Canterbury

August 2015 Pictures

September 18, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the last few pictures I wanted to share from August. I’m getting close to caught up!

We’ve had rain a couple of times. We’re still desperately dry, but since the weather is cool the little bit of rain we’ve gotten has been able to soak in and make the grass grow a bit. The ducks were delighted this particular morning to have water to play in!

I started peppers the first week or so of August. I planted the seeds in potting soil in this ice cream container, and put it, with a tight lid on, above the hot water heater. The peppers came up incredibly fast—I think this picture was taken after only a week!

I liked this picture of Mr. Imagination peeking into Esther’s room (just before she moved back out to the sleepout).

Mr. Handyman and Mr. Inventor have been tilling the garden. The ducks love the freshly tilled soil—they must be finding worms.

Mr. Handyman brought this skink in to show us. I believe this is about lifesize on my computer screen.

A goose nest. I hear that there are now two geese sitting on it simultaneously. We’ll see if anything hatches!

Gayle frequently brings home a load of compost from work for the garden. This time, he took Little Miss out to supervise the unloading from her Bumbo. Mr. Handyman was helping unload, and Mr. Sweetie is watching.

Dead Boring Bike Hike, 2015

September 16, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Today was the annual bike hike for our homeschool group. We start in Waikari every year, and anyone who wants to rides to the home of one of the families, just outside of Scargill. It is a total of about 22 kilometers. Every year, we remind the children that the bike hike is NOT a race. Every year, the boys make it into a race! This year, for the second time in a row, Mr. Inventor was the winner, finishing the ride in only 32 minutes. Mr. Handyman came in third. Mr. Sweetie rode for the first time; he rode nearly half the route. He was pretty happy about that. Mr. Imagination and Little Miss stayed in the van with me and were bored silly. I let Mr. Imagination eat his lunch and take a few pictures, and Little Miss chewed on a carrot stick most of the way—until she put it on her shoulder and couldn’t find it again!

Here are the boys, waiting to start out.

Mr. Sweetie, ready to go. I drove him to the end of the steeper hills before he started.

Mr. Imagination took these next two pictures.

Here, Mr. Sweetie was pedaling past a hedge that caught fire a year ago.

Another of Mr. Imagination’s pictures!

The welcoming committee at the end of the ride. I grabbed a picture quickly as I drove past to park on the roadside, so it turned out fuzzy.

After eating the lunches we took along, we spent the afternoon together enjoying each other’s company. We have such good friends!

Hurunui Mouth

September 6, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The very last day of my sister-in-law’s visit, we took her to the mouth of the Hurunui River. She had never seen a river mouth before. The Hurunui Mouth is a particularly beautiful spot. One thing that makes it interesting to go to repeatedly is seeing how the mouth moves. One time we were there it was way north of the end of the road; the next time, it was a kilometer south of that point! It was nearly at that spot this time.

Looking north from the end of the road. This is just a lagoon, but at times the river goes out to sea down at this end.

See where the river breaks through the bar to the sea?

Boys can’t be bothered to stand around enjoying the scenery. They took off running back up the road!

We soon followed, in the van but more leisurely, and went to the campground on the bank of the river, to look around. Gayle works with a man who knows about the Maori sites around here, and he told him about some rocks at that campground that we should look for. We soon found them, and discovered the groves that the Maori made as they sharpened their knives.

Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie under the one rock.

We went around to Manuka Bay for a little while, then. We actually got a family picture! It was cold.

Christchurch

September 4, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The last week my sister-in-law was here, I had to go to Christchurch for an orthodontist appointment for Mr. Inventor. While we were there, we took her to the Canterbury Museum. I won’t put any pictures of the displays on here; I find pictures of museum displays to be pretty boring! This is one of the beautiful old buildings across the street from the museum.

A fascinating fountain outside the museum.

The entrance to the museum.

After we left the museum, we spent a couple of hours shopping. This little girl had apparently had all she could take!

Home to Lewis Pass

August 16, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

While my sister-in-law was with us for the past month, we took a trip to the north part of the island. With snow on the mountains, the scenery was spectacular as we traveled toward Lewis Pass! This first picture doesn’t do justice to the depth of this valley. We always love seeing this scene.

I don’t know what this building was, but it’s rather picturesque.

This ridge parallels the road between Waiau and Rotherham for a couple of miles, then there is a break, and then another ridge is along the road for the same distance.

Mountains on the way up to Lewis Pass.

A snowplow headed up into the Pass. We followed him for awhile, and then he pulled off and let us pass him.

On the west side of the pass! We went north from Springs Junction, and I was amazed at the range of mountains to the west of us, on the other side of the valley we were driving through. They were so rugged, with sharp tops!

