Esther walked home from the new house one afternoon a few weeks ago, with her camera. I love some of these pictures she took!
This little guy accompanied his sister on her walk home. He got to carry the snack!
The railroad tracks are about half a mile from our house. This is taken from a road bridge over them.
Naptime for the toddler!
The new part of the kitchen is progressing!
Away From Home
Baptism
Our third boy, Elijah, was baptised the Saturday after Christmas, after realizing his sinfulness and need of a Saviour. What a joy to see your children taking that step! We gathered near the mouth of the Hurunui River, and after a short meditation on baptism and salvation, Gayle had the joy of baptizing one of his children (the third time he has had this privilege!). A number of our friends gathered for the occasion, and then came to our house for a shared lunch. It was a very special day, and God gave us the gift of a dry hour or so in the middle of several days of rain, just while we were at the river!
Playing on the cliff afterward!
Work Begins at the New House
I knew I’ve been neglecting this, but didn’t realize it’s already been nearly a month! Can you tell we’ve been working at the house? That’s where we go when we can spare some time at home (which isn’t often, as it turns out). We’ve been over there two days a week, so far. It’s a good thing we can’t move in for a few weeks yet–it will take that long to get the place cleaned up! Here are a few pictures of what’s happening so far.
This is the driveway.
The cattle stop has a big plum tree growing through it!
Our shipping container/sleepout.
The audience watching the container being unloaded included these curious girls.
The overgrown house, from the north.
Looking toward the house from the gate at the road–south side.
Inside the container.
Some trees have been taken out.
Now we can actually see the back of the house!
The path from back of the house to the road. The footpath is totally over grown, so we’re working on uncovering it.
My favorite feature in the kitchen–a wood cook stove!
View from the kitchen window. This is the only countertop space so far.
Gayle is remodeling this area to make more countertop space. There was a space here for a frig and chest freezer, but it was too short for modern fridges.
One whole wall of the kitchen is cupboards!
Dead Boring Concert 2013
Our children participated in the annual Dead Boring Concert on November 2nd (for those who don’t know, Dead Boring is the name of our homeschool writing group). They sang two songs; I’ve included the lyrics in case it’s hard to make them out.
The Value of One
Could it be that up in heaven, God is sitting on His throne
Anticipating another sinner will soon become his own
Years of wasted living and years of toil and strife
Are just about to be over as he receives the gift of life
Chorus:
Go sound the horn! Strike up the choir!
A sinner is saved – saved from the fire!
No more in darkness, he’s received My Son,
All heaven’s rejoicing, that’s the value of one!
The Holy Spirit has been working to soften up their hearts
All He needs is a willing servant to simply do his part
Can you imagine up in the heaven the joy there will be that day
As a sinner bows his head to pray, can’t you hear the Father say?
Start construction on his mansion there on hallelujah’s street
He doesn’t know yet what is waiting when the Savior he will meet…
I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin
I wouldn’t let my dear Saviour in
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night
Praise The Lord, I saw the light
I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I’m so happy, no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
Just like the blind man, I wandered along
Worries and fears, I claimed for my own
Then like the blind man, that God gave back his sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I’m so happy, no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
I was a fool to wander and stray
For straight is the gate and narrow the way
Now I have traded, the wrong for the right
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I’m so happy, no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
After the concert, while we were standing around eating cookies and chatting, our littlest and another little boy just seven weeks older discovered each other. They spent about 10 minutes hugging, over and over, to the delight of everyone around.
Kaikoura Peninsula
We went to South Bay, the south side of the Kaikoura Peninsula, after leaving church yesterday. We walked up the steep path to the top of the peninsula, and then Gayle offered to go back and drive around to the other end to pick us up if we wanted to walk across the top. Sounded like fun to me, so we did that! I had never been across the entire top; we’ve walked around at sea level twice. It was a gorgeous day! The sun shone part of the time, and part of the time clouds came over. The colors were so vivid. A sailboat left South Bay about the same time we did, and we watched it tacking around to the north side of the peninsula. It arrived about the same time we did.
