BUILDING DAY 11

Today was our final day to build before moving in. Our house is not completely finished yet, but definately at a point where we can move in (good thing too since we don't have a choice). The outside plastic and the inner walls are all stapled in place. David also finished up working on our door. So, our house is pretty much closed in now and hopefully will do a good job keeping critters out! Tomorrow, we move in. We have to carry all our belongings up on foot. This is a day we have been dreading, hopefully it's not as bad as we think. We can spend the first few days finishing up our houses with anything else we want to add. We'll be up there for 4 weeks learning how to live in a place without modern conviniences, fellowshipping with our classmates, and we'll also have some extra work we need to do that will be similar to what it would be like learning a language. We will have no internet, so our only way to communicate is through good ol' snail mail!
In case your dying to write to us:
313363 Hwy 6 South
Box 707
Durham, Ontario
NOG 1RO
Please keep us in your prayers during this time, and we look forward to hopefully seeing you this summer! Check back then for our final house pictures and more posts about our time in Jungle Camp, see you in a month!

the door

Our almost 1 year old


The house at the end of building


our shower area


walls!

The solar electric system to charge our batteries for lights in Jungle Camp


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BUILDING DAY TEN

It was so great to have David back on the building again. However he was quite blistered up from the hike yesterday, I wish he could have rested, but there's no time for that we've got a house to build! There are 2 girls living next door to us and they finished their home early, so they helped us all day by watching Elijah! That was awesome! So, we built a porch for our house, put screening around on the windows, and started putting up the plastic walls. It is nice to see the outside coming together, now that the inside is mostly done. Can't believe there's only 1 more day of building. We are able to finish more building once we are moved up, but it would be nice if we can get far enough along to keep some of those critters out! Here's some pics of what we did today and also some of what I did while David was on the hike...

the trench around the house

the door (it could use some work, but it'll do for now!)


The screen and plastic for the windows

Pantry Shelves

The porch!


The benches and all the foam we need to organize for cushions!


Bedroom shelves


Shower Curtain hung

Our house towards the end of the day today


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BUILDING DAY 9

David has returned home in one piece and with only a few scraps. We are so happy to have him back. He had some good times, but with the weather and a few surprises along the trail some parts were not as enjoyable, he is happy to be home. This morning Elijah and I headed out to do some last minute shopping for Jungle Camp and got a few fresh things to enjoy for hopefully the first week and some carrots and potatoes which we are told will last us most our time up there. We came home and had some lunch and Elijah napped. Then, finally mid afternoon we headed up to work on the house. I began to dig a trench around our house. This is to keep the plastic down after we put it up on the walls. I also hung up our shower curtain (just for fun!) and raked out all the junk that was laying around on our floors. It amazed me how clean dirt could look, it really looks a lot better now. After these were complete we headed back to the house to find that David had come home early to see us (oops). Well, here a few picks from David's hike. We will try to get some of the house up tommorow. We hope to get all our plastic walls and screening on, we'll have to see how it goes.

There's my hiking man


The Group


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BUILDING DAY 8

I don't know how the weather was where you are, but here it is FREEZING!! I am starting to think that Canada may not be aware that it is now June and it's ok if things warm up :) Thankfully, one of the staff ladies here watched Elijah most of the day, so I was able to get things done on our house and our little man could stay inside! Today I made the door for our house (this took most of the time and definately has not been my favorite project so far!) and then it didn't fit, so I took it apart and made it again! It didn't turn out as good as I had hoped, but it will do. It's only 1 month right? I made a new shelf under the sink and finished twining all the shelves in our whole house. Then, I put some more clay on our oven, hopefully that will get finished up soon. Again, sorry no pictures, hopefully tomorrow when my hubby returns to me we can get up some pictures up of his hike and also of the progress on our house!

BUILDING DAY 7

David and the other guys in our class left today for a 3 day men's hike, leaving Elijah and I very sad and without a camera. So, we do apologize for the lack of pictures on the posts the next few days, but we thought it would be better for David to take the camera with him. Today was very cold and rainy! We did manage to get a few things done though. Our bench area is now complete and ready for cushions. I also finished up a few shelves. Elijah did wonderful (other than when he needed his nap) and played really well while I worked on things. HE IS TOO CUTE!
Anyways, if you could please pray for David and the guys safety on the hike and that it would be a good time. Also, for Elijah and I at home ( I strongly dislike being away from David!) that we can get a lot done while David is away.

By the way, our little man turns 1 this month! And I just have to say it... I can't believe he's already going to be a year old, its crazy! We will be celebrating his b-day in Jungle Camp, what could be a better 1st b-day than being in a house made of cedar poles, duct tape, and plastic!!

REST DAY

In case you are keeping up with us daily.... just wanted to let you know that today is a mandatory rest day, so we won't be working on our house at all today. It is nice to have the day off, but we are also sooo ready to get our house finished! Thanks for your interest in what were doing. Happy Sunday to all!

