Lots of Helpers

Our family's life in New Zealand

Mud and Boys and Life

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This has been another normal, interesting week.  The “mud” in the title comes from Wednesday evening, when the three youngest boys slipped outside after supper when I wasn’t watching.  They went into the garden, which they had been told before supper not to do, and played in the mud.  I’m sure it was fun–but what a mess!  I didn’t get a picture of it, but it looked worse than this one from Michigan two and a half years ago!  This time, they were coated from head to toe in thick, sticky clay!  Because they had disobeyed, and because they knew beforehand what the penalty is for getting muddy, I had no compunctions about hosing them down with a cold-water hose.  I had  to hose and rub with my hands to get the quarter inch of clay mud off their clothes, then had them take off their clothes, and hosed them again, and then sent them to the bathroom to finish off with a cold shower!  And it wasn’t a warm evening.  They all decided they don’t want that again.  While the youngest watched the other two getting cleaned up first, his lip stuck out farther and farther as he considered his coming fate.

One warm evening, the kitchen door was open, and Ginger came along to see what we were doing.
I spent a couple of days this week sorting clothing.  Does this look anything like a secondhand shop? or a garage sale?  We’ve been blessed with lots of hand-me-down clothes for the boys!

Next step:  sort through what each boy had in his drawers/closet and decide what to keep and what to put away/throw away.  Here is Seth’s stack (think he had more than he needed?):

One rainy day, Esther decided to make a batch of bread, since it always raises better on that sort of day.  I gave instructions while I worked on clothing.  It turned out pretty nice!

One day this week the sun shone!  I did lots of laundry (and it all got dry!) and we weeded the strawberry bed.  We found a number of ripe strawberries.  Yumm!  We have to get them quickly or the slugs eat them.

Aren’t Esther’s kids cute?

We went to Gore Bay for a baptism this afternoon, and when I mentioned we wanted a family picture, one of the ladies there offered to help take one.  It took quite a few tries to get one with everyone’s eyes open, and this is the best.

After the baptism, we went to the home of the girl who was baptized for a meal.  Joe discovered this wheelbarrow and had so much fun with it that they gave it to him when we left!

So there you have it–several tiny glimpses into our week.  It was a good one!

The Latest in Toy Boats (don’t try this)

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My boys are having fun this morning as a result of my failure!  I made bread yesterday–and had the worst flop in probably 12 or 13 years.  The bread rose a little in the warmer drawer in the stove, then cooked on top because the oven was running, then fell.  I baked it anyway, but ended up with little flat bricks.  The boys cut them open this morning and hollowed them out, then tried floating their “boats”.  Good way to soak the crusts for the chickens!  I’m going to turn the insides they hollowed out into bread crumbs, so we won’t entirely lose the batch of bread–and I’m making a new batch today.

Will they float?

They didn’t float long.

Corn Crunch

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I finished making a batch of Corn Crunch this morning, and thought maybe some of you would like to know about it.  I do not buy cold cereal.  It costs too much and is not good for you, as far as I’m concerned.  (One of my favorite stories is about the scientist in the 1960s who did an experiment with rats and cornflakes.  He had three groups of rats; one he fed rat chow as a control; one got cornflakes; and one got the box the cornflakes came in.  The group that ate cornflakes sickened and died before the group that ate the box died of malnutrition.)  Corn Crunch is one of our favorites, and one that I feel good about feeding my children.

Mix: 1 quart buttermilk or mixture of yogurt and milk
3 cups cornmeal (I grind popcorn)
4 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
Let it set overnight.  Next day, mix in:
1 cup sweetener of your choice
2 teaspoons soda
2 teaspoons salt
Spread on two ungreased cookie sheets and bake 15-20 minutes at 350°F.  Let cool enough to handle.  Crumble a bit and grind in food processor or blender.  Return to cookie sheet and toast in oven till nearly dry, stirring often.  It will finish drying the last tiny bit after you take it out.

The baked “cake”, ready to grind.

Crumbling the “cake” into the food processor.  I had an enthusiastic helper for this step–he helped mix the first of the ingredients the day before.

The ground cereal, ready to toast.The finished cereal–ready for some cream!

Picnic at the Ocean

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We had a spur-of-the-moment picnic at the ocean tonight.  I threw together a quick casserole by baking sausages and cutting them into little pieces, then mixing in a couple of cans of baked beans and topping it with leftover mashed potatoes, while Elijah made Ants on a Log (celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins) and Esther cut up fruit.  Then, while the casserole baked, we milked quickly and then left.  The children had great fun digging in the sand, while Gayle and I got to be by ourselves and walk down the beach to the rocky cliffs at the other end.  What a lovely end to the day!

