Cheviot

June 2016 Pictures of Our Little People

August 7, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

My computer finally seems to be fixed. We had to send it back in to be worked on again in late June, and when we got it back and set up again, we ran into the same problem as before. I had to install updates one at a time, because it wasn’t handling more than that. Suddenly, the same problem appeared that we had before, with the computer demanding the product key for Windows 8. We uninstalled the update I had just installed, but nothing changed. I contacted the company—again. However, a day or so later, after a couple more restarts, the demand for that key disappeared! The computer is working perfectly again. What a relief. So, maybe I’ll get back to more regular posting…or maybe not. No promises. Anyway, here are pictures for Grandma of the two littlest during June.

Little Miss asked for some yogurt in her bowl. Then, she stepped in it! What a terrible catastrophe!

Little Miss and Mr. Imagination reading stories together.

Mr. Imagination was pretending to be a gorilla.

Little Miss took ashes out of the coal range, and then tried to clean up her mess!

She’s all girl! She likes pretty dresses.

Looking at pictures with big sister.

Playing at Dead Boring (homeschool group).

Esther’s boss gave the little ones a toy lawn mower. Little Miss claims it for her own.

Helping Esther make snickerdoodles.

It’s a Bull!

July 28, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The calf has arrived! As I said in yesterday’s post, our cow was looking very close to calving last evening. Mr. Handyman checked on her at 6:00 this morning, and nothing was happening, but I went out a few minutes before 8:00, to find her laying down. As I feared, she couldn’t get up. She has a history of milk fever, which is a sudden crash in calcium levels in the blood, so I knew what the problem was. Normally, this happens a day or two after calving, but this cow has gone down while she was in labor before. So, I called the vet as soon as they opened at 8:00, and he came out within half an hour. He gave her calcium intravenously, as well as a drench, and a few minutes later she was on her feet. We kept a very close eye on her all morning (one of the boys had trouble focusing on school—he’s still not done!), and at 1:00 the exciting news was shouted around the house that “something” could be seen. By about 1:45, we were excited to have witnessed the birth of a beautiful little bull calf. Both mother and baby seem to be doing well, although we need to continue giving her extra calcium for a few days as her body adjusts to producing milk again. We’ve named the baby Speckles.

Proud mama!

I got this picture from the house of the children watching the birth while eating lunch!

The calf’s father was a White Galloway bull belonging to a neighbor of ours. He looked a lot like this one.

Now, for the winners of my giveaway! Dianne was the only one who guessed the right day; she will receive a code for a free Kindle copy of Sweet on You, the first Meddlin’ Madeleine book, by Chautona Havig. Only Dianne and Dannielle guessed that the calf would be a bull, so Dannielle will get Ante Up!, the fourth Aggie’s Inheritance book, also by Chautona Havig. I’ll send you both your codes as soon as I have them. Enjoy!

What Day Will it Happen? Contest!

July 17, 2016 by NZ Filbruns 9 Comments

We are eagerly anticipating fresh milk again soon. We’ve been drinking frozen milk since I dried off the cow about the first of June, but it isn’t the same. The cow has started to bag up now, though, so we’re getting excited about having a new calf on the place again–and did I mention, fresh milk? And cream? And butter? We ran out of the frozen butter today and have to use butter from the shop now.

Anyway, I’m having a contest! I have a free copy of each of Chautona Havig’s two most recent books, Sweet on You and Ante Up!, so they will be the prizes for this contest. To enter, please comment on this post or on my Facebook page (with the link for this post) with the day you think the calf will arrive and whether it will be a heifer calf or a bull calf. The cow is due on July 23, and these pictures show how she looks today. (No, it’s not twins; we saw the calf when we had the vet do a scan to confirm the pregnancy in November, and it was definitely just one calf–this cow simply gets huge!) I’ll give one of the books to the person who guesses closest to the right date (or draw from all the right guesses), and the other book to someone who guesses the right gender. The contest closes when the calf is born–sometime in the next two weeks! The book you get will be a Kindle book, but you do not have to have a Kindle to read it. If you have a tablet or a smart phone you can easily get a free app to read Kindle books, or you can read them on your computer. So, make a guess and you may get to read a book by my favorite author!

June 2016 Pictures

June 23, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I happened to have my camera in my pocket the other day when I was in the garden and discovered this beauty!

Preparing lunch the night before for our trip to town. It takes a lot of sandwiches to feed this crew! Making them assembly-line fashion helps.

What do you do with a big pile of coasters from the dump? Build castles!

Sunday afternoon fun. The little boys were trying to play the organ.

Mr. Diligence was playing with a bean bag.

Sunday School Picnic and Gore Bay

June 15, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I looked at the pictures on Esther’s memory card yesterday, and found some from the Sunday School picnic in March that I’d like to share! This picnic is an annual event at the home of a family way up in the hills, nearly to the mountains. After lunch, we walked out in a paddock behind the house. A couple of our boys had spent two nights there in December, and wanted to show us where they had played. It was quite interesting! They discovered that this tree was hollow, and opened up a hole just a bit more so they could fit inside. Here is Mr. Inventor peering out.

