Our family's life in New Zealand
The cow needed fresh grass yesterday, so I had my trusty helpers move her. Boys thrive on jobs like that! The cow was very happy when the job was finished.
By the way, all these pictures are zoomed in a long way; the neighbor’s house is not actually very close! My photographer didn’t want to distract her brothers.
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!
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! 
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!
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!
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.
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!
Yesterday was Esther’s birthday, and she requested hamburgers for supper. We happened to find a recipe for Homemade Hamburger Buns on a blog, so decided to try it out. They turned out to be easy and delicious–the best homemade hamburger buns I’ve ever had! We did use some white flour in them, due to a misunderstanding about which bag of flour to use.
We had a “helper” causing all the havoc he could! (He needed a nap.)
We used a jar ring for a cutter.
We made a few into hot dog buns, to try out the woman’s technique. Good, but not perfect.
Everyone agreed these were scrumptious!
I love having all my helpers around–but it’s awfully nice to have peace and quiet at times, too! This morning, Joe got up at 5:00 when I was packing Gayle’s lunch. I don’t blame him; the bedrooms are totally unheated and not much warmer than the wintry out-of-doors; he probably got cold when I left the bed. He went back to sleep on the couch, though, pretty soon, and I had an hour and a half alone. After my quiet time, exercises, hanging laundry in the living room, and computer time while brushing my hair, I was actually able to get three items off the mending pile, and have a bit of time with Elijah, who likes to get up at 6:30-7:00. Now it’s time to get everyone else up and get on with our busy, noisy, (hopefully) productive day!
The activity this afternoon was dicing and bottling carrots. I like to have carrots in jars, ready to dump into soups or casseroles, so when I go to town I often buy a 10- or 20-kilo bag of carrot seconds, then fill jars with them and process for 25 minutes at 10 pounds pressure in the pressure cooker. This morning, Esther and I peeled what was left in the 10-kilo bag we got a couple of weeks ago (I had already used several handfuls). This afternoon, I got started dicing them and had Elijah find lids for the jars. Seth wanted to help, so he filled jars, and then Simon and Elijah started cutting them up, too. James got in on the act before we were done, as well. Seth filled the jars with water for me and put on the lids. I just remembered that we didn’t make sure the rims were clean. Oh, well. If they don’t seal, I need carrots for soup tomorrow anyway. It was a lovely time of working together happily! Gayle was in the kitchen, too; he was preparing some pig’s heads for cooking into brawn (like headcheese). We decided that wasn’t too photogenic, though.
