Away From Home

Up in the Air!

May 2, 2022 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

James has spent several days in the last few weeks helping to reroof a house about a block from our house. It is positioned such that we can see it from a few of our windows! It’s fun to be able to see what he’s up to. One afternoon we walked over to have a better look. They had hired a cherry picker to get up to the roof, since it’s so high and steep–the house used to be a church. James’ boss offered that James could take the younger children up in it. Three of them were delighted to have a ride up over the roof and the power lines! James was delighted to take them, too. He had been operating that machine all day, and his boss said that James never stopped smiling all morning!

They went all the way up, but I didn’t get a photo of them at the top. I could hardly stand watching–there’s no way I would want to go up like that! They loved it, though; when Miss Joy got down, she said, “Dat was fun!”

Update on Simon’s House

April 24, 2022 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Ever since New Year’s Day, the boys have been working hard on renovating Simon’s house. His tenants hope to move in in a week, so the pressure is on! The main living area is finished, and we’re working hard to finish the laundry and toilet. The bathroom is finished except for wall linings, which are not coming in–they were ordered over a month ago. I painted the main living area two weeks ago, and spent the last couple of days painting the laundry and toilet. I hope to finish that within the next two days.

Here are a couple of pictures of the living area soon after Simon bought it. First is the kitchen, second is the living room.

This was the first color Simon chose for the trim. It was supposed to be brown! We asked him to buy a darker shade. This worked for the first coat, and then we painted over it with the darker paint. Simon saw it and fell in love with it, and decided on the spot what the outside of the house will be painted: cream with red trim.

The finished walls: first, kitchen; second, living room.

After we got the painting done, Elijah laid the carpet and vinyl, and then the lights were installed and connected.

Soon I’ll post a few pictures of the other rooms we’re finishing. I don’t have any here right now. It’s a lot of work, but the end result is rewarding. There is still a long way to go to finish the house. Simon ordered the roofing iron yesterday, so that will be the next step, and when he does that he’ll insulate the attic space. The cladding needs redone all around, and the bedrooms need to be gutted and redone. He’ll end up with a new house, one piece at a time!

Finally!

April 10, 2022 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Warning: If you have problems with hunting or eating meat, stop right here! There are details you may not want to read or see.

When Simon was about seven, and James was about three (maybe eight and four–I’m not sure), the two of them and a cousin who was in between their ages, who lived on our property, disappeared one afternoon in November. This was in Michigan, and in Michigan, the last two weeks of November are Deer Season. (Maybe that should be in all-caps; it is that important to a lot of people, and the first day is nearly a state holiday!) People who are not hunting stay out of the woods and near buildings during that time, lest there might be stray shots. It can be dangerous to be walking around in the woods or fields during that time. Anyway, these three children disappeared. When someone realized they were missing, both families started searching. By the time we had been looking for 45 minutes, my sister-in-law was about ready to call the police–and then they showed up. They had been out hunting deer behind the woods at the back corner of our 40 acres, over a quarter of a mile from the houses! They were armed with a baseball bat and a stick, and Simon apparently fully expected to bring down a deer. They were totally unafraid, with no idea of the danger that the adults knew about!

Ever since that time, Simon has dreamed of killing a deer. He would love to live off the land, with a hunter-gatherer type of lifestyle. He has gone on hunts with friends half a dozen times since we moved over here, and never saw a deer when anyone in the group had a gun that could bring one down. This week, he went hunting twice with a friend who moved to the area a few months ago and who, importantly, possesses a gun license and a deer rifle. They went out in the middle of the afternoon the second time and searched for likely places to see a deer. After several hours, an hour or so after dark, they gave up and started out, and finally got a possum for their pains. Then they continued on down the road–and saw a deer in the middle of the road! It took a couple of minutes for Simon’s friend to get his gun loaded again, and Simon kept the spotlight on the deer. The first shot only wounded it (they hadn’t realized the gun wasn’t sighted in properly), so Simon took off up the river, following it. He soon caught up and delivered the killing shot. Then, he got to pack it out of there to the car (probably a good thing he had so much adrenalin in his system–it was heavy!) Finally, his dream of bagging a deer came true.

Mr. Imagination was along, since I had gone to town that day, leaving him with Simon, and no one was home to keep track of him. He was over the moon to be a part of this experience.

I love the grin on Simon’s face! The second picture is the Daihatsu–the gutless car that is often scoffed at, but which can go almost anywhere.

