This site is mainly just about us and our hobbies , but starting from now on also

Huntsville Ontario.

One of them is Machine Embroidery. I have been making patterns in pes. format for as long as Brother has made the program .
I am still enjoying working with the program. By now I have collected so many patterns which I would like to share with you.

90 % I will be giving away , just for a thank you note.Some may not be free , but that we will discuss.

 

OUR STORY

    Our names are Lida and Jim Langedijk and are happily retired. in a nice town in the Muskoka's called Huntsville,Ontario Canada. Jim was diagnosed with PLS in 1990, and has lived with it since then.It has slowed his activities down a little.
Lida is born in Apeldoorn, Gelderland and Jim in a little village called "De Weere" gemeente Abbekerk, in the province of Noord Holland , the Netherlands .
Jim's mother Divera died shortly after his birth, of tuberculosis and it became difficult for his father to look after a little baby.He first went to the home of one her brothers Sijvert, who was just married .
They looked after him until she became pregnant .
A family council was called to discuss what to do with this little fellow. Every one of the family was either too busy raising their own family , until a half-sister of his Father,(They shared the same biological Mother ;Wilhelmina Deken.), who had just recently lost her youngest child,a little boy, and she said he can come with us for a while.He was taken in by them ,Geertruida Blaauw and her husband Jacobus Wit,in a nice town, called Wogmeer, which was a former small lake, as you can read in the attached link.
They were a wonderful family , consisting of 3 brothers and 6 girls, who treated him like a son ,and he lived there until his departure at the age of 19 ,when he was drafted into the Dutch army. He has very fond memories of his life there.He must have been spoiled when he was little,he came into a family with 4 girls, who were still living at home at that time, to spoil this little rascal.He shared with the family the same grandmother (Wilhelmina Deken), who after the death of her husband , re-married to Jacobus Langedijk.

Jim was at an early age interested in amateur theater, and participated in it , in the Roman Catholic Parish,he lived and went to school, at the St Martinus, parish school.One the things he did there, was , together with an friend, Simon Koopman, arrange and started a amateur theater group, and called it," Door Vriendschap Verworven" , (DVV) . which translate into English (Through Friendship Established). It is still in existence today, and is holding its performances still in the same , even though modernized of course, location. Cafe "Homan", now called " Het Wapen van Wogmeer" in the Wogmeer, Noord Holland, The Netherlands.

Jim , (Jacob, Jaap, his Dutch given names) went to the Lagere school (grades Kindergarten to eight) then, first to the Lagere ,then onto the middle bare Landbouwschool ( Agriculture College) in Spanbroek , NH, The Netherlands. Then to a business school to graduate with a Middenstand diploma in marketing. In 1947, he was called up into the Dutch Military service, as every able bodies dutchman at that time was obligated to serve in.

At the early stages of his military service, Jim became a member of the Koninklijke Marechaussee , ( Royal Military Constabulary.) a elite group of Policemen, a militarized organization, established by King William I in 1815. They also are charged with protecting the borders, and the Queen and a residences.
After graduating as a Marechaussee first class, was given permission to study in his spare time, and after 5 years Jim graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering.

Lida went to school in Apeldoorn, during the second world was, which at that time , during the German occupation was a rather haphazard affair. The were moved from school to school, even at times, near the end of the war, the students had to to the principals residence to get their daily assignments. After grades Lida went to huishoud school (Home economics) for 4 years and graduated with a diploma;

They met each other at a home of a mutual friend. Fell in love and got married on August the 24th 1950.
The year was 1952, and the shortage of accommodation was severe. It was still extremely difficult to, find a residence for a young married couple.

 

So we decided to emigrate, which was the only way as a member of the Koninklijke Marechaussee, to break the 7 years contract , he had with them. At the time Canada was looking for farm help. So Jim with his agriculture background, applied for a grant to emigrate to Canada. The Canadian government subsidized the passage to Canada , and gave us 90 Canadian dollars to get us going

There were many countries to choose from , and we choose Canada .Canada was the country which had liberated Holland from the German occupiers Even today Apeldoorn admires and reveres the Canadian soldiers who gave their life , to liberate them.
We emigrated in the month of August to from the Netherlands in 1952

And traveled by boat. The name of the ship was "The Groote Beer .
It was her first trip as a emigrant ship.
After touring for 5 years between the Netherlands and Indonesia, as a troupe transport ship.

