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July 2025 Photos

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Here are the rest of the pictures I have from before we left home for our visit to the United States.

A new house is being built in front of us. The man for whom James and Joe work was hired to do the job. One day when they ran out of other work, they started building wall frames. It was pouring that morning, so James threw up a roof to shelter the saw.

By evening of the second day, they had all the frames built and stacked up–and then the boss dropped his nail gun down the stack! Joe was the only one small enough to climb down and get it; the other option was to unscrew the frames and dismantle the stack!

I went out and offered to take a picture of them with their pile.

Simon went hunting one night and got a pig. We turned all of it into sausage meat, and while I was mincing it, the girls used it for playdough. (Hands washed before and after!)

I loved seeing so many of my children lined up one evening, so tried taking a picture. Well, did you know what happens when a flash is used with hi-vis clothing? Rather startling!

I spent a lot of time sewing for the girls in preparation for our trip. I found simple patterns for both their sizes, and had a lot of fun. It’s satisfying to create something pretty as well as useful.

The girls got the Jenga blocks out to play with.

More work on the new house. This was assembling the forms to pour the pad. It was a different system than they have ever used before, and they aren’t impressed with the price. James is at the right in orange; Joe is in the middle with yellow rain pants.

The day I went to town to buy a washer, I stopped on the way home to take a picture of the cloud flowing across the Brunner Gorge near Dobson.

The chicken house that burned down is being replaced! By the time I left, there were walls and rafters, but I hadn’t gotten a picture.

Apparently, Joe was trying out a remote to take a picture from my phone, and he and a visiting friend were having fun!

This is a Bowie knife that Mr. Imagination made. I told him it must remain hidden!

When the Washer Explodes…

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…we must get a new one. Nine years and one month ago, I bought a 10 kg LG washing machine. While it was still under warranty, both pumps went out, at different times, and were replaced. Otherwise, the only problem I’ve ever had with it (besides the filter needing to be cleaned) was that occasionally it would refuse to turn on till I pushed the power button 20-30 times. It was getting louder and louder, though, and four days before we flew to the United States, I was outside hanging up laundry while my second load finished spinning out. Suddenly I heard a terrific crashing, banging noise, and then silence, other than the washer giving its error code signal. I went inside to find this:

Several sides were dented out,

and a hole had been punched in the wall.

I went to town that afternoon to look for another washer. I knew I wanted a 10 kg one, and I wanted direct drive rather than belt drive. There are three shops in Greymouth that might have what I wanted, within easy walking distance, so I parked behind the one I reckoned I would end up buying from, and walked to the farthest place first. The only large washer they had was a cheap Chinese brand. The salesman really talked it up, but I wasn’t confident, from what he said, that it would hold up to our kind of use, so I asked about the drive. It took most of half an hour to find the information, but he finally worked out that it was belt drive. I thanked him for the information, and said I would keep it in mind.

I had taken Miss Joy with me, and as we walked to the next shop, I prayed that God would make it clear which washer I should get. Well, the second shop, which is the most expensive of the three, didn’t have anything larger than 8 kg. On to the last, which is where I was expecting to find something near what I wanted. They had one 10 kg washer, a name brand. I asked about the drive. The lady (a neighbor of ours, as it turns out!) looked it up and found that it is direct drive. I asked the price, bracing myself to hear that it was $2,000-2,500. She replied, “$1,500, down from $2,399.” I said, “I’ll take it.” The only one of these they had left was the floor model, so I took that home with me. We installed it that afternoon, marvelling at God’s provision, and within two days it had washed six loads of laundry–quietly.

Oh, and the fun part of the day? I stopped to fuel up the ute I was driving, which was Simon’s. (He didn’t have any idea I borrowed it to go to town.) While I was filling up, a car pulled in behind me. I glanced at the driver, registered that it was a handsome, clean-cut young man in a plaid button-up shirt–and then did a double-take. It was Simon! He works about half an hour from town, but had a meeting he needed to go to that afternoon. It’s special to bump into a son when I’m in town.

June 2025 Photos

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Here are the rest of June’s pictures! We often see beautiful rainbows toward the south, out our living room window.

