NZ Filbruns

Home to Lewis Pass

August 16, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

While my sister-in-law was with us for the past month, we took a trip to the north part of the island. With snow on the mountains, the scenery was spectacular as we traveled toward Lewis Pass! This first picture doesn’t do justice to the depth of this valley. We always love seeing this scene.

I don’t know what this building was, but it’s rather picturesque.

This ridge parallels the road between Waiau and Rotherham for a couple of miles, then there is a break, and then another ridge is along the road for the same distance.

Mountains on the way up to Lewis Pass.

A snowplow headed up into the Pass. We followed him for awhile, and then he pulled off and let us pass him.

On the west side of the pass! We went north from Springs Junction, and I was amazed at the range of mountains to the west of us, on the other side of the valley we were driving through. They were so rugged, with sharp tops!

July Pictures

August 15, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

When the seed catalog arrived, the boys had fun poring over it and making out their wish lists. I let them order what they wanted, so we’ll be trying a couple of interesting things this year. This is Mr. Handyman and Mr. Intellectual.

We have sausages every Sunday evening, and Mr. Imagination loves to put them in the baking dish for me.

One chilly day, Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination were soaking up the sun on top of the barbeque between the house and garage. Mr. Sweetie hid from me.

Mr. Inventor’s newest trailer—a local man helped him weld it with his MIG welder—now my boy is saving for a welder like that!

A beautiful morning on the way to church, with the Kaikoura range covered with snow.

Afternoon music at church—two ladies playing while other people sing.

We stopped on the way to church to watch some dolphins jumping. Then, we saw this kingfisher, and then noticed a whale (probably humpback) just offshore! We couldn’t get a picture of it, but sure were thrilled to see it!

This intense chess game between Mr. Intellectual and my sister-in-law lasted three hours! Finally, Mr. Intellectual won.

Winter chicks! We had two hens decide this winter that they wanted to set, and the first one hatched out five babies that lived. The other is still setting, but she won’t have more than a couple, if they hatch at all. She kicked most of her eggs out, because the boy who set her forgot she needed a nest and just put the eggs on the bare floor. Oops.

A friend of our boys spent a couple of nights here, and they had great fun. Here they were Indian wrestling. The point was to flip their opponent over.

They also did a lot of arm wrestling.

Mr. Imagination and Mr. Inventor were sick one Sunday morning, so I kept them home. They enjoyed building their own lunch.

Little Miss Seven Months

August 14, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Will someone please tell me where the last month has disappeared to? This little girl is already seven months old! These pictures have been taken over the course of the entire month—warning, there are a lot of them. My sister-in-law from America has been here with us for a month, and we took a trip, so I have an incredible number of photos to share here. She left yesterday, so maybe now I’ll have time to post again. To start out, here is our little charmer. This first picture shows her reaction to a strip of green pepper a month ago: She hated it! After a couple of tries, she wouldn’t even touch it anymore.

Checking out a sleeping bag.

Peekaboo!

I finally found the doll that one of my sisters-in-law made many years ago when Esther was a baby! She made matching dresses for the doll and Esther. This baby has been wearing the dress, but I couldn’t find the doll until I cleaned the boys’ room a few weeks ago.

My two daughters.

On the road: she has discovered the joys of carrot sticks…

…and shells. This was at Farewell Spit.

Enjoying the sun and grass at Cape Farewell.

Vehicle problems meant that most of us spent several hours one day at a beach. One way we entertained ourselves was by taking photos!

Little thief! She stole her big sister’s apple!

With Mommy at Split Apple Rock.

Back home again—she’s now crawling, which means that she can clean out the cupboards! Watch out, world. How do you like that innocent expression?

She’s also pulling up to anything she can get her hands on—usually so she can taste it!

Mommy’s plate and spoon are good, too.

Yesterday morning, the children put the tray on her Bumbo so she could eat a banana. She sure made a mess, but loved the new flavor.

