West Coast

August 2020 Photos

September 5, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the last of the photos from August!

Little Miss helped me harvest some purple broccoli one day with the basket a neighbor gave her, and then she took it to her bedroom to show Esther.

We did an art project one evening as part of our study of New Zealand for geography. The three children each cut out shapes and made them into a picture of sheep, then glued on cotton balls and eyes after painting part of the picture. They love projects like this!

When I cut open the first of the three giant cheeses I made in June, Mr. Imagination thought the moment needed to be documented. The cheeses are delicious! We’re nearly through the second one.

Simon has been fixing a car for Esther. It needed a new heater core, which he had to order from the States. When it came, he had to change the hoses to make it work. We took a couple of pictures to document this for his apprenticeship.This picture is for the apprenticeship, as well. He had to take the head off the engine and replace all the valves; they got bent when the timing belt broke. That meant he was able to buy the car for very little, and hopefully Esther will have reliable transportation again! (Her car broke down in June and wasn’t worth fixing, so she’s been borrowing since then.) He just finished fixing up the car today; hopefully, it will get the new Warrant of Fitness sticker Monday, and Esther can start using it!

The power went out one evening just as I finished cooking tea. We ate by candlelight—something that delighted the children! It turned out that our neighbor had been driving a tractor back here, which he does practically every day, since they are agricultural contractors, and a car that was passing him hit the rear wheel. The tractor turned over a couple of times and landed against an electric pole. The tractor ended up supporting the pole. The power was turned back on after about 45 minutes, but it took several hours to get the pole replaced. Thankfully, our neighbor wasn’t hurt too badly. He had a large bandage on his head, was limping, and had a lot of bruises, but he wasn’t thrown out of the cab, which we’re thankful for. The car turned over, too, but apparently the driver wasn’t hurt. The tractor had all its lights on, which means it would have been extremely visible—obviously the driver of the car made a big mistake.

July 2020 Photos

August 30, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the last of the photos from July!

We bought a set of books from Creation Ministries, five books whose titles all begin with Untold Mysteries. They have been very popular—especially the Monumental Monsters one, about giant animals from the past. That book has been thoroughly studied!

Mr. Imagination loves to make cardboard and paper creatures.

We get a lot of cream when the cow is in milk! She’s dry at the moment, but I was finding myself with up to three gallons of cream a week to make into butter. Through the winter, it was taking long enough to make butter in the food processor that I started brainstorming with the boys about how to build a butter churn that would do it all at once. Simon got started building a mechanical one, but in the meantime we tried this system. We strapped the bucket full of cream into the barrel section and rocked it back and forth. Unfortunately, we wore out long before butter was made. After 2-3 hours of rocking it, all we had was whipped cream. Oh, well. Not all our inventions work!

One of the many pieces of heavy machinery that go past our house.

Mr. Diligence is raising chicks again this year. He hasn’t had as good success as last year, when he only lost 1 out of the 100; this year, he has lost 9. They’re growing well, though! This picture was taken when they were a week or two old; now they’re about six weeks old.I heard a call of distress one evening and found this. She had gotten onto the couch, then climbed onto a wooden crate behind my chair and lost her balance as she knocked the lamp over. She was desperately holding on to the swivel chair and the sliding pile of books, wanting rescue.

Doesn’t that look delicious? It’s a leg of lamb that a friend here gave us.

We have a beautiful crop of purple broccoli and green cauliflower. I’m not sure which this is, but it almost looks like a cross between the two! I loved the colors on this head.

June 2020 Photos, Part 2

August 8, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I forgot to post this last weekend! Sorry, if anyone noticed. I’m still trying to catch up from being away from home six days in a row, including two days on the other side of the island visiting Esther for her birthday. I’m feeling a bit more caught up now. Esther came home for three days this week, and it was great to have her home for a little while. We’re hoping she’ll be home for a longer time soon; she’s helping a family from the homeschool group we used to be part of.

This is a very busy little girl. She must have found the paints that day!

We enjoyed watching these ponies graze in front of our house for two years. Now, this section has sold, so the ponies graze somewhere else. Nothing has been done here yet, so we’re enjoying having open space in front of us still.

Mr. Imagination, my artistic son, made this creation.

Little Miss Busy worked and worked to get into this box of jars. Her feet are several inches off the floor here. Once she had figured out what was inside the box, she gave me the grin in the next photo.