The Groote Beer, was , rented or borrowed or bought from the US government at that time by the Holland America Line , which had 2 sister ships theVeendam and the Maasdam.
Holland was at war at the time , first with Japan, the aggressor during the 2nd world war, who was at war with the United states and the rest of the world , and then with the colony Dutch East Indies, who were fighting for independence

I can still see my Father in law Marten Woudenberg, who brought us to Rotterdam , Walking away from the ship,he looked around a couple times and waved I am sure, but we were busy getting on board.

When the ship sailed away we saw the last of Holland for a long time. But we were together, and whatever the future would hold in store for us, to us it was enough just to have the family with us.

We landed in Quebec city , a French speaking part of Canada.
We had learned and spoke a bit of English, but it was all quite confusing.

For instance; In Quebec city we needed some supplies for the the youngest one Martin , and I went to get some of them for the trip ahead of us. I did not know the word for diapers, and asked for something to clean the baby with,and they came up with a package of kleenex.
We had 2 children with us a 1 1/2 year old Vera and Marten 3 months, who was in a portable baby carriage .
Marten was forgotten some how when we entered Canada, we found out years later, on the actual landed immigrant papers, filled out at the harbor. We needed those papers as proof that we actually landed in Canada, when we applied for Old age security.

After clearance at the border we traveled in a immigrant train all the way to Winnipeg. It was an old dirty train wooden seats and dusty.
It was totally different at that time as it is today with immigrants.

An interesting site for our Dutch readers is this one,a page from the province of Utrecht.
We have the Langedijks family tree on the Internet since 1995, and are constantly looking for more Langedijks to enter into it. So , if your name is Langedyk or "Langedijk " or "Langendijk" send me a e.mail, and lets find out.

We traveled from Winnipeg, in a regular train. What a luxury after the immigrant train,to a small town Elderslie Saskatchewan. A little village surrounded by farms, on of those farms I had to work . I was send there by the immigration board. In our passport it said ;destination Joseph Foster,Elderslie , Sask. We arrived in the middle of the night not on a train station but in the middle of nowhere, somewhere besides the .Canadian Pacific Railway

The conductor said "Here is where you get of." There we stood in Saskatchewan along the railroad track and the train continued on its way. 2 children a Wife with her husband kind of shivering, as the morning in Canada in August are kind of chilly yet. In front of us was a straight dirt road that seemed to end somewhere. After waiting We did not know any more how long, but it seemed forever, we saw a pickup truck arriving (1949 Ford , green pickup. > That was Joseph Foster.

We introduced ourselves and Lida with Martin in the cab and Vera and I in the body of the truck.

When we finally arrived at the farm, we stopped at a small house. When we looked at it we said to each other in the Dutch language " its not much, but I suppose we can make something of it.
How wrong we were. ! That was their house . We did not have one. Although in the contract with the farmer it said ;"With house"
But at that time there was very little we could do about it, and did not really wanted to anyway.We were getting pretty hungry by then. Our last meal on the train was the night before .

We were brought into the house and given buns stacked with meat on it, and Coffee with a piece of home made apple pie. As Canadian as could get.It tasted great and did satisfy our hunger.
When I asked where we would live, he pointed to a building outside the house.it was what in the farmers trade is called a granary They are about 10 feet by 10 feet square , made from single ship lap,on the outside with close fitted lumber on the inside.It has a square hole at the top, for filling it with grain, with a single door at the front about 6 feet high and 24 inches wide. To keep the grain inside, it has planks in front of the door.
This is you're temporary home , as soon as you empty the grain out.
So my first job in Canada , on the first day of work, was to empty out the granary . With a large grain shovel into a large empty Grain wagon, which was then taken to the grain elevators, which at that time were all over Saskatchewan . The granaries are always on large skids so it can be pulled from one location to the next when needed.

After emptying the granary it was towed into the bush.We were giving some oats straw, which is the softest straw available and some blankets and pillows.

There we were in a new country, somewhere in the bush , with a candle only for light.
We went into the makeshift bed,which actually was pretty comfortable. We talked for a while and said to each other; "this is not what we expected, but we will laugh about it a year from now."
In the middle of the night we woke up, because the whole granary was moving and shaking, we held onto each other and the children.
The first thing we thought was; bears rubbing up against the building. So as the man in the family, I carefully got up opened the door and saw that it was a horse rubbing up against it. Relieved I crawled back under the blankets and we went back to sleep .We had breakfast at the home of the boss. And were instructed about my daily chores , where the garden was, were we could get water( in the icehouse)to drink and cook with. Lida had to go to the garden , to pick the vegetables and dig up potatoes. It was a big change from living in Holland in the city of Apeldoorn

My first task each morning was milk the cow.He had only one cow to milk, but find her in the darkness ,in early August was not as easy as it sounds. First you saddle the horse ,get on it and find the cow.Then you drive it home and milk it.

