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Spring Gardening

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One of my young entrepreneurs wanted to earn some money this week, so I told him I’d pay him $2 if he prepared a certain bed for planting.  He spent several hours on it last night and today, and now he wants me to inspect it to decide if it’s ready.  I think it is; he may just get a little more than I originally told him!  I’ll check it out in the morning.

In the meanwhile, some of his brothers decided they wanted to earn money, too, so they set to work on some other beds.

I actually got to spend a few minutes working in the garden this evening, too.  I was weeding a bed, and as I was digging up dandelions I realized they weren’t blooming yet, so wouldn’t be bitter!  I brought them in and chopped them into the coleslaw I was making.  We also had our fresh radishes and several carrots the boys found when they were digging up a bed to go with the cabbage and onion I bought.  Yummy!

Equinox and Eggs

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Did you know that eggs can stand on end–without being cracked?  It can only be done twice a year–on equinox, the days that the sun crosses the equator.  That is the first day of spring and the first day of autumn, so around March 20-23 and September 20-23.  Today happens to be equinox, and for once we remembered to try this trick.  It works!  Take a look at these pictures.

About sixteen years ago, someone told my family about this, so we tried it.  I have a couple of pictures of four or five eggs standing on end in our living room.  I remembered that Tuesday morning, so found those pictures and took them along to Dead Boring (writing group), and told the group about this.  Then, believe it or not, I would have forgotten again until too late, except that one of the moms texted me this morning about it!

 

 

Doughnuts

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A few days ago, Esther got in the mood to make doughnuts.  It worked out well because that evening Gayle was away for a few hours at a Bible Study, and I like to do something special with the children those evenings.  She found a recipe for Fluffy Raised Doughnuts in the Basics and More  cookbook that I have.  If you’re interested, here’s the recipe:

Fluffy Raised Doughnuts

2 C water (lukewarm)
1 T yeast
½ C vegetable oil
½ C sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
2 tsp salt
Approximately 6 C flour

Soften yeast in water. Add next 4 ingredients, then 2 cups flour. Let rise 30 minutes. Add rest of flour, just enough to work well with your hands. Knead till smooth. Let rise till double. Lay out, do not punch down or use rolling pin, just pat it out and cut. Let rise again. Fry in hot fat, deep enough so doughnuts float.

We used a jar ring to cut the doughnuts, and a milk-bottle cap to cut out the centers.  We also used whole wheat flour, and lard instead of oil, then fried them in lard because that’s what we have in abundance.  They were delicious!  The next day, she made a glaze and dipped them in, and that was better yet.

The raised doughnuts, waiting to fry.

Yumm!

They were even better with the glaze!

Bed Buddies and Spear Fishing

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Our bedrooms are totally unheated.  During the winter, it is COLD back there!  It never got quite down to freezing this winter, but not too far above.  We’ve learned quite a good strategy for going to sleep in a cold bed, though:  Bed buddies!  Esther cut a sheet into long rectangles and sewed them into tubes, then filled them about half full with wheat or barley and sewed the ends shut.  She made one for each member of the family, and in the evening we put them all into the oven for awhile to warm up.  It’s amazing how a hot bag of wheat at your feet makes the whole bed feel warmer!

Tonight’s boy activity had to do with spear fishing from “boats” on the living room floor.  Earlier, I had been hearing stories about riding sharks.  It seems that you need to know how to swim before you try to ride a shark, because they might flip over and dump you!  The game abruptly ended when I took a picture; the boy you see as a blur in the picture decided he was violently opposed to having his picture taken tonight, so they all decided pictures were taboo and went elsewhere so I couldn’t get another picture!

Dead Boring Bike Hike 2011

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I know it’s been awhile since I’ve put anything on here.  Our keyboard has been acting up for the past two weeks, and it takes twice as long as usual to type anything.  Today was special, though, so I decided to share it anyway.

We are part of a homeschool writing group called  Dead Boring.  Every two weeks during school terms we meet at someone’s home and the children  each read a story they’ve written.  We eat lunch together, and then the children play with their friends while the moms fellowship.  This group has been an incredible blessing in our lives here.  We also do a few fun things through the year, and today was one of those.

We met at Waikari, about 50 minute’s drive south of us, and the children and some adults biked to Scargill, approximately 20 km.  My four oldest all did the entire route, but I drove James partway and then let him out to ride.  I followed along behind him, and enjoyed the beautiful day.  It was a perfect time to get some good pictures of our gorgeous scenery!  The children all absolutely loved the day, although they are very tired tonight.  James actually rode 13.5 km–I couldn’t believe he went that far on that little bike!

The scenery between the highway and Waikari was incredibly beautiful!

Coming over the hill to Waikari.

Everyone ready to take off!There’s one of my boys!That’s a wattle tree in bloom.Such a beautiful day!  There is the determined rider I followed.

 

Lots of lambs!

My bored passenger!Sheep in a yard.

 

Some farms have signs at the end of the lane with their name on.

