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You are here: Home / Archives for Miller Street house

Miller Street house

January 2018 Pictures

February 24, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Ok, time to catch up with January pictures. These are the last ones from Cheviot, as we prepared to move.

On New Year’s Day, we were able to do a video call with Gayle’s family in America. It was fun to be able to see them! Little Miss was fascinated, and made sure she was right in front of Esther’s phone all the time.

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The cats find the most interesting places to sleep!

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An aunt in America sent these balloons. Little Miss and Mr. Imagination had a lot of fun with them—until they popped.

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I took this picture to send to the person who gave her the dress.

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One afternoon I went into Esther’s room to talk to her. Grizzly came along, and caught sight of herself in the mirror. She immediately arched her back and fluffed her tail, staring at that strange cat. She spent 5-10 minutes absolutely terrified, and of course, Esther teased her by moving the mirror closer—which sent Grizzly, hissing and spitting, under the bed!

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Two weeks before moving day, we had a Saturday afternoon with not much that had to be done, so we decided to go to the beach. There were too many people at Gore Bay for our liking, so we went to Manuka Bay. See where Gayle is sitting, under the rock? The tide was coming in, and every so often a wave would come right up to him. He managed to push himself up on his hands enough that he didn’t get very wet—but after awhile he gave up and found another shady spot to rest.

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Mr. Imagination lined all the teddy bears he could find up on my chair one day.

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Mr. Sweetie made this boat for Little Miss for her birthday.

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The day we loaded the container, a week before moving, one of the boys discovered a turkey hen with six or seven babies. We normally take the babies away as soon as they hatch, but these were about three weeks old—she had been hiding well! We had quite the chase to catch them; they were already able to fly.

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Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Canterbury, Cheviot, Miller Street house, Random Photos

Moving!

February 2, 2018 by NZ Filbruns 3 Comments

Tomorrow is moving day, so I decided to take a moment this morning to quickly post a few pictures of this month’s activities leading up to the big move!

This was part of the second load that went across to our new house. The white building is the chicken coop that Simon and Mr. Diligence remodeled into a sleepout; the other shed is one that was given to Simon when it blew down at a shop in town. He rebuilt it, much sturdier, and it makes a good garden shed.

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We pulled these shelves out of the kitchen, and Little Miss set to work cleaning them for me. She loves to clean!

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Our garage sale.

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When we loaded the container with everything we could stuff in, we packed our beds, only saving out a few foam mattresses for sleeping on for the last week. There wasn’t a bed available in Little Miss’s room at naptime, so I put her down on the foam in our room. It was a very hot day, as you can see by the posture of the kitten who joined her! The other kitten is barely visible between the bed and the curtain, on the slightly cooler floor.

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The container was picked up two days ago, and 24 hours later it arrived at our new house. Here, the truck has just pulled up beside it.

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Now, the crane at each end is chained on.

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The container, probably weighing 8-9 tons, is lifted up and set down on the truck.

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Each corner is locked in place, and off it goes!

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One of the last jobs to be done was to turn the last bit of vegetable garden back into lawn. Mr. Diligence spent a day this week working the soil, leveling it, and sowing grass seed. We’re hoping for a decent rain today; if not, we’ll water it this afternoon.

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Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Canterbury, Cheviot, Miller Street house

December 2017 Pictures

January 23, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Simon helped me harvest the garlic on Christmas Day. We got 89 heads from an area about a meter square. 14-IMG_3928

We’re having a problem with fleas on the kittens. I don’t want to spend $30 each to buy the pour-on stuff from the vet, because the mama cat would just lick it right off and I don’t think that would be good for her, so we’re dusting them with diatomaceous earth every 2-3 days. They hate it!

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This cat has always loved to sit in boxes—but I think she found one almost too small for her, this time!

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This hen hatched six babies right after Christmas. We were able to sell the mother and all the babies.

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The positions we find the kittens in are sometimes pretty funny!

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Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Canterbury, cats, Cheviot, Garden, Kittens, Miller Street house, Random Photos

Building Project

January 17, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Diligence decided about a month ago that he wanted to build a chicken coop for our new place. We didn’t know yet where we were going to move, or if we would need a coop, but I encouraged him to do it anyway. We figured that if we got a place that already had a coop, he could sell it. We had a lot of boards that Esther’s employer gave us when they remodeled their house, so this project didn’t cost anything except a few nails.