The next morning we went for breakfast to their home ,for Bacon and eggs , toast, and apple pie,which was an very good breakfast. We were not used to bacon and eggs , coming from the Netherlands, but got used to it in quite a hurry.

He was given by the federal government a quarter section of land ( 160 acres) for his service in the last war. With about 60 acres under cultivation , and the balance to come under cultivation at the rate of 10 acres a year , required under the homestead act.

We were instructed in my duties. like milk the cow first thing in the morning feed the pigs etc, customary farm duties. Lida was told were the garden was , to get her vegetables, and for the time being were given supplies to make our own food.

The first month passed quickly doing all the farm things , with Lida baking her own bread for the first time in her life. I was busy during the harvesting season, where all farmers in the area help each other out with the harvesting. A couple of farms told us ;'You better find another place, you'll freeze to death in that house of yours"

We took their advise and applied for another farm job via the Saskatchewan weekly newspaper, and found a position in Kinsella Alberta.
With Clarens Horineck, a farm of about 600 acres (a sections of land , as measured by the land surveyors. Clarens had an home made steam tractor made by his father. The rear wheel were about 10 feet in diameter, all steel with large triangle protrusion at the flat section of the wheels.
The front about 3 feet in diameter,with a large protruding rim in the middle of the wheel for guidance when steering in the field.

He thought me how to run that tractor. . You started it, by pouring in about a quart of kerosene ,directly in to the one piston that that traveled horizontally.
Turned the huge flywheel,( 4 feet diameter) until it puffed and the wheel kept on rotating. It had one piston and a large spring around the piston shaft, which pushed back in position. And that's what I observed, but how it worked your guess is as good as mine

Then you drove the tractor up to the water-pump and filled the open tank with water. It required a board to float on top of the water, to prevent it from sloshing out the tank.
To this day I haven't got the slightest notion how the tractor run on just water.
We lived in a comfortable 3 room Prairie house. Something you would see in the TV show"Little house on the Prairie"

We build a wind power tower for generating our own 32 volt power, which served us well, along with a battery powered radio and a wind up gramophone.

Here we bought our first car, from a auto mobile dealer  in Killam, about 15 miles from Kinsella, a 1936 Blue Ford coupe .
It was a 2 door car with a upright, manual 3 speed gear shifter, which worked with a clutch of course.

On our first sunday, off from milking we went for a ride in our car with the family of course.
There were not many places to go and see at that time 1953, so we went for a sightseeing tour in the neighbour hood. We found ourselves on a country road with a steep hill on the left , that sloped towards the river .
And on the right sight a deep ditch.
Suddenly the car would not respond to the steering wheel and went off the road, fortunately to the right into the ditch, instead it could have gone towards the river. We did have brakes on the car of course. But I suppose I could have panicked , and don't really know what I would done.
Lida hurt her knee on the dashboard, of which today she still has the mark, to prove it.
At that time the dashboard was made out of metal . The children were fine, thank God ,as our speed was about 5 km per hour.

In about 15 minutes a man , leading a horse came upon the scene.The family had seen the car skidding into the ditch and dispatched help to us. Lida hit the dashboard with her knee, and still has the mark showing on her knee.
The dashboards in our 1936 ford was metal, as were all the dashboards in the then manufactured automobiles.
The horse had a harness on with a rope attached. We tied the rope to the fender and pulled the car out of the ditch.
I had crawled under the car and found that the tie-rods, assembly had fallen out of its location, because the top nut holding it together had come off, which made the steering wheel non functional.
With bailing wire from the farm I tied the reassembled tie rod , without the nut, which did not function very well with the bailing wire of course. We drove the car to the farm and had tea and cookies. We drove home carefully and stored the story away until now.

As soon as possible, after completing my contract with the department of emigration got a job with the department of Highways in Alberta to lay out new roads for the department. This was my very first job as a Engineer in my life. All the surveying I had ever done,was on the grounds of the university in the Netherlands. I was a fast learner, you had to be (in order to be to keep your job) . I did all the things you did on a surveying crew , from sharpening stakes to taking readings and plot it out later in the office.

I worked for a while in Edmonton Alberta for Mix Brothers construction,construction a airport and military barracks , about 100 miles outside of Edmonton. The Nanimo airfields . Roads , underground services , sewer and waterlines etc.
We purchased a home in Beverley Alberta. At that time it was a small hamlet just outside the city.

