Scaling mountains and crossing creeks

In my last blog post I mentioned we were looking for a surveyor to help find our property line. We have had a rough idea but we need to know for sure before we get too serious about building anything. Well, yesterday we found the property line stake on our own! From there we were able to pace our frontage to the opposite boundary, but didn’t find a stake. If it’s still there, it’s buried under the snow.

This morning I walked through the bush to find the stake now that I knew where it was. We have been very careful to not go on to our neighbours property. I realized today we really underestimated where the boundary is and there is a lot of ground we haven’t yet explored!

So of course I went walking into this unknown territory, sometimes in knee deep snow to see our property from this new perspective. I walked and climbed for quite a while, trying to identify markers such as dead trees to try to orient myself between the familiar and unfamiliar. I wasn’t going to get lost, but I wanted to see what we had been missing out on!

I then climbed to the top of the ridge and walked across to the opposite side of the property and was again, trying to find that boundary we had identified from the road. That led me back down a steep hill toward the creek near another area we had been careful not to encroach. This time though, I got stuck. Like really stuck. I got almost to the bottom and realized I didn’t know how I was going to get across the creek. So I thought I could go across the hill, back to more familiar ground. That turned out to be a really bad idea.

The trees I needed to hang on to, so I wouldn’t slide down the hill into the water, were too far apart. I managed to get a little ways, but I ended up sitting on the hill with my foot at the base a very small ash tree so I could figure out what to do. I was very close to bare ground and I thought, if I could just get there, I’d make it across. I grabbed a frozen branch on the ground and it came away from the snow and dirt and fell down the hill. So much for that. I sat there for a few minutes feeling very foolish for doing this by myself.

For a brief moment, I thought I might have to call Mike at work or the fire department! There was nowhere to go but back the way I came and even that was risky. I wasn’t going to die or anything, but if I fell, it was going to hurt. I managed to get down without hurting myself, but it meant I needed to walk through the creek which at this point didn’t really matter, I was already soaked. Oh man.

I learned a few things this morning. When it was just Mike and I trying to figure out where our property lines were (without the marker), we had to play it safe. That’s not unwise but as I discovered today, it created limits that weren’t actually there and there is a whole lot more space that we need to explore.

The second thing I learned is never go mountain climbing without gear and a buddy. Haha, I wasn’t exactly scaling a mountain, but I really wished I had had help. A harness and an ice axe would have been helpful, even more so, someone with me who could have given me a hand. The thing is, I couldn’t go where I wanted to go because I didn’t have help. It was too difficult and actually dangerous.

This describes how we’ve turned a corner with The Butterfly Project. Mike and I have been limiting ourselves because we’ve been thinking in terms of our own ability to pull it off. There are families who desperately need time and space to rest and be together, to receive healing and feel hope again. We have the place, we have the vision, now we need to stop limiting ourselves and start thinking bigger, with a God sized vision!

Your help is so important! Your prayers, liking and sharing my blog posts, words of encouragement and donations are needed and so appreciated. Thank you for being with me through my apprenticeship and as I shift into, again new territory as an emerging New Venture.

I can’t get to where I want to go, without you!

If you have questions about New Ventures, or anything specific about The Butterfly Project, I’d love to hear from you! Send me an email or comment on Facebook, and if you like, we can set up a time to chat!

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