Week 8 zipped by so fast! The week was kicked off with cottagers meeting our farm animals.

In the evening, families had fun roasting marshmallows at the campfire.

Bingo Night was the big hit of the week. Winning cottagers got to choose a reward from a big prize bin.

On Thursday, a hike was offered to explore the beautiful Waupoos terrain.

Friday, Salt and Light Television visited the farm to film and interview cottagers as well as the farm team for an upcoming segment of theirs.

Sadly, this is the last week of the summer session. But don’t forget to join us at our Thanksgiving Open House. Hope to see you soon!

Week 7 was a quiet, relaxing week with lots of sunshine. The week started off with a big water sponge fight with the cottagers. Kids loved throwing wet sponges at the lifeguards.

With our many bikes at our bike rack, kids were eager to learn how to ride. So our program coordinator Brooke spent some time teaching them the skill.

At chapel, cottagers put straw in a basket during the week when they did a nice gesture to someone else. At the end of the week, baby Jesus was placed in it for Mass.

Cottagers in week 7 were big fans of Spider-man, so he surprised them with a visit! He interacted with the cottagers and taught them tuck and rolls.

Don’t forget to join us for our weekly Open House each Saturday from 1 – 8 PM. Hope to see you soon!

Week 6 had rainy and overcast days. So cottagers relaxed with indoor activities such as crafts with Perler beads. Kids, parents, everyone was getting in on the fun. The lodge was filled with unique beaded designs all week.

For the talent show, children performed many skills, such as a skit called the ‘Invisible Bench’.

At the end of the week, the host family ran a craft that got kids involved in making a special Waupoos bunny collage for the lodge.

Don’t forget to join us for our weekly Open House each Saturday from 1 – 8 PM. Hope to see you soon!

This week was laid back for cottagers, as they enjoyed the simplicity of farm life. Some even pitched in around camp by making snacks to share and doing chores around camp. Cottagers loved to interact with our farm animals, so much so that they opted out of Slip n’ Slide time to pet chickens.

Instead of a hockey elective this week, we offered a variety of outdoor activities such as scavenger hunts, blowing bubbles, and water sponge fights.

At our photography elective, cottagers once again enjoyed spending time with the animals and taking a variety of photos around camp.

Don’t forget to join us for our weekly Open House each Saturday from 1 – 8 PM. Hope to see you soon!

This week, children were soaking up the sun playing in the park, swinging on our many swings, and pulling each other around in toy wagons.

Play-doh was a popular activity as kids were having endless fun playing make-believe with the doh. Such as, pretending to live in volcanos with their doh dinos and making huge feasts with their doh pasta.

We ended off the week by bringing out the slip n’ slide once again to beat the heat.

Don’t forget to join us for our weekly Open House each Saturday from 1 – 8 PM. Hope to see you soon!

This week, with record high temperatures, everyone has been relaxing at the pool. We’ve offered water games, such as the slip n’ slide as well. Kids loved to sud up with dish soap and slide down the hill. Even some parents joined in on the fun!

We offered some new electives this week such as hockey and photography. Kids had fun learning about hobbies and working together as a team.

The bible came alive this week with skits and demonstrations. Cottagers were able to see bible stories in a new light and do fun crafts for each lesson.

Week 2 is here!

It’s been a hot week, with the sun brightly shining. Cottagers have been able to enjoy water games to cool down.

The Ottawa Public Library summer staff came by once again and held a reading time and crafts.

The amazing race this week was a scavenger hunt of locations around the camp.

We are also in the process of restoring our old ‘”Waupoos” rabbit sign into a fun ringtoss game.

Don’t forget to join us for our weekly Open House each Saturday in July from 1 – 8 PM. Hope to see you soon!

Over the fall and winter months when the Farm would typically be a little quieter, many upgrades and improvements were made thanks to funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Plumbing upgrades in the cottages were completed. These included new shower stalls in several cottages and plenty of plumbing improvements and realignments we don’t see but truly appreciate!

New insulation and “skirting” has been added around the bottom of the cottages and Cottage 7 received a much needed new foundation and insulation. However, the early start to winter 2018-19 made for less than ideal working conditions!

The farmhouse was also a hub of activity. New windows and doors were installed by Manotick Windows and Doors. What a difference they have made! Our Ontario Trillium Foundation grant allowed us to remove and replace the original attic insulation.

