Lots of Helpers

Our New House

January 20, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We are buying a house. After eight years of renting, we have finally been able to save enough for a deposit on a house of our own—and that feels good! As I mentioned in a few previous posts, we found a house about six weeks ago that we liked and could afford, and we have finally reached the stage where it’s almost certain that we’ll be getting it. We paid the deposit on it yesterday, and in the next week we’ll sign the final papers. We plan to move in two weeks.

This house is in Ahaura, in the West Coast region. We’ll be about half an hour’s drive inland, so won’t get the torrential rains that the towns right along the coast do. Most of the time, though, there is a lot more rain than here in Canterbury! This year is the exception; they are having a bad drought over there. It’s about 3 hours and 45 minutes from here, so that makes moving rather challenging. We’re thankful for friends who are willing to help us out! I’m planning to make a trip in a few days with the rest of our garden and whatever else we can fit on the load. In a week, we’ll load our shipping container, and two weeks from today we plan to finish the move. So, whatever you see coming through on the blog has already been scheduled—I won’t likely be spending any time here for a little while!

Here are pictures I took of the house when we looked at it in early December. Some of the children stayed home and took care of things while the rest of us went over that time, so I took pictures to let them get a glimpse of it while we were deciding whether to buy it.

This is the door into the laundry and then the kitchen. That’s a lemon tree in the corner, although there isn’t any fruit on it.

The master bedroom. This has an alcove to the right, for a nursery or office.

The closet in the master bedroom.

The view out the door of this bedroom.

There is a big closet/cupboard at each end of the hallway! The hallway is wide enough we can put our bookshelves in there, and do you see the clotheslines? A place to hang laundry on wet days!

Little Miss walked into this room and immediately announced that it was for her and Esther! We do plan to redo the walls soon. Not only are they painted garish shades of pink and purple, the wall covering is an old type that is a fire hazard.

I asked Little Miss which corner the bed should go in. She considered carefully, then announced, “Right here!”

The boys’ room. This needs a coat of paint, too.

The boys love the garage. Gayle stepped it off; he says it is 18 meters long—that’s nearly 60 feet! This carport goes about halfway along it.

The back yard.

Inside the garage.

We need to do some work on the outside of the house, but it’s not bad at all, considering it was built in the 1930s. One thing that was attractive to us was the quarter-acre paddock on the other side of the garage from the house. We’ll put our three sheep in it at first, and a couple of turkeys and a few chickens; next spring we’re hoping to turn part of it into a garden. We’ll be living in town on a half acre, which will be quite different for us country people. We’re hoping to pay off this place in a few years, and then buy something with more land. In the meantime, it will be a comfortable house.

Just for Grandma

January 20, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are a couple of pictures just for Grandma’s benefit.

This is a Sandy-Tongued Paint Gobbler. We have finally discovered what they look like! (For the benefit of everyone else, we were discussing, when Grandma was here a year ago, why the roads going up to Arthur’s Pass had very little paint on them, and concluded that this creature must come out at night and eat it up. We didn’t know what they looked like, but when we got hold of some craft supplies a month ago, the little boys created models of them!)

Do you remember this pair of pants? I have finally retired them. I believe you made them for one of my brothers, and then passed them on to another family, who then passed them to us. I think most of our boys wore them. Good fabric!

Building Project

January 17, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Diligence decided about a month ago that he wanted to build a chicken coop for our new place. We didn’t know yet where we were going to move, or if we would need a coop, but I encouraged him to do it anyway. We figured that if we got a place that already had a coop, he could sell it. We had a lot of boards that Esther’s employer gave us when they remodeled their house, so this project didn’t cost anything except a few nails.

He decided to build in a curtain for times when we have tiny chicks that need protection from drafts. It is normally kept rolled up.

The builders, pleased with the results of their labor.

Simon’s boss wanted to help us move, but can’t the weekend we plan to move, because of family circumstances, so he came over to get a couple of loads during the two weeks Simon had off over Christmas/New Year’s. He used his large car transporter to haul buildings for us. The chicken coop was the first to go. It was a challenge to figure out how to get it on the trailer!