Simon brought the deer home and hung it in our carport. The next evening, Little Miss helped him skin it, and then he and Gayle brought it into the kitchen where we boned it out. The friend he went with, and his wife, stopped in while we were working, and he was excited to see that part of the process. The next day, they came back, after we had minced all the meat, and helped turn some into sausage and package it all. We got 34 kg of mince and 5 kg of backstrap from that deer! (That’s about 86 pounds.) It was a young stag, so quite tender and tasty. We had venison sausage patties with breakfast, venison hamburger patties for lunch, and backstrap for dinner. The boys were delighted to get to eat all that meat! Now, Simon wants to go hunting even more.

Half of the bones are cooking in a big pot right now, to make bone broth, and the other half are in the freezer waiting. There was very little waste from this animal, something that makes me feel good about them killing it.

So Far in March….

March 27, 2022 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

We have not taken many pictures this month! I’ll have to be more intentional about taking some if I want to keep blogging. This was a potato someone found in the garden. It weighed an entire kilogram (over two pounds!).

We got our year’s supply of salve started. Packed into those jars is comfrey, plantain, lavender, calendula petals, and a bit of self-heal. We filled the jars with olive oil, and it is currently soaking for six weeks.

Miss Joy was delighted to figure out one day that she could tuck her doll inside her dress. That was her baby carrier!

James signed his apprenticeship papers, and to celebrate, his boss took him to the store and bought a bunch of tools.

Elijah took Mr. Sweetie on a trip to Dunedin to visit friends. They spent a day in Timaru with a friend, who took these two pictures of Mr. Sweetie using a giant slingshot at the beach.

They stopped at Moeraki Boulders, and Elijah caught a picture of Mr. Sweetie balancing this boulder on his head!

Mount Alexander

March 6, 2022 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Elijah went on a tramp with two other men over the past two days. He arrived home last night, tired and footsore, but elated to have climbed a mountain, and the tallest one in the area, at that! He wanted to show me the pictures he took on his phone, so this afternoon we connected it to my computer and I enjoyed an armchair climb up the mountain with him. He’s happy for me to share his photos here, so you can do the same thing! Someday, I want to climb a mountain–but he says not to try this one. He says I wouldn’t handle scrambling over and through and under (yes, he said that! Then he said not really under.) the rocks very well.

I asked Elijah to help me caption the pictures. From here on, all the text is his words.

Notice the waterfall in the distance there?

The mountain you can see down the valley there is Te Kinga, it is a very popular climb right next to Lake Brunner.

The little lake is called a tarn. There were several of them up and down the mountain. A tarn is a small rain fed lake. The water is pure enough to drink just straight.

I found the rock formations fascinating. As you’ve probably noticed, most of these pictures are shrouded in fog. We ascended through fog, but the decent was a lot clearer.

This was the second tarn on on our route. We ate lunch here on the way back down.

This is a glimpse into the Taramakau River Valley.

Another glimpse into the Taramakau River Valley.

Here I was trying to get a picture of something on that ridge in the cloud. That is J to the left.

There were several of these rocks spines around. It almost looks like they’re petrified wood.

This is J again. Notice how the rock has been sheered off flat in the foreground.

These sorts of rock formations were all over above the 1450 meter mark. Right under the peak they were constant.

Sorry about the fuzzy picture. These are three or four tarns in a row off on another ridge of the mountain. We did not visit them.

This is a panoramic view of both sides of the ridge we were climbing up. Off to the left half of the picture are the southern alps.

The only thing we could figure this to be was a mountain grasshopper. Underneath the back legs were bright red patches that you can only see when it hops.

The Taramakau River as seen down a boulder slope. Yes that is the Otira River off to the left.

As you can see, we were right up in the cloud layers.

The picture is a little bit too fuzzy for most people to make out, but that bright white streak at the base of the mountain of to the left section in the picture is the trans-Alpine tourist train. During the summer it generally does a trip over and back every day I believe.

This would’ve been at around 1700 m. Once again it was of the only clear side of the mountain, the Taramakau River Valley.

This is the only patch of snow we found on the mountain that we could walk in . It was pretty solid but we still had a little bit of a snow fight. I decided I needed to get myself in at least one picture.

E decided to cool himself off a little bit while we were at it.

The final summit! We were at an elevation of 1958 m (around 6,000 feet) here. Pictured are some old anchor points for some scientific instruments that has been taken down.

