West Coast

August 2024 Photos

October 6, 2024 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the rest of the pictures I found from August. I finally had time to look at memory cards and phones again!

This is a normal sight at 9:30 each evening. Just before I go to bed, I feed the cats so that this one goes outside for the night. She won’t let me forget to feed them! She is friendlier at that time of day than any other time.

This was one of the t-shirt dresses I made for Miss Joy this winter.

Little Miss took this picture of her flower garden to send to Esther while she was in America.

One day, I noticed that the bag of kindling had a lot of pieces of wood that were nice for building blocks. I suggested that Miss Joy do something with them. She spent a couple of hours playing with those blocks, pretending various things with them. The piece leaning against the couch at an angle is a scanner for credit cards. Watch the video to see what else she was pretending!

Little Miss used some of the blocks, too, as well as all of the Jenga blocks, to make a line of “dominoes.”

Simon bought a hut that someone wanted to get moved off a local farm. We went one day to watch it be picked up and moved to his property.

The little girls like to make huts in the living room!

Elijah finished his apprenticeship! He is very happy to have that behind him and to be a fully-qualified carpet- and vinyl-layer.

Little chicks, a day or two after hatching.

Miss Joy wanted to have a candle-lit meal for her birthday celebration, so we did.

She also wanted candles on her dessert, which was ambrosia, a mixture of yogurt, whipped cream, berries, and chocolate. We don’t normally do candles, but I did get some for her.

July/August 2024 Photos

September 29, 2024 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the rest of the pictures I have in my computer from these months. It’s time to sort through everyone’s photos again!

This picture should have gone with the post about building the new library shelves. A few days before Elijah built them, the younger boys and I painted them. It was the middle of winter and very cold, so paint dried very slowly–unless it was in the sun. So, we set the boards in the sun at the end of our driveway and got started as soon as it was almost warm enough. That was about 11:00, and there was still frost in the shade. The paint dried fast enough in the sun that we were able to do another coat every hour, until about 3:00 when we lost the sun. At that point, we moved them into the garage and did the last coat in there, then locked the cats out for the night and left the boards to dry overnight. It worked!

Because both Esther and Simon had birthdays while Esther, James and Mr. Sweetie were in America, we celebrated them early on an evening when Simon was here. Esther made him a trifle, and I surprised her with meringues that I made while she was away the morning before. We rarely have dessert, so having two desserts was fun!

Little girls + flowers = beauty!

James has been working on his sleepout when he gets the chance.

Mr. Imagination has been helping me with the incubator this winter. Here are a couple of pictures he took when we candled the eggs for the first batch. The first is an egg that hasn’t started to develop yet; we candle them before they go into the incubator, to check for cracks in the shell. The second is an egg we took out halfway through incubation. It has a blood line across the middle, indicating that the chick started to develop, and then died. He tried to get a picture of a viable embryo, but it came out so dark I couldn’t see anything.

I found this picture when I sorted them–someone was playing!

Esther bought a game to take with her and play en route to America. Her little sisters love to make patterns with the blocks.

The first hatch was very successful–80% of the eggs produced live chicks!

Goofiness in July

September 22, 2024 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I didn’t realize how far behind I am at posting pictures of our life! This was the third weekend in a row that I have been away from home. Two weeks ago, I went to a homeschool mom’s retreat near Christchurch, and had a migraine virtually the whole time, so by the time I got home late Sunday evening I was exhausted. Last weekend our whole family went to some meetings at a church in North Canterbury…and got home just in time to make dinner. Yesterday, Gayle had a medical appointment in Christchurch, so he and I went over for that, leaving all our children here at home. We stayed at a friend’s house overnight because due to the nature of his appointment the doctor wanted him to stay reasonably close to the hospital for 24 hours. We went to church over there and then came home, beating our children home! They had taken advantage of us being away to go out to eat together, and one of the older ones treated them all to a visit to a fun aquarium. So, here I am with enough time, finally, to do some blogging about our life!

Near the end of July, Esther, James and Mr. Sweetie went to America for a month to visit family. Somehow, I ended up with silly pictures of the boys just before they went. Here is James with his favorite cat.

I’m not sure what the point was supposed to be, but he put the stool over himself!

Meanwhile, Mr. Sweetie was doing this!

Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination spent several days trying to build a motorbike, with a weed whacker motor and a pushbike. It worked for a few seconds.

