After leaving church late Sunday afternoon, we went to South Bay, intending to stay about an hour. The boys were playing at the edge of the water as the tide was going out, and we were watching them while Esther took pictures, when some acquaintances came along on the boardwalk/bridge above us. We ended up talking to them for a long time, and stayed a total of two hours! The boys, especially the two littlest, enjoyed themselves immensely and didn’t mind staying while we talked.
Throwing rocks.
Good thing we had extra clothes along for the two youngest!
It’s hard to get such a good picture of this boy!
Not hard at all to get a good picture of this one.
Snagging driftwood to make a bridge from one rock to another.
Sea anemones
Shags
Plums and Peas
Yes, I’ve been absent a long time again from here. The owners of our new house had a couple of plum trees that they offered us, so we picked them over the past two weeks. I bottled a lot, froze some, and cooked a lot down for juice and fruit leather. Yum! 
A local farmer, cousin to our current landlord, raises peas for seed. He called us a week ago to say that we could pick what we wanted for eating, from the edge of the field. We spent three days doing peas from there, picking a couple of bushel a day, then shelling them all, and blanching and freezing. I just finished blanching and packing the last ones while I got all these blog posts up. I use a large steamer to blanch them, putting them in boiling water for 1.5 minutes, then set the steamer down in cold water. Then, I drain them and put a kilogram of peas in each bag–that’s about what we eat in a meal. During the 2 minutes or so it took for the water to come back to a boil each time, I was able to work on blog posts. We have a total of 44 kilos for the freezer–it is so nice to have them for all winter!
This is how Mom shells peas! I read aloud while we shell them, to keep the crew happy and busy. This little fellow had just fallen asleep on me, and ended up in that position for awhile!
The final product.
Tandem Bicycle
A few Sundays ago, we were filling the van up with diesel in Kaikoura before heading home, and there was a couple there with a tandem bicycle. Apparently, Mr. Inventor studied it closely while we were there, because the next day he started building one of his own! He cut apart two or three junk bicycles and started putting the pieces together. He’s stalled right now, waiting for his daddy to do some welding for him. We’ll see if it goes any further, but I was enjoying the initiative and inventiveness–and he’s learned a lot about fixing bikes from this!
January Pictures
Just some miscellaneous pictures my two chief photographers and I took recently.
The older four boys are participating in the local library’s summer reading program. That has gotten the two littlest quite interested in books, too.
The day before, and the day after, New Year’s Day, two hens each hatched 11 chicks out of the 12 we had put under each of them three weeks before. We gave all 22 chicks to one of the hens, and she is taking superb care of them.
We rarely see dolphins on the way to church, but one recent Sunday morning they were up very close to the shore. I was glad we were early so we could stop and watch them for 10 minutes. That’s a Whale Watch boat just beyond the dolphins. It is a little hard to make them out, but you can see splashing where the dolphins are jumping.
The boys are weeding the garden for me this summer. They are each required to pull a bucketful a day, and show me before they dump them. To ensure honestly, they have to stand on them in my sight!
Looks like he likes summer!
Is your book more interesting than mine?
Little brother watches closely to see exactly how big brother does things, then does it himself!
More Pictures from the New House
Esther walked home from the new house one afternoon a few weeks ago, with her camera. I love some of these pictures she took!
This little guy accompanied his sister on her walk home. He got to carry the snack!
The railroad tracks are about half a mile from our house. This is taken from a road bridge over them.
Naptime for the toddler!
The new part of the kitchen is progressing!
Baptism
Our third boy, Elijah, was baptised the Saturday after Christmas, after realizing his sinfulness and need of a Saviour. What a joy to see your children taking that step! We gathered near the mouth of the Hurunui River, and after a short meditation on baptism and salvation, Gayle had the joy of baptizing one of his children (the third time he has had this privilege!). A number of our friends gathered for the occasion, and then came to our house for a shared lunch. It was a very special day, and God gave us the gift of a dry hour or so in the middle of several days of rain, just while we were at the river!
Playing on the cliff afterward!
Rain
One afternoon, the end of December, we had a furious rainstorm blow in suddenly. It only poured for half an hour or an hour, but we got quite a lot of rain in that time. One of the boys was out in it for half a minute, and you can see from the picture how soaked he got! The wind was from a direction that pushed the rain up under part of the porch roof, and we had a waterfall on the porch!
The gutters could hardly keep up with the downpour.
My Newest Favorite Movies
Our children made a couple of movies last week. I enjoyed them so much that I want you to have the opportunity to see them, too. I know some of you already have, but for you others–enjoy!
More of the New House
If you’re interested, here are more pictures from our new house.
“Rabbit Hill”–this is what we see when we look out the north living room window.
Panoramic view from the top of “Rabbit Hill”. Our house is down at the extreme left of the picture.
That’s me, in the van, coming with lunch for those who went earlier.
Looking from the top of the hill, past our house, to the hills beyond.
The progress in the kitchen so far.
I’m working up a bed along the front of the house to plant tomatoes and basil in.
The house, our van, and the container. The container will be moving; the permanent site is not ready yet.
We can see the train from our new house! This passenger train goes from Christchurch to Picton and back every day.
The story goes that he was pretending to be asleep!
The owner came while we were there yesterday, to start taking out the trees in the paddock we’ll use for a garden. I liked seeing the boys all lined up on the water tank to watch!
He pushed the trees over, then pulled them out and around to a burn pile.
The trees are all down in the garden now!
Catch-Up Time
Just some random pictures from the past month around here.
The youngest participant in the library’s summer reading program!
We removed all the books from our shelves and packed them. He thought it made a nice place to hide!
Not sure what this was all about!
The books I weeded out of our collection–I think he lost his balance as he brought them in for me to sort and list!
The youngest (Nathan) loves to play with toy animals. When I told him it was time for bed, he was holding all three of these ducks, and very carefully set them down. I had to laugh when I saw how they were arranged in order of size, and in a straight line!
We have a cute visitor this week–a California quail!
Our harvest from the garden a few days ago. I have a hard time believing that this is the equivalent of the middle of June in Michigan!
Two of our cuties–numbers 5 and 7 (James and Nathan).