Me in front of the Taramakau Valley, and no, the mountainside isn’t as steep as it looks there.

That’s the Taramakau River valley to the left and a bit of the mountain peak to the other side of the picture.

Yes, it does get pretty steep off this section of the mountain. We were following the ridge line above that precipice, but it was plenty wide enough to make for reasonably safe walking.

These flowers are pretty hardy, being able to grow right up the top of the mountain.

J thought at first at this was something like parsley until he smelled it. Then he decided not to taste it.

Another flower growing near the top of the mountain.

You can’t see it in the picture, but these flowers actually have a slight purple tinge. Sorry about my dirty old boot in the picture.

Another view of Te Kinga (in the middle left of the picture) with Lake Brunner peaking around behind it, and the Arnold Valley to the middle of the picture.

A better view of Te Kinga, Lake Brunner, The Arnold River, and Kangaroo Lake in the right portion of the picture.

That was Te Kinga to the right of the picture this time, the mountains in the left half are right behind Lake Brunner as viewed from Moana.

All in all, this was a wonderful hike, and I would definitely do it again if I had the chance.

Simon’s House

February 27, 2022 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The older boys have spent all their spare time over the last two months working on fixing up Simon’s house. A young family plans to move over here in about a month, and they want to rent the house, but it was unlivable without a lot of work. The work began on Monday right after New Year’s. Our boys and Gayle and the man who is planning to live in the house spent that day gutting the kitchen and living area. They accomplished a lot of demolition in one day. A week later, Simon and Elijah went over the hill to pick up a kitchen Simon bought on Trade Me. The next day, they set it up in the house to see how it would fit. They wanted my input on how to organize it, so I went over and while I was there I took some pictures. These first two pictures were taken after nearly an hour of discussion and poor Simon was saying he had a headache from all the thinking. I got out of there so he didn’t have to listen to me any more. They got busy on other jobs for the day.

The ceilings were very uneven so several of them spent several days putting small boards in between the the rafters to straighten out so the gypboard will be able to go on properly. Before they had even gotten the cupboards they had poured a new concrete floor in the kitchen. The original floor was very uneven and varied 2 inches in height from one side to the other. It was also extremely rough.

The next step was to bring up the living room floor to match the kitchen floor. While they were doing this they added insulation under the plywood between the original floor and the new plywood.

After that they tore out the side wall of the house and framed in a new window and door.

The first Monday of February, I had the chance to stop in and see the progress. It was good to see the new wall frame done.

Wiring was being added to the kitchen and although you can’t see it, they had put in a sliding door to the laundry room, over to the right.

The old window in the living room had been taken out and they were replacing framing in that wall.

Simon took these two pictures yesterday after they finished working. As you can see they’ve been very busy framing and adding the doors, and have added cladding to the house and two sides.

The flowers at that house were very pretty in early January. This is the flower bed along the garage walking up to the door of the house.

Here are close-ups of a couple of the especially pretty flowers.

Children’s Night Out

February 6, 2022 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Something that our children like to do occasionally, since the older ones have full licenses now, is all go out to eat somewhere, leaving Gayle and I at home alone. They don’t do it often, and they don’t get fancy; fish and chips is a favorite. They went to town one evening in January, bought fish and chips, and ate them at a trailhead on a hill above Greymouth. Then, they walked to the end of the track, enjoying the scenery and each other. Esther and a couple of the boys took pictures on their phones, and then I borrowed the pictures.

Left to right: Mr. Sweetie holding the food box, Elijah, Little Miss, Simon, Miss Joy.

The Grey River in the foreground, Cobden in the middle, and the Tasman Sea out to the horizon.

Part of Greymouth

Looking up the Grey Valley. Left to right: James, Mr. Sweetie, Simon holding Miss Joy (who informed me later that she had walked up the entire track!), Mr. Imagination, Elijah, Little Miss.

The Grey River and Grey River Valley

My three girls–Little Miss, Miss Joy, Esther

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.

Then, Miss Joy wanted to do it, too!

Off they go down the track!

Meanwhile, at home, I made a special candlelit meal for just the two of us! It was a very good evening.

Videos!

January 30, 2022 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I was sorting through memory cards this afternoon, and came across a lot of videos I thought some of you might enjoy.