Young bulls

I thought this hedgerow was interesting, with alternating shades of green.

New Zealand flax

That’s a row of gum trees in the middle

Concrete water tank

Sunday Afternoon

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We got home from church a little earlier this afternoon than most Sundays, and I realized that the entire family was sitting around the living room doing their various things.  What a special little time together!

Studying for a Bible Study later this week.

These guys were playing with the walkie-talkies.

Gore Bay

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Yesterday the children got the dishes done and the daily housecleaning done in a hurry, so I took them to the ocean.  We only have about a 15-minute drive to Gore Bay.  We spent about an hour there.  It was too cold to play in the water, so they played in the sand while I read stories.  The waves were really high yesterday, and we got to watch a few surfers for awhile.

We go through a range of hills to get to the ocean.

Just before we get to the ocean, the road runs along this cliff at the edge of the most gorgeous valley.

Driving through Gore Bay village–houses to the right, ocean to the left on the other side of the dunes, water’s-edge cliffs ahead.

Down at the beach! Tide was about halfway out when we got there. This is looking south.Looking north along the beach, after we went back up the cliff to where the van was parked.

The Most Beautiful Drive to Church in the World?

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We are convinced that we have the most beautiful route in the world to travel to church.  We decided to get some pictures of the highlights along the way, and the weather today cooperated beautifully–bright and sunny on the way in the morning, and clearing again on our way home.  We travel about 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) from Cheviot to Kaikoura every Sunday, and it takes us about an hour.  The route varies from rolling hills to rugged hills to seacoast.

Our heifer in the neighbor’s paddock down the road, with her friends the cow and horse. Mount Lyford is visible off in the distance.

A close-up of the last scene.

As we reached the end of our road we saw another neighbor moving steers down the road.

On the next road, we saw a farmer moving his sheep and cattle to new grazing.

Snow-capped mountains beyond Saint Anne’s Lagoon, beside Highway 1.

The view as we travel down Highway 1 between Cheviot and Parnassus.

The Waiau River.

Snow-capped mountains peeking over the lower, closer hills.

The Leader River.

Hills along the Conway River, heading toward the Hundalees.

In the Hundalee Hills.

The road is quite curvy in the Hundalees!  

Going up the steepest hill.

Over the top! We’re heading down towards the ocean now.

Looking up the Oaro River valley.

Our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean for the day; Kaikoura Peninsula in the distance.

Barney’s Rock

The railroad parallels the highway, which runs along the seacoast.

The beautiful, rocky, Kaikoura coast.

This part of the route has a lot of curves, too!

The road goes through a set of tunnels twice.

At last we come out to where we can see snow-capped Mount Fyffe, towering over the coast.

The mountains going away from the sea.

What a view these dairy cows have!

We made it to Kaikoura! Coming down the hill into the town.

We are now on the street the church is on. The trees are Norfolk Pines.

We have arrived! The cement block building to the left is our church.

Four hours later…we came out to see snow on the hills at the end of the Blue Duck Valley!

Snow was still falling in the Blue Duck, beyond Mount Fyffe.

Heading back south…this is South Bay, on the south side of the Kaikoura Peninsula.

Last year in September, the mountainside “slipped” here, burying both the railroad and the road, and going 40 meters out into the sea. They estimated that 5,000 truckloads of debris were removed, and the road is quite a ways farther toward the sea than it was originally.

Back into the Hundalees.See the road off in the distance? That’s where we’ll be in about two minutes.

The Conway River. The yellow-flowered tree to the right is wattle.The Waiau River again.Gayle’s favorite spot along the route–a deep valley beside the highway.At the turnoff from Highway 1 to our place.Home again!
So, what do you think?  Do we have any rivals?  I’d like to see your route, if it’s anywhere near as beautiful as ours!

Clay

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The boys found clay out in one of the paddocks this week.  Actually it’s been there for a year or so, ever since our landlord drilled a new well for irrigation.  Yesterday they brought some over to the house and started molding things from it, and they really got creative today.  Simon wrote his story for our homeschool writing group meeting Tuesday, tonight, about making a clay cup.  Here are just a few pictures of their creativity.  It has kept them occupied for literally hours!  They end up a mess, but it washes out.

Two planters Simon made me.

The pottery workshop, with three potters busily at work.

A pot with three feet. He made a lid for it next!

South Bay

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Today on our way home from church we stopped on the south side of the Kaikoura Peninsula, called South Bay, to fill a couple of jugs with seawater.  The rocks there are extremely jagged, and the layers are at various angles, some curved.  What a fascinating sight!  There wasn’t much sea life, although I did see a lot of sea anemones open.  The tide was coming in, and the water came obviously higher during the half an hour we were there playing on the rocks.  The bigger boys were wearing their crocs, so they were able to walk in the water.  Joe wanted too, also.  Even though he had his church shoes on he ran through the water when we weren’t watching.  We must find his crocs and keep them in the van!