Miller Street house

School Pictures

September 28, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I’ve gotten a few fun pictures recently of boys doing school. This first one was in the evening, but it shows all the males in this household engrossed in watching a YouTube video of (I think) how a methane digester can be made and how it works.

Mr. Diligence being diligent.

Mr. Inventor busily doing math.

Mr. Diligence kept doing this stunt during his lesson, for a couple of days. I finally told him that if he did it again he would have to let me take a picture. He stayed down for a few minutes—and then forgot!

When it was warm for a few days, Little Miss entertained herself during school in this way.

One morning when I went out to milk, this was the scene in the living room: Mr. Diligence, Mr. Handyman, and Mr. Inventor, all busily working on their math lessons (before breakfast), and Little Miss entertaining herself.

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.

Here is the beautiful tom turkey again. I know I’ve posted a lot of pictures of him—I love watching him display!

Mr. Imagination on the trampoline.

Mr. Imagination picked me a bouquet of daffodils!

These ducks wanted back in the yard!

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.

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.

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!

Evening Antics

July 21, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One evening the little boys were playing church just before bed. Mr. Imagination used these two stools.

Mr. Sweetie was preaching from the tall stool, and then Mr. Diligence took his place.

Mr. Intellectual was at his usual occupation. (I’m enjoying having a child who is as much a bookworm as I am!)

Mr. Inventor was enjoying his baby sister. This is one of the best pictures we’ve ever gotten of him—he has a hard time putting on a natural expression.

Cleaning the Garage

July 19, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The first of June was Queen’s Birthday, a holiday here. We spent the day doing things around home; in the afternoon I cleaned out and organized all four chest freezers. Gayle and Mr. Handyman finished fixing a big set of shelves we were given, and cleaned out a space in the garage to put them in.

I store clothes in these plastic totes, and we sent them out to the container.

The finished shelves, in place, and filled up with our pumpkins!

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!