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He decided to build in a curtain for times when we have tiny chicks that need protection from drafts. It is normally kept rolled up.

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The builders, pleased with the results of their labor.

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Simon’s boss wanted to help us move, but can’t the weekend we plan to move, because of family circumstances, so he came over to get a couple of loads during the two weeks Simon had off over Christmas/New Year’s. He used his large car transporter to haul buildings for us. The chicken coop was the first to go. It was a challenge to figure out how to get it on the trailer!

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Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Boys, Canterbury, Cheviot, Miller Street house

November 2017 Pictures

December 21, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 3 Comments

Here are the rest of November’s pictures.

The kittens were born about the middle of November, and we have really been enjoying them. I allowed Mr. Imagination to choose one to keep, since he so badly wants a pet of his own. He chose this one, and was thrilled when her eyes opened and he could hold her.

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For Mr. Diligence’s birthday, some friends came, and the boys went on a 31 kilometer bike ride around the area.

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School time!

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Esther helped Mr. Imagination make peanut butter balls one day. Little Miss enjoyed helping, too—and they both loved eating them!

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The roses are a bit past their peak now, but a few weeks ago Mr. Imagination picked a bunch and made this arrangement!

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Mr. Intellectual’s science experiment to show how the diaphragm and lungs work.

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He has also been trying to work out how to make a small hot air balloon. So far, none of his designs has been light enough to get off the ground, and now that we’re back into a bad drought, he has to halt his experiments so he won’t cause a fire.

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They attached a fishing line to the balloon, in case it would rise.

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The geese and 3-week-old goslings.

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The kittens at a day old.

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Everyone was rather distracted one morning when a trucker came to take away a truck trailer that had been here for years. Mr. Intellectual helped him load some other stuff on his truck as well, to take to the owners of this place. My little people really enjoyed watching the crane in action! Mr. Sweetie took his schoolbook outside so he could work while he watched. He actually got a little done!

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Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Canterbury, Cheviot, Miller Street house, Random Photos

October 2017 Pictures

November 4, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the rest of the pictures from October!

It’s hard to see in this picture, but one thing they’ve done to stabilize this cliff face is to put black netting over the loose rocks. You can see it on the left side of the top.

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These are five-ton blocks of concrete—and a slip pushed them over!

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Mr. Intellectual is doing a course called “Thinking Like an Engineer.” He’s loving it, especially the experiments. In this one, he had to pile books an inch above the floor, using one sheet of printer paper. You’ll have to wait till I write the review of the course to see how tall a stack he achieved!

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Mr. Sweetie built this stack of animals, and then took 16 pictures of it!

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This was the latest dump find. Mr. Intellectual is loving his “new” roll-top desk!

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We got out the microscope one day to look at some algae. It was still out several days later when I was cutting up meat, so we looked at that, too.

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The first picture is skeletal muscle; the second is cardiac muscle. Mr. Intellectual had just been studying about these muscles a few days before, so this was a timely opportunity.

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Mr. Imagination and Little Miss spend most of the morning playing together while the bigger boys do school. They got out the rocking horse one day and had great fun on it for a long time.

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Little Miss can spend hours playing with these tiny animals. She loves sorting them.

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One day, Little Miss wanted to paint, so I gave her a brush and a bucket of water and told her to paint the house.

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Mr. Imagination was delivering quite a fiery sermon to his brother and sister! I enjoyed listening, while I picked lettuce nearby and pretended not to pay attention.

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Filed Under: Activities at Home, Away From Home Tagged With: Canterbury, Cheviot, Miller Street house, Random Photos

New Babies

October 29, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It’s spring! That means there are lots of new babies around.

We were given a lamb the last week of September. See the cat eyeing it? The other cat took one look and hid for the rest of the day!

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The cows and ducks were pretty curious, too. This lamb is named Daisy. By now, she’s free in the paddock, but she spends a lot of the day crying at the gate for more food, or attention.

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We were given two more lambs when Daisy was a few weeks old. They are named Dusty and Debbie. We have the beginning of a flock of sheep—three little ewe lambs!