One day when we were in town, we ate a picnic lunch at the breakwall. This bird was flying up the river, then swiftly riding the wind back out to sea. I thought at first it was an albatross, but a week or two later we went out to the breakwall on the other side of the Grey River mouth and saw the sign below. I’m guessing that it was a Petrel, instead. It certainly had a different way of flying than the seagulls that flocked around!

This was the view across the river mouth on the second day.

The cows spent a day in the empty section in front of us just before work began on a new house there, and Miss Joy enjoyed watching and photographing them. This won’t happen again; the new owners have moved a caravan in and are living on the section.

Miss Joy

Mr. Imagination has been making a lot of knives; lately, he’s been working on learning how to harden the saw blade steel he uses. He is doing it in the fire in our lounge, and then quenching the blade in oil. The only problem with that? People often kick the oil accidentally.

More Pictures of Birds!

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Mr. Imagination has been working hard to tame his budgies. Now that the weather is cool and we don’t want the windows open all the time, he lets them fly every morning. Reepicheap has become quite tame, and anyone can put a hand in front of him and pick him up. Jewel is still more timid, but Mr. Imagination has been able to get her to sit on his hand quite often lately. All the children enjoy both birds, and I found a lot of pictures on both my phone and camera!

May 2025 Photos

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After spending most of the summer living in someone else’s house, Princess has, for the most part, moved back here. We’re surmising that they are keeping their house closed now that it’s cold. She likes our fire–look at that blissful sleep!

While we’re on the topic of Princess, someone grabbed my phone to document her with her tongue hanging out, and, another time, eating roasted eggshells!

I am guessing this was Little Miss’s breakfast one day. She loves to get creative.

The girls love dressing up as royalty!

Our pumpkin crop was quite good this year. This is about 2/3 of the total.

We took the three youngest with us to visit some friends on the other side of the island, and while we visited after church, the girls built themselves a house with the chairs. They had several rooms.

I found these pictures on my camera–I think someone was thinking of Grandma!

A friend gave us a new rangehood for the kitchen, and one evening James got it installed. It is wonderful to have one that works and isn’t extremely loud!

James decided to grow a beard (he didn’t want to take the time to shave one evening). After a month or two, one of his brothers took him in hand and tidied it up while they were getting haircuts.

Apparently, someone was being given lessons in flying a helicopter with a fertilizer spreader underneath one day; we saw this flying around in circles for a quarter of an hour or so. There is a helicopter company based just up the road a kilometer or two.

Miss Joy

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A common theme in pictures of Miss Joy? Cats and books! They are her two great loves. Esther caught this picture of her studying comics one day.

One day when she was bored, I told her to take my camera and take pictures of the cats. Here are a few of the ones she took, along with some selfies. The cockeyed one was done deliberately so she could get both cats in one frame.

After being stored away from home for 9 or 10 months, the legos have finally come home, and the three youngest are enjoying them. Miss Joy made these vehicles, and then wanted to document them.

She drew this picture one evening, and wanted me to send a photo of it to a friend.

Cats, flowers, the bird…more things that make her happy!

I’m not sure what this was about, but she was dressing up as something. The girls have been doing that a lot lately.

Mr. Imagination

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As I looked through our photos from May, I found a lot that featured Mr. Imagination! He has been very busy. This is a picture he drew on the whiteboard one day.

More of his weaponry! He likes to test his knives by seeing if they will shave, but he ran out of hair on his arm so he got a brother to test it. The hatchet is made from rebar! The crossbow really shoots.

One day, he let Reepicheep watch him practice his math facts. The bird was fascinated with the pictures moving across the screen!

Reepicheep is getting quite tame. All the children enjoy playing with him.

April 2025 Photos

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I have some time this afternoon, so maybe I can catch up with posting photos! I’ll schedule posts ahead to spread them out a little.

We had fun one evening attempting to make Pippi Longstocking-style braids on Miss Joy!

One special evening, we got to attend a graduation ceremony for a number of local apprentices, including both Elijah and James. Elijah actually got signed off in September, but James was only signed off that week! The company who handled their studies invited all the new tradesmen and their families and workmates to a dinner at a local restaurant, and after the meal, presented them with their diplomas. It was quite a special occasion!

We are really enjoying these two budgies! The blue one, Reepicheep, is especially interesting–quite a character!

