October ends In Ottawa!

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Hello, hello!
Since the last entry we are probably more bruised, possibly musclier, and prolifically dirtier, but we are another hundred miles further into our journey, and still content.
Our time with Regis and Noreen was lovely, and we miss them already. We spent our final week in Val Gagne stacking wood, finishing off the greenhouse painting and learning several more games to play in spare evening time. We covered up the winter wood that we had stacked with plywood to protect it, we worked on little wooden projects of our own (which we are keeping a surprise...!), and we felled trees. Although we enjoyed the relaxed vibe of Regis and Noreen's, we were looking forwards to moving on to our next place for something slightly more demanding, little did we know how much we would miss those late starts and lazy evenings!
Anyway, during the final days there we made a decision to change our travel plans. We decided to go East, instead of the originally intended West. We both want to be home for Christmas for various reasons, and stand by our decision to come home in December as a positive one. It is not a case of giving up or a sign of poor commitment skills, it is a choice that will enable us to enjoy our journey as much as we can. We can cram in the experiences that we would get in year into four months, minus the negativities, the homesickness, the empty pockets when we return to England etc etc. Anyway, enough of that - just a small rant for the few disappointed blog followers I know we have!
So, we frantically emailed farms in the East, in Ottawa area, asking for anyone that would have us at short notice. One of the replies took us to where we are now, Deep River, two hours from Ottawa. Technically still in the Ontario province, but from one side of the Ottawa river we stood at yesterday, we could see Quebec - we are right on the border!
After a big Canadian breakfast, and an unexpectedly sad farewell with Regis and Noreen, we travelled a five hour journey from Val Gagne to North Bay on 18th October. With only a twenty minute changeover, we bought a ticket from North Bay to Deep River, and prepared for the next seven hours of our journey. A maple fudge sugar pie given to us by Big Bob enabled us to befriend other passengers, and the journey seemed to go pretty quickly. If it wasn't for Edd spotting the place where we were due to get off (only two hours into the journey!), we would've travelled all night Into God Knows where! We had totally miscalculated our journey, so we threw on all the bags we had, shoved five jumpers we were using as pillows over our heads, and that handy sugar pie meant that the driver was kind enough to pull over on the highway to let us off...
So there we were, stood on the side of the highway, with fifty thousand layers on, our backpacks slowly turning our spines into gelotine, but we still had smiles on our faces from the adrenalin. We found the farm identified by their stables but, as we were seven hours earlier than we were due to arrive, there was no one to be found but a chestnut Doberman on speed, ready to kill anything on it's territory, growling at us through the glass. We were soon to fall in love with Jake, the most adorable, human-like, affectionate ball of fur you could ever meet.
We left a note on the door, left our backpacks beneath a bench hidden on their property, and took only the essentials with us as we walked down the highway in search for some kind of food, or place we could wait until we thought they would've returned. Luck seemed to be absent for us that day, as the closest diner seemingly thought it would be funny to attract tired travellers like us with ridiculously large 'Open' signs and inviting fairy lights, yet still remain shut.
I've just spent half an hour writing a detailed account of approximately ten minutes of the two weeks I'm supposed to be recalling. The, 'Who are you, Tolkein?' comment from Edd after reading him what I've already written, is making me swiftly move on...
Brian and Chris(tine) are our hosts. Brian has recently quit smoking, just come out of a hip operation and seems to have a problem doing any chores that could possibly be classed as 'a woman's job'. Christine has one arm in a cast, talks at the speed of light, says her hail mary's before every meal, and sleeps in an arm chair because her neck is broken and her shoulder has spasms. They are quite literally falling apart due to their lifetime of training horses, and what they did before we came I do not know! Don't get me wrong, they are actually nice people when they are calm. However, due to the pain they are both constantly in, and the apparent break down of their 'wonderfully perfect christian marriage', they are SO stressful to be around!
We wake at 8am every day, groom and feed all of the horses morning and night, and spend the rest of the day doing whatever physical work needs doing. For example, last week we were clearing forest, moving wood and loading it onto a tractor to create land for a pony camping site they are trying to build. Pretty strenuous work. Plus, they don't seem to eat much - Brian is rather OCD and won't eat anything left over from the night before (and most other things) and Chris is catering for him most of the time. Food is good though, healthy stuff, and Chris cooks well.
Today we used a wood splitter machine which was pretty fun, and loaded that into a wheel barrow to stack in the wood shed. Achey bones tomorrow! It rained heavily a few days ago, so I ordered their reciepts over the past year into chronological order for her income tax, whilst Edd sorted out the computer so she could input it all. Although it sounds really boring, it was so nice to sit indoors for a day and rest our muscles! Last night I taught a young girl in her riding lesson, as Chris was in too much pain. It was actually really enjoyable! 
One thing about being around the horses is Edd's confidence. When we first arrived, he was so untrusting of the horses, and would do any other job that didn't involve them. However, after realising how much involvement we have with them, and getting to know each one's Individual personality, this week he is in every stable grooming them. It's so nice to see his confidence grow. He still won't ride one though....!
We have had nice experiences with them though- I'm worried I'm portraying that we're having an awfully terrible time... When Brian is tired, Chris sits and plays cards with us in the late evening, and we get a chance to see her nice, kind, relaxed side. As an ex-social worker, and a big talker, she happily tells us of some of her interesting 'saving babies from cages stories', and we happily listen. Chris drove us into Deep River, and whilst she went to church, she paid for us to go swimming in the public swimming pool. That was a really nice 'getaway' type afternoon.
Anyway, this Friday we are going to Ottawa. We have saved ourselves $50 each by managing to get a lift off a lady who rides here regularly- she happened to be driving to Ottawa on Friday too!
We are planning on spending the weekend in Ottawa, in a cheap hotel, eat out etc... Just a bit of time where we have no one relying on us, and we can do as we please for a few days. We have spent about $4 in the past two weeks, so we can afford to live a little.
We want to travel on to Montreal as well, but it might be that we meet a woman on Sunday who has got a farm directly close to Ottawa and stay with her for a week or two. We will see how we feel! 
Another interesting two weeks to add to our experience!
So, next time we write, we may be on different farm, or we may be on our way back to Toronto.
Have a happy Halloween guys!  
 
 
 


       

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