Miller Street house

Birthday Party!

October 19, 2014 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

We had a birthday party a couple of weeks ago for two of the boys—the third and fifth boys, whose birthdays are just a week apart the end of September and beginning of October. It had to be postponed for several days from the original date selected, because the older boy was sick, and only one friend ended up being able to come. That was disappointing, but we made the best of it. The weather was horrid—cold, rainy and windy, so they had to play in the house. They played Elephant Stop for awhile. In that game, one person is blindfolded, and counts to, maybe, 30, while everyone else moves around. Then, the blindfolded person calls out, “Elephant Stop!” and the others must stop wherever they are. They are allowed to move any part of their body besides their feet. Some boys climbed up on the bunkbeds!

After that game, we moved out to the garage to break a pinata that the older birthday boy made. It was supposed to look like a sheep. It was great fun, as usual, to watch the participants trying to break the swinging pinata!

September Pictures

October 18, 2014 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

Esther took these pictures around her little house soon after we moved. The chickens were left here when the owners moved out; they’ve now been locked up. Our cat, Ginger, loves her house. He has a comfortable bed on the front porch!

The littlest boy loves the little picnic table close to the kitchen door! He wants to take his lunch out there to eat it, and sometimes asks to take his breakfast out. The other boys sometimes join him. Apparently, this time, the youngest had gone elsewhere, because the ones in the picture are Simon and Joseph, the second and fifth boys.

I’m horrible about getting before-and-after photos, but we put two shelves up in the kitchen to make more space. Simon bought himself a cordless drill, and was thrilled to use it to put up the shelves. That’s James helping him.

Time to work up the garden—but the tiller (rotary hoe here) broke. They’re busy fixing it. That’s Seth, James and Simon.

Nathan is enjoying this swing, and James likes to swing him!

Hard-Working Boys!

September 25, 2014 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

After Gayle got home this afternoon, he suggested that Seth start mowing lawn. He also told me he wanted to clean his truck. The next thing I knew, when I looked outside, this is what I saw!

Three boys mowing lawn (one mower no longer has the self-propelled feature, so two boys push it)….

Elijah was weed-whacking….

And these two were vacuuming! I love it when they are all working like this. Big sister is at work, too, cleaning at the place her daddy works. I need to get busy now; I’m the only lazy one at the moment! Time to fix supper.

Some Views of Our New House

September 21, 2014 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

My 8-year-old went around taking pictures the other day of this new place, so I can share with you some of the grounds. I haven’t taken any inside yet, so you’ll have to wait till another time to see that.

Esther’s sleepout—the gray-green bush beside her porch is wormwood.

The creek in front of the house (there is also one at the back of the property).

The garage, by the house. I have the freezers in the right-hand side, and behind that is a stage with some built-in shelving, plus shelves we put in, where all our jars of food are.The daffodils are in full bloom right now on the east side of the creek.

The container/sleepout, and fertilizer for the garden.

The lemon tree, in a sunny, sheltered corner of the house.

The sand box, under the water tank—the littlest boy’s favorite place!

Another sleepout, inside and out.

Some of the piles of junk! After the ground dries out, they are planning to clean up. The third picture is a World War II crane. The owner here is a trucker/mechanic/antique car collector.

The creek at the back of the 5 acres, with a couple of cabbage trees.

The bridge over the back creek!

A pukeko nest the boys found.

Our two ram lambs.

I took these pictures during school the other morning—this is the view from the school room!

Monday evening, Gayle brought a surprise home from work—a ewe lamb! She was not impressed at being taken away from her mother and tied up. She has since decided, however, that Seth is her mother and will follow him everywhere. He led her into the kitchen a couple nights ago. She promptly squatted and left behind a puddle! He got to clean it up.

Miracle

September 20, 2014 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Yes, we have a house chick. This little fellow is a miracle. About a month or six weeks ago, one of our hens started hatching the eggs we had put under her. Six of the eleven hatched on Wednesday, and we brought them in the house for a couple of days, then put them out with another batch, of a dozen chicks, that were just a couple days older. She was still sitting on the remaining eggs, so we let her. The next day, another egg had a hole in it. On Friday morning, the chick was still in the egg, still peeping, and had its head sticking out. We could tell that the egg was stuck to the chick, dried on. I knew you are not supposed to help a chick out of the egg, as they need the struggle to be strong enough to survive, but we also knew this one would not live without help. My chicken-lover, Simon, gently picked the shell off, to give the chick the only chance it would have. Once out of the shell, the chick flopped around on its back, from side to side of the plastic tub it was in with several others, crying piteously when they stepped on it. We put all the ones that were strong enough out with a mother hen that evening, and the next morning this little one was on his feet! He surprised all of us by that. He was still bumping into the sides of the tub, and couldn’t get one eye open, but within a couple more days was acting much more normal, eating and drinking. All the others have moved on, but this one doesn’t fit in with any flock we have. He now lives in a bucket, with a lid on at night because he won’t stay in. During the day, we put him outside in the grass and he scratches around like any other chicken. This afternoon, it was chilly outside, and he came to the door and seemed to want in. Someone opened the door and he hopped right on in and walked around, totally at home!

Our New House

August 9, 2014 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

As I promised last week, here are a few pictures from the next house we’ll be moving to. This is the front of the house, towards the road. The light isn’t the greatest here, because this side faces east and we were there late in the afternoon.

The door to the left goes into a bedroom, which will be our spare bedroom/schoolroom/library. Next is the door opening into the hallway, and then our bedroom. The third bedroom is just down the hallway from our room, on the same side of the house. The schoolroom will be cold in winter, but nicely cool in summer.

This house was the first maternity house in Cheviot. It was purchased for that purpose sometime soon after being built, in the few years just before 1915. A woman named Mary Davidson was the local midwife, although she never had any formal training. She ran the maternity home from when she bought the house, just before 1915, until about 1930. She never lost a mother or baby! At that time, the house only consisted of the three current bedrooms and the living room. The living room was apparently the kitchen, with a coal range where there is now a logburner. The room we’ll use as a schoolroom was apparently the parlor. They would put mothers in there when both bedrooms were occupied (of course, back then, women usually stayed in bed for two weeks, if I understand right). All the water they needed was heated on the coal range, and to have enough they put it in a “copper”—a metal cylinder—in a corner of the wide hallway, camouflaged with a large wicker basket. When a baby was expected, the home was kept in readiness night and day. The story I read said that was not hard during the day, but nighttime was much harder—that was when the store of hot water in the copper came in handy! The hardest thing for mothers was to get to the maternity home, as the only transportation then was horse and buggy, and it’s not exactly smooth terrain here! I found this history quite fascinating.

Esther is planning to make this sleepout into her bedroom. She’s quite excited about making it attractive inside, and having her own space. It was originally a railway hut, and the present owners of the house moved it here.

When we move, we’ll work on getting more pictures of the place. It’s not as beautiful a location as the one we’re in right now, but it will work for us for a couple of years.