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Apple Picking!

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Every year, we like to take an afternoon in April and drive around through the hills to the west of us, looking for wild apples along the road. We never get over there otherwise, and it’s a beautiful drive. The apples are the excuse to take a family drive! We all enjoy it. We went last Saturday, and it turned out to be a beautiful afternoon. We ended up picking or picking up about 7 bushels (14-15 banana boxes full) of apples, mostly for the cow. We have plenty for ourselves already, and since it’s so dry, we’re feeding her apples and pumpkin to supplement the dry grass she has.

This little girl is learning to accept her car seat.

Mr. Diligence with a huge apple—we always stop at that tree!Mr. Intellectual with his two apples from the special tree.

Notice how dry the landscape is. We have not had significant rain since about August. Even so, it’s a beautiful place!

Mr. Diligence and Mr. Intellectual, climbing a hill to check out a tree we normally pick from—it has fallen over, though.

Mr. Handyman, doing what he does best! (Growing, teenage boy.)

We couldn’t resist doing a mini photo shoot of this beautiful baby!

While we were at it, we got a nice picture of Mr. Intellectual……and of Mr. Sweetie.

They found a dead hawk on the road.

Esther spent a lot of time trying to get a picture of this curious, friendly fantail.

Gum trees are so beautiful, with their white trunks and branches.

At one place, five or six bulls were grazing the roadside. All that kept them in was an electric tape! Those massive creatures seemed quite placid, but I was glad to be inside the van.

Fantails

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In other words, flying flytraps! Since we leave the doors open for ventilation on warm days, and have no screens, we often have fantails in the house these days! They are such cheery little birds. They are so friendly they remind me of the chickadees we had in Michigan in the winter. They eat insects, though. As they swoop through the room, you can often hear a sharp little click as they catch another fly! That makes them welcome guests, you can imagine. I’ve been trying to get pictures of them in the house, but they move so fast it’s hard to catch them. That’s how I ended up with a picture of one taking off in flight. If you listen closely to the video of one, you can hear a faint twittering. It was a lot louder in real life, but apparently the sound capture isn’t real good on my camera. If you want to hear it better, go to this page, click on the sound icon, and choose “South Island fantail, male song.” Oh, and by the way, we’re studying birds, insects, bats and flying reptiles this year for science. We recently had a lesson about feathers, and one type of feathers is bristles. Bristles are found around the mouths of insect-eating birds. When we looked closely at the fantails in our house, we could see the bristles! They apparently help the bird to catch insects in flight. The bristles touch the insect and then the bird can turn to grab the insect.


Fossil Walk in the Waipara River

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Two weeks ago, one of the dads in our homeschool group led a walk up the gorge of the Waipara River, to look for fossils. There are a lot of fossils in the rocks there, and they wash out in floods. He has an extensive collection of fossils, and has found some pretty interesting animals—one was even named after him!

We started with a picnic in the river bed. After everyone was done eating, we started walking. The first thing we did was cross the river in a place that was about a foot deep, then walked through a very rocky area. For a ways, we walked in the river, where it was only a few inches deep, then walked on the rocks again, then on a grassy area. Eventually, we came out at the base of a cliff littered with concretions, enormous round rocks. They are at all levels of the cliff, and as the cliff face erodes, they come down. Thankfully, none came down while we were there! Our leader didn’t allow the boys to climb as high as they wanted to, for their own safety. We only saw a few fossils, but had a beautiful walk with good friends! The man in front center of this picture, wearing a backpack and gumboots, was our leader.

That tiny white object my finger is pointing to is a shark’s tooth! In the one area we walked through, there were a lot of these shattered rocks.

This was a vertebrae from a marine reptile.

My Mr. Diligence found this greensand, a type of sandstone.

That’s my Mr. Handyman in the middle, helping carry one of the little children. The first concretion I found. I sat on it to feed my baby, and the wife of our leader commented that she had sat there to feed her baby several years before!

The boys all had fun climbing up and sliding down this cliff!

One of the concretions, ready to come down (it was probably 50-100 feet above us).

Another fossil vertebrae.

More concretions. Mr. Imagination on a concretion in the river.

This picture is for my Mom. I thought of you, Mom, when I saw this very unusual thistle here and there along our walk.

Mr. Handyman on a concretion!

The scenery along our drive was spectacular, too! Also, notice how dry everything is. We have only gotten about an inch of rain since New Year’s.

Yes, one place the road was really this steep!

More March Pictures

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Just a few more pictures I thought some of you might enjoy.

One morning, Esther looked out the window and thought she saw something white in the sheep’s water barrel. That seemed strange, so she called Mr. Intellectual to come see what he thought it was. They both had the same thought—a turkey—so he raced outside to see. Sure enough, one of the half-grown turkeys was in the water. It was still alive, so he pulled it out and they wrapped it in a towel, then put it in front of a heater for several hours till it recovered.

