Video

Mr. Inventor

December 9, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Inventor has been very busy living up to his nickname lately. Here are pictures of some of his projects just in the past week.

He built a forge out of an old 20-pound propane cylinder. He had watched a YouTube clip online, and and added his own ideas. He cut off the top of the cylinder and attached a pipe to the lower side to which he attached an air pump. Then, he lined the lower 2/3 or so of the tank with an inch or two of clay and let it dry for a day. He started a fire in it with wood, and then added coal to get a very hot fire. He was able to get it really hot by pumping air in.

After getting the bar of steel red hot, he beat it on a piece of railroad rail with his hammer to try to make a chisel. He later ended up melting this end of the steel, though, when he was experimenting to see how hot he could get it! When he pulled it out of the fire one time, part of the bar was missing.

He made this handle for a chisel with his wood lathe.

He also built this hand-crank bench grinder one day. He spent a lot of time on YouTube trying to find directions for building something like this, but couldn’t find any, so he made it up himself, if I understood right. He wanted to make another, and make a video of it to post on YouTube for other boys to watch who want to make the same thing! He used the bike pedal that was originally attached to the gear at first, then made this handle on his lathe. He likes the bike pedal better, though, because it’s easier to turn. Actually, now he’s saying to take off the pedal but leave the bolt it turns on.

He’s also using his lathe again to make wooden bowls. There has been a lot of creativity here in the past week!

After the bowl is shaped and sanded, he oils it for several days with olive oil. These bowls are beautiful!

Of course, the boys had to have fun with the forge, too! Besides melting aluminum and making odd shapes with it (Mr. Intellectual has now made a clay mold in which he wants to try casting an aluminum signet ring), this short video shows some of their other fun. And by the way, after only doing this trick four times, the bucket of water was hotter than dishwater!

Videos of Baby for Her Absent Siblings

November 28, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We predicted that Little Miss would learn to walk while her big sister and brother are in America. Until yesterday, I wondered if that would actually happen. Now, I am sure it will! These videos are for the two of you who are absent; hopefully you can see them in a few days when you have access to internet again.

First, she learned to push her stroller last evening–that was thrilling, as you can see! The laughter you can hear is Mr. Imagination.

Then, today, she started walking on her own.

She is also waving. She often waves with just one hand, but when she gets really excited she uses both.

Ten Months Already!

November 15, 2015 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

This little girl is already ten months old. She is more fun all the time. All her brothers love to cuddle her and encourage her to walk, although she isn’t taking steps on her own yet. She stands up from a squat anywhere she is, though. She’s a very happy little girl unless she’s tired or hungry or gets hurt, and she’s very good at expressing herself.

A week and a half ago, we spent the whole day getting Esther and Mr. Handyman ready to leave for six weeks in America. Little Miss loved playing on the suitcases.

Little Miss loves her Daddy! She was overjoyed last Saturday afternoon when he carried her around this way for an hour.

Last year’s Swiss Chard (called Silverbeet here) is going to seed, so I’ve been pulling it and cutting off the leaves to cook. Little Miss “helped” me and tasted the stems.

When I washed the Silverbeet, she helped by pulling leaves out and throwing them around.

She loves her doll, as well as this one, which belongs to Mr. Imagination.

Mr. Sweetie was trying to sweep and wash the kitchen floor last week. Little Miss wanted to “help”, but I locked her into the living room with the help of two chairs. She was not happy about it–watch this short video to hear what she had to say! She often talks like this.

Leaf Jumpers…and a Cannibal!

November 2, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I took the children to the Domain here in our village. It’s a piece of public land, and it’s fairly heavily wooded, with trails through the trees. There is a large open area, which is now a cricket playing field. The cricket clubhouse is at the edge of the field, and was built on part of the foundation of William “Ready Money” Robinson’s mansion. Robinson made a fortune on the Australian gold fields in, I believe, the 1870s, and came here with the money. He bought an immense tract of land, about half the size of a county in Michigan, and then built this mansion. If I remember right, all 3 stories and 40 rooms of it were finished in about 1881, and Robinson died the following year.

Anyway, we went there a couple of weeks ago to do some filming for a movie the children were making. (Watch for it to post here sometime in December, after Esther posts it on her blog, http://estherfilbrun.com.) The day was a perfect spring day, so after the filming was finished, we just spent some time enjoying the beautiful setting. While the boys played, and rode a bike very fast down a very steep hill, Esther and I read for awhile and played with Little Miss. The little boys (and some slightly bigger ones) enjoyed jumping in a big pile of leaves that Esther raked up for them. Esther put this short video together for me.

Baby Bookworm

October 23, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Little Miss loves books already. Her very favorite story is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? She loves the colorful pictures, as you can see in this video. This is put together from a number of different readings. In real life, she gets a lot more excited than we were able to capture on video.

Dead Boring Concert 2015

October 15, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago was the annual Dead Boring concert. Each family has the opportunity to perform for the entire group. Some families perform a skit, or recite poetry, or play instruments. Our children always sing, and this year Mr. Intellectual recited a funny poem as well.

The first song our children sang was Lift Your Glad Voices.