We were given a lot of milk the last couple of weeks of June. One Saturday, I made three cheeses. See the three presses? The two on the table hold the cheese from 2 gallons (8 liters) and 5 gallons (20 liters). The one on the floor, with the buckets stacked on top for weight, holds the cheese from 60 liters (15 gallons). I made that cheese in 6 pots. I heated two pots, added the starter and moved them off the stove, heated the next two…. I did the same for the stirring and cooking step. It took a lot of concentration, but was fun. We’re eating that cheese now, and it turned out deliciously creamy. These are all Colby cheeses, and the smallest one, which we haven’t cut into yet, has chili peppers in it.

Here are the three cheeses after we took them out of the press the next day. That’s 15 kilos (maybe 35 pounds?) of cheese right there.

She was delighted, one day, to be able to chew on her toes!

Gayle turned 50 the end of June. Esther was coming home from helping a family for six weeks, that day, so Gayle went to the top of one of the mountain passes to meet her and bring her home. That got him away from home for three hours, and the boys got busy cutting down trees as soon as he left. There were several trees around our yard that we didn’t want anymore, including this ornamental plum, the tall one behind the sleepout in the second picture, and the camelia in the third picture. I took off for town and bought two apple trees and a cherry tree, and the boys got them planted before Gayle got home, as a birthday surprise.

There were several loads of brush to take to the dump down the hill, as well as some firewood. Mr. Intellectual is using the plum wood for smoking hams.

These wood pigeons were apparently living in the plum tree. They were quite upset by the loss of their home. We saw five at once! They soon adjusted to the new look, though.

June 2020 Photos—Part 1

July 26, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I have a lot of random photos from June that I don’t know how to group together well, so I’ll just post them this way.

Mr. Imagination badly wanted to make a braided loaf, so one day when we made bread we allowed him to. This is the result.

We were given a whole sheep when we went to visit some friends—what a gift! The boys and Gayle got it cut up as soon as we arrived home, and we’ve been enjoying ribs, chops and roasts. Yum!

Mr. Sweetie took this picture so that he could paint a picture of the tree and the treehut for Grandma.

We spent one Friday morning making cards for Grandma’s birthday. They loved doing it!

Miss Joy was thrilled the day she figured out how to climb on the stool and stand up! She’s pretty daring.

She was also thrilled to be able to play in the toybox.

Daddy and his two little girls.

A new bridge is being built beside our village. We can see the cranes from our house; it’s only half a mile or less from us. One day, we saw a pilot vehicle stopping traffic on the highway in front of our house. Nothing came past, and when the pilot vehicle moved away, we looked out the window to the next street over, and saw this. It was an enormous pipe for the bridge. These are being pounded deep into the riverbed to fill with concrete to form the piles for the new bridge. It was as long as a long semi trailer.

A couple of days later, we saw this load: the reinforcing mesh to go inside the pipes! It’s always interesting to see what has changed when we go past the bridge site. The old bridge is a one-lane wooden bridge, built in the 1930s. There is asphalt over the wood, but it requires a lot of upkeep. The new bridge will be two lanes. It will likely feel safer—but I think I’ll miss the old one!

May 2020 Photos

July 12, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

Here are the rest of our photos from May! Miss Joy is a favorite subject.

My oldest and youngest!

Miss Joy went into Esther’s room one evening and found her crocheting bag. She spent half an hour making a mess of this ball of yarn. Then, Esther got to straighten it out! Miss Joy had fun.

We cleaned up a strip of land beside our garden, which was covered in large rhododendron bushes. Esther got a picture of the end of the process. We’re now planting fruit trees in that strip.

The boys also finished cleaning out the last of the corn stalks that day.

This little girl does not like coats!

While she was away, Esther recorded herself reading a book she had started to read to the younger ones before she left. Here they are listening to another chapter. Can you tell that Simon loves stories, too?

I was pleased with the green beans I harvested from the greenhouse in mid-May!

The younger ones did art for school for a few days—just art! They loved it.

Sleeping beauty. I love holding her when she’s asleep. She doesn’t last very long that way, though; she sleeps a lot longer if I put her in her bed.

She loves sourkraut!

While Esther was away, Mr. Intellectual got to make the bread for the family. He was quite pleased with how this first batch turned out.

Miss Joy is in love with this blanket!

