Lots of Helpers

Our family's life in New Zealand

August

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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?)

Beach Clean Up

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We were given a trip on Whale Watch this week.  They asked that, in return, we spend some time doing a beach clean up.  Last week, we had a day that was so lovely and warm that we decided we would do it then, at Gore Bay.  We split up into two groups; three of the boys went one way and the rest of us went the other way.  I told them to start back after half an hour and we would meet up near the start.  It is amazing, and disgusting, what you find on the beach!  Why don’t people pick up after themselves?  Most of what we found had been thrown under the bushes at the edge; there were a lot of beer bottles.  Yuck!  We also found an old tire and some lumber, but the most unusual find was the huge wad of frayed rope that the boys found!

One group went north.

One group went south.

He said he wouldn’t help, since he couldn’t go on Whale Watch, but when we got started he couldn’t resist! After our time cleaning up (and deciding we should do it again in a few weeks), I let the boys play on their “raft” again for awhile.  They sure are having fun poling that around the lagoon!

While we waited for the rafters to come back, these two built a bridge. I found this mermaid’s purse.Mussel shell with coral on it.The biggest find of the day!

And then, the camera got dipped into the water, so we had to buy a new one in order to take pictures when we went on Whale Watch!

Whale Watch

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The children and I had the privilege yesterday to take a tour with Whale Watch.  There is no way we could afford the tickets normally, but we happen to know a lady who works there.  She sent me a note recently, saying that they were taking the Year 4 classes from Kaikoura on a tour, which they do annually, and had extra space.  She thought of us, since she knows we homeschool, and asked if we’d like to go.  Would we!  You should have heard the excitement here!  The two youngest were not able to go, but a dear friend in Kaikoura offered to keep them for me so I could go along.

Thursday morning was the day of the tour.  We got up early and ate our breakfast on the way to Kaikoura (a one-hour trip) as we watched the sun rise over the hills and enjoyed the snow on the mountains.  When we got down to the coast, we noticed high waves.  We dropped off the little boys and went to the Whaleway Station–to be met with the news that sailing had been canceled for the day due to the high waves!  What a disappointment.  So, we picked up the little boys again, went to a secondhand shop, and came home to do school.

The trip had been rescheduled for Friday, so yesterday morning we got up early again, again ate our breakfast while we enjoyed the early morning beauty, and again dropped off the little boys.  The waves were still high, but not as high as the previous morning, so we got to go on our tour.

We were informed, soon after we got underway, that a whale had been spotted not too far away.  He had just sounded (gone under) and would surface to breathe again in about 40 minutes.  The primary whale in Kaikoura waters, by the way, is adolescent male sperm whales.  They like the deep water in the trench that comes close in to land here.  They can dive 3 km deep, and stay down for about 40 minutes at a time.  While we waited for that whale to come back up, we went to Goose Bay, where the continental shelf comes within 500 meters of the shore for a special treat:  a pod of dolphins was feeding there!  Normally, in the winter, the dolphins are in the Marlborough Sounds, so they would not usually be seen on a Whale Watch tour right now.  There were probably around 200 Dusky Dolphins, and we got to be right in the middle of the pod for 15-20 minutes!  That was fascinating!  They leaped out of the water, spun in a half circle, and fell back in with a splash.  They frequently slapped the water with their tail, scaring fish so they could feed on them.  I was intrigued to see that they often swam in pairs, two dolphins side-by-side.  We’ve seen them often from the highway, but it’s much better out at sea, right in among them. The mountains were so beautiful!
Soon it was time to head over to see the whale.  We all went back in the cabin and sat down.  As we were traveling, I happened to see, out the window, a spout off to our right!  After I saw it a second time, I started pointing it out to people around me, and after the third we were able to catch the attention of the Whale Watch crew–they hadn’t seen it!  They immediately altered course and went that direction, but just as we got there the whale sounded.  So, we turned and went back toward the other one–but as we got there that one sounded, as well!  What a disappointment.  So, we slowly moved around, searching for another whale, and they turned the engines off at one point so they could listen with the hydrophone to try to locate a whale.  After awhile they did find one, and we got to watch it breathe on the surface for several minutes.  Then, the whale waved his tail at us and was gone.  What a special experience!

At last–a whale! There he goes!After we picked up the little boys and visited for a while with our friend, we headed for home.  We stopped along the coast on our way home and had a picnic, and explored the rocks for awhile–it was too beautiful a day to just go home immediately!

A live sponge. Usually we find them dead, washed up on shore.

A sea anemone.

He enjoyed investigating the anemone!

Random Pictures

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Here are a few random views of our life from the past few weeks.  Lots happens around here, but this can give you a tiny glimpse into our family!