More of Mr. Sweetie’s Pictures

July 25, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Sweetie took my camera outside again last week. The creek in front of the house, by the road, is finally flowing again! It’s been dry since about October or November. He and Mr. Diligence were playing in it for awhile.

Apparently, Mr. Diligence was clearing a dam of leaves so the water could flow in from the neighboring property.

A selfie.

There is a healthy crop of stinging nettles in the cabbage patch! I keep thinking I ought to cut some and use them…. Supposedly, they are very good for you….

Somebody’s hut.

Mr. Inventor’s Birds

July 23, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Inventor loves birds. He has quite a collection at this point. I sure enjoy them, too! I’ve always liked turkeys; they are such friendly birds, and I like the gobbling. The turkeys and some of the ducks often come to visit while I milk the cow, and one morning I took my camera out to get some pictures. It was before sunrise, so the pictures are kind of dark. Above, you can see Indian Runner ducks (the brown ones), turkeys, and Pekin ducks (the white ones). Below is the Indian Runners. One is half Mallard; her mother was left behind at the house we lived in from 2010 till 2014 by the previous renters. We got a number of offspring from her. This is her last; the boys found the old mother dead a couple of months ago. She was half blind and very old.

The black turkey here is the mother; the white one was hatched by a hen in December. It was an “only child”, and lived in the house for a long time.

This is one of the babies that hatched in November, when Mom was here.

This is the daddy turkey.

One morning while I was milking, the turkeys and Indian Runner ducks were all where I could see them. A duck chased the smallest white turkey, who ran—and then turned around and chased the duck. The next thing I knew, the whole flock of turkeys took off after the flock of ducks, and the ducks ran! It was very funny; I sure wished I had a video camera handy!

Fire!

July 15, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Every year here in the Hurunui District, there is a ban on open fires in the summer. This year, the ban wasn’t lifted until early May, because we were so dry. As soon as the ban was lifted, the boys wanted to burn the brush pile they’d been accumulating since November! One afternoon when there was no wind, I let them.

For safety’s sake, they strung a hose out to the pile and got the pump going. This is Mr. Intellectual, Mr. Imagination, and Mr. Inventor.

Mr. Handyman watching the flames.

I took Little Miss out to see the fire.

Esther’s camera caught this interesting effect—Mr. Handyman through the heat haze.

Mr. Inventor’s birds didn’t seem too worried, and neither did the cat (on a post in the center).

When I went back in the house, Mr. Handyman took Little Miss so she could keep watching.

The fireman on duty! It was a good thing that he had the hose; the flames caught in the dry grass several times.

Hay Shed and Creek

July 13, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I finally looked at the May pictures on Esther’s memory card. As always, she had some good ones! These are from one day when she walked around with her brothers. This is Mr. Sweetie in the hay. It is unposed; he just popped up when she was looking at the hay!

Mr. Intellectual in the hay.

Mr. Diligence, Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Inventor and Mr. Intellectual salvaging things from the junk pile.

Mr. Inventor building something with stuff from the junk pile. I think it was a support for a hut made out of hay. The hay shed, which he is sitting in, is an old semi trailer. It was wrecked along the Kaikoura coast, and laid over on its side. When it was dragged off the road the side was messed up beyond repair. Our landlord collects junk like that; he always planned to take the axles out from under this trailer and set it down for a hay shed. He never got that accomplished, but we’re using it for hay up in the air. That keeps the animals out!

There are two creeks on this property. One is between the house and the road; the other is at the back, where this row of grass is.

This is Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Diligence, and Mr. Imagination beside the creek.

Mr. Imagination in front of a cabbage tree.

Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Intellectual, Mr. Imagination, and Mr. Diligence on the bridge. Gayle and the boys found this old gate, and put it in place so the cows could cross the creek to graze on the other side.

Our landlords lived here for 17 years and never saw this “pond” dry up. This was a dry year. Since this photo was taken, the boys pumped some water out of our underground overflow tank and refilled the pond. The waterfowl are happy again!

Late June Pictures

July 12, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It looks like most of our pictures are of Little Miss! With good reason; she’s the cutest person in the family right now, and changing the fastest. This is Mr. Imagination, building something with legos in Esther’s bedroom.

A beautiful sunset.

Our favorite (and only cat), Ginger.

I want that camera! It must taste yummy!

Mr. Imagination

“Pick me up, please!”

One Sunday afternoon at church, Mr. Inventor put Little Miss in this old pram that lives in the building, and gave her rides around the room. She loved it!

That same day, after we got home, Gayle helped the boys pop some popcorn—a rare treat in our house.

Esther was holding Little Miss while she slept, and getting some reading done for school. I decided to take a picture of this common scene, and said as much. I reached up for the camera, turned it on, and stepped over to take the picture. Just as I lifted it up, Little Miss flung her arm out and her eyes popped open!