Activities at Home

Traveling in January (and the canoe)

February 1, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

We had several visitors from other places in January. Practically every time someone comes to visit, we take them to Pancake Rocks. I ended up staying home from the last two trips there; I have a baby who does not like to go away from home, so I stay here and prepare meals.

The first visitors for the month were two young men and their sister. Gayle and the children took them to Pancake Rocks on New Year’s Day. They stopped at the Brunner Mine first; this is the Grey River from there.

After checking out Pancake Rocks, they went to Punakaiki Caverns. It’s apparently very beautiful! I’ve never been there myself.

They also took the Truman Track down to the beach. I have been there! Here are Mr. Diligence and Mr. Intellectual climbing a rock.

Our other visitors arrived towards the end of the month. This was two young ladies Esther’s age from Germany. Esther took several trips with them. The first trip was to Pancake Rocks; I didn’t save any of her pictures. Later that week, she, Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie went along to the glaciers with them. Here they are walking up to Franz Josef.

They also went to Fox Glacier, but couldn’t drive up as we did the last time. In fact, the road on both sides of the river that goes away from Fox Glacier has been washed out from the record-breaking rainfalls we’ve had this year. They walked up the road on the side away from the glacier; it’s closed to vehicles because of the slips. They walked a total of two hours there!

In between trips, the boys took the German girls down to the creek and gave them a ride in the boat.

Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Imagination, and Little Miss enjoyed the water and mud!

Esther and Mr. Sweetie also went with the girls to Arthur’s Pass. They stopped at Lake Brunner on the way.

This is a waterfall on the Millenium Walk, near the visitor’s centre.

These pictures were taken at the Devil’s Punchbowl Falls.

We have enjoyed having visitors!

Now that we’re home for a Saturday with no visitors, however, this happened:

The canoe has been sitting for the past year, waiting for the fibreglass. Mr. Intellectual got the sanding done awhile ago, and he patched up the holes. Now, the fibreglass is on, with the first coat of epoxy. Doesn’t it look good?

Videos of the Children

January 22, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The boys were using their forge one day, and Esther took some video clips to send to a little boy who had just broken his leg. She put the best ones together here so Grandma can get an idea of what they are doing.

These are just a few cute video clips of what Miss Joy was doing in the latter part of December. We’re enjoying her so much!

She had just found her feet when I took this video, and while I was taking it she got her toes into her mouth for the first time! That was three weeks ago; now, every time she’s on her back her hands go to her toes–until she decides to roll over and get moving.

Photos From December 2019

January 18, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We often have homemade pizza on Sunday nights. Here, Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie are working on shaping the crust, which Esther mixed up.

Mr. Imagination made many fun desserts for awhile, inspired by watching MasterChef. This is apple, banana, and raisins, with custard drizzled over.

Little Miss made this one.

One morning we found a dead tui. We were quite sad that such a beautiful bird was dead, but Mr. Diligence decided to try to stuff it. He spent all morning carefully skinning it and trying to make it look somewhat life-like.

He sprinkled salt inside the skin, then stuffed it with cotton balls and sewed it up.

Little Miss loves to play with her baby sister! For awhile, she lined her up with the dolls. Miss Joy won’t stay put for that now, though—she’s on the move at this point.

Big boys doing press-ups. That’s Mr. Intellectual to the left and Simon to the right.

The boys went down to the riverbed one day to collect willow branches for tomato stakes. They had to cross the creek to get them. Here are Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Diligence.

Mr. Sweetie went along.

Miss Joy is a happy girl!

Mr. Sweetie and Little Miss were pretending to be asleep, and Miss Joy looked from one to the other and back again, trying to figure out what they were doing.

All dressed up for church!

The Day After Christmas

January 5, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

The day after Christmas we went across the road after supper, and played Kubb in the park until dark. It was fun to spend time together that way!

I took a blanket for Miss Joy to lay on. She loves being outside!

Esther tried a mini photo shoot.

Some old equipment is in the park, and Mr. Imagination enjoyed playing on it.

We had some spectacular sunsets from the smoke blowing over from the Australian bush fires. Some days, so much comes over, though, that we can’t see the sun at all.