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We came home from a trip to the West Coast to find eight new goslings! I didn’t want to get close to them to take a picture, so this is really zoomed in and not the best. These particular geese have never attacked anyone, but I don’t trust geese too far.

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The little boys are loving taking care of the lambs!

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Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Animals, Canterbury, Cheviot, Farming, Miller Street house

September 2017 photos

October 25, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the last few photos from September, that didn’t fit into any other posts.

When everyone else works on cleaning the house on Saturdays, Little Miss wants to do her cleaning, too. She has decided that spraying the walls and scrubbing them is her job. She sure loves to spray water!

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Licking the beaters is the best part of making pavlova!

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The boys brought in four goose eggs one day. They decided to blow out the insides and paint the shells.14-IMG_3327

Mr. Imagination did this one.

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Esther made herself a new dress, and used the leftover fabric to sew an apron for her little sister.

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Princess doing what she does best.

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On our way to the Dead Boring concert a few weeks ago, we got to see the Weka Pass train—it’s just a short excursion train from Waipara to Waikari. Fun to see a steam engine!

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Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Canterbury, Cheviot, Miller Street house, Random Photos

Spring 2017

October 11, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The pictures in this post were taken over the course of a month. One Sunday afternoon in September, we drove through the local domain on our way home from church. The daffodils were in full bloom, and so beautiful! Esther wanted me to take a picture of her with Little Miss, so I did. While I was doing that, Mr. Diligence took a picture of me taking the picture!

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The annual Dead Boring bike hike was the second Tuesday of September. Mr. Imagination rode in it, for the first time. I drove him the first 10 km or so, and then he rode his little bike for about 7 km.

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We had left after the older children who rode their bikes the entire 21 km of the route, but soon passed all of them. However, Mr. Imagination went slowly enough that a lot of them passed him up. Here is Mr. Intellectual.

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I always enjoy seeing the farm signs at the gates!

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These curious cows went racing to the corner of their paddock to see the children riding by.

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Mr. Diligence took Little Miss in a seat on the back of his bike. You can just see her helmet sticking up. She was thrilled to get to ride in the bike hike! Just in front of Mr. Diligence, who is wearing a blue-and-black striped shirt, is Mr. Sweetie, in a white shirt with vertical stripes.  They are about to pass Mr. Imagination, in his brown striped sweater. Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie stayed together the whole way.

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One day, Mr. Diligence found these wild ducklings huddled together by the duck pond. No mother was in sight, so he brought them in. Soon, though, she showed up, so he put them back with her.

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This is as close as Princess wants to come to water. She, like a normal cat, minces delicately around puddles. Bandit, on the other hand, races right through them without seeming to notice he’s getting wet! One day, I watched him walk deliberately into the middle of a small puddle, about an inch deep, and start batting at the ripples he created! No wonder he’s usually wet and muddy.

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This has been a common sight this year. Such a contrast to the last few years!

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The cat wants us to shut off the rain—but the waterfowl are loving it!

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The little children are loving it, too. Because of all the rain (four inches in five days a few weeks ago, and four and a half inches in the past five days), the creek in front of our house has been running. When it’s full enough, they boat down it in a half barrel. Yesterday we had a sunny morning, so these three spent time splashing and playing. The boys were having a toe-stomping fight.

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Filed Under: Activities at Home, Away From Home Tagged With: Canterbury, Cheviot, Miller Street house

Videos for Grandma

October 6, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Just for my mom, here are two videos of the little ones.

This first one is of Little Miss counting to 22 when she was playing hide and seek with Mr. Imagination.

This is Mr. Imagination reading me his list of words. He has only learned six sounds so far, but he’s doing quite well at sounding out words. In the background you can hear Little Miss and her incessant questions and comments!

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Canterbury, Cheviot, Homeschooling, Miller Street house, Video

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The Family:


Dad and Mom (Gayle and Emma)

Girl #1, Esther, my right hand

Boy #1, Seth (Mr. Handyman)

Boy #2, Simon (Mr. Inventor)

Boy #3, Mr. Intellectual

Boy #4, Mr. Diligence

Boy #5, Mr. Sweetie

Boy #6, Mr. Imagination

Girl #2, Little Miss

Girl #3, Miss Joy

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