The boys, with some help from their daddy, have been working diligently since the end of May to clear the land across the road for grazing for the cow. This first picture shows where they have been working for the past several weeks; what I can see of it from the kitchen window. This spot is to the left of the first and last photos in the other post I wrote about this project, at the end of the hill.

I walked up there last weekend to see how much they had accomplished. The arrow points to our house.

The boys found some wetas in an old rotten stump at the top of the hill. This is a small one.

If you look at the other post, these next two pictures were taken at the same place as the fourth and fifth pictures in that one. Lots of progress!

One of the fun things about moving to a new house is seeing what blooms in the spring. We have a lot of flowers coming out right now. Since Esther is away, I have the perfect excuse to post pictures of them! She’s missing out.

Two weeks ago, one of the boys brought this in. It came from a tree in the paddock; we’d been wondering what the tree was ever since we bought this place. I had no idea, but a friend asked if it might be a magnolia. I did a quick Google search and sure enough, that’s what it looks like!

The magnolia tree a week ago, with a rain storm approaching behind it. Notice the sheep to the right; she’s apparently a hair sheep! All three were orphan lambs that we raised last year, and we had no idea what breed they were.

Our new cow, Poppy. She will, hopefully, be calving within the next three weeks. She looks very young, and is quite tiny compared to our last cow, but she’s three years old and this will be her second calf.

This ugly, scraggly bush in front of the house turns out to be a forsythia! I’ve always wanted one.

I have no idea what these are, but they’re blooming on the shady side of the house.

Daffodils, of course!

I noticed a couple of days ago that the kowai tree was blooming.

This is the magnolia a few days ago.

Yesterday I went out for another photo of the magnolia, and Little Miss wanted me to take a picture of her ladybug.

Mr. Intellectual is spending his breaks from school digging a garden for me. I am grateful! As soon as the sheep are out of the way, I can start planting.

The forsythia yesterday. Right in front of it are my broad beans and garlic.

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!

<p>This was the view up the river from where we were enjoying the day. It was such a lovely, sunny afternoon! We’re enjoying the beginning of spring.</p> <p><img title="1-IMG_4809" style="border-top:0;border-right:0;background-image:none;border-bottom:0;float:none;padding-top:0;padding-left:0;margin:0 auto;border-left:0;display:block;padding-right:0;" border="0" alt="1-IMG_4809" src="https://lotsofhelpers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/1-img_4809.jpg" width="644" height="484">

I looked at Mr. Sweetie’s memory card recently, and found some nice pictures he took out our bay window. These first three pictures show the view from the end of our living room that faces the street we live on. There are three other houses on this short street, which has no exit; we can easily see two of them. The local school is just beyond the buildings at the end of the street, in the third picture.

This is the view out our street, across the highway. A trucking company is based there, and for a few days last month they were fixing this digger. I think they took the tracks off and fixed them, then put them back on. Of course, the activity over there is rather distracting on some school mornings!

A tall tower!

We can see the tops of some of the Paparoa’s over the neighbor’s garage. When they have snow on them, and the early morning sun hits them, the sight is stunningly beautiful!

How do you like that mischievous look on Little Miss’s face?

I found Princess sitting in the washer one evening. She was hiding from her daughter, Grizzly, in the next picture. There is all-out war between the cats a lot of the time now. During the day, Princess disappears; she spends a lot of time at the school.

Doesn’t Grizzly look scary? Princess thinks so—but Goofball is worse; she actually chases her mother.

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.

It’s not every day you can actually see your laundry drying before your eyes. I ran outside to grab something, though, and when I glanced at the clothesline I could see a cloud of steam rising. Five minutes later, that effect was gone. In this picture, the haze is steam! It’s a brilliant, sunny day here, now that the morning fog has dissipated. I happen to be home alone for a few hours; Gayle took the boys to Greymouth to watch a friend try out his longline in the ocean at high tide (they’re hoping he catches lots of fish!), and Esther went along to do some shopping. Maybe later today I’ll have time to put together a post about Mr. Diligence’s baptism; for now I’m making granola and soap and working on a batch of beef broth—as well as doing laundry!

Oops! Here we are in August, and I just realized I haven’t shared the last few miscellaneous photos from June!

When we were in Cheviot in May, a lady we visited gave Little Miss a packet of heart-shaped beads she had bought and saved to give to some little girl. I helped her get them strung one day, and she’s been wearing her bead string around her neck a lot.

I asked Mr. Sweetie one day to get a picture of our cow. The house directly across the road, on the right of the picture, is ours.

For two months I have been taking Esther and Simon to town to practice driving. Esther successfully got her driver license about a month ago, and Simon this week, so we don’t have to do that anymore! One of those days, we drove out on the north breakwater at the mouth of the Grey River. The mountains were so clear that day—it was gorgeous! I zoomed in with my camera, hoping to capture the scene, but this comes nowhere close to showing the real beauty of it. The car in the picture is on the south breakwall.

We see a lot of rainbows here! This was out the bay window in our living room one morning.

I love seeing my boys working with their daddy! This is Simon helping Gayle cut firewood to length.

Mr. Sweetie and Little Miss visiting the cow. Unfortunately, we discovered about the time this picture was taken that she had slipped her calf, and as a result we had to give her up. We don’t have feed for a pet this size. One of those hard things in life….