This is how you get it—turn sideways and wriggle through! No thanks.

The valley the tree was in.

They also wanted to show us the big willow trees they played in.

This was the original house on the farm, built about a hundred years ago. Unfortunately, it is in very poor shape now. It was quite interesting to look at, though.

The day after the picnic, we took a picnic to another place: Gore Bay. The boys wanted to try out an inflatable dinghy they were given. It didn’t work very well in the waves here, but when they tried it on a quiet lagoon, it worked well.

Little Miss is terrified of the sea—she wanted to stay safe with Daddy.

A New Forge

June 13, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Inventor built himself another forge this week. He cut apart a propane cylinder and used the top for the place for a fire. He welded it to a pipe and used the bottom of the cylinder for a stand. The pipe coming out the side is to attach a blower to (he uses an old vacuum cleaner) for air for the fire. He welded a metal grate inside to hold the coal fire up off the air hole.

Here is the forge in action. It worked great—it was so hot they could hardly get close enough to work with the fire! However, it melted the grate. I’m not sure what he’s doing next!

May 2016 Pictures

June 9, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

My computer is still acting up; we reset to factory setting two weeks ago because it had automatically updated to Windows 8.1 and this computer won’t work right on that operating system. Now, it’s demanding that we put in the product key for Windows 8! I’ve been talking to the technical support at Acer, and getting very frustrated. Most of them are difficult to understand, and don’t really want to listen to me. When they told me what to do, it didn’t work, so I called back and they said to reset to factory settings again! So, I’m going to write and schedule a bunch of blog posts with all the pictures I have ready, so I can delete those folders, and then back up my computer, and then reset it. Then, we get to set it up again for the third time in three weeks, and copy everything from the backup into the computer again, and spend a day installing updates again, because there are so many that they overload the system, and search for the particular update that enables the upgrade to Windows 8.1 and block it, and reinstall all the programs I use! What a bother. Esther is getting really good at setting up a computer. I tried, I really did, but messed things up so she had to fix them. I told Gayle today that Esther isn’t allowed to leave home—I can’t figure out my computer without her! I have a feeling I’m allowing myself to be lazy about it, though and could do it if I spent a lot more time with it.

Anyway, here are the random pictures from May.

Little Miss loves to drape clothing around her neck as a scarf.

Socks and shoes are her favorite items of clothing. Socks over pajamas? Why not!

One afternoon on the way home from church the sea was so still we could see reflections. Barney’s Rock was so beautiful this way!

An apple in a cup—the perfect way to eat it!

Mr. Handyman holding our biggest pumpkin of the year. I can’t remember how much it weighed, though.

A new dress! This came from either her grandmother or an aunt, on Gayle’s side.

I thought this was funny—three boys using three computers.

We had quite the harvest of peppers. I planted four types, Bell Peppers, Anaheim Chilies, Jalapenos, and Cayenne. Such a pretty assortment. Today I need to be washing the last of them; I picked a bushel basket full (40 liter tub) a few days ago when the plant were mostly killed by frost.

Mr. Intellectual was given a margarine tub full of stamps from around the world. He had great fun sorting them and discovering what countries they were from. There were a lot of double-ups, so his brothers got some, too.

Cuteness—Kittens and Chicks

June 7, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We acquired two kittens toward the end of April, Leif and Linda. They were awfully cute, playing together. When we let them in the house in the morning, they would spend the next hour or so playing with each other, then settle down for a nap on their favorite chair. We thoroughly enjoyed playing with them and holding them for a nap. Unfortunately, Linda was accidentally killed only a month after we got them. We’re still enjoying Leif, though. He’s growing fast, and full of life. He searched for his sister for a day or two after she died, but seems to have forgotten her now. Mr. Inventor allowed Leif into his room so he wouldn’t be so lonesome at night, and now the kitten sleeps with him.

The fire-worshippers!

The only time we saw Leif up this tree was when he was searching for Linda—she used to climb it.

Guarding a schoolbook?

We also have some very cute chicks. This hen has hatched chicks for us quite a number of times; she’s getting pretty old—Esther found a picture of her from 2013, when she was young. We think someone gave her to us. This time, she hatched 16, out of 16 eggs—quite an impressive record.

It’s pretty funny to see all 16 chicks under their mother at the same time. She can’t relax! All you can see of the chicks is a few feet sticking out. I’m really impressed by how a mother hen takes care of her chicks. It’s really cold in the mornings here right now, with heavy frosts. The chicks run around and forage for awhile, then duck under their mother’s feathers to warm up. Then they run around for awhile again. When we put feed on the ground for them, she races over and starts virtually ordering the chicks to eat.

These white chickens were raised by the light brown hen you can see just in front of the red tub. She and another hen, between them, hatched 23 chicks within a few days of each other in April, and have successfully raised all 23. We locked them up just a few days ago, because there were too many chickens on the loose.

“Eat up! You don’t know when you’ll find more food!” says Mother Hen.

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.

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!