Lift Your Glad Voices

Lift your glad voices in triumph on high,
For Jesus hath risen, and man cannot die;
Vain were the terrors that gathered around Him,
And short the dominion of death and the grave;

He burst from the fetters of darkness that bound Him,
Resplendent in glory to live and to save!
Loud was the chorus of angels on high,
The Savior hath risen, and man shall not die.

Glory to God, in full anthems of joy;
The being He gave us death cannot destroy:
Sad were the life we must part with tomorrow,
If tears were our birthright, and death were our end;

But Jesus hath cheered the dark valley of sorrow,
And bade us, immortal, to Heaven ascend
Lift then your voices in triumph on high,
For Jesus hath risen, and man shall not die.

Their second song was “Beulah Land”.

Beulah Land

Far away the noise of strife upon my ear is falling;
Then I know the sins of earth beset on every hand;
Doubt and fear and things of earth in vain to me are calling;
None of these shall move me from Beulah Land.

Refrain:
I’m living on the mountain, underneath a cloudless sky,
I’m drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry;
Oh, yes! I’m feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply,
For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.

Far below the storm of doubt upon the world is beating,
Sons of men in battle long the enemy withstand;
Safe am I within the castle of God’s Word retreating;
Nothing then can reach me—’tis Beulah Land.

Let the stormy breezes blow, their cry cannot alarm me;
I am safely sheltered here, protected by God’s hand;
Here the sun is always shining, here there’s naught can harm me;
I am safe forever in Beulah Land.

Viewing here the works of God, I sink in contemplation;
Hearing now His blessed voice, I see the way He planned;
Dwelling in the Spirit, here I learn of full salvation;
Gladly I will tarry in Beulah Land.

After the singing, Mr. Intellectual stayed on the stage and recited, “When Daddy Fell Into the Pond”.

Daddy Fell Into the Pond

Everyone grumbled. The sky was grey.
We had nothing to do and nothing to say.
We were nearing the end of a dismal day,
And there seemed to be nothing beyond,
THEN
Daddy fell into the pond!

And everyone’s face grew merry and bright,
And Timothy danced for sheer delight.
“Give me the camera, quick, oh quick!
He’s crawling out of the duckweed.”
Click!

Then the gardener suddenly slapped his knee,
And doubled up, shaking silently,
And the ducks all quacked as if they were daft
And is sounded as if the old drake laughed.

O, there wasn’t a thing that didn’t respond
WHEN
Daddy fell into the pond!

Homemade Generator

September 12, 2015 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Mr. Inventor has all kinds of ideas. One of the recent ones he tried was making his own generator. He wanted one he could crank and generate some power. He tried a few different things, and then the man who runs the local dump gave him a tip. He suggested that Mr. Inventor take the motor off an old top-loader washer. There was one at the dump that day, so the motor came here. Mr. Inventor hooked some wires up to it and gave it a spin by hand—and Mr. Diligence got shocked! The next step was to hook an electric drill to the shaft, and they were able to generate enough power to light a bulb. That isn’t a very economical way to run a generator, however, using electric to turn it! Now, they have hooked it up to a bicycle. The first time they ran it, they blew a lightbulb. They soon figured out how to make electricity arc, and then used that to start a fire so they could burn some brush! This picture and video are of the demonstration we were given of how he could light a bulb with the drill-operated generator. I loved Mr. Imagination’s delight, so got a video of that, too.

A Lesson in Elimination

July 31, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Over a year ago, my children made this movie. Esther never got the bloopers put together until a few weeks ago, so I never posted it here. Now I finally have her permission, since the bloopers are ready, so enjoy! This movie was taken at the last house we lived in, by the way. Here is the real movie:

These are the bloopers:

Pottery Wheels

July 27, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We recently read the book A Single Shard aloud recently. It is a fascinating story of a village of potters in 12th century Korea. As soon as we finished it, Mr. Inventor wanted to know how to make a pottery wheel. I let him go on YouTube to find some ideas, and then he went out to the junk pile and found this wheel. He found bearings and bolted them together and added them to the wheel. He’s still experimenting; when he saw these pictures, he said, “First attempt, worst attempt!” Apparently, he has something better now. The second and third pictures are closer to what he has now; they’ve hooked a washing machine motor to the wooden disk, but are using a smaller wooden disk. I told him I need more pictures!

Here’s a brief video of the wheel in action:

Fancy Bread

July 17, 2015 by NZ Filbruns 7 Comments

Last year sometime, I found a website titled “The Kid Should See This”. It is a collection, being added to all the time, of YouTube and Vimeo videos on all different topics. The videos are not created for children, but are very interesting for children (and adults!). I signed up for their weekly newsletter, consisting of links to five or six videos each week. Once or twice a week, when everyone is done with the morning’s school, plus science, by 1:00, and Esther doesn’t have to go back to work right after lunch we’ll watch several while we eat. This week, one of the ones we watched was about braiding bread. The woman who did the video demonstrated braiding with 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 strands! We were all fascinated all the way through. Since then, Mr. Intellectual, who loves to cook, has tried his hand at a 3-strand loaf. I made bread today, and decided to make one braided loaf. At first, I tried six strands, but couldn’t remember for sure how. Rather than watch it again, I just did a 5-strand loaf. It turned out nice!

Here is the video we watched. Mom, you would love this.