Away From Home

Canoeing

August 25, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Intellectual has been working for a couple of months on building himself a canoe. He flattened some sheets of roofing iron and riveted them together in the proper shape, then built seats and finished the edges. He completed the job one Saturday evening, so the next afternoon, after we had church here, everyone walked down to the river to watch him try out his creation.

The launch!

The canoe started leaking immediately at every rivet.

Dumping out the water was a task which had to be done frequently.

It was also rather tipsy—and the water was cold!

Little Miss and her friends played safely on the bank!

Esther noticed this wood pigeon in a tree.

Simon soon gave up on the canoe and ran home for the boys’ half barrels. The children all had a lot of fun with them and the canoe. Despite the cold water, they played in it for an hour or so!

This was the view up the river from where we were enjoying the day.

Baptism

August 13, 2018 by NZ Filbruns

We were very thankful, a few weeks ago, when Mr. Diligence requested baptism. He had committed his life to the Lord over two years ago, and we have been watching him grow in his walk with God since then. We set the date for the baptism for the 4th of August. We were thankful to have a number of friends present for the occasion. One of these friends shared the photos she took so I could share them here—thank you!

Here is a video of the baptism.

Pancake Rocks

July 28, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We can’t take visitors to Gore Bay now—but we have Pancake Rocks only an hour’s drive away! When some friends came to visit us a couple of weeks ago, we took them to the famous place with its amazing layers of rocks stacked up like pancakes.

Do you see who is driving? Gayle and I rarely drive anymore!

We were standing on this bridge, telling our friend the story of how one time Simon lured people to stand here long enough to get them wet when the blowhole beside it erupted. She said, “If only we could see it blow just once—” and it did! We had thought there wouldn’t be any action that day, since the sea was so calm. There were several eruptions in a row, and then it was quiet again—what a gift, though!

We ate lunch at the visitor’s centre, where there were hardly any people. We enjoyed the peace and quiet, and the beautiful sunshine! Mr. Imagination and his friend reconnected quickly and were inseparable for the whole weekend—so cute! Here, they are playing in a tiny grove of palm trees.

I’m afraid you might see more pictures of Pancake Rocks—just like you used to see a lot of Gore Bay! If you come to visit, we’ll take you there and you can see it in person.

May 2018 photos

June 16, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the rest of my pictures from May. The little boys built this castle in the sandbox one day. Mr. Sweetie found his Ecuadoran flag (from Let’s Go Geography) and flew it from the top turret.

One Tuesday evening near the beginning of May, a car crashed in the paddock across the road from us after a 6-hour high-speed chase. The boys (and some of the rest of us) spent a lot of the next two hours watching the police tracking down the driver, who had taken off on foot, and the tow truck loading up the car, which was escorted by the police back to town. The really amazing thing about this crash was how the fence of the paddock was flung up and over our cow who was standing just inside the fence; the car passed a meter behind her.

On a sunny day, we can see these mountains, the Paparoas, from the girls’ bedroom window. This was a rare clear sunrise, with snow on the mountains.

We find Goofball sleeping in the most contorted postitions!

Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Diligent rebuilding the fence destroyed by the car.

Esther likes to raise bread in front of the stove in the living room. Goofball paid no attention, but Grizzly was very suspicious of it—maybe she could hear the yeast working in the bowl?

Simon bought another car in May, a Suzuki. When the neighbor asked about it, I said, “My son is a mechanic. Need I say more?”

We see a lot of rainbows here! This was one I could see one afternoon from my kitchen window. The end of the rainbow is at the edge of the paddock we use for our cow, where the car crashed.

We spent a weekend in late May in Canterbury, and one of our days over there I took the children to Kaikoura. We enjoyed watching abseilers at work on the cliff faces.

This house surprised us. During a cyclone a couple of weeks after we moved, a new slip came down and filled the house with rocks and dirt! Some of the walls were bulging out.

We also spent a few minutes at Gore Bay, where the boys tried to move a log into the water.

We played on the playground for a few minutes, and Mr. Sweetie climbed his favorite net.

Children, May 2018

June 9, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I took a lot of pictures of my children in May. I braided Little Miss’s hair for the first time! It’ll be awhile before I do it again, though. Her hair is still so short!

Grizzly on top of Mr. Imagination.

After Mr. Intellectual built a bridge for his engineering course one day, Mr. Sweetie built his own version.

Little Miss wanted me to take a picture of her with her baby.

Esther tormenting Goofball.

When we were in Canterbury a few weeks ago, we stopped for a few minutes at Gore Bay. I tried to get a print-worthy picture of the children. The light was wrong, though. In person, this was lovely, but a camera just can’t pick up what the human eye can.

And then, I got these goofy faces!