Mr. Imagination has a new obsession. He makes knives! These are a few of his recent creations.

I missed a couple of pictures of the cat who likes boxes! Here they are. Elijah had his bedroom door in the carport for a week or two to be painted, and Grizzly was delighted to find a piece of newspaper in one of the panels. Two of her favorite things–newspaper, in a “box!” The trailer makes a large box when she can’t find a cardboard one.

Little Miss cracked an egg one day and found a strange “egg” inside it. She decided this needed to be documented!

March 2025 Photos

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I feel like I’m getting very behind with posting photos of our life. Let’s see what I can do today! Gayle took several of the children to the sea one Sunday evening to go fishing with a friend who has a long-line. This was the only fish they caught. Several of the rest of us stayed home and watched The King’s Speech, which is a movie with a wonderful story, but too much profanity for a family movie.

People around here often think of Grandma when they see interesting things in nature. Not sure if you like pictures of big spiders, but here’s one!

Mr. Imagination found this moth at Elijah’s house. I’ve never seen a green moth!

Our chicken coop burned down one early morning. That is a terrible way to be awakened, in case you didn’t know. We lost most of the chicks that were in it (a heat lamp fell down on the bedding), but a few lived. We took the little ones into the house to keep them warm, and the children enjoyed playing with them for a few days.

Gayle took the girls down to the river one day and they had fun there.

This part of the garden was beautiful all summer! I’ve started planting flowers in this bed, beside the driveway. It quickly turns into an overgrown riot of color.

We also had humor in the garden. I have so much trouble getting carrots to germinate that last year, in desperation, I started some in punnets and then set them out. They grew extremely twisted. Esther refuses to use them if she can help it, but they are rather funny!

One of the boys bought himself a set of tools, and they all loved investigating them.

Miss Joy and Little Miss must have taken pictures of each other goofing around in Elijah’s room while they were moving their things from that room back to their own.

The girls showed me this picture, and I thought these were large-scale weapons. Then, they showed me the real thing–they were about 3 inches long, made of dried grass and twigs!

James went to the first auction of his life and got some good deals. He bought these enormous steel beams for only $20! Then, he had to figure out how to get them home. He enlisted several brothers, a sister and a friend, and they spent an hour or so man-handling them onto the trailer. He brought them home overnight, and then got help to unload them at Simon’s house. He mentioned them to some dairy-farmer friends, and they needed beams to build a bridge, so he sold them for many times what he paid, and passed the money along to those who helped him.

We were eating dinner one evening when a pilot vehicle came past slowly. Then another… and then we saw this house pull up and stop at the end of our street! It stayed there for over half an hour while the truck unhooked and went to the trucking yard across from us to refuel.

I went with the boys to work at Elijah’s house one day, and they found an advertisement from Pizza Hut in the letter box. That made Simon hungry for pizza, so they bought enough for the family for dinner.

Renovations

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We saw a lot of renovations happening this summer! Of course, there was the work on Eijah’s new house. Elijah also worked on his bedroom. He started that project last winter, in July or August, and finally got to move back in in March, after the painting was done. I took a few pictures of him laying the carpet. First, the girls had to get their things out! See the walls? He chose to whitewash the plywood he used for the upper part of the walls. The lower part is the original boards that were there, which were covered with a thick coat of yellow paint. He carefully pried them off the wall, then ran them through a machine that James’s boss has which sanded both sides at once, and then oiled them after putting them back on the wall.

Next, he put down tack strips, laid out the underlay, rolled out the carpet on top, and then stretched it in. I enjoyed watching him do what he does every day at work.

Esther got her room painted this summer. A couple of years ago, she touched up some places where the paint got messed up. She used the bucket of paint that was originally used for the room–but didn’t know that a creative brother had mixed some other paint in to it, so she ended up with white squares on a cream wall. She didn’t have time to repaint that summer or the next, so this summer she decided she must get it done. The three girls moved out to our guest cabin for a few weeks, and she painted all the trim, patched and sanded several places where there were holes in the wall (thanks to other renovation projects that punched through), and painted the walls. The motivation to get this done came from finding a set of new curtains at an op shop–she wanted to get them hung, but not until the room was painted!

Miss Joy was delighted to be back in her own room, even though the cabin is very cozy!