Looking south along Gore BayIs he really having fun?

One of my sweet boys picked this bouquet for me on the way back up the cliff!

This Has Been an Interesting Week!

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This week has been very full, and I haven’t had any great inspirations for a good post, so here’s a quick look through some pictures Esther took throughout the week.

Sunday morning was a beautiful morning to drive to church–but apparently eggs are not a good choice for Sunday morning breakfast.  I’ve been watching what we eat and how the children react in terms of carsickness (quite an issue when you go through the Hundalees and along the coast!), and the two weeks lately that we’ve had eggs we’ve had a lot of complaints about upset tummies.  The week in between, when we had granola, no one complained.  Anyway, this time the youngest got sick, for the first time, and got you-know-what all over his shirt, pants, and car seat.  We pulled off immediately and cleaned up while the children enjoyed the ocean.  What we didn’t get a picture of was Daddy down at the water, rinsing out the shirt and pants when an extra-large wave drenched him!

Sunday evening after we got home, one boy asked to look up how to make a slingshot, on YouTube.  A magpie has been terrorizing the boys, and drew blood on one the day before–he came in with his hand pressed against his head, and blood streaming down his forehead. It seems to be a juvenile magpie, just having fun.  (The juvenile delinquent of the bird world?)  So, my boys are out to protect their family from this terrorist and a slingshot seemed to be a halfway decent idea.  This was what he came up with, and we had the materials on hand (milk bottle top and balloon; he added duct tape to secure the balloon later):

Monday was a gorgeous day, and my photographer got some beautiful shots of the animals and the views from around the house. This is our landlord’s paddock of wheat and corners of some of our raised beds.

The cow–happy because she can be near one of the calves, even though he isn’t hers.

The hills west of us in the evening; wheat in the foreground.

Tuesday we went to Christchurch for Dead Boring (homeschool writing group).  The younger children were playing at making a garden in the afternoon.  All five of my boys are in this group–can you pick them out?

The family who hosted DB this time live across the street from the Avon River–still beautiful in most places even if sewage gets in it now!  The water level seems a lot higher than before the February earthquake; if I understand right, the bed of the river was pushed up.

The house next door to our friends is unoccupied; the people moved out after the September quake over a year ago.  This crack goes through their yard.

We drove through a section of town that I hadn’t been in since a week before the February quake.  Although a lot has been cleaned up, the destruction is still incredible.  It seems like all the older, beautiful buildings are gone or going, and only the newer, less pretty ones are left.  So sad.

This picture doesn’t show it very well, but the whole house was sort of “wracked”–almost twisted. This entire area is going to be demolished and not rebuilt.

The Grand Chancellor Hotel–tallest building in Christchurch. It’s been leaning since February 22, and now it’s being demolished.Churches, built out of brick or stone, suffered the most.

…And we were glad to get back home again to our peaceful spot in the country, far away from the quakes and the city!

The roses are blooming!  With 40 bushes around the house, and most of them different varieties, we enjoy quite the array of colors.

While I was in town on Tuesday, I bought 30 kilograms of carrots.  I wanted to bottle 20 kg of them for quick additions to soups, so Wednesday I had the boys peel and chop while I read to them.  They did about half that day.  The next day, they got started on the remaining carrots before I even suggested it, and before I knew what was happening they were finished–with no story to listen to!  They were racing to see who could peel and chop five the quickest.  My boys are growing up.

 

Friday we went back to Christchurch because Gayle had a series of appointments with medical professionals to get a paper saying that he does not have tuberculosis.  Hopefully now our permanent residency visa will go through.

So there you have it–the partial story of our week!  I am very thankful that I don’t have to go to town very often, let alone twice in a week!  Glad to have it over with, but I’m also glad we were able to go and attend Dead Boring, get the medical work done, and we even got to have a date while we were there (a dear friend kept the children for a few hours!).  It was also good to be able to stock up on groceries and get fresh produce that we can’t afford up here (I spent nearly $200 on produce this week–but hadn’t bought much of any for six weeks.)

Siamese Twins and CDs

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Two of my boys decided the other day that they would like to be Siamese twins.  They decided they wanted to be tied together for the next morning.  Well, predictably, life wasn’t so simple as they thought it would be!  Elbow room was hard to come by at the table, and then when they went out to move the cow’s fence for me it got extremely awkward and painful!  They came in pretty quickly, and one announced that he was going to do surgery!  He was feeling like he was getting bruised.

Clearing the drainer…

The younger boys decided to try it for a little while, too!

I sorted and organized a cupboard today, and discarded a number of music CDs that we didn’t want.  The boys claimed them, and discovered that they could use the condensation on the window to make them stick to the glass!  They made several interesting patterns.

