People & Places
Hobden's Canadian blog August 07
The skies continue to loom large in the Hobden's latest update - not that the harvest is suffering though ...
The weather is still all over the place - wet one minute, sunny and 37 degrees the next. Still, at least the grass is still green and the garden doesn't need watering! On the night we had temperatures of 37 degrees we slept in a tent in our field as it was cooler than our house.
We have been harvesting our garlic and onions and have decided to grow garlic on the rest of our land. It doesn't need fencing as deer do not eat it. Our plum trees have produced a good batch of plums and we have been busy making plum jam and selling it on our stall.
Daniel has been busy playing basketball and went to Gonzaga University in Spokane, USA, for a week's basketball camp. He generally goes to America three or four times a year plus Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and up and down Vancouver Island, so plenty of opportunity for travelling if you get into a sport here. Anja has joined a swimming club and is having fun going to the training sessions and meeting new friends. We have joined a local gym and enjoy going as a family. This enables us the chance to get fit and have some family time doing something together.
Darren's sister and her family came over for a visit from Vancouver and it was nice to stay up late sitting outside chatting. They were lucky having good weather and had a lot of use of our pool. We went to our neighbours for a garden party and had the chance to meet up with some of our neighbours (we live rurally so some of our neighbours are a bit of a distance away). We live opposite a vineyard which is owned by the Cowichan First Nations and we went to their annual Salmon Bake (pictured). The food was very nice and they put on a great performance of traditional First Nations dancing.
Tip of the month: When you relocate you may want to buy a house. If relocating from abroad, proving your credit history is difficult you may become disillusioned that getting a mortgage and buying a house will be out of the question. If you can put a 25 per cent down payment on a mortgage there is a high chance of getting a mortgage. If you put 35 per cent down payment the mortgage will normally be agreed, even without proof of income, etcetera. If you are making a clean break from abroad, exchange your money through a reputable money exchange company and use it towards your house purchase. If you have decided to leave money behind make sure you exchange enough for the down payment if you are wanting to buy a house. In either scenario, also make sure you have enough to live on and pay the bills until you start earning!
Please keep your emails coming – we always like hearing from you and are happy to help with any questions. Please also have a look at our website Emigreat where you can find links and information to companies and services across Canada
Until next month...
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