BUILDING DAY 6

Sorry the pictures are a bit darker today... it was getting late when I realized I hadn't taken pics of what we did today yet. Lots of inside work happened today mostly with shelving and got some more done on our benches. We also put some beams up along the outside to get ready for the plastic walls.
Our brave classmate Jon, risked his life to help David get the crazy chimney up on our house, he also tested out the sturdiness in the process.

Our spacious couch/table benches (lots yet to do on these!)

Our pantry in progress


Changing table/ shelving area in Elijah's room (I used twine to secure each pole to the main posts)


David got a lot of shelving set up today (these are the shelves in our bedroom)


The window beside Elijah's changing table area



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BUILDING DAY......5!!!

We no longer can walk right into the house anymore, we have to go ALL the way around to the hole that is left for our door. David got our water running today, and it looks very promising that the hot water tank will work too! The shower and sink both are set to go. I continued to work on the bed today and ran into an old shower pit full of rocks! So, we decided to finish up the shower. The bed frame is also ready to go. David did a lot of work to get ready for some shelves and I began to work on our bench for our table/living room! It was a very fun and productive day!

The shower works

The pile of rocks I hit while digging a post for our bed

Running water!!!

Our Bed


the little man helping out

Our house at the end of the day


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BUILDING DAY 4

The house is really starting to take shape now. This morning David worked on the main structures for our shower/pantry area and our counter and he also put the wall poles in for Elijah's room (which we realize is way more spacious than ours... lucky boy). This afternoon both of us tackled some more clay layers on the stove and David made a fire in it! I also started working on the frame for our bed. It was neat to see things coming together. Tomorrow, 2 ladies have offered to watch Elijah, so I will be able to help David for a huge portion of the day, which is awesome. So, hopefully we can continue to get a lot done!


After the structure for the counter was made, David laid it with small sticks...

He then wrapped plastic around and stapled it to hold the sticks in. Then topped it with vinyl flooring. It turned out really great!


The structure for the shower and pantry

The door for Elijah's room

The fire in our stove

Us!


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BUILDING DAY 3

We are beginning to understand how big of a project the stove is. At first, I (Rachel) was really enjoying the clay and thought it was great fun. We have been told that you never really get the oven finished. I spent all afternoon getting the clay molded just right and still have tons to do. David worked on more of the structure for the benches and counter areas. He also began working on a bay window for our bedroom, which is not only really neat but also gave us 2 extra feet for our bedroom ( we can only build 16x20 houses).

All in all it was a pretty good day, we are hoping to see some more progress in the next few days other than just layers of clay on the stove. It has been a really great time so far though, many families have been bringing up snacks throughout the day, babysitting for us, and even making us meals all so we can have lots of time to work on our houses.Behind David are the poles for the structure of the counter and benches

Working on our bay window

Putting the 2nd layer of clay on the outside


We had to line the inside of the oven with "bush dirt" as it's called here. And then put a layer of clay above it. We had to slope it around just right so that when we open the damper we would get a draft in the oven part to bake with and when it is closed it will heat up the plates at the front for cooking on.

This is our "fridge"! We really don't see much use for this besides storing chocolate, but it's done and out of the way now.

Here's the progress on our stove by the end of today, hopefully we can get a fire going in it tommorow. The beastly thing sticking out the side is a project David has been working on for weeks now. That beautiful tank will allow us to get hot running water! Isn't my hubby the greatest?!?

Hopefully tomorrow we will have more than stove pictures for you. Please keep praying for us and our class as the days are long and we need lots of energy and motivation to keep going!

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BUILDING DAY 2

Yesterday the house structure seemed to go up so quickly. Today projects moved at a much slower pace as the jobs are smaller and more detailed. The main job for today was to work on the structure for our oven to sit in. This is quite a job and will continue for days to come.

David spent pretty much all morning getting the poles into the ground and sized up for the entire stove structure. I joined him at lunch and used twine to tie all the poles in place. We then put a piece of plastic down and filled it with 3 inches of dirt. This will prevent the stove from burning the poles below, definately a must! Then we put the stove on top and are currently working on a layer of clay that will cover a good portion of the stove.

The oven structure

Me hoisting dirt into the bottom


Nice packed dirt, David jumped on it just to be sure it was good and packed


There's our beautiful oven :)


David made a fire for us and we roasted hot dogs for dinner!


Here you can see where I started putting on the layer of clay


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... and the building begins! Day One

David got up just after 4 this morning and was up working on our house by 5 this morning! By the time I was able to bring Elijah up there, he already had quite a bit done. One of the staff couples made us burgers for lunch so we were able to take a quick lunch and get right to work. I was able to help David all afternoon, thanks to a family who offered to watch Elijah for us! Most of the day was quite chilly with a little rain here and there. Hopefully the sun will come out for the rest of the week. All in all, we are quite happy with the outcome of day 1.
So, what was accomplished today?
*Holes were dug and main posts were put in
*Rafters were duct taped across the top
*We have a roof! The plastic was spread across and stapled to the cedar poles on the ends.

David had all these poles in by the time we got there

Elijah enjoying some breakfast (he only lasted about 45 minutes before he was ready for a nap though)

Me cutting a pole!

David securing our home with duct tape (we only polished off 1 roll today!)


Putting on the plastic roof

The end of day 1

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