The eight baby turkeys only stayed in the house a few days, but we enjoyed them while they were there. It was nice to be able to send them out to the chicken coop after a week or two, though! That many babies fill up the box in a hurry. A couple of the boys built a new bridge across the dry creek in the front yard, using gates. This is Mr. Diligence on the bridge and Mr. Inventor in the creek.

Mr. Imagination had a birthday in March! He’s now three. That is him, as well, beside a barrel—just a random shot his sister got.

This was the first pumpkin we picked this year. The boys had fun bringing it in and cutting it open. Unfortunately, it didn’t taste that good. We raised some Atlantic Giants last year, and obviously the pumpkin we saved seed from had cross-pollinated with the Atlantic Giant, which is watery and tasteless. The cow likes these, though!

Early March Pictures (with cute little turkeys)

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Somebody (probably Joseph, but I’m not altogether sure) got hold of my camera during school the other day, so here are a couple of pictures in the school room.

This is our bedroom:

These cute baby turkeys hatched Saturday.  Boy #2 was excited when he discovered six babies from the nine eggs, and then two more appeared later! They can sure hide. We had to take them away from the mother, though. It’s not safe to let them free-range, since we have hawks and ferrets, and we couldn’t catch the mother to put them in a pen. So, we have eight baby turkeys in the kitchen. Their owner loves to swat flies and feed them to the babies, and they love the flies.

Our onion crop, 110 onions drying, waiting to be braided:

2014-15 Garden

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Our garden this year has produced spectacularly! As usual, I took pictures early on, with full intentions of taking more when it was at its peak, and as usual, I never got follow-up pictures taken. We, specifically the boys, have put up bushels of produce—we will have all the pickles, of three varieties, that we want, plus 95 pounds of sourkraut and about that much plain cabbage in the freezer; lots of zucchini; all the lettuce we can eat, and so far what looks like a great crop of tomatoes coming on. The onions are nearly ready to harvest, and we’ve canned a great many green beans and carrots. The potatoes have a blight, but we’re eating a lot now. Corn was too dry, and crowded out by too many pumpkins in the patch.

The early garden, in mid-December: Corn and pumpkins, with tomatoes to the left and potatoes beyond them.

Cabbage, cukes, beans.

Carrots, radishes, beets, peas, lettuce

The entire garden, in the process of being weeded for the first time.  Below is a mound across the creek, on which we planted zucchini and pumpkins. Failure! Too dry.

Tomatoes fill up this small garden.

Peppers are up against the house, by the lemon tree.

We filled in this space around the rhubarb plants with tomatoes, tomatillos, Cape Gooseberries (like ground cherries), and zucchini.

I did get two pictures recently! This was the day we pulled up all the rest of the cabbage. This one head of Savoy Cabbage was so pretty I got a picture of it.

I’ve learned that one way to save space in the garden is to plant the cabbages very close. They can be 1 foot from each other, in every direction, and thrive. No weed problems there!

We had several wheelbarrow loads of cabbage that day, and ended up with three bushels when it was all trimmed. I read aloud a very exciting story while the boys trimmed it, and the cow loved eating all the “waste”.

When we thinned the carrots, the boys were happy to find some funny ones:

All in all, we’re feeling quite blessed with this year’s garden.

The First Time I Ever Called Emergency Services

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We had an exciting night this week. Esther wrote a detailed account of it on her blog, so with her permission I’ll share that.

8:22 am

“BOOM!”

The sound ricocheted through my consciousness, jolting me awake. My sleep-numbed brain tried to register what was going on as I fumbled for my glasses and grabbed my headlamp. Switching the light on, I looked briefly at my watch—12:17 am—and slid out of bed. As I moved, I floundered for an explanation of the noise. I could hear a crackling, snapping, popping sound coming from somewhere.

Could it be an earthquake? No, earthquakes both shake and are noisy. This was just a bang…unless something else happened before I woke up. Did someone have an accident? Possibly.

Soon I reached the door, and after opening it a crack to make sure everything was okay in our front yard, I looked beyond the tree-line around our property. An orange glow lit up the tree down across the road beyond where our street “T’s” onto the road that leads to the village center. I could see a huge column of smoke rising above the deep orange center of the fire, as big around as the trunk one of those enormous old Macrocarpa trees.

What’s going on? Did someone crash into the car sitting at the end of our road that was waiting to be towed away? Are there people hurt?

Then I remembered the conditions outside.

The fire ban is on, and that’s a huge fire. With all the dry weather we’ve had, the grass and hedge will be a tinder box…if that catches fire, it could easily spread over here, and we’d have to evacuate.

Whatever it was that had happened, I wanted to go help out if possible. Just as I was preparing to close my door, I saw a light coming up the back drive—beyond the lawn and the garden, the one leading to the paddock. Someone was heading toward the sleep out that my brother used as a bedroom.