The sailboat leaving South Bay.
Right after the carpark, we crossed this bridge along the edge of the bay.
Cabbage trees are in bloom!
New Zealand Flax is blooming, too.
Starting up the path up the cliff.
These two went back for the van.
See the sailboat?
Near the end–they came back to meet those of us who lagged behind.
The sailboat entering the bay on the north side of the peninsula.
Family Photos
Probably the last time we get a picture of the children in order of age and height, at the same time.
It’s challenging, to say the least, to get a decent family photo. We did accomplish it, though, a week ago–at least fairly decent! We got individual pictures done a couple of weeks ago, too–see them in the side bar.
Orana Park
Friday we needed to pick up 100 day-old chicks in Christchurch, from a hatchery farther south. Since it was a birthday in our family, we decided to make it a family day and go to the zoo on the outskirts of Christchurch, Orana Wildlife Park. We had never gone, because it is very expensive, but decided to splurge this once. It turns out to be a very fun zoo to visit! It isn’t very big; nothing compared to some zoos we’ve been in in America as far as number of animals; but the experience was special. They have feedings scheduled through the afternoon, and organized quite well so you go from one species to another, around the zoo. For an extra $35 per person, we could have ridden in the truck from which they feed the lions! We did get to feed the giraffes; that was free, and quite fun. An older man, a volunteer, went around the route, and he seemed to really enjoy telling us more about the animals and the feeding. One really good thing about this is how active the animals are, compared to most zoos. For example, the lions–practically every zoo I’ve been to before, the lions just laid around, but here, they were running, and jumping.
I love otters!
The playground was a big hit.
Would you like to be that close to lions?
Anyone who wanted to could feed the giraffes.
We couldn’t get up close to the rhinos, because the male was charging even the keepers who were feeding them.
Checking out the next stop!
Disconnected
We’ve had quite an interesting week! Monday and Tuesday were normal days, but Tuesday night when we went to bed there was a strong wind blowing and I saw online that a violent storm was making its way north up the island towards us. Soon after we went to bed, apparently about 11:00, the power went out–and didn’t come back on for over 42 hours! Towards morning, we started having thunder and lightning, and when it was light enough to see we saw a number of branches down around the place. There was no power where Gayle works, either, so after he went in to see if there was anything he could do with the power out, he came home again to start cleaning up the mess around here. The boys really enjoyed working with their daddy on that kind of job! I spent the day working on the mending pile. Of course, without electricity, I couldn’t use the sewing machine, so I just pinned on patches and did some hand sewing. The entire mending pile is now waiting for me to sit down at the sewing machine–I should be able to whip right through once I get there. Esther spent the day reading and writing, but it was rather frustrating because the day was so dark and cloudy. We don’t realize how reliant we are on electricity till we don’t have it anymore. We were very thankful for the gas grill we had been given, enabling us to at least cook, and for the fact that we have chest freezers rather than upright ones. I moved all the things from the fridge freezers to the chest freezers, and we opened them as little as possible. I also fed the fresh milk to the calves, since we had no way to chill it. The milk that was already in the one fridge stayed fresh, since I had turned the temperature way down a couple of days earlier and forgot to turn it back up–the milk froze in it! That was a blessing in disguise! We used up the food that would go bad in the other fridge, but mostly we had milk products in there which are all right even if they warm up.
That evening we had a very interesting experience. About an hour before dark, a car pulled up at the driveway. There were four people in it, three men and one woman, French tourists in the country for nine months. They are trying to see the country in the least expensive way, and were asking for a place to set up their tents for the night! We gave them permission to camp in our yard, and invited them in for supper. I put together a stew for supper, using potatoes and cooked beef from the fridge, a couple of jars of tomatoes and one of carrots, and a leek that Simon brought in. Soon after I put it on the grill to cook, I realized that the flame was lower than it had been. Sure enough, the flame went out after awhile, but the stew was hot enough to eat. The leeks were just a bit crunchy, still! We had a fun evening chatting with our surprise guests by the light from headlamps placed strategically around the top of the room, and candles on the table. They said several times how good the meal was (stew, cabbage salad, bread and butter, and homemade cheese). I didn’t think it was that extraordinary, but then Gayle asked them what they’ve been eating: Ramen noodles! No wonder they enjoyed what we offered!