North of Kaikoura

January 12, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

On Sunday after church, we drove north of Kaikoura, for the first time since the 7.8 earthquake 14 months ago. We have gotten used to seeing the new look of the cliff faces to the south of Kaikoura, but to see the ones to the north was incredible. It was shocking and awe-inspiring, all over again, to see the devastation wrought in that minute or two of shaking. We have certainly learned a lot about geology and plate tectonics and natural disasters in the past year.

This is just past Ohau Point, where the worst slip happened during the quake. We used to go to this spot to watch baby seals play in a pool at the base of a waterfall here. According to someone who walked back in there soon after the quake, the waterfall still exists but the pool has been filled in. Here are before-and-after pictures of the same hillside.

This is approximately the place where three cows were stranded on top of an island of soil when the hillside around them fell away.The owners of this farm have lost a lot of their land, and because the Clarence River has changed course, if it floods they are in danger of losing their home and all their farm buildings.

The Clarence River in flood from rain in the High Country.

Here is a picture I took a number of years ago of the bridge above.

We were fascinated to see the evidence of seafloor uplift along the coast. All the white rocks used to be permanently underwater; the old low-tide line used to be at the top of the white line.

This was a spot we were especially interested in. We saw pictures immediately after the quake of a fault line at Waipapa Bay, where the rock looked like it had been sliced with a knife and uplifted 6-8 meters. We believe this is the spot.

More evidence of the seabed uplifting.

A new road/bridge was built out over the seabed at Iron Gate. This bridge was completed after just 14 weeks! The road construction crews were putting in very long hours so the road could be opened before Christmas.

The waves were quite high on Sunday afternoon when we went through. It was getting near low tide then, but when we drove to Kaikoura in the morning it had been high tide, and there was seawater on the road in places from waves breaking at the edge of the cliff. During the next high tide, during the night, waves washed some of the 5-ton blocks of concrete from the seawalls completely across the road! As a result, the road was closed for the morning on Monday while the blocks were put back in place.

Spinning Wheels

January 4, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Simon has been home for two weeks over the holidays, and we have really been enjoying having him here! There’s nothing like someone being away for awhile to make you thoroughly enjoy having him around again. He has been doing a number of construction projects, and having a lot of fun, too. One evening, he took an electric motor and fastened a round plate to it. Then, he used it to get a bicycle wheel spinning fast and tried to make it jump over various ramps. Esther got some video clips of this on her phone, and let me put them together into a short video to share here. (Enjoy, Grandma!)

On the Move, Part 1

December 30, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 5 Comments

We will be moving again soon. We tried to buy the house we’re in, but weren’t able to get financing for it, so our landlord told us we need to be out by mid-January. We finally found another one to buy, and plan to move there the beginning of February. I’ll share more details here in a few weeks, after the next set of papers have been signed and we are as sure as can be that the place will be ours. For now, I’ll share a few of the many pictures I’ve taken as we work on down-sizing our menagerie.

This is my garden. I started all these plants before we knew we would have to move, and they were in pots way too long. I sold and gave away some, and then we finally took a load of them to where Simon is living, a few weeks ago, and planted them in that family’s garden. Most of the rest went over there a few days ago, and are growing in half barrels and other planters.

This kitty needs a new home, because we won’t have the kind of space he needs. I put this photo online, and minutes later someone asked for him. Hopefully, he’ll have a new family this week.

We’re keeping one of the kittens, but Grizzly needed another home, so I posted this picture—and within minutes she, too, had been spoken for. We get to keep her for another couple of weeks.

These pictures didn’t get the same kind of response—not many people want turkeys, apparently. If you want some, we have 40-50 that need to go somewhere!

Kittens

December 25, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

We are really enjoying having two kittens in the house! They are about six weeks old now, and spend a lot of time playing. In fact, they are in my lap right now. Goofball is asleep, and Grizzly is chewing on her (yes, Goofball is sleeping through the chewing!). We gave them their names when they were quite little. Goofball has always been laid back about life, and would relax in our hands from the beginning. She has always liked to lay on her back to sleep or play. Grizzly, on the other hand, complained about everything—hence her name. She has been the favorite of their mother since the beginning, and the one that Princess almost always dragged into the house in the mornings. She would kick and scream the whole way in, rather than curling up like kittens are supposed to. Grizzly took about four weeks to stop crying every time we picked her up, but now she loves people as much as Goofball does.