Closing my door against the orange glow, I fumbled for my bathrobe. Then I realized I might be around other people, and it might be best to be fully dressed if I was going to help out. With shaking hands I discarded that and tried to pull on my dress—but it was inside out. After more fumbling—little helped by the adrenaline in my veins and the chilly air causing my hands to shake violently—I was finally dressed and stepped out the door just in time to see Dad coming from the main house.

“Esther? Is that you?”

“Yes, Dad!”

“I’m going to check it out. Want to come along?”

I slid into the chilly truck seat beside him, and buckled the seatbelt with trembling fingers. Soon, we were out the lane and approaching the burning car. The whole frame was engulfed in flames. Cautiously, we drove past it, looking to see if there was anyone around.

In the light from the brilliant flames, I could see the brown grass in the ditch behind the car. It hadn’t caught…yet. I was thankful there was no wind—the pillar of smoke rose straight up into the air, to join the huge orange-tinted cloud above us.

Under my breath, I prayed that the firemen would arrive soon, and that the grass wouldn’t catch on fire.

We reached the Catholic church’s driveway, and still had seen no one. Just as we were turning around, to go back up the other way, the fire siren blew. Praise the Lord! After going up to the trucking yards, and still seeing no one, we figured the arsonist—whoever it was—had made a clean escape.

Since there was nothing more we could do, we headed back to the house. Mom met us, phone in hand, as we stepped out of the truck, asking if we saw anything.

“Someone apparently set it on fire,” Dad said with strain in his voice.

Mom had called the fire department, and they’d soon be there.

Then Mom remembered seeing a light going toward my brother’s sleep out. I confirmed her memory, because I had seen it too. “Could be someone up to no good.” Dad found his headlamp, and we both walked across the lawn and through the gate.

As we got to the corner of the sleep out, I noticed something weird. “Chevy’s not barking.” The dog that we’ve been taking care of the last few weeks is usually on high alert, and barks at the smallest things. That night, he was unusually silent. The tension in the air heightened, and we hurried even faster to make sure everything was okay.

We got to the front of the sleep out, and finally the dog started barking. One good sign, at least. Then, thankfully, my brother opened the door and came out.

“You’re okay?” Dad asked, “No one’s come here?”

“No,” he reassured Dad. “I just went out to check what had happened.”

By that time, we could hear the fire truck arriving. Knowing my brother was safe, we walked out the drive and soon came upon the scene. It was interesting to watch the firefighters work—although, at 12:30 in the morning it’s not quite the most welcome sight ever.

My brother was relieved. “I prayed someone would call the fire truck,” he said as we watched.

They hosed down the car, and everything seemed out, but within a few seconds the fire started again. After several good lots of drenching, they hosed foam all over the car, and then continued to pour water onto the engine.

Soon, the local police arrived, and after a while he came over to talk to us. By that time, Mom had come out to join us and together we watched the proceedings. When the police came, Mom told him that she had heard 4 or 5 distinct explosions, and we told him we hadn’t seen anyone around the site when we first checked it out.

After a little while, there was nothing more to see. The fire was out, leaving a blackened frame behind, and—praise the Lord!—the hedge was safe, and not much grass had burned. We soon went back to bed.

Melted glass on the window frame.

 

Neither Dad nor Mom slept much after the stress of the fire. In the morning, all we could see of the damage was a ruined car frame—complete with melted glass on the window frame and a cracked tire rim—and the foam, like snow, all over the car and surrounding area.

We are very thankful there was no wind, that it had rained just a little bit yesterday—just enough to make all the grass wet, and therefore, a tiny bit less fire-prone than usual, and that the firefighters were able to arrive quickly.

It could have been worse—much worse. But God was good, and we didn’t have to deal with any of that.

 

3:12 pm

I went to work this morning—after writing the above—and during the course of our conversation I asked my boss if she had heard anything last night. No; she hadn’t. Sometimes she has a hard time getting a good night’s sleep, but apparently last night wasn’t one of those times.

Being the closest neighbors to our left, I was surprised—they are just down the road from where the fire (and the explosions) were! But they hadn’t heard a thing.

Sometime this morning, my brother met up with the closest neighbor to our right—the only other occupant of our street. He also said he knew nothing about it, and was apparently surprised to hear about the fire.

That made me wonder…what if there hadn’t been any explosions? We probably wouldn’t have heard it—or woken up to it—either! As it is, besides the policeman and the firefighters, we were just about the only ones that were aware of the fire when it happened. I know we would have found out sometime what had happened, but it may have been too late by then—the fire got within a foot or so from the hedge (my brothers reported later that the hedge itself has all turned dark brown/black right around where the fire was), and once that gets going the job of putting it out quadruples in size.