Inside the farmhouse, a new floor beam was added under the north side and the main floor was levelled – no easy task! The kitchen received a cosmetic update. After new flooring on the main level, paint and many, many hours of work, the farmhouse was transformed!

In the true Waupoos tradition, many volunteers contributed to this work. Individuals and groups shared their time and talents.  They painted, cleaned and decorated! Our sincere thanks to each and every one! We could not have done this without you!

The north side of the farmhouse was ready just in the nick of time for the arrival our first host family of the summer on July 1st.

Check out the progression of work below!

Spring is sprung at Waupoos! The grounds are looking great. The buds on the trees are making their way out despite the below seasonal temperatures and the rain every second day. Several raised garden beds behind the farmhouse have been planted with peas, tomatoes, beans and carrots. We’ve started a “wanderers garden” out behind the barn for things like squash, pumpkins, cucumber and the like – basically anything that needs room to roam. The grass is loving all the rain – we’re so thankful for a long-time friend of the farm taking over the 6-8 hrs of weekly lawn mowing – what a gift his dedication is – as well as his East Coast charm and smile.

The flower beds are looking absolutely stunning – thanks almost entirely to our #1 volunteer gardener (you know who you are): she is another treasure to have around. And out beside Cottage 2, there’s plenty of evidence of the creativity and hard work of its new residents.

We have also adopted several new furry and feathery friends. Almost all the animals on the farm are new and struggling to get to know each other. The baby goats (AKA “kids”) got out the other day and the mother started trying to ram the emu as though he had something to do with it; while the new sheepdog, still, a pup, barked loudly desperate to try herding. Joe has been training Basho (the pup) by going from one farm animal to the next and saying, “Mine”, so he knows what to protect and what to chase away. He’s getting there, but we didn’t trust that he wouldn’t scare baby goats so we didn’t let him off the leash. After a few bounds into the fence instead of through the door, the cute little things bounced back to mommy through the open gate. And all was well again.

Not unlike the animals, the farm residents AKA “Farm Management Team or FMT are new and figuring out life together. From what we’ve heard from past residents, this has been one of the biggest struggles of living at Waupoos – the “living with others” part of the mission. Maybe we’re naive and in the honeymoon phase, but we’ve had little of that. We had our first official(ish) FMT meeting last week, complete with a good deal of laughing, carrying on, and a healthy side of teasing.

Chris and Rachel O’Connor (Cottage 2 new residents) are just finishing unpacking and Father Mark Slatter (Cottage 7 resident) has lived on site since March.  We (Aleisha and Joe Yawney) moved in late August last year. We’ll try and put some healthy community-living practices in place at the outset and bumble along with the necessary ups and downs as we live out the call to “Pray, Work, Play” together and pray God takes care of the rest.

Unlike the traditional model at Waupoos where you have long-term residents teach newcomers the ropes and pass along the culture and the practical knowledge necessary to run the place, Aleisha and Joe pretty much rode by the seat of our pants these past 8 months. There’s been highs and lows, but on the whole, we love it here! It’s telling that Joe is finally feeling inclined to write a blog post – with a full contingent of farm residents, at last, the normal craziness around here seems a lot more manageable.

One subset of our community that is also coming into a new springtime is the Board of Directors. If you are a passionate professional with a heart for the poor, The Waupoos Foundation Board of Directors may be a great fit for you. Between the capital improvements thanks to the Ontario Trillium Foundation grant over the past year, the tremendous community support and increase in volunteers, the new farm residents and potential residents, Waupoos Family Farm is coming into full bloom. It’s a choice time to get on board with a tremendous mission. “A Christ-centered community dedicated to offering low-income families vacation” – can you think of a more wonderful idea to spend yourself for?

We feel blessed to be part of it. We’d love you to join us. So if you or someone you know has professional experience in

1. fundraising,
2. policy or grant writing,
3. working with contractors,
4. has legal expertise,
5. is proficient in accounting, etc.

We would love for you to consider joining our board. Now is the ideal time to reach out with the Annual General Meeting less than a week away where the board welcomes new members. The commitment is a minimum of 2 hrs/month for the meeting (you don’t have to be physically present – you can call in) with whatever more time/talent you can muster to help on (a) committee/s between meetings.

Please write to contact@waupoos.com for more information – and use your gifts to help the Waupoos community flourish.