Activities at Home

Boys’ Projects

September 1, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

As usual, Mr. Inventor and Mr. Diligence have been very busy building. I don’t have pictures of all their projects, but they borrowed my camera to get pictures of a few recent ones. Mr. Inventor started this trailer in April, and got it finished a couple of weeks ago. It passed inspection, so is now legal to use on the road. He is very excited—and has already started the next one!

Mr. Diligence was hired to build the box on top of this cage for a neighbor boy’s guinea pigs. He took several pictures so he could write the dimensions on them in case he is asked to build another cage.

Mr. Inventor was given this shed when it fell over in a high wind a month or two ago. He brought it home on his bike trailer! Mr. Diligence took a picture of that, but his camera is lost, unfortunately, so all I have are these “after” pictures. Originally, the shed was just snapped together with tabs, but he put wooden bracing in, and built a floor in it. He’s hoping to sell it soon.

Today’s Big Project

August 28, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I finished a project today that I’ve been wanting to do for several months. We have a couch that is still very comfortable to sit or lay on, but the upholstery wore out several years ago. Before we moved to this house, we sewed a piece of fabric over the seat, but it had to be mended several times and was looking horribly dirty. A few months ago, I got the idea to buy some used curtains and sew a slip-on cover, and I found a matching pair of curtains at a secondhand shop for only a few dollars. Finally, this week, I got started working on the job, and finished it today. It’s certainly not a professional job, but hopefully it will extend the life of this couch for awhile!

Before:

After:

And, so you get a little cuteness in this post, here is Little Miss:

The Last July 2016 Pictures

August 13, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

My sister made this dress and sent it with Esther and Mr. Handyman when they were in America last year. It finally fits her—but now I need to let the hem out! She’s growing fast.

Mr. Intellectual has been making kites lately. He’s frustrated, though, because either we have no wind, or we have too much wind to fly it.

Several of the children went together to buy the game Settlers of Catan recently. We’ve been enjoying playing with it.

Mr. Sweetie took this picture of Mr. Imagination.

Little Miss is a bookworm!

Mr. Intellectual was given a glass prism recently. He’s been having fun making rainbows on sunny days.

I was reading to Mr. Imagination and Mr. Sweetie, and Little Miss decided she needed to be right in the middle!

Little Miss playing at church, in the foyer.

I sorted all the extra clothes recently. Mr. Diligence found this old shirt, which was his for a few years. He was thrilled to find an old favorite, and managed somehow to get it on! It was difficult to get off again.

Last Pictures From June 2016

August 9, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We are really enjoying our kitten. He isn’t as playful as he used to be, but still gets himself into funny places. He also sleeps in very strange positions.

I got a book from the library about the Denniston Incline. One of my boys liked it so well he took pictures of most of the pages in it!

Mr. Inventor and Mr. Diligence go to the dump at the end of our road (a transfer station) every time they can. It’s only open for three hours, three days a week, one of which is Sunday and another of which is Tuesday, our day for going to Dead Boring! They go almost every Thursday, and the Tuesdays that we are home, to search for treasures. One week, they brought me this incubator! The thermostat didn’t work, so I bought one online last week, and plan to try hatching chicks. I’ve never done it before, but have wanted to.

The pot this kitten is sitting in is another dump treasure. Mr. Inventor found the skillet underneath it at the Kaikoura dump for less than a dollar. He has since cleaned it thoroughly with a wire brush and seasoned it, and I’m now using it in the kitchen. The pot is a little harder, and in worse shape, but he’s hoping to restore it as well.

Mr. Inventor made these two knives. He sold the bigger one.

The children playing at Dead Boring. There were a lot there that day!

Our Dead Boring group—even Esther was there that day!

June 2016 Pictures of Our Little People

August 7, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

My computer finally seems to be fixed. We had to send it back in to be worked on again in late June, and when we got it back and set up again, we ran into the same problem as before. I had to install updates one at a time, because it wasn’t handling more than that. Suddenly, the same problem appeared that we had before, with the computer demanding the product key for Windows 8. We uninstalled the update I had just installed, but nothing changed. I contacted the company—again. However, a day or so later, after a couple more restarts, the demand for that key disappeared! The computer is working perfectly again. What a relief. So, maybe I’ll get back to more regular posting…or maybe not. No promises. Anyway, here are pictures for Grandma of the two littlest during June.

Little Miss asked for some yogurt in her bowl. Then, she stepped in it! What a terrible catastrophe!

Little Miss and Mr. Imagination reading stories together.

Mr. Imagination was pretending to be a gorilla.

Little Miss took ashes out of the coal range, and then tried to clean up her mess!

She’s all girl! She likes pretty dresses.

Looking at pictures with big sister.

Playing at Dead Boring (homeschool group).

Esther’s boss gave the little ones a toy lawn mower. Little Miss claims it for her own.

Helping Esther make snickerdoodles.

It’s a Bull!

