Site Map

 

My crudely drawn site map, above, was part of my display in May of 2013 at McNally Robinson bookstore. I didn't have all those pillow cases made at the time. 

I think I still have most of those sets of pillow cases and I have made quite a number of quilts since December of 2012, when my self- published novel was actually ready at the printing company I hired. 

The site map is a tree because the basic premise of my novel is a love journey through life represented by "the tree of life."

This is definitely a 'lifetime project.' 

Life is a physical and metaphysical journey. If you look closely at the site map, I deliberately made one side flowing and organic- looking and the other side looks more like building lots because I squared those off. The entire map is my concept of a project that has never been built because I haven't had anyone interested in building a place like this.

So, as I did all this work, I was trying to match a Biblical study to the current day novel that I thought was important to write because so many people think that Biblical history doesn't coalesce with today.

My goal, in writing and publishing The Orchard Walk was to engage the reader in my historical fiction novel. This required a 'modern day' depiction of the old time story that started in a garden.

The Orchard Walk El Dueck

Chapter 1

"Sam slowed the Hummer down to a dusty road crawl."

(In 2009, I purchased a Hummer H3 and it was demolished in an accident on August 19, 2019.)

Much of the inspiration for my novel came from my own life and the people I would meet.

"It was a good thing that they'd decided to travel in this rugged vehicle. These roads were raw gravel, pitted and dust driven by wind that is master of nature. The wrought iron gates of the winery...

Simmy rolled down her window to get a better view, taste, smell. "Hey Sam, maybe this is why I love flowers so much. Flowers are the depiction of Eden before the thistle entered on the back of the serpent.

I think you just found that artistic edge you were hoping would grow wings for your next novel."

So, I really have no intention of publishing the sequel to this novel unless I find a financial backer but I continue to work on this lifetime project.

Is your home peaceful?

 I've been living emotional ups and downs with the husband lately. I don't know very much about men and aging but I am experiencing it!

Now, I know there are many reasons that people start acting a little bit strange and mean... my Dad once told me, when he was still alive, that he and mom always loved each other but they were getting a little grumpy in old age.

I was sound asleep last night (this is a pillow case that I have already worn out but it was the best photo I had to describe sweetly sleeping with grey hair) and my husband woke me up and was berating me for making noise while sleeping and I thought,... oh my, am I going to have to record our sleep habits now? This is crazy! So, I couldn't get back to sleep until he was done with his little tirade (tirade definition- a long, angry speech of criticism or accusation).

Do you think he's watching too much news? Maybe this is why he is struggling with anxiety. 

I was a little relieved when he went to work but I am wondering how long he will be working into his retirement years (65 years of age in Canada).

Now, don't worry about my pillow cases. As you can see I have made many more. I stored them in my armoire for a while but I keep shifting things around.

Now, I know we are all stressed out because of the lack of peace in the world. I make sure I bless my house with peace signs to remind us that the home is really the first place we must make sure we have peace. We all want to feel safe in our homes, yes?

My maintenance peace plan for my home...

I will make a little calligraphy note and put it by my bedside, "In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety." Psalm 4:8

(just do it in your own writing or printing, it doesn't have to be calligraphy)

 Gratitude, prayer, blessings... I have a little sign in my bathroom that says, 

                                              "God Bless Our Home." 

I believe it is a sign of a very good homemaker who makes peace in the home. Now, we need cooperation to maintain peace especially when you don't live alone. So, every time I enter my home, I am going to say, "Peace to this house." 

I am going to put up a little sign, right where I see it when I come in the door. If you have a hard time remembering... this is a good practice.

Always bless your food. This, actually, seems the easiest blessing my husband speaks. This is where he is most consistent.

I feel peace every day... the peace of God transcends all understanding.

                              I make small blankets and the end result is very satisfying.

Justified

 

Do you know what justified means in 'Adobe' documentation?

So, when I purchased Adobe CS6, it was for the express purpose of putting my novel into the program to bring it to a printer. If you have ever phoned around for prices for a project, piecemeal style... as in, trying to decide what you might be willing to pay others to do versus what you decide to do because the cost is so outrageous...

you will have come to a similar conclusion, in lifes' work, as in all of lifes' work...

do it yourself or pay someone to do it.

Those are the only choices for everything... don't you find?

So, when I utilized my purchased program, I had to learn a lot things to accomplish the task of transferring my novel into this program for the purpose of hiring a printer.

What does it mean when a document is justified? In Adobe.

Well, you have choices... you can justify to the left, to the right, or centered.

So, I tried all the different ways and I looked at many books to see what others had chosen for their format.

Justifying to the right looked very strange because the spaces between letters changes to make each line end up exactly the same. Then, because Adobe doesn't seem to know word hyphenation, some words are not hyphenated properly which required that I justify to the left.

So, by the time my document, my novel, was completely justified, I asked myself this question...

Was the work I did justified in comparison to paying for the service?

The answer is... of course doing the work was justified because I haven't, yet, made any money on my project.

One other bit of information that is needed when choosing a printing company... does their 'dated' printer match the program you are using?

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.