Canterbury

December Fun

December 30, 2015 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

I was thrilled one evening when I came across this scene! This is only the first or second time ever that Mr. Diligence has voluntarily read a book! Mr. Imagination loved listening, of course.

We saw this impressive cold front on its way up from the south as we came home from church one Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, it blew over without dropping anything, although we did get a bit of rain later that night.

Is that a kiss—or a bite?

For our last homeschool gathering of the year, we went to a campground by the Waipara River. We were the first ones there, so the boys spent some time building dams while we waited for others to arrive.

Little Miss tasted rocks.

The boys discovered Little Miss with a jar of jam she had managed to get open. Instead of cleaning her up (we were supposed to be leaving in a few minutes for a barbeque!), Mr. Inventor started snapping pictures. It was cute, I’ll have to admit, to see her dipping in for yet another handful of jam! Thankfully, it was sugar-free, so not bad for her.

Mr. Sweetie was happy to get his cast off. The boys were all very interested in how it was done.

When Esther and Mr. Handyman came home, they brought gifts from the grandparents. This was Mr. Imagination’s favorite. He needed help putting it together a few times, but now he can do it himself.

Little Miss discovered an empty cupboard, and then Mr. Imagination joined her in it.

Christmas Day

December 28, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Christmas Day here is sure different from anything we ever experienced in Michigan! There, most years, we stayed holed up inside the house, with snow blowing outside. Here, most years, it’s warm—if not hot—and sunny, and we like to go to the beach! This year, we took a picnic lunch to Claverley, to a beach we went out onto for a few minutes, once, several years ago. It turns out to be a wonderful beach for the children to play at, at low tide anyway. The beach is covered with tiny gravel, all worn smooth. It’s a dark color, so really attracts the heat of the sun, which felt good in the chilly wind that was blowing. Above the high tide line, the gravel was too hot to walk on comfortably with bare feet, but below that line there was moisture just below the surface and it felt just right. There was an area of rocks going out into the sea at one spot, and it made a perfect place for children to splash and play, until the tide came up about halfway. We found a lovely pine grove to eat our picnic in. The thick layer of pine needles on the ground made a lovely soft floor to sit on, and we were shaded from the bright sun. After lunch, we went and sat on the beach again for a couple of hours while the boys played in the water and then buried each other. It was a great day! On our way home, we picked cherries, but I never got any pictures of that.

Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie running into the waves.

Looking north; the area with all the kelp is where we spent the most time. You can faintly see the Kaikoura Peninsula sticking out from that point of land.

Looking south.

As long as she wasn’t looking at the water, Little Miss was very happy. She loved playing in, and tasting, the gravel.

Our picnic grove. Our nephew who is spending a few months in New Zealand was with us for the day.

Mr. Inventor brought his boat along—half of a barrel! He sort of surfed with it.

The boys had fun being buried by Daddy. This is Mr. Diligence, Mr. Imagination, and Mr. Sweetie.

Little Miss helped bury Mr. Diligence, too.

Mr. Sweetie wasn’t feeling the best that day. He stayed buried in the warm gravel for a long time.

Esther was teasing Little Miss! The scared chuckling noises were pretty funny, as was the way she tried to climb higher on you.

Mr. Sweetie decided he wanted to stay buried until the waves came up to him. We watched as the tide crept higher and higher…

Mr. Inventor wanted to be buried sitting up. Daddy wore himself out burying so many sons in one day!

The waves have finally come up far enough that Mr. Sweetie got wet. He jumped up and ran to safety.

Check out Mr. Inventor’s expression!

Little Glimpses into Our Life

December 19, 2015 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, the boys noticed a peacock running along the fence on the north side of this property. The next morning, the peacock was in our paddock, preening and generally making himself at home. We frequently see him showing off his ragged, beautiful tail, and the sounds we hear multiple times through the day make it sound like a zoo here!

I got out this box of milk bottles so I could put milk in the freezer. Looks like the rats got there first. I was glad to hear that the bait we put out is gone; we haven’t seen signs of rats recently (these bottles have been stored in that spot since about March). Why they would eat empty, clean milk bottles, and the calf bottle, is beyond me.

Mr. Imagination

Gayle decided they needed to find out what exactly it was like in the underground water tank. The water level was down to about 2 feet deep, after watering the garden for a couple of days, so he tied a rope around Mr. Diligence and lowered him in. He walked around and reported that the floor is solid concrete, covered with a layer of mud and debris.

I liked this—all the boys laying around the hole, looking in.

The boys found this hedgehog while they were feeding the chickens one evening.

Little Miss was delighted to be able to see the hen with her four chicks!

Mr. Sweetie can read! I found a couple of beginning readers for him the other evening, and he didn’t want to go to bed; he wanted to keep reading. I told him he was allowed to get up early in the morning to read. He didn’t like that idea, but as soon as he was up in the morning he was reading!