The End of the Road

July 5, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

During lockdown, most of us stayed home the entire time. Because their jobs are deemed essential, Gayle and Simon were able to go back to work after just three weeks, and Esther went to town to do the grocery shopping a couple of times. However, some of us never even got into a vehicle for six entire weeks. By the end of that time, we were quite ready to see something else, so one Sunday afternoon when it was too rainy to go down to the river bed, we decided to take a drive. A road goes out of our town to the southeast, and ever since we moved here we’ve been wanting to drive to the end. We decided that was the perfect time to do so! The road goes through farmland for a short ways, then through dense bush with only logging roads going off to the left side; the Ahaura River parallels the road to the right. After the dense bush section, the road comes out into farming country again, and then dead ends at the river, about 45 minutes’ drive from here. The scenery was amazing! There were several waterfalls in one area. We stopped to take photos of this one, and then stopped a little farther on where a farmer was moving cattle across the road.

At the end of the road, we drove up onto a stopbank and along it to the end where the river goes up against the mountains.

After we turned around, we drove along the stopbank the other direction from the road, until it came to an end in a paddock. Miss Joy woke up then, while we were bumping along over big rocks, and looked at me with the most puzzled look on her face, as if she was asking me what in the world was happening.Here are a couple of views of the river as we drove back.

We saw a flock of Arapawa sheep in a paddock on the way up the road; as we went back, a few of them were on the road. They raced along in front of the van for a good ways until they finally tired and turned off.

We also saw another herd of cattle being moved across the road!

It was really good to get away from home for a short time, and quite fun to see some new places.

Working on Vehicles

July 1, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A lot of work was done on vehicles in May. On a Saturday in the beginning of the month, Simon bought a tractor. It was a couple of hours’ drive away, so he, Gayle and Mr. Intellectual drove up there to get it. It’s a Ford Super Dexta, the same as a Fordson 2000, but built in England in the early 1960s.

A week or two after bringing the tractor home, Simon got it running, but, as advertised, the clutch was bad.

After ascertaining that the engine was good, and therefore the tractor was worth fixing, Simon split the tractor in half and got the clutch out. He’s having trouble figuring out what it needs, so the two halves of a tractor are still sitting there in the carport.

Simon also changed the gearbox (transmission) in his Subaru. Fifth gear had gone out, so he pulled the gearbox out, took one out of a car in a junkyard in Taylorville, and put that in. The car works very well now!

By the way, Grandma, the man in the background is the neighbor that one of my boys (you know who) works for. That’s how close his house is to ours; this photo was taken from the living room window.

Five Thousand Sheep! (includes video)

June 21, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A week ago, we went to visit some friends in North Canterbury. It was a beautiful day for traveling, with clear skies all the way over the mountains. This was about half an hour from home. The mist rising from the river, in front of the mountain, was stunningly beautiful!

The tops of the mountains, around the pass, were covered with snow.

We reached the other side of the divide, and as we left the highway and traveled up to our friends’ farm, we saw more snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Then, we arrived on their road, and saw this mob of sheep coming toward us! They move their 5,000+ sheep from the hills to their flat farm every winter for grazing, and this was the day of the big move. We’ve heard about this move for years, but I never expected to get to see it. What a nice surprise that it happened the day we went to visit! Our three oldest boys joined the ones who were walking behind the sheep, and helped them get the rest of the way to their destination.

The scenery continued to be stunning as we drove on up the road into the hills to their house. What a beautiful country!

I took a video of the mob of sheep as we drove through. Enjoy a tiny bit of our experience!

Back to Waiuta

June 14, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

A couple of years ago, when Gayle was in America for two weeks to visit his mother for the last time, the children and I went to Waiuta for a picnic and to explore the fascinating former gold-mining area. On one of our last lockdown Sundays, we went back there. We had been going down to the riverbed for a picnic every Sunday, but we wanted to do something different after five or six weeks. We cooked some sausages and wrapped them in a towel to keep them warm, and took a few other things for lunch. After lunch, we took off on a walk. The first time, we thought about going down the trail to the Snowy River Battery, but Mr. Intellectual had a twisted ankle so we decided not to walk much. This time, we went down that trail. What a hike!

Before we started down the Snowy River track, we did a little exploring around the site of the village and the mine shaft area. These little holes were in a bank beside an old tunnel that went into the hillside. We were curious what kind of creature made these holes, but we couldn’t figure it out.

Esther carried Miss Joy for awhile. Later, when we went down the Snowy River track, Mr. Intellectual took her. This baby is popular!

This is some of the scenery we enjoyed!

These boys went off on their own exploration, and then ran to catch up with us. Actually, I guess it’s not all boys—I see Little Miss there, too!I took this picture to show Little Miss the cloud I was trying to describe to her.

