empty lot needs a client. His lot was empty. I was the client. Now, the wonderful thing about being the client of a brother, is that he introduced me to the 'builder loan' process of building a house. So, the way that works is... the client has to go to the bank and secure all the monies for the house that is to be built before anything is started. That's what I did. The tough thing about that is... you learn what you can afford. So, this house is about 967 square feet. The original plan was very unsuitable for my needs so my brother had it re- worked until I was satisfied with the results and it was the most user friendly space for the entire time I owned this little jewel.

I owned this house for over 28 years. I raised my three sons here. Two of my sons lived their entire lives here before they married and started off on their own. My oldest son was only 2 years old when I moved in.

The fireplace was part of the renovation as well as the hardwood floors. If you look closely at the fireplace mantle, you'll see a tiny little Eiffel tower metal figurine beside the E. That Eiffel tower is on the front cover of my novel. I just took a picture of it and then it was added to the photo I took of my tea room table and chairs in a lovely forest setting. You would be surprised at what you can do with a mediocre camera and a lot of 'vision.'

This was my shed... built by myself and my, then, partner. This was another plan that was re- worked from an original but this was built, entirely, by the owner.

For some reason, all my photos have suddenly gone missing. I'll add them when I recover them.

Always doing something

 Living far, far away from Winnipeg is getting so hard to do... currently, I live in Dauphin, Manitoba. I have tried to convince a decorating store, in town, to hire me but the people there really enjoy their jobs. I have inquired as to the availability of a position there, oh, five or six times or more. 

I just love making things better, you know?

I purchased my bathroom flooring from that store. I wish I could load more pictures from my old phone camera to my getting old computer but, alas, it doesn't seem to work! 

Here is a picture of the windows in the old house I have tried to fix up a little. We don't plan to replace any windows because the age of the house and re- sale market might not create a balanced scale. When I moved here, one window was broken and my dear son fixed that for us so, the glass was replaced in the bedroom I'm in. 

So, my desire to move to Winnipeg, again, when the husband is retired, is a careful 'what will be spruced up a bit and what is fine the way it is?'

This outdoor project is still my favourite project I have completed for that wonderful garden setting. The tea room table, featured on the front of my novel, is sitting in the middle of the deck we built and my garden chairs were also used, a lot, to prop up the construction materials we purchased, and purchased, and purchased... mostly at McMunn's... but some at Co-op building supplies too... such helpful places to get supplies.

As you can see, in the background, the 'shed' likely dates back to when the house was built, maybe 1940's... my husband calls it a shed because of the size. It's quite small. Some people might say it's a garage but it can't fit most vehicles.

One day, when my old equipment is cooperating, I will load more photos and show how two $50 screen doors were transformed into wonderfully sturdy doors that were then hung from my 'barn door ironmongery' that I hauled out here, having purchased those in Winnipeg a few years earlier. The construction of those doors was totally the brainchild of myself and my husband. 

When living far away from a major city, you must be very creative to complete little projects with what is available. So much of the work is 'in situ.' It is my guess,... I shall try to find out for sure, that this house was likely built by a rough and ready do-it-yourselfer. I sent a photo to my son, of the joists that are visible from the basement. The rough- cut lumber of one joist, in particular, still has the bark of the tree on it. I am wondering if the lumber came from Kippan's Mill in Riding Mountain... now a National Park. The mill did provide building materials for European settlers from approximately 1895- 1945. The area was proclaimed a Forest reserve in 1895 to properly manage the resources. A very enterprising man by name of Alex Kippan, purchased an area that was excluded from the park, and operated a sawmill until all marketable timber had been logged sawn, and used for building, 1936- 1946. Well before I studied this tidbit of history, I suspected that the lumber for the house I currently live in, likely came from that mill. From my small study of this, it is likely white spruce.

This photo is the the floor, after I removed the very old indoor/ outdoor carpet from the bedroom I mentioned. It was a terrible job removing the glue on the floor. This was the second thing I tackled when I moved here. The first thing was removing all the worn out carpeting on the stairs between the basement and the upstairs. When checking the thickness of hardwood in an old house, open up a register and look for the top layer to see how much hardwood there actually is. If it is 1/2 inch, or less, don't rent a big heavy sander to refinish the floor. Just hand- sand to re- finish this type of old wood flooring.