All in all, this experience has made me very thankful. Thankful that we’re safe, and thankful that there was no great harm done (besides a bit of burned grass and a now-ugly car sitting out at the end of our road!).

God is good.

5-year-old Photographer

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My five-year-old begs for my camera every so often. Sometimes I let him have it, and it’s interesting to see what he comes up with. (Good reason to buy a cheap camera?) Here are the most interesting/best of the pictures I found on the memory card last time I looked at them after he had it.

His little brother wearing the crowns some of the boys made for the Christmas Eve service.

Little brother “sweeping” the front porch.

All the boys spent hours for a few weeks, building this town out of mud in the dry creek bed (they hauled water from the tap).

Little brother rolling in the grass.

The boys have spent many hours building different things out by one of the sleepouts (the one close to the kitchen). They often have the CD player playing a recorded story. The boys who aren’t actively involved in building lounge around, listening, till Mom comes up with a job! I frequently hear requests to turn the CD player off for a minute while someone runs a noisy tool. Can’t miss a word of the story, you know!

This young photographer took my camera outside again the other evening, but I haven’t looked at the pictures yet. I suspect they won’t turn out very well, since the flash doesn’t work. He likes to take videos, but they are the type to make you seasick!

December Pictures

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Yes, I’m a bit late, but here are some more pictures from December. And, by the way, we are still waiting for baby to arrive. It’s due in a couple more days, but I won’t be surprised if it’s late—we’ll see! We’re pretty anxious to meet this little one and see who he/she is!

The day after Grandma left, the two littlest boys decided to lay in her bed and study a leaflet we got at Willowbank.

We cleaned the garage out one day. I finally gave the permission the boys had been waiting for since we moved: I let them haul out and burn a lot of boxes! First they loaded ALL of them onto the wheelbarrow Simon got free at the dump (he just had to buy a new tube for the tire and had a good tool!).

Seth’s birthday landed on Sunday this year, and he wanted to walk over the Kaikoura Peninsula. Gayle took all the children across, while I drove around to the other side. Two of the boys ran the whole way, so had to wait a long time, and one of them was so bored that I handed him my camera and told him to take some pictures.

We had three little turkeys in the house for a few weeks. They were rather fun to watch! Some nights, their owner, Simon, would go around catching moths for them to eat. That was pretty hilarious to watch, as at the time, the moths were bigger than the turkey’s heads! After awhile, it was time to put them outside. They are thriving in a small pen now. We let them free-range until they ate all the leaves off my pepper plants one day.

One sunny warm day I got all the newborn clothes washed and hung out. So fun!

Just for fun, a couple of random shots of some of our critters—the steers and the ducks.

On Christmas Eve, the local Anglican church always has a special service for the children. They are supposed to dress in Nativity-scene costumes and sort of act out the story as it is read. Our boys were asked to be Joseph and the wise men, and one ended up being Herod when the boy who had that role backed out. We still had enough wise men, as the two littlest boys decided at the last minute they wanted to be kings, too! Esther created the costumes, and each boy designed and made his own crown, except the two littlest.

This has been a common scene this summer. I have had the boys spend half an hour a day in the garden pulling weeds, and they are doing well at keeping the weeds under control. One of the days Gayle had off work over Christmas he joined them; they were doing the job before breakfast, before the day got hot. I’ll do another post soon to show the garden. It is gorgeous this year!

One afternoon, Nathan wanted to take a picture of a spider in his room. He couldn’t quite get a picture of it, but played with the camera for awhile anyway!

New Year’s Day Harvest

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First, I want to wish all of you a wonderful 2015! We’ve had a lovely New Year’s Day today. It’s a lot cooler than yesterday, which I appreciate, but sunny and beautiful. I went out to the garden this morning and found a lot of things ready to pick. We are eating well these days!This afternoon, I went to the garage to get something, and made a side trip to check on the barrel of apple cider vinegar I’ve been brewing since last March. One of the boys had gotten a small cup of it this morning, and it tasted just slightly weaker than the double-strength vinegar we usually buy from a stockfeeds store. He thought there was a scoby in it (like kombucha). I looked, and sure enough there was a huge “mother” floating  on top!

That was exciting. There were also a lot of fruit flies in it, so I decided it was time to strain and bottle all of it. We ended up with 21 liters, just over 5 gallons, for the price of a rubbish bin (maybe $15). The apples were free from the roadside, and the only other ingredient was water. To buy that much vinegar at the stockfeeds shop costs about $80. I’m pleased with this experiment!

I put the “mother” in a jar to save till I start the next batch, so hopefully it will work even faster than this batch. Sure looks ugly! It’s kind of rubbery, a lot like a kombucha scoby.

Esther wanted to see what the cows would do with the vinegary apples, so she dumped them out in the paddock. They wanted to eat them, but the acid was apparently kind of hard for them to handle. They keep coming back for more, though!