Christmas Day 2019

December 28, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

Our family Christmas tradition, since moving to the Southern Hemisphere where December is the beginning of summer, is to go on a picnic. Usually, we go away from home somewhere that we don’t often get to, such as the beach. This year, no one felt like going away. We took votes, and all but two of us voted to stay home! We decided to go down to the riverbed below our village and have a cookout beside the creek that flows into the river down there. Gayle and the two little boys went down ahead and started the fire; the rest of us went down when we were ready. The big boys loaded their barrel boat onto the trailer and took it down. We let them off at a place where the creek and road meet, and they loaded our food and other things into it, as the easiest way to get it all to the picnic site. Esther and I then drove on to the parking spot while they floated and poled downstream. Here they come around the bend!

When we were stopped at the ford where we loaded everything into the boat, I let Miss Joy touch the creek. She wasn’t sure about the cold water, but soon loved it!

Off they go! Mr. Diligence laid back in the stroller and had a luxurious ride.

Once we reached our destination and unloaded, the boys went across the creek to cut sticks for roasting sausages.

Miss Joy got to taste a carrot stick—what fun!

Mr. Sweetie broke his arm last week, so he has it in a sling. It’s a greenstick (or hairline) fracture an inch or two below his shoulder, so they didn’t put a cast on it. He’s looking forward to not having to wear the sling next week! It hasn’t slowed him down much, though.

Simon took his air rifle along, so after lunch he boated Esther and I across the creek and we got to try shooting. I never hit the target, but felt better later when he said that he had discovered, after we went home, that the scope was a bit off.

November 2019 Photos

December 14, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

This first one was actually taken in late October. Mr. Intellectual got his Learners License, and that evening he persuaded his daddy to take him on his first driving lesson. Esther grabbed the picture as they were leaving.

Mr. Intellectual built this safe. He watched some YouTube videos on how to build a number lock, and then put it together. I’m not sure what he’s storing in it.

Mr. Sweetie drew this one evening, and then asked if he could take a picture of it.

Mr. Imagination drew this one, and posted it on the wall.

Mr. Sweetie flopped into the wheelbarrow one day as I was coming out of the house, and immediately Goofball jumped up and settled down on him for a nap. She’s quite a goofy cat—lives up to her name!

Gayle brought Little Miss the dolls she had left behind in Michigan in January, when he came home from his mother’s funeral. She is loving playing with them! I didn’t get a photo of it, but one day she had several dolls, as well as her baby sister, lined up in the living room! It was quite cute.

Miss Joy, 3 Months

December 7, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

These first two pictures were taken when Miss Joy was 2 1/2 months old, in early November.

This is her 3-month picture! She loves to taste everything she can get her hands on. When she’s laying down, both hands are up, with one almost always tucked behind her head, as here, while the other tries to stuff something into her mouth.

Her first time in the Bumbo. She likes being able to look around!

She is such a happy baby! She smiles and laughs a lot.

A week ago, I got out this toy that she was given. She likes to chew on it when she can get it into her mouth. That takes a lot of hard work, though.

We had to redo her passport photo for her NZ passport. Here are a couple of the failed attempts.

Little Miss is loving having a live doll to play with!Just for Grandma—a couple of video clips.

October 2019 Photos

November 9, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Here are the last of my photos from October! This year is almost over already—how can that be?

One more bubble picture, from when that was the fad. This is Mr. Imagination.

Gayle and all the children except Miss Joy went fishing one Saturday. They didn’t catch anything except a blackberry vine, and they lost some hooks and the handle of a reel—but they had fun!

Little Miss wanted to dress her baby sister one morning, so I let her try. She discovered it’s a little harder than dressing a doll! Mr. Imagination helped her.

The cow and calf enjoyed the sunshine a few days after the calf was born during a rainy spell.

The boys were trying to make a stack of people. Mr. Sweetie climbed onto Mr. Diligence’s shoulders, but when Mr. Imagination got on, the stack collapsed.

Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination made these fish out of silly putty. The fish are playing with a ball, and the top of the frame is the sea.

Simon bought a new backpack, and Mr. Diligence wanted to try it out. He got Little Miss to climb in, and gave her a ride. She loved it!