Here they are at two weeks old.

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Three weeks and starting to play.

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Mr. Diligence holding them at about four weeks.

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Mr. Imagination with Goofball, the one he chose to keep, at a month old.

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Five weeks and wrestling. Grizzly is the one on the floor here, kicking at Goofball.

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November 2017 Pictures

December 21, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 3 Comments

Here are the rest of November’s pictures.

The kittens were born about the middle of November, and we have really been enjoying them. I allowed Mr. Imagination to choose one to keep, since he so badly wants a pet of his own. He chose this one, and was thrilled when her eyes opened and he could hold her.

For Mr. Diligence’s birthday, some friends came, and the boys went on a 31 kilometer bike ride around the area.

School time!

Esther helped Mr. Imagination make peanut butter balls one day. Little Miss enjoyed helping, too—and they both loved eating them!

The roses are a bit past their peak now, but a few weeks ago Mr. Imagination picked a bunch and made this arrangement!

Mr. Intellectual’s science experiment to show how the diaphragm and lungs work.

He has also been trying to work out how to make a small hot air balloon. So far, none of his designs has been light enough to get off the ground, and now that we’re back into a bad drought, he has to halt his experiments so he won’t cause a fire.

They attached a fishing line to the balloon, in case it would rise.

The geese and 3-week-old goslings.

The kittens at a day old.

Everyone was rather distracted one morning when a trucker came to take away a truck trailer that had been here for years. Mr. Intellectual helped him load some other stuff on his truck as well, to take to the owners of this place. My little people really enjoyed watching the crane in action! Mr. Sweetie took his schoolbook outside so he could work while he watched. He actually got a little done!

Fun at Lewis Pass

December 18, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

On our way home from visiting Simon three weeks ago, we stopped for a few minutes just this side of Lewis Pass. The St James Walkway took off from a small parking area here. We only walked a short way from the car park to where a good view was promised. What a view! As you can see, the day was clear and sunny, and it was absolutely gorgeous there. Just for fun, we took several pictures.

The three of us happened to have on our matching dresses that day.

All six of the children who are currently living with us.

Mr. Sweetie is goofy about pictures. He didn’t want his picture to be taken with the other children, but on the way back to the car park he wanted it taken on top of this rock!

This post is linked up here.

Port Robinson

December 13, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

One Monday afternoon a few weeks ago, we needed to be out of the house for awhile because our landlady was showing a potential buyer through the house. We decided to go out to Port Robinson; a few weeks before that date, Gayle had taken Mr. Diligence out for a picnic and fun time together, and they discovered the trail leading down to the old harbor. The rest of us wanted to see it, too, so we went there on that beautiful, sunny afternoon.

The path down to the beach parallels the old slipway for awhile. It’s pretty overgrown.

Gore Bay from the trail.

Port Robinson

This is what’s left of the bottom of the slipway. Approximately 120 years ago, the way I understand, this was about the only way to get goods in and out of Cheviot. They had a surfboat which they lowered down the slipway from the top of the cliff and out into the bay to where ships would anchor, to ship wool out. Supplies were brought back up in the surfboat with a winch.

Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Sweetie

That red blob is a sea anemone.

I was intrigued by the swirls in some of the rocks.

When we saw this flock of seagulls feeding just offshore, we wished we had brought our fishing poles! There would have been big fish there, too, feeding on a school of small ones.

There are two paua, known in California as abalone, in this picture. Can you find them?

We enjoyed finding these two large starfish!

Mr. Diligence was fascinated by the way the starfish held on to him.

Mr. Sweetie

Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Sweetie, with Mr. Imagination in the foreground.

We even got to see a jellyfish!

Another starfish!

When it was flipped over, we discovered that it was feeding! A couple of the children were able to see its stomach being sucked back inside after it let go of the snail.

This was a very fun afternoon—don’t tell the children it was a field trip! We ended our time with a stop at Gore Bay to play in the water for 15 minutes. I’m so glad I didn’t twist my ankle until after this trip and the one to Hurunui Mouth several days later.