That night the wind came up again, and by morning was blowing at gale force again. We still had no power, but at 6:30 Gayle called in to work and learned that they had a generator, so he went in. I went to town as soon as the shop opened to get a new cylinder of gas so we could cook breakfast! Our French visitors left about the same time Gayle left for work–I was relieved, as they had pitched their tents close to a big gum tree, which was swaying their way in the strong wind. It didn’t fall, but if it had it would have crushed them.
The second day, the sun shone and it was bright–what a nice change. We still had no power all day, and I was preparing myself mentally for another dark evening of cooking over the grill outside, and planning a breakfast and lunch for the next day that would not require cooking or washing dishes. Then, praise God, the power came back on at 5:35! What a wonderful sight. Life is now back to normal for us, and we didn’t lose any more than a cup or two of food. The boys were quite disappointed; they like playing with candles. One of them was saving all the extra wax that ran off the candles, and melted it down, making another candle from it.
We were also glad be be back in touch with the rest of the world, although it was very peaceful and quiet during the power cut! We had no internet, of course, and the cell service was also out. Our landline worked the first day, but the second day it didn’t.
Aftermath of the storm; Gayle and the boys piled up the branches that were too small for firewood.
Another storm rolling in over the hills to the west of us.
We had an interesting experience the week before, also. We had helped to organize a meeting here in Cheviot with a speaker from Creation Ministries International. We had a barbeque before the meeting; about 50 people came for that, and there were probably about 75 at the meeting itself. That was very good, but we also really enjoyed having the speaker, Tas Walker, and his driver in our home for the night. Friday morning before they took off for Christchurch, we took them, and a single lady from our church, who also slept here overnight in her van, to Gore Bay. We really enjoyed our chance to get to know Tas.
Our dear friend Pete helped with the cooking.
The men cooking sausages for the BBQ. Tas Walker is the second from the left.
Cathedral Gully above Gore Bay–beautiful erosion!
The boys enjoyed this little cave.
We admired the rock layers in Port Robinson, just around the point from Gore Bay.
Fine rock layers. The geology of Gore Bay is amazing.
Sea tulips–a type of sea squirt.
Our picnic, after exploring Gore Bay.
His own personal table, complete with food and drink!
August
I’ve been busy living life, not blogging it. So, here’s a collection of pictures from the past few weeks.
Two little boys who like to do things together.
Snuggled up to big brother, doing what he does.
Our first calf for the year. The boy who has taken over calf-feeding had trouble with the bottle, and the calf followed him up on the porch when he came to ask me for help.
“I’m washing my hands, of course!” He climbed up on the sink counter when no one was watching, and rubbed soap all over his hands (and clothes!)
Sorry if this is too much for some people. I put this on for Mom. It’s a trail of mucous, with a dried-out slug at the end!
Helping big brother do school.
Under the hot water heater! This little fellow has recently discovered the joys of climbing into tight places! Usually, though, by the time I find the camera, he’s done.
Into the pot cupboard!
Sunday we walked along a creek in Kaikoura. The boys all walked along the top of this wall.
This shag obligingly posed for us.
Instead of retracing our steps when we got to where the creek flows into the sea, Gayle carried most of us over!
There! I got them posted. I had to take the pictures out and put them back in several times because they weren’t cooperating the way I wanted! (And my daughter laughed at my struggles! And, enjoy the new header–she spent several days making it.) (Edit: I’m putting it here, since it is no longer at the top of the blog. Isn’t it creative?)
Dolphins
Here’s a short video we took of the dolphins we saw from the Whale Watch boat Friday. This was so much fun to see!