From there we moved to a nice little town as town engineer, then to Fort Saskatchewan , doing the same thing. That too has become a large town.The old downtown as we knew it , has fallen into disarray and has expanded across the highway, to become the new modern Fort. I dabbled for a while in door to door sales in my spare time. For one year I went at it full time and traveled the exhibition circle in Canada , setting up exhibitions at the annual shows,starting in Victoria, British Columbia ,ending up in Toronto, Ontario, just outside the town of Milton were we moved with the family.

There I went back into construction engineering .First with Godson Construction in Toronto then with Sherk Construction in Port Colborne .Then as an engineer with the township of Trafalgar, which was annexed by the town of Oakville.
While supervising an installation of Concrete 24" diameter water conduits, I was approached by Canron Inc , to come and work for them, where I stayed for almost the time of retirement.

We purchased a big old (1850) farmhouse, just outside the town of Milton, with 17 rooms, six bedroom , one bathroom , and a large basement, water was supplied from a dug well, which we disinfected about twice a year with bleach.
Nobody got sick on account of the water.
We had a large vegetable garden , raised rabbits and chickens , and all our children remember it as a great place to live. Its gone now and a go-rail station is in its place.
The Ontario department of Highways was building their part of the trans canada highway ( highway 401) and the contractor severed the underground water courses and dried up many of the wells in the Milton area, ours was one of them.

With a friend of ours Peter De Graaf, we cleaned out the well , and dug it another 5 feet deeper .
The well was 31/2 feet in diameter 30 feet deep. the bottom 8 feet was wood planking, and the top part was brick .Covered with large heavy planks.
Peter worked in the well and I pulled up the 5 gallon pails, first the deb re accumulated over the years and, and later earth to make the well deeper. We primed the well with a 1000 gallons of city water,brought in by truck and held our fingers crossed if the well would reactivate . It did and we had water again,which is something to be thankful for. If you see and read about some

At that time I worked for the Township of Trafalgar,which later was absorbed into the town of Oakville .as Inspector for the Public Utilities Commission' While installing a 24 inch concrete water conduits, I met the then president of the company that manufactured the conduits. He hired me on the spot, and for a long time I worked for Canron Inc, Originally Canada Iron Foundries, until the company, after 150 years in business went through a rough time, and sold all their divisions , and disappeared.
In the meantime Jim and Lida had opened a hobby and craft store ,( Langcraft ltd) which they operated together with the children for several years in the town of Georgetown Ontario.

 

     For the last 20 years Jim has been busy with stained glass, but has now taken up digitizing to compliment the embroidery from Lida. Jim used to work with the beta version of Uli's cross stitch and of course the PE-Design.whch is Brothers version for making embroidery patters now up to version 8 . Some time ago we got the Turbo cross cross stitch program. It is a terrific program to create cross stitch designs. We have been working with it for some time now and , of  course all the cross stitch design on this web page are done in it.
A Excellent program to work with for any kind of machine embroidery is the Embird software made by Balarad in Europe. A 30 days , fully operational trial version is available for download from their site.

Lida in addition to embroidery is also a avid quilt er and loves to do paper foundation piecing, using a paper foundation pattern to create quilts. A excellent source for this is Electric quilt.
      Lida uses two different machines a Bernina 1080 and a Brother Innovis 1000
We buy all our sewing supplies and the machines from   Triangle Sewing   in Guelph, and by the way they have many great classes advertised at their site at the moment, go take advantage of it, if you live in the Guelph area in Ontario .They employ great teachers there,and the owners Nick and Nancy are a pleasure to deal with.
    Jim has also been busy making web pages for favorite organization the Guelph /Wellington Seniors Association.  If you live in that part of the world , join it.   Its a fabulous meeting place with many activities for active living. 
And http://www.sos-guelph-wellington.ca   an organization devoted to elder abuse. Have a look at their web sites.

 

If you like to search the world for you family, or purchase a program to help you do that click on the box below

 

 

Click on picture to see the full size

The crest you see here is a combination of the town of Langedijk and Woudenberg in the Netherlands. We adopted it as our own. And we like it , so There!! The town of Langedijk was famous for its vegetable market. Its a unique way they sell the product. They all bid on the item for sale until they have reached the highest bid . Then the price of 1 guilder is displayed on the clock . The clock Will turn like a wheel of fortune. When ever someone pushes the button - the clock stops- and whatever is shown on the clock that will be added to the price and he or she is the buyer.

 Copyright Notice
All designs displayed on this web site are copyrighted
By Aries design
You have permission to use these designs on items for gifts or for sale.
If you use any of my designs I would appreciate a little note on the item saying (Designs Jim Langedijk)  

 

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