Miss Joy loves to read. When Little Miss was this age, if I would tell her to sit down and read a book, meaning look at a picture book, she would exclaim indignantly, “I can’t read!” In contrast, Miss Joy takes the book and starts “reading” what the pictures are about or what she remembers from hearing the story read to her.

Esther took this video on Christmas Day at the end of the 4WD track where we stopped to eat lunch. Simon had taken his hatchet, so of course he had to chop down the dead tree he saw!

One afternoon, we took a lunch down to the riverbed and ate there, then let the children swim. They had a lot of fun.

Christmas 2021

January 2, 2022 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

For Christmas this year, we decided to go on a picnic at Jim’s Hut, about a half-hour drive east of here, up the Ahaura River. Our boys have been there a lot of times, hunting, and Gayle has been there once, but the rest of us hadn’t seen it yet. I got a picnic ready, and we headed off, in two vehicles. Our van wouldn’t make it up the track, so Simon and Elijah each drove his 4WD. We got almost to the turn-off to Jim’s Hut—and Simon turned off the other way, onto a two-track going into the bush. It turned out, once we got together again and heard the story, that James had heard about this track (at least he thinks it was this one!), and they decided to explore something new! Here we are, following Simon’s Pajero. He wanted to use his kayak in the river, so he had a trailer on behind. These pictures were taken through the windscreen of Elijah’s Rav4, while we were bumping around.

Mudholes don’t faze that truck!

These ruts, however, were a different story. The reason for the blurriness is that we were being thrown around a lot. I think this was a few seconds before we stopped and all piled into the Pajero, leaving the Rav behind. Just ahead, the track got even rougher, with gullies at least two feet deep to navigate. Simon did very well, and the Pajero performed beautifully; I held on tightly!

The end of the line—Simon decided he wouldn’t try going through this creek, because the bank on the other side went up too steeply. The track goes on, but we decided not to walk it this time.

The bush is beautiful back there! I couldn’t possibly record the colors of the ferns, or the cool dampness, or the sound of the rushing water. You’ll just have to imagine!

Simon found a dead tree right away, and his trusty hatchet came in useful. Soon, we were treated to the sight of a tree crashing down into the ravine.

We laid out the picnic on the trailer, and had lunch, then packed up, got turned around, and went back out to the main road.

Finally, we were on the track to Jim’s Hut…and there was a tree across it. Out came the hatchet again!

The Ahaura River in front of Jim’s Hut.

Elijah tried fishing, but when someone is swimming in the same place, it doesn’t work very well. Several of the boys ended up swimming across the river and back.

The boys often take this cage across the river.Some of us walked down to Jim’s Flat. It’s an open meadow surrounded by thick bush.

Looking upstream, to the mouth of the Ahaura Gorge…

…and downstream.

The girls wanted a ride over the river in the cage, so Simon and James obliged.

The kayak made a couple of trips up the gorge.

One more picture… I took this on our way out, going from home toward the mountains. Notice the bales of hay? Whoever mowed the roadsides baled it, too!

Celebrating Simon

December 26, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Simon recently completed his apprenticeship, and is now a fully-qualified mechanic. His boss put on a party this week to celebrate. I had been thinking about doing it myself, but the boss wanted to combine it with an end-of-year party, so that worked out well. The family who run the workshop where Simon works did most of the work for the party, although we had it at another friend’s house. These people have an outdoor pizza oven, so pizza was the main course of the meal. A number of people helped get the pizzas ready to go in the oven. The owner had built a fire in the oven earlier in the day, and then scraped the fire out when it was time to bake the pizzas.

One of the boss’s daughters made the Land Rover pinata, and Elijah bought a race car pinata in town. There was plenty of candy!

They had a lot of fun with the drinks! I didn’t get any pictures of the dessert bar, but the idea was to build your own car, with pink wafers for panels, oreo cookies for wheels, jello for grease, different colors of custard for paint, and other bits and pieces, like nuts and bolts made out of chocolate. There was also ice cream. Some people got very creative, but it didn’t occur to me to take a picture till all the creations had been eaten.

The children had a lot of fun, hopping around in feed sacks while the older children played soccer. Some of them tried to hop up this steep bank to the house with their feet in a feed sack!

Simon has these two certificates as a record of his accomplishment.

It was a great evening, with lots of talking and laughing (and good food!), as well as a time when anyone who wanted to give Simon some encouragement could stand up and give a speech.

Away From Home

Thank you!