We tried again at Hurunui Mouth, with a bribe of some feijoas for cooperation. This one turned out decent.

I think we’ll try again sometime.

And, one last picture. This is one Simon needed taken for his apprenticeship. He was supposed to have a picture of himself in his safety gear for doing a job. The job he chose to illustrate involved welding, so here he is decked out for that.

Stamping Mill Video

April 24, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

When I wrote a post, about a month ago, about the day that we explored Reefton, I mentioned that I wanted to upload a video of the stamping mill we saw in action. I finally got it finished, so you can see and hear it working. I have added explanatory text, since it was too noisy to narrate.

Reefton

March 25, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We did something different today. We didn’t have the usual people to worship with this morning, since they are away for the weekend, so we decided to check out a group we heard of in Reefton, a town about 31 minutes drive from us. Because Gayle drives through there on his way back to the other coast for the week for work, we decided to spend the whole day in Reefton and explore some places we were curious about. That way, he didn’t have to drive back here and then go that way again. We figured out a menu for both lunch and tea, and packed everything we needed for a couple of picnics, including a birthday cake for Mr. Imagination, who turned six today. We had to drive the old van, because our in-house mechanic is in the process of fixing a few things on the new van and, due to difficulty obtaining one part, it was undriveable today. We just took it slow and allowed plenty of time, and enjoyed the scenery!

We enjoyed an inspiring service at the little church there, with the eight people who were present, and then brought food inside to add to their shared lunch. We had a delightful hour of fellowship as we got to know them, and then started out to see what Reefton had of interest.

Our first stop was The Bearded Miners, where you can watch a gold-panning demonstration. This man showed us, and a bus-load of tourists, how to tell the difference between fools gold and real gold, and how to find the alluvial gold in river sediments.

Next, we drove a couple of kilometers out of town to Black’s Point, where there is a small historical museum. Mr. Sweetie enjoyed these dredge buckets outside.

I didn’t take any pictures inside, but the man who was volunteering in there today made the eclectic collection of old stuff very interesting. One little tidbit that we gleaned was that, among other gold miners, were a lot of people from the Southern States of the United States. They had lost everything in the Civil War and came here to try to recoup their fortunes—gold was discovered in this area in 1865. We also saw a cash register that was used in this area in the 1800s, which was made in Dayton, Ohio, near where Gayle grew up.

When a tour group arrived at the museum, we went to the end of the road where an old stamping mill is set up. This was the method used to extract gold from quartz rock. I took a video of the machine working; I’ll try to get it up soon. The rock was fed from a hopper into this machine, where a waterwheel turned cogs that made the hammers go up and down. The rock was crushed to a fine sand and when it was fine enough it washed through a screen. The sheet of copper sloping gradually away from the hammers was coated with mercury, and the specks of gold chemically bonded with the mercury, while everything else washed away. Some bits of gold were still bonded to the quartz, however, so there was a mat in the trough just after the copper sheet. Heavy particles got caught there, and every so often that mat would be rinsed off and the stuff caught in it was put in the large metal pot in the next picture. There was mercury in the bottom of that, too. As that pot turned around, a grinder of some sort pulverized the particles that were put in there, and eventually the mercury at the bottom would bond with the gold particles. After several days, they would run water through that until it ran clear, and then harvest the mercury/gold alloy from the bottom, and also scrape the copper sheet clear. Then, they would pack that alloy, which was the consistency of putty, into a cast iron retort and heat it to vaporize and then distill the mercury, so they could reuse it. The gold would be left behind in the retort. This process was used until 1942, when they switched to a system totally different. He said he wouldn’t even try to explain, because it was so complicated.

When we left the stamping mill, we walked around the building and up a trail along this pipe, which used to be used to bring the enormous amounts of water needed to run the mill. Today, they have a plastic pipe buried underneath this one, which is rusted through in many places.

This is one of the largest toadstools I’ve ever seen! That’s a six-year-old’s feet beside it.

The water to run the stamping mill and generate electricity for the lights in the building comes from this creek.

The moss on the trees is unbelievable!

After we walked around a track in Black’s Point, we went back to Reefton. Our birthday boy was quite intrigued by the flowers on this banana tree. There were tiny green bananas, too.

We walked on a track along both sides of the Inangahua River beside Reefton. This town was the first in New Zealand to be lit with electric lights. The track goes past the original power station.

As you can see, it was a rainy afternoon. It was just a drizzle, not a downpour, so we kept going. I took the first of these last two pictures looking downstream from a swingbridge across the Inangahua, then walked on. As I neared the end of the bridge, the sun broke through the clouds and there was a snippet of a rainbow in the river on the upstream side, but it was gone before I got my camera up to take the second picture.