 

Noodlemaking

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Today’s special project was making noodles with my new toy–a noodlemaker that I bought using money I was given for my birthday with instructions to use only for myself.  (That’s a hard order for a mom to obey, by the way.)  The boys think it’s a toy for them.  They had fun and were a great help!

I make noodles by mixing 4 eggs with about 3 1/2 cups of flour, adding more flour or a tiny bit more water as needed, to make a stiff dough that holds together well.

For supper tonight, I opened two jars of the beef broth I made a couple of weeks ago, and cooked about a fourth of the noodles in it, then chunked up half of a beef roast I cooked a couple of days ago.  Everyone loved it so much that I had to make a point to save out enough for Gayle’s lunch tomorrow or it would have been gone!

I’ve noticed that a lot of my posts on here seem to be about food.  Wonder if that’s a result of lots of hungry boys in the house?  They all love to help me in the kitchen!  It is one of the most important things we do, too, and takes more time than anything besides school.

One boy feeding in the dough, one cranking, and two carrying to the rack to dry.This one thought he was helping, too!

Look at all that good eating!

 

Cleaning Day!

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I decided today that it was time to wash the kitchen floor.  (Don’t ask how long it’s been–I won’t tell you.  Suffice it to say, it doesn’t happen often.)  It’s very interesting how much interest is generated in a job like scrubbing the floor when Mom starts doing it!  I got started, and soon James came to help.  Then, when Esther finished sweeping, I had her start washing the ceiling; we never got the second half finished a few months ago.  Pretty soon Seth showed up, begging to help; I ordered him to wash–and dry (to finish removing dirt)–his feet first.  By then, James was working on cupboard doors and walls.  Elijah decided it looked like fun, too, so he joined in–and then Simon got in on the act!  By the time we were finished, the floor was clean, and half the ceiling, and the walls and cupboard were much cleaner!  I told Gayle, “This is our family fun for the day!”  He asked if he could wash his feet and join in, too!  I said, “Sure–you can even have your own bucket!”  He went outside to do something else, though–can’t imagine why!

I apologize for the blurry pictures–amateur photographer, here.  (One of the younger boys–he forgot the flash.)

Standing on the table to scrub the ceiling!

This is the way we wash the ceiling! (Not really!)

A diligent boy!

More Spring Gardening

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It always amazes–and challenges me–to see how the children ALL want to do whatever I’m doing.  This afternoon I went out to transplant tiny tomatoes into individual pots.  Within minutes, all six children had joined me, and were helping.  A couple of boys got started planting pumpkin seeds that they had saved from the pumpkins they grew themselves last year in newspaper pots, and Esther worked on the tomatoes.  They can’t wait to plant in the big garden, which was plowed this afternoon.  Next week it should be tilled and we can plant!

Planting a pumpkin seed.

Setting the tomato seedlings on top the woodbox, where they will have plenty of light and warmth.

Spreading the bird netting over the strawberry patch–the first strawberry is nearly ripe!

 

Beef Broth

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This is the project I just finished up this morning, after working on it for nearly a week.  My husband works in a small factory where they do everything from slaughter the animals to making sausage, ham, bacon, etc.  By “small” I mean that they do 100-150 sheep and 8-10 cattle per day, and 125 or so pigs once a week.  Last week on Friday he was working in the boning room, where they break down the carcasses, and brought me home a big bag of “dog tucker”–meaty brisket bones!  We don’t mind eating that sort of dog food.  I have  a stock pot that holds about 25 quarts/liters, but it still took two rounds to get all those bones cooked.  I filled the pot as full as possible with bones, then added water nearly to the brim.  When the meat was cooked, I pulled the bones out and picked off the meat, then put the bones back in, with a bit of vinegar to draw out the minerals, and cooked it again for several hours.  Then, I strained out the bones and bits of other things, and set the pot of broth outside overnight to chill.  In the morning, the tallow had solidified and was easy to get off, so I did that, and scraped off the broth that was stuck to it.  The tallow went into a pan to boil off the water that was left so it will keep, and I’ll use it for greasing griddles.  I heated the broth till it was totally liquid again–it gelled nicely–and put it in jars and processed it at 10 pounds pressure for 25 minutes.  The results:  A big pot of soup for Sunday potluck dinner, with broth and meat, which also lasted us for two more meals; four meals’ worth of cooked meat in the freezer; another meal with meat from the second pot; about 10 quarts of broth in jars for adding to soup or making gravy when I need it later (my version of “convenience food!); and lots of tallow for greasing pans.  One of the boys also wants to make tallow candles, and Esther has her eye on it for making doughnuts!  We’ll see.