Canterbury

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.

Leaf Jumpers…and a Cannibal!

November 2, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I took the children to the Domain here in our village. It’s a piece of public land, and it’s fairly heavily wooded, with trails through the trees. There is a large open area, which is now a cricket playing field. The cricket clubhouse is at the edge of the field, and was built on part of the foundation of William “Ready Money” Robinson’s mansion. Robinson made a fortune on the Australian gold fields in, I believe, the 1870s, and came here with the money. He bought an immense tract of land, about half the size of a county in Michigan, and then built this mansion. If I remember right, all 3 stories and 40 rooms of it were finished in about 1881, and Robinson died the following year.

Anyway, we went there a couple of weeks ago to do some filming for a movie the children were making. (Watch for it to post here sometime in December, after Esther posts it on her blog, http://estherfilbrun.com.) The day was a perfect spring day, so after the filming was finished, we just spent some time enjoying the beautiful setting. While the boys played, and rode a bike very fast down a very steep hill, Esther and I read for awhile and played with Little Miss. The little boys (and some slightly bigger ones) enjoyed jumping in a big pile of leaves that Esther raked up for them. Esther put this short video together for me.

Mid-October Gardening

October 26, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We’ve been trying to get the garden planted over the last couple of weeks, and spending a lot of time weeding what we planted in August. The day we planted peas, Little Miss wanted to help! She only got one packet open, and thankfully, peas are large enough we were able to pick them all up out of the grass.

My boys planted all the peas. It’s a little amusing, now that they are coming up, to see exactly how they were planted! Some rows have long empty spots, and other spots are pretty thick. Oh, well, peas are pretty forgiving. This is Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Intellectual, who was in charge of the planting. I dug the rows this time.

Soon, Mr. Diligent and Mr. Imagination showed up to help. I think it was about here that the planting started looking funny!

After I had all the rows dug for the peas, I started planting onions. The onion seedlings were a lot larger this year than most years. They’re looking pretty good.

We’re eating stuff that we planted last year, still, as well as some Bok Choy that I set out in September. Here is Silverbeet (Swiss Chard), celery, spring onions, broccoli, and some cabbage that was going to seed (I cut off the leaves and used them), from last year’s garden. The carrots were from the shop; we ran out of our own awhile ago.

Potato planting! Esther came out and helped Gayle and Mr. Inventor. She wanted to discuss the plot for a movie the children were making with the boys, and that was the only way she could talk to them that day.

I’ve been cooking weeds more this spring than ever before. I harvested stinging nettle from the area in the bottom photo, as well as other areas that grew up in weeds. I also use mallow. I cook them together in chicken broth, blend them thoroughly, and freeze them in muffin tins to put in soups later. Mr. Imagination named the concoction for me—prickle mallow soup!

Goofy Turkey and Cute Geese

October 18, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I was hanging laundry last Saturday morning when someone knocked on the window to get my attention. I looked where they were pointing and saw the funniest sight I’ve seen in a long time. Can you see it?

Yes, that is a turkey carrying a bucket by its handle! Our best guess is that he was showing off for the ladies. There are two toms right now in the flock of turkeys, and frequently we see both of them strutting at the same time. They will actually run with their tails fanned out and their wings dragging, to keep up with the ladies!

We have two baby geese now, the first time we’ve ever had that species of baby in the house! They are so different from chicks or ducklings. They really interact with us. They hate being locked in their box, and beg to be taken outside every day. They are already eating grass (and when we were setting out baby lettuces the other day they pulled two up). Last evening, Little Miss was playing outside, and crawled over to the wire basket under which the goslings were. She let them out, and then chased them.

I thought it was pretty cute the way they slept with their necks together this time!

Extra September 2015 Pictures

October 11, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the last of the pictures from September that I thought Grandma might like to see.

Mr. Handyman wanted me to see how much loose hay we have left, so he took a picture, and Mr. Imagination wanted in the picture!

One of my little boys (can’t remember anymore which one) brought me this bouquet one Sunday afternoon at church.

Little Miss playing on the floor at church.

Another chick in the house! This was the first to hatch, so we brought it in to feed it till we knew if more would hatch.

Does Little Miss want to go along with her big brother and sister, when they travel to America next month?

More chicks hatched! We kept them in the house a couple of days, till we were sure no more would hatch, then gave them back to their mother, who is happily raising them.

More little tomato plants! I counted them out in the greenhouse last week. I only have 166! Think that will be enough?

Mr. Inventor and his favorite little sister.

Starting the Garden

September 24, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Yes, it’s a little early, but we have the garden started. I wanted to make sure the pepper plants got big enough to produce some fruit before it gets cold in the fall, so I started them early. This is what they looked like in early September; now they are outside in our “greenhouse”, so I don’t see them every day.

I set out Bok Choi, kohlrabi, broccoli and cauliflower that I started, the other day when we had a warm spell. It’s turned cold and rainy now, but the little plants look great, at least what I can see of them from the kitchen window (the middle window you can see in this picture; the window on the left is a bedroom, and the one on the right is the laundry). Mr. Sweetie had fun with my camera while I was transplanting.

Little Miss had fun crawling around on the grass while I worked in the garden.

Mr. Imagination had fun running in the dirt, and Mr. Intellectual was working on a project.

Mr. Inventor’s ducks have been eating the lettuce and Swiss Chard that I had growing, so we informed him last week that his ducks would be locked out of the yard/garden, or eaten. He got busy putting up a duck-proof fence, and then herded them out.