Lots of Helpers

Our family's life in New Zealand

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Charleston, Again

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Gayle and I decided to get away for a night to celebrate our 26th anniversary in October. We went to Charleston for a night last year, and enjoyed it so much that we decided to go to the same place again. When we booked into the campground, they gave us the same room we had last year, too! After we paid for our room and put our things into it, we went on a walk. Twice last year, once by ourselves and once with the family, we explored around Constant Bay, so this time we checked out a track that went south of it. We started out on this tame track, and enjoyed the quiet and the green.

Then, we reached this sign. If you know my husband, you will know that he considers a sign like this to be a challenge. Of course, we went through the gate. I kept my eyes open for hazardous spots! We concluded that, most likely, the sign was put up so that the track didn’t have to be kept up and so that DOC wouldn’t be liable if anyone got hurt.

We were treated to spectacular scenes along that track! First was this view of the mouth of Constant Bay, with waves rolling in one after another.

Then, we walked out to one little inlet after another, each one spectacular in its own way.

One area of dense bush we walked through had deep mining trenches like the ones we see at Nelson Creek.

We sat out near the end of one of the rocks and talked for awhile. Here’s the man I love!

Looking back toward Charleston from one of the higher points. You can see the Paparoa Mountains off in the distance; we live on the other side of them.

These hardy flowers grow in a crack in the rocks.

After awhile, the track got so rough that I was ready to turn back. By then, we were scrambling up and down steep areas, holding onto the trees alongside for support. We returned to the track that was kept up, and were treated to more gorgeous views! After enjoying them, and talking for awhile on a bench overlooking this bay, we returned to the campground, cooked some food, and took it up the coast a little ways to eat it at another beach while we watched the sun set. What a delightful evening!

Concrete Work

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Simon took a week off work in late October to work on his house. His renters moved out, and he has another family wanting to move in, so he needed to build a deck. James figured they should rebuild the garage at the same time, so they tore that down and then started working on the concrete that was needed. First, they spent an entire day excavating… and then another day… and then a third day before the job was completely finished! Part of that was necessary because when he tapped the old retaining wall with the digger, it crumbled.

This was after the first day of digging. The garage used to stand just at the end of these tracks.

A few days later, the new retaining wall was formed up and the posts to support the roof over the deck were braced in their holes, waiting for the concrete.

Then, the truck came and it was all go! James worked on pushing the deck piles down into the wet concrete while other people wheelbarrowed it to the farther holes and it was run down the chute directly into the places the truck could reach. Several little neighbor boys came to “help.”

They poured the footer for the retaining wall that day, but had to let that set before pouring the upper part a few days later.

After another week of hard work, the third pour was complete, the pad to build the new garage on.

Elijah climbed a pole to watch what was happening one evening when he was there helping.

Now, whenever Simon or James has a day off, they are working on building the deck and the roof over it.

September 2023 Photos

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Here are the rest of the random photos from last month. I don’t remember what the occasion was for the pie, but I took this picture because we made the ice cream from a recipe that my sister-in-law gave me. It was delicious!

Simon spent a few of his days off fixing the old ute to make it able to pass its inspection. We were thankful not to have to junk it, too–the gray van couldn’t pass, so we have just replaced it.

James started building a sleepout for himself. Here he is setting up the joists and building the floor. It hasn’t gotten past that yet.

There are lots of Lego creations around. I thought these were pretty nice.

Mr. Sweetie requested a chocolate pizza for his birthday cake. (If you don’t understand, read The Candymakers by Wendy Mass. Esther baked a base from sweet roll dough, and we spread it with Nutella, then topped it with M&Ms and miniature marshmallows. Next time, we’ll make the dough thinner–it was too thick.

Our little lime tree produced a lot of fruit this year! I fermented some, and juiced the rest to freeze for later use.

Somehow, I don’t think Princess appreciated having a pillow on top of her.

Mr. Sweetie made these moccasins for himself.

More Birds!

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Every so often, when I look at the camera, I find evidence that someone has been using it besides me. Some of the pictures are nice, some get deleted. Here are a few of the ones I found this time. Apparently, Jo-Jo wasn’t interested in the mirror, but Kea was!

Miss Joy loves the birds! We can’t touch Kea, but Jo-Jo will sometimes be persuaded to sit on a shoulder.

I took this one. One of the children was sure that the yellow-headed bird he saw in the empty section beside our house was a budgie–I took the picture, then zoomed in to show him what it really was.

I also took these two pictures when I was at Arthur’s Pass on the way home from HEART South. First one kea was considering eating Esther’s car, and then another joined it. They didn’t get any bites, though!

Gayle took this picture one day when he was down in the paddock with the children. These are the chicks I hatched in the incubator in May.

Helicopter Flight

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Last year, Elijah signed on to Land Search and Rescue. Since then, he has been doing training for searching for people, mostly in the wilderness but occasionally in urban settings. He has only had the opportunity to go on two searches so far, both in the last two months. The second of them turned out to be a false alarm, but he got a helicopter ride over beautiful terrain on a bright, sunny day, and got to spend time in the bush on that same bright, sunny day. I can’t identify the location or give any details about the incident, but I am allowed to share these scenery photos. Suffice it to say, the location is not too far from us, and the helicopter he rode in is one operated by a company based near us, which we see flying over frequently.