July 28, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The calf has arrived! As I said in yesterday’s post, our cow was looking very close to calving last evening. Mr. Handyman checked on her at 6:00 this morning, and nothing was happening, but I went out a few minutes before 8:00, to find her laying down. As I feared, she couldn’t get up. She has a history of milk fever, which is a sudden crash in calcium levels in the blood, so I knew what the problem was. Normally, this happens a day or two after calving, but this cow has gone down while she was in labor before. So, I called the vet as soon as they opened at 8:00, and he came out within half an hour. He gave her calcium intravenously, as well as a drench, and a few minutes later she was on her feet. We kept a very close eye on her all morning (one of the boys had trouble focusing on school—he’s still not done!), and at 1:00 the exciting news was shouted around the house that “something” could be seen. By about 1:45, we were excited to have witnessed the birth of a beautiful little bull calf. Both mother and baby seem to be doing well, although we need to continue giving her extra calcium for a few days as her body adjusts to producing milk again. We’ve named the baby Speckles.

Proud mama!

I got this picture from the house of the children watching the birth while eating lunch!

The calf’s father was a White Galloway bull belonging to a neighbor of ours. He looked a lot like this one.

Now, for the winners of my giveaway! Dianne was the only one who guessed the right day; she will receive a code for a free Kindle copy of Sweet on You, the first Meddlin’ Madeleine book, by Chautona Havig. Only Dianne and Dannielle guessed that the calf would be a bull, so Dannielle will get Ante Up!, the fourth Aggie’s Inheritance book, also by Chautona Havig. I’ll send you both your codes as soon as I have them. Enjoy!

One, Two, Three!

July 27, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Little Miss is starting to talk quite a lot. She obviously hears a lot of counting, because she frequently says, “One, two, three!” Or, “Two, three, four, ten!” I went to the freezer at lunch time today to get something, and she came over, asking, “Want two-three-four!” She knows the blackberries are in that freezer, and she wanted some. I gave her a few. This afternoon, I was sitting at the computer doing something, and she started counting and then racing to the bedroom, then counting again and racing back. I was able to capture some of her game in a short video.

How Daily Plans Can Change Suddenly (and giveaway news)

July 27, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

First, before I show you how my evening changed suddenly and crazily a couple days ago, I’ll just say first that we still don’t have a calf. If you want to enter my giveaway by making a guess about the date of birth and gender of the calf, go here. If you’ve already entered and want to change your guess, please do. She is looking a lot closer, though—this is how she looked a couple of hours ago (it’s the 27th of July, here, by the way). I’m planning to check on her before I go to bed and again when I first get up in the morning.

Now, back to Monday evening. I had finally gotten started sorting boy’s shirts! The last time I really worked on sorting children’s clothing was just before Little Miss was born, a year and a half ago. It was needing done! So, I had piles of shirts laying around the living room, as you can see here.

Then, Gayle arrived home from work, at about 4:45, with some chickens that a friend who is moving to Australia gave us. Included were three roosters, and she warned him that if they were put together there would be a cockfight. So, I decided that we should probably butcher them right away, and started water heating for the scalding. My boys asked if we could do a few roosters of our own that were ready, and the next thing I knew we were going to do a few old hens and a turkey, too! At that hour of the night, when I hadn’t even started cooking dinner yet! Yes, that’s the kind of craziness that happens here. Strike while the iron’s hot, though. Everyone worked with a will, and an hour and a half later I had this in the kitchen:

I hurriedly threw together some food for dinner, and got started washing and packaging birds while it cooked. By 8:00, I had this:

Yum! I’m so thankful for children who help so well, and for good, clean, fresh meat. Esther was happy that she could change her birthday menu from steaks to roast turkey.

What Day Will it Happen? Contest!

July 17, 2016 by NZ Filbruns 9 Comments

We are eagerly anticipating fresh milk again soon. We’ve been drinking frozen milk since I dried off the cow about the first of June, but it isn’t the same. The cow has started to bag up now, though, so we’re getting excited about having a new calf on the place again–and did I mention, fresh milk? And cream? And butter? We ran out of the frozen butter today and have to use butter from the shop now.

Anyway, I’m having a contest! I have a free copy of each of Chautona Havig’s two most recent books, Sweet on You and Ante Up!, so they will be the prizes for this contest. To enter, please comment on this post or on my Facebook page (with the link for this post) with the day you think the calf will arrive and whether it will be a heifer calf or a bull calf. The cow is due on July 23, and these pictures show how she looks today. (No, it’s not twins; we saw the calf when we had the vet do a scan to confirm the pregnancy in November, and it was definitely just one calf–this cow simply gets huge!) I’ll give one of the books to the person who guesses closest to the right date (or draw from all the right guesses), and the other book to someone who guesses the right gender. The contest closes when the calf is born–sometime in the next two weeks! The book you get will be a Kindle book, but you do not have to have a Kindle to read it. If you have a tablet or a smart phone you can easily get a free app to read Kindle books, or you can read them on your computer. So, make a guess and you may get to read a book by my favorite author!

Acrobatic Baby

July 2, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I spent some time sewing today. The sewing machine is on a table in the little boys’ room. I was sitting at it this afternoon, sewing, when Little Miss came in. She started climbing up to the top bunk, saying something like, “Daddy, daddy, dee dee dee, crash!” over and over. The “crash” was the clearest word, and the one she emphasized. Then, she swung herself down by one hand to reach the bottom bunk. I was able to get a video clip of the last time she did it. Enjoy!