This enormous dump truck is used in mining, likely coal mining. It is not licensed for using on the road, so they had to haul it this way.

Mr. Imagination was quite impressed with the length of this potato sprout when he helped his daddy plant potatoes a few weeks ago!

We enjoy watching episodes of MasterChef together, and Mr. Imagination has been inspired to create pretty food. This was a “dessert” he made one morning. He has pieces of banana and orange, and he made a sauce with mashed bananas and cream.

Miss Joy at a little over two months. She lives up to her name most of the time, and is a joy to have in the family. As I type this, she is sleeping snuggled up on my chest.

Some friends gave us a praying mantis egg case. We were fascinated to watch the baby insects hatch! Esther took a video of it, then sped it up 8 times.

Birds

November 2, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We’ve been seeing wood pigeons around here quite a lot lately. They are huge, beautiful birds. For awhile, they were landing on the tiny ends of branches on the neighbor’s tree, just outside our living room window, and eating something on the tips of the branches. There must have been tiny berries; I really don’t know for sure. They would often hang upside down, pecking at whatever it was. One morning, the sun was shining on the pigeon we saw, and I was able to snap these photos.

A pair of plovers nested in the middle of the park across the street from us. The person who did the mowing left a large area uncut around the nest. We were privileged to see the babies the day they hatched—three tiny balls of fluff! A few days later, one of our cats followed us across the road when we went to milk the cow in the paddock next to the park. The cat caught sight of the baby plovers—and grabbed one. Simon took off after her as she raced back home, and was able to rescue the unhurt baby and return it to its distraught parents. The last we saw of the family, they still had three babies, but they seem to have moved on to a safer place.

These birds are more prosaic, but we are glad to have them! We bought 70 day-old chicks in June, and Mr. Diligence raised them. We kept 20 to supply us with eggs, and sold the rest. He wants to try this again next year. He didn’t make a lot of profit, but since he has no other income he’s grateful for even small amounts. We’re enjoying having grass-fed eggs again! It’s been a long time.

Turkeys, Cows, and Projects

October 26, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We have a small breeding flock of turkeys that we kept when we moved here. Last year, we kept the tom and two hens in a run that Mr. Diligence built, and they hatched out 10 babies. After they hatched them, we moved the adults into a small movable pen and let the young ones have the run. We were given some more turkeys after that, from ones we had given to our friends when we moved, so we added the females to our breeding flock. For several months, we discussed what to do with the turkeys for this year’s breeding season. They multiply best when they are allowed to free-range, and the paddock we were given for the cows is a turkey’s paradise. There is open area for them to forage in, and brush in which to find hiding places for nests. We asked the owner of the property if we could put the turkeys there, and he agreed. The next problem to solve was how to feed them, and catch them when we need to. Mr. Diligence built this hut with a slide-out feed trough. It works for feeding them! We were hoping that they would go in when they were fed and we would be able to trap them with the side doors. Unfortunately, they must not be hungry enough for that to work—they don’t come for feeding! We’re hopeful that we’ll get babies in another month, though, as most or all of the hens have disappeared. We’re hoping that they are sitting on nests.

This cat followed us all down when the men took the feeder down. She gets quite upset when she goes so far from home, and keeps yelling at us to turn around and go back!

After the feeder was put in place, the boys carried the turkeys down.

Just a couple of days later, the cow calved. We weren’t expecting the calf to come just yet, because she hadn’t bagged up. He was born nearly two weeks early, and was quite tiny, but very healthy and he’s growing fast. The cow started bagging up within a day after calving, and only a few days later was producing quite well. We’re very much enjoying having milk and other dairy products in abundance again!

Mr. Intellectual got the idea this winter to build us a picnic table. His daddy helped him draw up plans and figure up the timber he needed, and he worked at in in his spare time. We enjoyed one meal outside at it so far, and expect to use it more this summer!

Simon bought this van a few months ago, hoping to fix it up and resell it. The rust needed to be repaired before it is legal to be on the road again, so he got started on that awhile ago. He ground off the rust and repainted it. To do so, he needed to take out the front windscreen. He got it out with no problem…but cracked it putting it back. Oops. That added quite a lot to the cost of the project! He’s learning a lot!