Little Miss is 11 Months Old

December 14, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

She has learned to do a lot of things in the past month. About two weeks ago, she started walking, and now she goes everywhere she wants. These first two pictures were from about three weeks ago, when she first learned how to go outside by herself without falling on her nose. She would sit down at the edge, swing one foot out, then the other, and then plunk down on her bottom. I love that look on her face! She was so pleased with her accomplishment.

Here, she was quite upset because she was locked out of the kitchen while the floor was being washed. She did her best to pry the door open, screaming in frustration the whole time.

Here, she was very pleased to be able to play with the broad bean pods after we shelled them. It’s so much fun to scatter things!

Just waking up from a nap.

She’s discovered the joy of playing in gravel and dirt in the past couple of weeks. She loves to push it back and forth with her hands.

She worked out how to climb into a box of toys.

All ready for church.

Mr. Imagination loves to play with soft toys, and he lined his dolls and stuffed animals up on my rocking chair one morning. Little Miss was delighted to play with them, too.

Now that she can walk, she loves to carry things around. Here, she found the handle of a croquet mallet. She wanted it in the house, so she threw it in the door, then climbed in herself and walked around brandishing it.

Checking out a Silverbeet (Swiss Chard) leaf.

Garden Update

December 13, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The boys and I have been spending an average of half an hour a day, each, on the garden. It’s really amazing how much can happen in that amount of time! The garden is thriving. We’re watering when we have to, from a large cistern by the house that collects the overflow from our half unit of water from the Council. We’ve had a little bit of rain lately, which does wonders. We also save all the water we can in the house, such as from washing lettuce, or Little Miss’s bath water, and bucket it out to the garden. We’re loving having all the lettuce salads we want. We’re going into my favorite time of the year!

These first three pictures were taken the last week of November.

I took this one a couple of days ago. The boys were finishing up their 30 minutes, with Little Miss’s help, while I fixed lunch. Left-right: Mr. Sweetie, Little Miss, Mr. Inventor, Mr. Diligence.

This isn’t quite the garden, but it is a plant! We were recently given a couple of pitcher plants. They are catching a lot of flies for us—so many, in fact, that the plant can’t digest them all and gets indigestion. We’ve had to cut off a few traps that were dying because of all the flies inside them!

Mr. Inventor

December 9, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Inventor has been very busy living up to his nickname lately. Here are pictures of some of his projects just in the past week.

He built a forge out of an old 20-pound propane cylinder. He had watched a YouTube clip online, and and added his own ideas. He cut off the top of the cylinder and attached a pipe to the lower side to which he attached an air pump. Then, he lined the lower 2/3 or so of the tank with an inch or two of clay and let it dry for a day. He started a fire in it with wood, and then added coal to get a very hot fire. He was able to get it really hot by pumping air in.

After getting the bar of steel red hot, he beat it on a piece of railroad rail with his hammer to try to make a chisel. He later ended up melting this end of the steel, though, when he was experimenting to see how hot he could get it! When he pulled it out of the fire one time, part of the bar was missing.

He made this handle for a chisel with his wood lathe.

He also built this hand-crank bench grinder one day. He spent a lot of time on YouTube trying to find directions for building something like this, but couldn’t find any, so he made it up himself, if I understood right. He wanted to make another, and make a video of it to post on YouTube for other boys to watch who want to make the same thing! He used the bike pedal that was originally attached to the gear at first, then made this handle on his lathe. He likes the bike pedal better, though, because it’s easier to turn. Actually, now he’s saying to take off the pedal but leave the bolt it turns on.

He’s also using his lathe again to make wooden bowls. There has been a lot of creativity here in the past week!

After the bowl is shaped and sanded, he oils it for several days with olive oil. These bowls are beautiful!

Of course, the boys had to have fun with the forge, too! Besides melting aluminum and making odd shapes with it (Mr. Intellectual has now made a clay mold in which he wants to try casting an aluminum signet ring), this short video shows some of their other fun. And by the way, after only doing this trick four times, the bucket of water was hotter than dishwater!

Dear Mr. Imagination

December 6, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I found a number of pictures of or taken by Mr. Imagination on my memory card when I went through it today, so I decided to give him his own post.

One morning during dishes, while I was reading aloud, he climbed into this tub and spent several minutes totally engrossed in his own little world. I took several pictures, and he never seemed to notice.

He took this picture, of me helping Mr. Sweetie with school, one morning.

Either he or Mr. Sweetie took this picture, of Mr. Inventor and Mr. Diligence working on a lawn mower.

Mr. Sweetie took quite a series of pictures of Mr. Imagination being funny.

Apparently, they took turns with the camera!