This is Elijah all decked out in his searching gear. He had just walked home after the helicopter ride back from the search and hadn’t taken it off yet. He was explaining here how they measure footprints and stride lengths with that stick to make sure they are still following the trail they think they are.

Here is a quick video of a little of what he saw from the helicopter. Wow!

More Children’s Fun

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Our children are always coming up with new and creative ways to have fun together. One Sunday afternoon on our way home from church we stopped and let the girls pick a few daffodils beside the road. Then, Esther took a selfie with her little sisters and their flowers.

Mr. Imagination built this contraption for Miss Joy. It’s supposed to be a tractor; it’s more like a go-kart. They have spent a lot of time pushing each other around in it.

One afternoon, I noticed the girls playing that they were going shopping with the book bags Grandma made while she was here. I didn’t want to distract them by going in the room to get my camera, so I grabbed the iPad to take a picture. It didn’t turn out very well, but it’s precious to me anyway.

Miss Joy loves Goofball! Goofball isn’t sure she loves Miss Joy, but she puts up with a lot. She’s a very gentle cat who keeps her claws in.

Gayle frequently walks “around the block” with the children. One time, he let them slide on piles of gravel at the bottom of the hill. They sure had fun–and they sure came home dirty!

Scenery

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Elijah has taken several work trips down south to the glacier area lately. He took these two pictures on one of the trips. What amazing views he gets to savor while he drives for work!

But then, I sometimes have amazing views while I work, too! This is the view from the top of the hill across the road, where we pasture our cows at times. They have spent the winter there, and I’ve been milking by hand up there for the past month. I didn’t have my camera along the morning that there was snow on top of that range of mountains, but talk about a spectacular view! Wow. These pictures were taken the morning we had a full moon–that’s a supermoon you can see there. The layer of fog lies over the Grey River; you can often easily see where a river is by looking at the fog in the mornings. Our house, by the way, is just to the left of the picture.

I took this one about 15 minutes later, after the sun was up higher, from a slightly different place on the hilltop. It is looking down to the right of the previous picture, down the hill to the north of our village. We use the paddock across the highway from the road that comes up from the bottom of the picture for our cattle, chickens and turkeys.

Boating Down the Creek

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About a month ago, Gayle and most of the boys and the little girls went down the hill to Orwell Creek, which loops around the hill on which our village sits before emptying into the river. They took an assortment of watercraft, and floated down the creek to the mouth. Gayle drove along to pick them up at the end, and took several photos and a few video clips when he was close to the water. These aren’t very good photos or videos, but they’re fun! The first photo is near the beginning of the excursion; the second is near the end.

July 2023 Photos

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Here are the last several photos from July! The boys found this typewriter at the dump one day. They brought it home and we found that it worked fine. I bought a new ribbon for it so they could actually use it, and they occasionally do.

Mr. Sweetie working hard at his school work while Princess enjoys her favorite resting place–the penguin that matches her coat.

We went to North Canterbury to visit friends in late July, and saw a lot of snow on the way home. This is near Hanmer Springs, and there was even more near Lewis Pass. We didn’t stop to play in it, though, because Miss Joy was asleep and we didn’t want her to wake up. Travel is a lot easier when the youngest is asleep!

It’s the time of year for rainbows, and this one, viewed from our living room window, was especially beautiful.

Our homeschool group spent a couple of months building and racing go-karts. Mr. Sweetie was the leader of this team; here, they are putting on the final touches before the big race. Unfortunately, his team lost.

We killed a steer in July. The boys are getting very good at this job! Simon and James built the crane, which mounts on Simon’s tractor. It works well! Sure is easier to skin an animal this way than if it’s laying on the ground.

A few days later, Esther and I did our bit, breaking down the carcass and boning it out. This first picture is both hind quarters; the second is the front quarters.

We ate lunch outside that day! We were thankful to have a warm mid-winter day, since the kitchen table was so full. Simon fried up some scraps of meat that were too small to make into steaks, but very tender. Yum!

Girls and Cats

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When I looked through the photos I had from July, I noticed a lot of pictures of my little girls, and several of the cats–and some of both girls and cats.

Princess spends a lot of the winter in front of the fire. Usually she is curled up facing it, but this one day it looked like she just flopped down as she was walking!

One of the boys took this picture of Miss Joy while he was supposed to be doing school.

The girls love walking with their daddy! He often takes them around the block or down to the river.

The fad for awhile was crowns. Little Miss found a book on our shelves that showed her how to make a crown out of foil, so she made a number of them.

It’s always special to get Jo-Jo to sit on your shoulder!

One evening, Miss Joy was quite cranky. When I remembered that we had recordings of Grandma reading several picture books we have, I spent a few minutes transferring the recordings to my iPad and finding the books on the shelf. Her evening was suddenly transformed; she spent the next 45 minutes till it was time to eat totally engrossed in stories.

Goofball

A craft project we did one day was to make fans, since we had just spent a couple of days learning about Japan. The girls then packed a tea party and took it outside.

Goofball is Miss Joy’s favorite cat, because she is always gentle. We had our homeschool group meeting here one day, and while the children played outside, these two sat on our vine-covered stump and watched for quite a long time.

Our little mommy. She loves her dolls!