The girls spent a few days playing on top of this cage in the orchard at the edge of the garden.

The children found a pair of glasses at the dump, and Little Miss enjoyed playing with them.

And this is Goofball, the gentlest cat we have, and the best hunter of the three.

More June 2024 Photos!

August 21, 2024 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Here are the rest of the pictures I saved from everyone’s cameras and devices in June. Sometime in May, Mr. Sweetie had a dentist appointment, so we spent the day in town. Esther went along, and we went to all the secondhand shops in town. I found a duvet cover that was so pretty I got it to make into dresses, and then put these together for the girls from it. The other side was yellow green stripes on a white background, and I got pajama pants for two boys from that! I was pretty happy with that find.

While Esther was away the first weekend in June, I found this email in my Spam folder. I was so amused that I took a picture of it to show her before deleting it.

Mr. Imagination builds a lot of things out of Lego.

I’m not sure what this was all about!

Our turkey flock. We have since butchered most of them. We have been spending way too much on feed for them, and not getting much in the way of returns, since hawks destroy most of the nests. And now, since a strip along one side of this paddock was sold, they don’t have anywhere safe to make nests. So, now I won’t have to put up with the mess they made in the milking shed! And, we’re enjoying eating turkey.

Miss Joy loves the attention her brothers give her! Mr. Imagination was underneath the coat.

One frosty morning, we were surprised to see this digger show up in front of our window! A house will eventually be built there. The fence that is visible, partially built, in the background, is finished now, and we can’t see our calf in the paddock across the road anymore.

A day or two after the digger worked in front of our house, it was used across the road to cut down trees around the trucking yards. Now, I can see this mountain from my kitchen window! I love that change. The tallest mountain is apparently the one across the river from the farm Simon went to first after leaving the mechanic shop, and the long ridge is behind the farm he is currently on–so he is between them.

The little girls built this tower one day. They were happy to use every block.

Elijah went to a weekend camp a month or two ago, in Canterbury. One day, a group walked to this bridge, in the Rakaia Gorge. I thought his pictures were so gorgeous I had to share them!

I don’t know where this is, but isn’t it beautiful? Elijah took it, likely on his way to work on morning, judging by the timestamp.

Esther took the girls on a walk around the block one afternoon. Miss Joy loves to ride her “bike.”

I love the way her ponytails stream out behind!

After going on a 4WD trip, Simon needed to wash his vehicle!

Leaf Fun

June 23, 2024 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

When the leaves fell off the peach trees in May, the three youngest had great fun raking them up and playing in them. I remember loving maple trees when I was young, because of the wonderful leaf piles! This isn’t as good, but as close as our children are likely to get to that. While they were playing with the leaves, they got the idea of making a movie about it. I’m not sure what the plot was supposed to be, if any, but I put together the clips they got. You might want to turn it off when it starts getting crazy–when all three are tumbling together in the pile.

April 2024 Photos

June 9, 2024 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Here are the rest of April’s photos! A few days after Easter, our new cow, Maple, finally calved–three weeks after we thought she would, based on what the previous owner told us. I had started to wonder if something was wrong! No, just a late calf. Elijah took this picture when he went down to take care of the chickens and discovered a new calf, which another boy had overlooked when he went down an hour or so earlier. The calf is a bull, a Jersey/Dexter cross. These first two pictures are from the first evening; the third picture was a week or two later, after we started bottle-feeding him and he decided that people were all right. His name is Clifford, as in Clifford the Big Red…Calf!

Remember how much fun we had earlier this year hatching chicks? Well, we ended up with a lot of them. The roosters from the first two batches have moved into the freezer by now, and we sold the pullets. These are some of the pictures we took to advertise them.

We went to Reefton for church one Sunday, and before coming home, drove around to check out the project that has been ongoing for several years: rebuilding the hydroelectric plant. Reefton was the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to be lit with electric lights, but the electric plant fell into disrepair a long time ago. They got a grant recently to rebuild it as a museum. This is the water race, looking toward the building that will house the turbine.

What happens when a four-year-old hurts her foot? She gets to sit on the couch with her blankie, a big stack of books, and the recordings that Grandma made of those books! She spent a couple of hours listening to those stories after cutting her foot badly.

I don’t normally take my phone with me when I go down to milk the cows in the morning, but one day I did. On the way up the hill, I looked up the valley to the east, and saw this breathtaking sight.