Fun Times

November 24, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Life in this family can be a lot of fun! Here are a few glimpses into the past few weeks of life here.

Our oldest two left for America the beginning of the month. This was our last glimpse of them, as they headed for their gate at the airport.

The lemon tree outside my kitchen window is blooming.

Mr. Sweetie lost a top front tooth—but this is the look I got when I tried to get a picture of his gap!

I had Mr. Sweetie clean out the container cupboard one day.

Little Miss loves to stand up by herself!

She also loves being carried in the backpack. This time, Mr. Inventor carried her for awhile, and then Mr. Intellectual took a turn. She is very happy in there!

Mr. Imagination and Mr. Sweetie were busily reading How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. They had the story pretty close to right! Mr. Sweetie was taking apart a pallet last week and fell, giving himself a greenstick fracture just above his wrist. He still hasn’t had an x-ray and doesn’t have a cast on it, but two doctors have said that is the problem and we’ll be going to Christchurch in a couple more days to get the x-ray and the cast. They said there shouldn’t be a problem if we keep his arm wrapped and he doesn’t do anything silly with it.

The cat comes in to beg for food when the door is open. Little Miss was sure checking him out!

She is such a happy little girl!

Outdoors Fun

November 20, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Because it’s spring, and the temperatures are lovely and moderate most days, and the grass is green, the boys have spent a lot of time outside lately. I get out when I can—I try to get to the garden at least a little each day. Here are several pictures I’ve gotten lately. As you can see, Little Miss loves being outside. If she’s grouchy and nothing seems to suit her, asking if she wants to go outside will often make her happy. This week, she figured out how to get outside without falling on her nose out the kitchen door, so watch out—she won’t be contained in the house any more!

Little Miss wanted to go watch her brothers play in the water.

She stands up anywhere she feels like it, without support, although she hasn’t started to take steps yet.

Apparently, she didn’t want to go through the patch of bare ground; it was more interesting to follow Mr. Imagination.

He had a toy car!

I assigned Mr. Diligent to plant pumpkin seeds in the moist creek bed. We’ll see if they grow. He had a wetsuit on because he had been playing in the water.

Mr. Imagination and Mr. Sweetie were still playing in the water. The boys built this dam across the creek after the 3-inch rain we had in September. The creek dried up behind it by mid-October, and the boys reinforced the dam at that point, and then when we got another inch of rain a few weeks ago, it filled up again. They rigged up a small sump pump below the dam to pump the water that leaks through back above the dam. That’s what the white pipe is for. The boys have spent a lot of time playing in that water, but by now it is starting to smell like swamp muck and I’m not very happy to let them “swim” anymore. Yesterday they put a bigger pump in and used the water to irrigate the garden—perfect use for it!

October 2015 Pictures

November 12, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the rest of the pictures I saved from October but haven’t shared here yet—just a mish-mosh of random glimpses into our life.

One Sunday afternoon when we arrived home from church, a howling nor-wester was blowing. Mr. Inventor figured out a way to get a free ride. He had taken the engine off this old lawn mower (although now he’s put it back on and it works again!), and this time, he took a sheet of plywood to act as a sail. It didn’t work as well as he hoped, but every so often a particularly strong gust of wind would really push him along his track.

Since Mr. Handyman has a job in the afternoons now, we often have worship in the evening, in the kitchen while dishes are being done.

Story time. Little Miss just got out of her bath. Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Imagination, and Mr. Diligence were enthralled.

Mr. Inventor goes to the local dump (a transfer station) at least once a week to see what treasures he can find. This hand-crank washing machine was one. We scrubbed it out thoroughly and have used it twice now to churn butter. This was the first try, but I decided that the drill would probably end up breaking it so now we do it by hand. It works pretty well!

My two daughters! Little Miss was very upset because she had to sit still for worship. Pure torture—see that face?

Little Miss is standing up frequently without support right now. She also loves to be under the table, or a chair. Here, she had a shoelace and was trying to pick up the shoe.

One Sunday afternoon the boys were playing with snails. Mr. Inventor, especially, played with them for a long time.

This shed got crunched a year ago when a tree fell on it. A few weeks ago, Gayle and the boys fixed it; this is the before picture.

A turkey on her nest.

Two turkeys sharing a nest. It turned out that they didn’t have any eggs! Mixed-up birds.

We’re hoping to soon have the money to spare for plastic to cover a small greenhouse! Mr. Imagination here.

Choretime. I thought it was cute the way the ducks were all flocking around Mr. Diligence.

Busy Little Miss—she loves to be outside.

I have the boys work in the garden for 30 minutes most days, to help pay for the food they eat. This day, it was wet so I said they didn’t have to—but then there were enough spats that I sent them out anyway! This is Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Intellectual, and Mr. Diligence.