We are still harvesting giant leeks and carrots from the garden. (This is James)

My big find at Recycling a couple of weeks ago–a cast-iron Dutch oven! It was very rusty, but I cleaned it up and seasoned it and it works beautifully!

Horsey-back ride!

A couple of Sundays ago, it was quite stormy when we went to church. That makes for a beautiful ocean!

This little fellow is so much fun!

The new truck.

Baby Seals at Ohau Falls

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Sunday after church we made our annual visit to the waterfall, north of Kaikoura, where baby seals play while their mothers are out at sea eating.  The baby seals swim and crawl about 1/4 mile up a creek to the pool at the base of a high waterfall.  Sometimes there will be 100 or so there; this time there weren’t nearly so many, but still a lot of fun to watch! It’s so dark back in there that it is hard to get good pictures.  If our videos turned out any good (I haven’t watched them yet) I’ll post one or more sometime soon.

Swimming in the pool at the base of the waterfall.

This is steeper than it looks! Those seals climbed about 10 feet, nearly straight up! The lower one climbed right over the other while we watched. After visiting the falls, we stopped at Ohau Point Lookout, a place where the mother seals come to feed their babies and rest after being out at sea fishing.  I had never seen a baby seal nursing before; that was fun!

Shags Aren’t those little pups cute?

Jed River Cemetary

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Last Saturday was a gorgeous, warm (for winter) day, so Gayle suggested that we take our lunch out to Gore Bay and have a picnic.  What a good idea!  Since it was high tide and therefore not good for beachcombing, we decided to try to find an old Maori graveyard that a local farmer pointed out to the boys last spring.  We didn’t find that, but we did find an early European cemetery, dating back to the earliest days of settlement in this area.  The most recent burial there was 19 years ago.  There are around 25-30 graves, only about 1/3 of which are marked.  It was a beautiful spot for a cemetery–on top of a hill overlooking the Jed Estuary and Gore Bay, and so peaceful.

Getting ready to go

To go to the cemetery, we had to cross the mouth of the Jed River/Buxton Creek. It was only an inch or two deep, but with it being high tide, there were often several inches of water. Seth ended up carrying the two youngest over by himself!The trail from the beach to the cemetery was fun!

The Jed Estuary, with an old woolshed on the far side, and Gore Bay in the distance.

This is all that marked one grave.

All that’s left of the gate to the cemetery.

After exploring the cemetery, the boys worked on punting their “raft”–a large forked log–around the lagoon at the place where the Jed River and Buxton Creek flow into the sea.  They had great fun learning to maneuver it around, and then pulled it out so it will hopefully still be there next time we go.

The boys reenacted Hone Heke, a Maori chief in the 1840s, who chopped down an English flagpole on a hill overlooking present-day Russell, four times.

A hut that someone built out of driftwood. Daddy helped pull the log to a deeper part of the lagoon. Pulling the log out

Truck is Out!

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I know it’s been awhile since I have posted.  I was without my computer for a week, since when I took it in for servicing they found that the hard drive was failing.  No wonder it was so slow and so many programs no longer worked!  It’s like having a new computer now.

The biggest event of the past two weeks was getting the truck out of the river last Saturday.  All the children except the baby went; I didn’t want to be there to see it happen so I stayed home and had a quiet hour.

First, he tried to hook the chain to the front.

The front bumper didn’t work, so they had to hook to the hitch at the back. Gayle took a hot shower as soon as he got home!

Out it comes! Just after this photo was taken, an eel slithered out of the engine compartment. The boys dug around inside for treasures!

Goodbye, little Nissan truck!We also bought a “new” truck nearly two weeks ago, but I don’t have a picture of it yet.  It’s a Ford, in case you wanted to know!  We also got a lamb since then–baby was quite fascinated the day he got to go outside when it was tied out!  We had a week of sunny, warm weather, with the north-west wind blowing almost constantly, but this week has been winter again, cold and wet.

Esther got out her singing doll and baby loved it!

Baby and the new lamb.

Boys diligently doing school.

Supermoon

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After a full week of rain, we figured there was no way we’d be able to see the full moon last weekend.  However, the skies cleared just in time!  We got to enjoy the brilliant moonlight as we drove home from a midwinter dinner Sunday night–we could even see it shining on the snow-capped mountains off in the distance!  When I went out to milk the next morning, the moon was about to set over the hills in the west and was so beautiful that I ran back in to grab the camera. Last glimpse of the super moon.

First rays of sunlight hitting the snow-covered hills to our west.

And, here are some random shots from the week. Sunset through the trees in our front yard.

New way to play piano: When your clothes are being changed, jump up and run away to big sister, lay down in her lap, and play the keys with your feet!

Elijah made a pinata this week, in honor of Daddy’s birthday.  We had great fun cracking it last night.