The trail down to the river goes down very steeply, through a dense forest. It is beautiful! There are trees very thick on both sides of the trail, dripping with moss, and you can hear, though not see, a small creek flowing over rocks off to the left.

After awhile, you come out where you can see a little farther. The river is at the bottom of this canyon.

Finally, we got to where we could see the rest of our party. They were WAY down there! I zoomed in about as far as my camera can go to take this picture. This was the Battery, where they crushed the quartz that the gold was in, and extracted the gold.

Looking down the Snowy River from just above the Battery. The old Powerhouse is down the river somewhere. Two of the boys went down there and back up a different track while we reclimbed the trail we came down—all 222 steps plus much more steep, slippery mountainside.

Some of the lichens I saw along the way.

There is moss everywhere. I loved this soft, fuzzy moss!

It was getting dark as we went up the mountain. When we emerged at the top, though, the sun was still shining.

More moss and ferns. The variety of those plants on this Coast is amazing!

Fox River

June 7, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Last week, we had a national holiday, and one of the men in the church organized a tramp for anyone who wanted to come. Everyone who normally attends our little house church, except one man who wasn’t feeling good and another who was out of town, came, plus one other man and two tourists who were visiting one family. We had an incredible day!

I had never been on a tramp that long, so wasn’t sure how I would do. The sign said it would take two hours to reach our destination, the Ballroom Overhang up the Fox River, which is a little way up the coast of the Tasman Sea from Pancake Rocks. I’ve never walked that long at a time, let alone up a river. And with all the little children in our group? I knew it would be interesting!

Our group of 36 started out from the carpark at Fox River all together—and were soon strung out along the trail, as we knew we would be. The leader carried a radio, two others in the middle had radios, and so did the one at the end, all set to the same channel, so that we could keep in touch. At least, that was the theory; it didn’t work very well! (No one got lost, though.) Most of the time, Gayle and I were near the end of the line, and some of our boys were at the beginning. Our three older boys all helped to carry the younger children, and all five of our boys carried our family’s lunch. That left me free to focus on walking and taking photos. There were a lot of younger children who needed carrying! Fourteen in the group were under 10 years old. Besides Miss Joy, the youngest member of the expedition, there was a 1 1/2-year-old, a 2-year-old, and two 3-year-olds, who were all carried nearly all the way. We also had three 5-year-olds, plus a few slightly older ones who also needed carried over the river crossings. The older boys did most of the carrying.

This was the sign at the beginning of the track.

For the first half hour or more, we walked through areas like this. I love walking through these green tunnels of tree ferns and other trees, all dripping with moss in this cool rain forest! It feels almost magical.

Little Miss and one of her friends.

The rock formations were stunning!

A friend took this photo of Gayle and I.

This photo of Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie was taken as we were resting and regrouping after the first river crossing, about 45 minutes into the tramp. We walked about another hour before the next crossing—there were six more after this first one, before we reached our destination! No bridges; we waded through on foot.

This tiny creek was one of several that crossed the track in one area. We had to step carefully over them.

The color of the water was amazing!

Because this is a rain forest, there are ferns and moss everywhere! The variety is astounding.

I saw these rocks across the river from the track at one point.

See Mr. Intellectual and his two little sisters in the middle of the photo?

About in the middle of this next photo is a stream of water gushing out of a cave into the river.

I think this is a bush robin. It was very friendly; hopping around only a few feet from me.

This is the Ballroom Overhang, our destination! The photos don’t do it justice at all; it’s enormous. I took the first one looking straight up. We ate our lunch here, and then quickly left to start back to the cars. It had taken us three hours to get there; it took 2 1/2 hours to get back.

Off we go down the river bed!

A creek came into the river from this side canyon, across the river from where I was standing. We had just crossed the river, and another crossing was only a short distance ahead of us.

The last river crossing! If you look closely, you can see several of my boys carrying little people. The one closest to me was Mr. Diligence carrying Miss Joy. I hardly saw her that day! I fed her at this river crossing, going both ways, and at the Ballroom Overhang; otherwise, other people (teenagers) were carrying her.

Almost out to the road again! We left our vehicles at 10:30; it was 4:30 when we returned. We were all rather tired, stiff and sore, but it was a good tired, stiff and sore! That day out in nature was incredible. The scenery—what I got to see in between picking my way over rocks and around mud and through rushing, cold water, barefoot, over slippery stones, was amazing. The company was wonderful, too! To top off the day, we lit a fire on the beach and roasted sausages. It was quite cold by then, but still a great experience. We are blessed!