<p>I heard a few good-natured complaints that we don’t get a day off from school, even on Sundays! Everyone enjoyed the day, though, and Mr. Imagination said it was a very good birthday.

Nelson Creek

March 10, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One thing the boys are loving about living here is that there is a good swimming spot just 15 minutes from home, within 10 minutes from Simon’s work. Several times, we have gone to Nelson Creek to go swimming after picking Simon up from work. The family he works for, with whom he lived for six months before we moved here, has gone each time, too, so there are lots of children having lots of fun in the water each time!

The first time we went, there were a lot of people already using the favorite swimming hole, so we went to a bend downstream. Here, Simon is trying to get up into a cave. As you can see in the second picture, he got there, and then Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Diligence got there, too, although it was difficult.

Looking downstream from where I was sitting.

The boys found a long log, and pulled it upstream so they could float down on it.

The other times we went we were able to be at the other spot. It’s still in the sun in the evening, so it’s warmer. There are also steps dug into the cliff face, so they climb up and then jump into the deep water at the base. The splash when they hit the water is tremendous!

Between the two families there are four inner tubes—or were, until Mr. Diligence overinflated one of ours and then it hit a nail! The boys love tubing from the walking bridge just upstream, down past where we sit watching to the bend just below us.

Christmas Day

January 26, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

On Christmas Day, we went to the same beach we’ve gone to the past two years, and had a picnic in our favorite grove of pine trees. The trees make a lovely shady spot, and their needles make a soft, springy floor to sit on.

After lunch, we headed down to the beach. Some of us sat on the shore and watched, and some spent the whole hour or two in the water! We laughed a lot at the boys at times, as the large waves picked up the inner tubes and dumped the boys upside down on the beach, sometimes piling all three of them together! Unfortunately, I didn’t think about taking pictures until just as the tide went low enough that the really funny antics weren’t happening anymore.

I told Simon he had grown a beard, so then Mr. Imagination tried to make one, too. Is it any wonder that I was scooping gravel out of the washing machine the next day?

Here is a video clip showing the fun the boys were having. It was a wonderful day!

Our New House

January 20, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We are buying a house. After eight years of renting, we have finally been able to save enough for a deposit on a house of our own—and that feels good! As I mentioned in a few previous posts, we found a house about six weeks ago that we liked and could afford, and we have finally reached the stage where it’s almost certain that we’ll be getting it. We paid the deposit on it yesterday, and in the next week we’ll sign the final papers. We plan to move in two weeks.

This house is in Ahaura, in the West Coast region. We’ll be about half an hour’s drive inland, so won’t get the torrential rains that the towns right along the coast do. Most of the time, though, there is a lot more rain than here in Canterbury! This year is the exception; they are having a bad drought over there. It’s about 3 hours and 45 minutes from here, so that makes moving rather challenging. We’re thankful for friends who are willing to help us out! I’m planning to make a trip in a few days with the rest of our garden and whatever else we can fit on the load. In a week, we’ll load our shipping container, and two weeks from today we plan to finish the move. So, whatever you see coming through on the blog has already been scheduled—I won’t likely be spending any time here for a little while!

Here are pictures I took of the house when we looked at it in early December. Some of the children stayed home and took care of things while the rest of us went over that time, so I took pictures to let them get a glimpse of it while we were deciding whether to buy it.

This is the door into the laundry and then the kitchen. That’s a lemon tree in the corner, although there isn’t any fruit on it.

The master bedroom. This has an alcove to the right, for a nursery or office.

The closet in the master bedroom.

The view out the door of this bedroom.

There is a big closet/cupboard at each end of the hallway! The hallway is wide enough we can put our bookshelves in there, and do you see the clotheslines? A place to hang laundry on wet days!

Little Miss walked into this room and immediately announced that it was for her and Esther! We do plan to redo the walls soon. Not only are they painted garish shades of pink and purple, the wall covering is an old type that is a fire hazard.

I asked Little Miss which corner the bed should go in. She considered carefully, then announced, “Right here!”

The boys’ room. This needs a coat of paint, too.

The boys love the garage. Gayle stepped it off; he says it is 18 meters long—that’s nearly 60 feet! This carport goes about halfway along it.

The back yard.

Inside the garage.

We need to do some work on the outside of the house, but it’s not bad at all, considering it was built in the 1930s. One thing that was attractive to us was the quarter-acre paddock on the other side of the garage from the house. We’ll put our three sheep in it at first, and a couple of turkeys and a few chickens; next spring we’re hoping to turn part of it into a garden. We’ll be living in town on a half acre, which will be quite different for us country people. We’re hoping to pay off this place in a few years, and then buy something with more land. In the meantime, it will be a comfortable house.