Lots of Helpers

Homemade Generator

September 12, 2015 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Mr. Inventor has all kinds of ideas. One of the recent ones he tried was making his own generator. He wanted one he could crank and generate some power. He tried a few different things, and then the man who runs the local dump gave him a tip. He suggested that Mr. Inventor take the motor off an old top-loader washer. There was one at the dump that day, so the motor came here. Mr. Inventor hooked some wires up to it and gave it a spin by hand—and Mr. Diligence got shocked! The next step was to hook an electric drill to the shaft, and they were able to generate enough power to light a bulb. That isn’t a very economical way to run a generator, however, using electric to turn it! Now, they have hooked it up to a bicycle. The first time they ran it, they blew a lightbulb. They soon figured out how to make electricity arc, and then used that to start a fire so they could burn some brush! This picture and video are of the demonstration we were given of how he could light a bulb with the drill-operated generator. I loved Mr. Imagination’s delight, so got a video of that, too.

Art Projects

September 10, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I do not teach art to my children. As I said in my guest post on Esther’s blog, the year I decided to teach art we had a grand total of three lessons. However, my boys are very creative and some have made some pretty impressive items. This train model is the latest project. Mr. Diligence had the idea, and did the painting. He and Mr. Intellectual made the models. Mr. Inventor drilled holes.

The garden—raised beds. He filled them with glue, then added bits of macrocarpa needles.

A man made out of copper wire, in a tree.

Another man, at the gate.

The train station.

The train.

The fences and telegraph wires were made of copper wire threaded through holes drilled in the posts. The posts were glued into holes drilled in the board.

Here are some more projects Mr. Diligence showed me when we talked about their creations. He made this man by gluing rocks together.

He built this house a couple of years ago.

He carved this boat.

Mr. Diligence also made this windmill.

Mr. Inventor and Mr. Diligence worked together to build this truck. They use it to store treasures.

Reading, Art, and Guilt–A Guest Post on Purposeful Learning

September 9, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I am guest posting (for the first time ever!) on Esther’s blog, Purposeful Learning. When I told Esther about the two revelations I had recently had, she told me I should write a blog post for her. So, here it is! Please go to her blog to read the full post.

Twice in the past two months I have had an “ah-ha!” moment. Both times, I suddenly had an answer to something that I had been feeling guilty about for years.

I was reading by the time I was three years old. When I was a baby, someone gave my mom a book, something about “Teach Your Baby to Read.” I was the first baby, so she had time, and she made flashcards to put on objects all over the house. I can’t remember not being able to read, and I’m guessing maybe she eventually regretted teaching me that young, as I quickly developed an addiction to reading! I remember being excited to start first grade, but then being very disappointed because the first day of first grade the reading lesson was simply, “God.” I was reading whole books by then! I spent hours and hours reading thousands of books as I grew up, and put that love of books to good use when I started a bookstore in my late teens. However, after I got married, little by little I started feeling guilty for loving to read, and guilty for taking time to read when there were other things to do, as there always are. Comments some people made such as, “I only ever read the Bible and ___________(church paper),” or, “Reading is a waste of time for me,” added to that feeling of guilt. I still read, because I can’t make myself stop reading, but always with a slight feeling of guilt.

Reading, Art, and Guilt — One of my son’s art projects.

Last year, my daughter came in from her bedroom one morning saying that she felt like the Lord had given her an idea. She wondered what I thought of a website devoted to book reviews. She would include warnings with the reviews of anything that parents might want to know about the book before giving it to their child, and build a search function to help parents find books about a particular area they were studying. After we all prayed about it, she built the website, and soon I started writing some reviews for her of books I read to myself or aloud to the other children. Still, I felt somewhat guilty about loving to read!

Little Miss, late August Pictures

September 7, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We seem to keep taking pictures of Little Miss! She is a very happy little girl most of the time. As you can see below, she loves her bath.

Now that she can crawl, she likes to go in the bathroom and check out the bathtub. Mr. Imagination was playing with a balloon-powered boat.

She found the toys in the boys’ room one day.

She wasn’t sure about getting water dripped on her head.

Which brother will she choose? Mr. Diligence, Mr. Handyman, and Mr. Inventor were all trying to get her to come, and this time she chose Mr. Handyman.

Mr. Handyman took her for a walk.

One day in Family Worship, we were reading one of the last chapters of Job, where God is asking Job if he knows as much as God. To illustrate, Gayle asked Little Miss a series of questions, none of which, of course, she was able to answer!

I love those little bare feet!

Mr. Inventor holding Mr. Imagination and Little Miss.

Hurunui Mouth

September 6, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The very last day of my sister-in-law’s visit, we took her to the mouth of the Hurunui River. She had never seen a river mouth before. The Hurunui Mouth is a particularly beautiful spot. One thing that makes it interesting to go to repeatedly is seeing how the mouth moves. One time we were there it was way north of the end of the road; the next time, it was a kilometer south of that point! It was nearly at that spot this time.

Looking north from the end of the road. This is just a lagoon, but at times the river goes out to sea down at this end.

See where the river breaks through the bar to the sea?

Boys can’t be bothered to stand around enjoying the scenery. They took off running back up the road!

We soon followed, in the van but more leisurely, and went to the campground on the bank of the river, to look around. Gayle works with a man who knows about the Maori sites around here, and he told him about some rocks at that campground that we should look for. We soon found them, and discovered the groves that the Maori made as they sharpened their knives.

Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie under the one rock.

We went around to Manuka Bay for a little while, then. We actually got a family picture! It was cold.

Christchurch

September 4, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The last week my sister-in-law was here, I had to go to Christchurch for an orthodontist appointment for Mr. Inventor. While we were there, we took her to the Canterbury Museum. I won’t put any pictures of the displays on here; I find pictures of museum displays to be pretty boring! This is one of the beautiful old buildings across the street from the museum.

A fascinating fountain outside the museum.

The entrance to the museum.

After we left the museum, we spent a couple of hours shopping. This little girl had apparently had all she could take!

Kaikoura

September 3, 2015 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

The last Sunday my sister-in-law was here, three weeks ago already, we took her to Kaikoura for church. After church, we took her out to the Peninsula, of course. It was a cold, windy day, but beautiful all the same. I stayed in the van with little ones who didn’t need to get cold, but most of the family climbed the Peninsula.

I have never seen so many seals at the Peninsula! They must have been wanting to stay out of the cold water.

While I waited, I watched this film crew. I have no idea what the man was talking about, but they were obviously filming him discussing something! They had a reflector to bounce light onto him, and a shade they held over him at times to get the light right—until it blew away into the water and they had to scramble down to get it.

We drove around to South Bay, on the other side of the Peninsula, and while there I noticed this incredible cloud formation. It was obviously snowing in the mountains!

I enjoyed seeing these cows on such a steep hill. One had just raced downhill.

Farewell to Picton/Saltworks

August 31, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We drove out to an overlook for one last view of the Sounds. It was gorgeous!

We saw the Bluebridge come in again. This picture is very washed out; it was actually a brilliant morning, but the sun was wrong for a picture.

We also saw the Interislander come in again.

We finally left Picton around 1:00 and headed toward home. When we got to Dominion Saltworks, a ways south of Blenheim, we drove around to see what we could see from the road. They let saltwater into huge shallow ponds here and let it evaporate, then clean the salt up somehow.

And here is a pretty church I saw beside the highway somewhere between Blenheim and Kaikoura.

We made it home by 6:00 that night—so good to sleep in our own beds again after a full week away from home!

This brings my travelogue to an end—now I can go back to normal posts! It has taken nearly a month to get all these posts up!

Aquarium and Edwin Fox

August 30, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

After we watched the ferries for an hour or two from the overlook above Picton, we went down into the town. We had seen, beside the aquarium we visited a few years ago when we were in Picton, a museum. The museum held the Edwin Fox, a wooden merchant ship. First, we watched a DVD of the ship’s history, which was quite fascinating. This sign tells the highlights of the ship’s career.

She was built in India in 1853, of teak and saul wood. The timbers were steamed over a charcoal fire and then hammered into place quickly to take the right shape. After hauling immigrants to New Zealand, she was converted into a freezer to freeze down sheep for shipment to England. When the new freezer works was built on land, the Edwin Fox became a coal storage; a big hole was cut in her side to let trucks go on. After some years of that, she was towed to a bay near Picton and abandoned. In 1999 she was towed (still able to float, despite being underwater for years!) to a drydock on the Picton waterfront. You are allowed to walk inside the boat and touch it—that was special! It’s quite an experience to know that you are touching timbers that were formed into a boat over 160 years ago.

How do you like this pirate? One end of the ship has been rebuilt so you can get a feel for what it was like.

Mr. Intellectual inside the hold.

An immigrant family (six people) would have one top and one bottom bunk. Each bunk was the size of a single bed or smaller, and three people would have to sleep in it. When they arrived in New Zealand they would dismantle their bunks and use the timber to build a house.

We also toured the aquarium. Because they are side by side, we were able to go back and forth between the two places. At 11:00 in the morning and 2:00 in the afternoon, they feed the animals and give a tour. We took in the 2:00 tour and, since we spent the night in Picton, went back for the next morning’s tour—they let us back into both the museum and aquarium without paying again.

We got to touch a tuatara.

This stingray was asleep the whole time we were there.

The aquarium rescues little blue penguins.

Marlborough Sounds and Ferries

August 29, 2015 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

After we left Smith’s Farm Holiday Park, we were soon enjoying the beautiful views of the Marlborough Sounds from the Queen Charlotte Drive.

Just before we reached Picton, we stopped for a little while to watch logs being moved around in a giant logyard for shipment overseas. This machine could lift all the logs off a truck at once! The boys were excited to finally find out how the second trailer of a log truck is loaded on top of the first. We have seen these for years; when the trucks are empty they stack the trailers to go back to the logging site, presumably to save wear and tear on the second trailer. They have a framework that they drive under, which lifts up the second trailer, and then they back the first trailer underneath and drop the second one down onto it!

After watching the log trucks for awhile, we went around the corner to an overlook above the ferry docks. The Bluebridge was in, and soon the Interislander showed up. It was very cold and windy, so I mostly sat in the van with Little Miss. She enjoyed being outside for a little while, though.

Picton, from the overlook above the ferries.

Gayle badly wanted to see the train cars being loaded and unloaded, but the noon Interislander didn’t have any train cars. We learned that the 6:00 boat had them, so after we checked into our motel room that evening he took most of the family back to the overlook to watch that process. Esther and I stayed to cook a meal and get ready for the night, but someone got this picture of the ferry docks at night.