A big brother tossed the dandelions to the baby, and of course he had to figure out how they tasted! I hear that dandelions are quite nutritious….
Classic Cars
We had some different entertainment on our way to church this morning. There was a classic car show in Kaikoura yesterday, and the cars were on their way home this morning. We probably saw around a hundred of them–didn’t think to count till we were nearly there! This post is mainly for my brothers who like old cars–we were thinking of you as we enjoyed the “parade”.
A few of the cars were not being driven!
We also saw a couple of railroad track-fixing-machines–made us think of our friend back in Michigan who used to build them! These were built in Australia, though, it looked like.
We also saw this picture of spring.
Question
Any ideas what this is?
Hint: it was our breakfast this morning, and has no artificial colors in it. Put your guesses in the comments–I’ll post the answer in a few days.
Field Trip
WARNING! If you are squeamish you may want to skip this post!
We actually took a field trip last week! We don’t often do that, but Gayle organized a tour for us of the place he works. It is a small meatworks, although the largest employer in the district. They process cattle, sheep and pigs, doing everything from slaughter to sausages, hams and bacons. We found the tour very interesting! Our children have grown up butchering and were totally fascinated.
Sheep carcasses
Sheep waiting to be skinned.
Sides of beef, and our friendly tour guide.
The best part of the tour–seeing Daddy at work! He was “tender-stretching”–rehanging the sides of beef to make them more tender.
Tender-hung beef
The boning room
Sausages
We had to wear plastic covers and hair nets for our tour.
Answer to the Question
I showed you this picture a few days ago and asked if anyone knew what it was. The answer? Cornmeal mush, with butter in it! I ground blue corn, then soaked it overnight in goat’s whey before cooking it. The butter is extra-orange because it was made from colostrum. Delicious!
He’s Crawling
Baby is crawling already! He’s been getting around for a few weeks already, pulling himself along on his tummy by his arms, but today he’s nearly given that up in favor of crawling the normal way. This is the earliest we’ve had one crawling–he is 5 months and 22 days, about 3 days earlier than our previous earliest. Looks like a busy life ahead, if this is any indication.
This Past Week or Two in Pictures
I keep thinking about things to blog about, but real life keeps getting in the way. So, here are a bunch of pictures to give you a glimpse into the past couple of weeks.
Now that he can get around we have to be more diligent about cleaning up ashes!
Last Tuesday we had the biggest hail I have ever seen. When it hit a boogie board in front of the house it bounced up 3 meters (10 feet)!
After the storm passed, the cows finally made it to the trees for shelter–and when the sun hit them a cloud of steam went up!
Hail on the trampoline.
Almost crawling!
Gayle and the boys built the framework for raised beds on Saturday.
On Sunday we stopped to explore some rock pools along the coast.
Starfish
Sea anemone
Chicks in the House
We were peacefully working on finishing school around noon today, when someone knocked on the door. It was our next-door neighbor, and she had 8 chicks in a bucket. Something had killed their mother this morning, probably a stoat, and she didn’t have time to raise them. Did we want them, and two more that were running around in their paddock? Sure–we’ll take any unwanted animal! (Except a dog.) She took two of the boys with her to catch the last two chicks, and ran to town for me to pick up some feed for them, because I don’t have the van today. I worked on fixing up a home for them. We couldn’t find the hanging light socket we’ve used before for baby birds, so I improvised with a couple of hot water bottles. The younger boys found wood chips and made a water and food dish out of peanut butter jars (plastic) and we are all set! There is a cheerful cheeping sound in the living room now.
Music
Last evening I came into the living room and found Gayle and the two youngest at the piano. The second-youngest had told his daddy that he wanted to sing him “a beautiful song”. Totally spontaneously, he was singing, “Jesus is on the cross” and playing the piano to accompany himself. It was so sweet that I grabbed the camera to record the scene! The blurry places in the video are just because the light was dim.
Shags
After our hike around the Kaikoura Peninsula Sunday, when we were waiting for Gayle to bring the van back around to pick us up, the children who were with me, and I, were quite amused by the sounds of the shags going to bed in the tree above us. A shag is a large bird that lives along the coast; I think they eat fish. They sleep in trees, and when each one comes in for the night they apparently have to discuss the day! The sounds they make are so funny that I tried to capture them in this video so you can enjoy it, too.