Thursday, 8 May 2014

Our First (Unplanned) Farm Stay - Kaufman Haven

Here's the bit where the kindness of folks will make them our heroes during this journey - those who help us out when things get  a wee bit rough and make smiles appear on our faces again.

Well, as we knew it would happen - it happened. We had to deal with our first "don't plan for things to go as planned' event. We were uprooted and a kind gentleman has taken us in at last moments notice. Mr. Adam Kaufman, along with his dad, Francis.

We are staying on a beauty of a farm, where the nights are still & the mornings are bursting at the seams with birds and the hum of tractors in the distance.  The days are filled with M's laughter and the noise of the boys using the reverb pedal while they improvise on their widow-makers guitars. Last night was an amazing thunderstorm that lasted a couple hours.

Mornings are explorations before breakfast, afternoon naps in a sunlit bedroom and evenings exploring with Molly and catching sunsets. Hearing Oscar laugh like a demented schoolgirl is especially pleasing to my ears. Laundry hung out on a line, slow meals & getting stuck in a muddy field that pulls off your rubber boots.

We thank you, Adam & Francis, for providing us with shelter during the storm.


Oscar, Heather and Adam formed a band one night -named after the tractor. Their only hit was: You Are My Sunshine. It was Molly approved. Pictured are Oscar, Molly, Heather & Adam.





Our turkey vulture friends. A family of four or five of them visited us every day and night. swooping in circles overhead. This night they sat on the barns watching Molly and I take down our tent... they just stared and stared. Molly started yelling "Hello vulture friends!" and they started flying over head, circling their new prey friend.





 When you ask Molly is she is a city mouse or a country mouse - the response is always "country". 
That's sweet to hear.












After the next few days, we are moving onto another friends' place while Oscar continue to work. We will go back to the city for a few nights, look after some errands that need to get done and just rest. I fear after a month of country the city might be abit of a shock to my system and certainly to Molly. The next time we blog, we will be at our first stop in Barrie, visiting with more friends...

Until then...









Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Blogs of Families who have the hit the Road...





A year ago, when we tossed around this idea of hitting the road, we started following the blogs of some other families doing what we were dreaming of doing.

In one word, they all are simply "inspiring". Every family different, every family with an amazing story but we have one glaring similarity - we figured there just has to be another way of livin' this life. Every day, when i see what these families are up to on the road, I get super psyched knowing that THIS WILL BE US soon!

Check just a few of these families out below! Most have facebook pages too, so be sure to like them and get daily updates on what they are up to... it's really astounding what happens in a day in the life of a full time family traveling around this fabulous planet!









And this website has the stories & blogs of a couple hundred families full time traveling:






Thursday, 10 April 2014

April 10th - the first lesson we learn - never expect things to go as planned


About two weeks ago, Oscar was watching an interview with Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut on TVO kids, which he says was mesmerizing. But the most important thing he took away from that interview between Hatfield & a bunch of kids was this: When embarking on a great adventure, always plan for everything to go wrong. Never expect anything to go as planned. The key to an adventure is how you deal with the bumps in the road - THIS is the adventure. This way, when something actually does go right, you will be pleasantly surprised, I guess. Perhaps this also makes you find the greatest pleasure in the small things - like the perfect cup of coffee brewed over a sunrise, the chirping of crickets at night, the smile on Molly's face as she will run along the sand of a too-chilly lake, the sound of our fave tunes over the van stereo while we ride along the highway with the windows down. the promise of adventure awaits.

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

About The Laguans...

For those, who don't know us - here is the scoop. We went from an 'instant' family, to a family that just works amazingly well together. We tried to live by the 'one-income' school of thought, which was my only goal during her first 4 years, in order to keep our lives simple and well, it worked. Oscar was a stay-at-home dad and I worked at a hospital, as an admin assistant. Our one-income lifestyle worked in the sense that we were able to spend most of our time with Molly and together, but Toronto is an expensive city to live in. Our rent went up about $80 every year, food expenses went up every year but still we managed to live on $30k take home salary, with $1300 rent. We went into the red every other month, but we had a lot of laughs, Molly never went without & I think that's why we worked so well as a family - because we spent so much time together. It strengthened us. So, we thought, why not take it a step further - let's leave the rat race, let's get rid of 80% of our belongings and let's have an epic adventure. Let's start to create a life where we spend even more time together and so the idea was born.  

where are we at now and what do we have?

A van.

An awesome tent that attaches to the van.

A website filled with Canadians who need volunteers on their farms in exchange for food and accommodations.

A website with rv'ers who love to meet fellow travelers and offer you a place to camp for a few nights.

The infamous couch-surfing website.

A mindset that anything can go wrong, but all outcomes will be determined by how we deal with it.

A chance to create memories & see where in Canada we might fit in. somewhere we can begin to start a new life together.

and we are beginning our adventure in May, 2014.

oh and we have a blog. welcome!

We Are Laguan With The Wind...