When opening up the outside bathroom wall, I was surprised to find a very sturdy wallboard that is not used nowadays, in the building of new homes. the entire wall, behind the sheetrock, is constructed of one by six wooden boards. Likely from Kippan's Mill? 

Three years ago, 2022, I was up there cross- country skiing, and snow- shoeing, and I saw what is a bit of a remnant of the mill. Now, it is just a ramshackle memory with a 'danger sign' so be careful if you go exploring. 

So much of the building of Canada was accomplished by European settlers... of which I, also, am a heritage of.  

Live a Good Life

 

I am not very fond of the word aggressive but there is one

place where you must be very aggressive to get good results...

 that place is a garden,

and a kitchen.

Grow something good...

Make something good...

Eat...

     

         Something

                       Good

Lots of work, this good life...

Horrible job

So, I was thinking about page 43 in my novel, The Orchard Walk, El Dueck... a line I wrote talked about 'Horrible Bosses.' Now, it's very difficult to say if a boss is horrible if they're never on site. Truth be told, most of us would prefer it if a boss was never around because we don't really have a need for them if they won't do any of the work. This is how I resigned a position that went from promising to horrible. 

This boss, in particular, almost never popped in. 

This resignation goes way back to 2017.

The most wonderful aspect of this job... and I am sure Mr. Buhler will agree with me... was my attempt to make the items have a more 'human touch,' so, I would bring in little things that I made or grew and try to decorate the items that were for sale. The problem was... I don't think he ever knew about these efforts I made to try to sell items. This quilt is mine. I still have it. It's one of those... very creative quilts that are always timeless. I was going to try to help the business by posting photos, like this, to try to entice people to come into that location but, alas, I was not hired for that. So, here is a lovely piece of rugged furniture that I really liked. I have no idea where the good stuff actually went to because the items I photographed were not in the auction. I may try and make this or get my son to.

Now, you would have thought that all the horrible experiences could be blamed on the owner of the company but you would be very surprised at how common people are, and were, in this situation, willing to take full advantage of this owner.

The last day that I worked for this man... was 'auction day.' I had never participated in an auction before this day... as in working in it, so I was assigned a task, without any training, and things did not go well with that or anything else either.

When the auction was being 'organized,' the only other employee, that was at this location, told me to invite friends and family. I thought that was a rather odd way of doing business so I didn't invite anyone I knew. I thought, well, everyone I know has all the furniture they need so why would they want to come to something like a furniture auction?

So, it was a nice, sunny Saturday and, lo and behold, here comes the boss. That made the other employee very nervous. I'm not sure why. I have always thought it is a good thing when the boss shows up because he knows that he is personally responsible for his business and I am so relieved that he would show up because the worst thing that can happen to an employee is to be given a key, on day one and then never see the boss again. Key holder jobs scare me.

Rules for this auction were strange... I asked if I could bid on some of the furniture because the prices were so good, I could never have purchased any of it on my wage. The auctioneer said... of course, I could bid as well as the handful of people who showed up to clean out this stock.

Other than myself, I would have said that there was one other honest person who showed up. The reason I felt he was likely honest is because he was trying to purchase all the 'fake fireplaces' to sell them in his own furniture business. So, I thought, he's like legitimate.

I can't corroborate the information, other than what I was told, so you'll have to use the information for your own future protection. That's what most of my stories are for... a situation that happened and 'ways to protect yourself' in these uncomfortable situations.

There was a very energetic young man, with his wife, who had just purchased a brand new home. He bid on everything for each room of this house and won most of the bids and filled his new house with 'Buhler's furniture.' I didn't know this man but it was, almost, like winning a lottery the bargains that he got that day.

So, what I really appreciated about Mr. Buhler was his testimonial about being a church man because I feel comfortable with people who follow moral rules.

So, what proceeded after the auction was an interesting segway. It appeared that Mr. Buhler felt fleeced by the auction so I said to him... well, if it would make you feel better, I can leave the items I bid on. They aren't very valuable. I still have my bidding sheets and there really wasn't much money in the items I bid on. 

He wanted me to leave them there for him so I did and said... well, these fellas who are cleaning you out are probably the ones you want to lecture so I'll be on my way. The fellas who were being lectured looked very nervous and sheepish... but, not church sheepish, if you get my punning.

So, as I left, I breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn't invited any of my friends and family because, man, were those guys in trouble. I'll never know who the 'natty thieves' were but, I hope he found out who they were... because they did have to pay.