A Lesson in Elimination

July 31, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Over a year ago, my children made this movie. Esther never got the bloopers put together until a few weeks ago, so I never posted it here. Now I finally have her permission, since the bloopers are ready, so enjoy! This movie was taken at the last house we lived in, by the way. Here is the real movie:

These are the bloopers:

Glue Stick Jack

July 29, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I have some very creative children. Mr. Diligence, last Saturday, was looking at an empty glue stick. After investigating it, he figured out how it worked, and thought it might be able to lift something up. He took it outside and got busy with tools and wood, and after several hours of trial and error he had come up with a jack! He was able to lift things by screwing the cap. He lifted a heavy stack of books and a few other things, but when he tried to lift the couch it broke. He rebuilt it, however, using a different glue stick he found!

Pottery Wheels

July 27, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We recently read the book A Single Shard aloud recently. It is a fascinating story of a village of potters in 12th century Korea. As soon as we finished it, Mr. Inventor wanted to know how to make a pottery wheel. I let him go on YouTube to find some ideas, and then he went out to the junk pile and found this wheel. He found bearings and bolted them together and added them to the wheel. He’s still experimenting; when he saw these pictures, he said, “First attempt, worst attempt!” Apparently, he has something better now. The second and third pictures are closer to what he has now; they’ve hooked a washing machine motor to the wooden disk, but are using a smaller wooden disk. I told him I need more pictures!

Here’s a brief video of the wheel in action:

More of Mr. Sweetie’s Pictures

July 25, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Sweetie took my camera outside again last week. The creek in front of the house, by the road, is finally flowing again! It’s been dry since about October or November. He and Mr. Diligence were playing in it for awhile.

Apparently, Mr. Diligence was clearing a dam of leaves so the water could flow in from the neighboring property.

A selfie.

There is a healthy crop of stinging nettles in the cabbage patch! I keep thinking I ought to cut some and use them…. Supposedly, they are very good for you….

Somebody’s hut.

Mr. Inventor’s Birds

July 23, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Inventor loves birds. He has quite a collection at this point. I sure enjoy them, too! I’ve always liked turkeys; they are such friendly birds, and I like the gobbling. The turkeys and some of the ducks often come to visit while I milk the cow, and one morning I took my camera out to get some pictures. It was before sunrise, so the pictures are kind of dark. Above, you can see Indian Runner ducks (the brown ones), turkeys, and Pekin ducks (the white ones). Below is the Indian Runners. One is half Mallard; her mother was left behind at the house we lived in from 2010 till 2014 by the previous renters. We got a number of offspring from her. This is her last; the boys found the old mother dead a couple of months ago. She was half blind and very old.

The black turkey here is the mother; the white one was hatched by a hen in December. It was an “only child”, and lived in the house for a long time.

This is one of the babies that hatched in November, when Mom was here.

This is the daddy turkey.

One morning while I was milking, the turkeys and Indian Runner ducks were all where I could see them. A duck chased the smallest white turkey, who ran—and then turned around and chased the duck. The next thing I knew, the whole flock of turkeys took off after the flock of ducks, and the ducks ran! It was very funny; I sure wished I had a video camera handy!

Evening Antics

July 21, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One evening the little boys were playing church just before bed. Mr. Imagination used these two stools.

Mr. Sweetie was preaching from the tall stool, and then Mr. Diligence took his place.

Mr. Intellectual was at his usual occupation. (I’m enjoying having a child who is as much a bookworm as I am!)

Mr. Inventor was enjoying his baby sister. This is one of the best pictures we’ve ever gotten of him—he has a hard time putting on a natural expression.

Cleaning the Garage

July 19, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The first of June was Queen’s Birthday, a holiday here. We spent the day doing things around home; in the afternoon I cleaned out and organized all four chest freezers. Gayle and Mr. Handyman finished fixing a big set of shelves we were given, and cleaned out a space in the garage to put them in.

I store clothes in these plastic totes, and we sent them out to the container.

The finished shelves, in place, and filled up with our pumpkins!