Here were our record-breaking vegetables in April–a potato and a tomato. The weights are in grams.

I was surprised one day when the children showed up with a pukeko chick. I had them take it right back down the hill and try to give it back to the parents–hope it survived!

Ahaura River/Lake Ahaura

June 2, 2024 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

One Sunday afternoon in April, our boys organized a kayak trip with friends from church down the Ahaura River. I got roped into driving the vehicle back after they unloaded the boats, which meant that I got to enjoy a scenic part of the river that I don’t normally get to see.

Another Sunday afternoon, they decided to go on a four wheel drive trip. They ended up at Lake Ahaura, up near the farm on which Simon lives. Elijah shared these pictures with me; the one of the mushroom was taken especially to share with his grandma. There were actually at least a dozen people on each of these trips, but because a lot of them are not our family, I didn’t want to post their pictures.

March 2024 Photos

May 19, 2024 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

And here are the rest of our photos from March! First, some pictures of the animals. I bought a new cow; she is behind Little Miss’s head in this first picture. She gives the type of milk we need, and was due to calve soon, so we needed to sell a couple of our other cows who don’t have the genetics we want. I took this picture to upload in an advertisement for Poppy, our old faithful cow. The girls were delighted to pat her while I was taking pictures–but there were a lot of tears the day we loaded her into a truck to go to her new home. We also sold her daughter Rosie, the one at the far left of this picture. Both have good homes, which I’m happy for.

These are the pullets from the first lot we hatched. We sold a few, but we need to sell the rest.

These are the turkeys. They are quite curious about everything! I took this picture the day Poppy went to her new home, while I was waiting for the truck to arrive.

And these are the house pets!

The garden has been outdoing itself this year, with bumper crops of almost everything. I’ve sent several boxfuls of zucchini we weren’t getting used down to the the cows. Here, the little children are cutting them up, having fun carving before the squash got eaten.

Mr. Imagination found this rutabaga in the garden. He wanted to know what it tasted like, so I cooked part of it. We didn’t like it, though (probably too old), so the cows got that, too. It didn’t go to waste!

This was one day’s harvest of tomatoes and beetroot. Since, we’ve had much larger harvests of tomatoes. We’re getting a bit tired of dealing with them.

Mr. Imagination turned 12 in March. He requested kebabs for his birthday meal, so the children had great fun assembling them, and then he got to help grill them.

Miss Joy wanted me to take a picture of her tower.

We saw this across the road one day. It’s apparently a hotel on wheels!

These four pictures were taken by Mr. Sweetie. He was intrigued by the artistry created by a foggy morning and steamy windows.

We went to Timaru for Easter Conference as usual. On Sunday afternoon I supervised our four youngest, and several children from another family, for an hour or so at a park across the street from the hall. This was a game of tag in which they couldn’t touch the ground. If they did, they were automatically it!

I got cold after awhile, so I suggested that the girls use the colored pencils an older lady had just given Miss Joy, and draw pictures. They spent the next half hour or hour, until the next meeting, drawing, while the older young people sang next to them.

Riding a Horse

May 12, 2024 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A friend of ours bought a horse recently for his children, and a couple of times in March the horse was brought to the Nelson Creek park by someone else, with the owner’s permission. He’s a good-natured horse, and let the children ride him for quite awhile each time.

What this picture doesn’t show is the time Elijah fell off! He’s never had the opportunity to learn to ride a horse.

January 2024 Photos

April 28, 2024 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I’ve finally finished posting the pictures from our North Island trip! Now to catch up on the photos from around home. Here are the rest from January.

After a couple of four wheel drive trips, the boys’ trucks were in need of a wash. Miss Joy happily helped operate the power washer!

James spent more time working on his sleepout. This was the day he started cladding the outside.

The boys cleaned the carport and garage. They decided it was time to get rid of this old stationary engine that had been sitting there for about three years. Simon wanted to restore it and get it working again, but finally gave up. Elijah listed it on Trade Me for a $1 reserve auction, and it went up over $250! The next challenge was to load it on the buyer’s truck. This was the test run with the tractor-mounted crane that Simon and James built to hoist cattle they are butchering. It worked, so when the buyer came to get the engine, that’s how they lifted it! The engine had wheels under it, so it was easy to get it out of the carport, but too heavy to lift by hand.