Cheviot

January 2018 Pictures

February 24, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Ok, time to catch up with January pictures. These are the last ones from Cheviot, as we prepared to move.

On New Year’s Day, we were able to do a video call with Gayle’s family in America. It was fun to be able to see them! Little Miss was fascinated, and made sure she was right in front of Esther’s phone all the time.

The cats find the most interesting places to sleep!

An aunt in America sent these balloons. Little Miss and Mr. Imagination had a lot of fun with them—until they popped.

I took this picture to send to the person who gave her the dress.

One afternoon I went into Esther’s room to talk to her. Grizzly came along, and caught sight of herself in the mirror. She immediately arched her back and fluffed her tail, staring at that strange cat. She spent 5-10 minutes absolutely terrified, and of course, Esther teased her by moving the mirror closer—which sent Grizzly, hissing and spitting, under the bed!

Two weeks before moving day, we had a Saturday afternoon with not much that had to be done, so we decided to go to the beach. There were too many people at Gore Bay for our liking, so we went to Manuka Bay. See where Gayle is sitting, under the rock? The tide was coming in, and every so often a wave would come right up to him. He managed to push himself up on his hands enough that he didn’t get very wet—but after awhile he gave up and found another shady spot to rest.

Mr. Imagination lined all the teddy bears he could find up on my chair one day.

Mr. Sweetie made this boat for Little Miss for her birthday.

The day we loaded the container, a week before moving, one of the boys discovered a turkey hen with six or seven babies. We normally take the babies away as soon as they hatch, but these were about three weeks old—she had been hiding well! We had quite the chase to catch them; they were already able to fly.

Moving!

February 2, 2018 by NZ Filbruns 3 Comments

Tomorrow is moving day, so I decided to take a moment this morning to quickly post a few pictures of this month’s activities leading up to the big move!

This was part of the second load that went across to our new house. The white building is the chicken coop that Simon and Mr. Diligence remodeled into a sleepout; the other shed is one that was given to Simon when it blew down at a shop in town. He rebuilt it, much sturdier, and it makes a good garden shed.

We pulled these shelves out of the kitchen, and Little Miss set to work cleaning them for me. She loves to clean!

Our garage sale.

When we loaded the container with everything we could stuff in, we packed our beds, only saving out a few foam mattresses for sleeping on for the last week. There wasn’t a bed available in Little Miss’s room at naptime, so I put her down on the foam in our room. It was a very hot day, as you can see by the posture of the kitten who joined her! The other kitten is barely visible between the bed and the curtain, on the slightly cooler floor.

The container was picked up two days ago, and 24 hours later it arrived at our new house. Here, the truck has just pulled up beside it.

Now, the crane at each end is chained on.

The container, probably weighing 8-9 tons, is lifted up and set down on the truck.

Each corner is locked in place, and off it goes!

One of the last jobs to be done was to turn the last bit of vegetable garden back into lawn. Mr. Diligence spent a day this week working the soil, leveling it, and sowing grass seed. We’re hoping for a decent rain today; if not, we’ll water it this afternoon.

Christmas Day

January 26, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

On Christmas Day, we went to the same beach we’ve gone to the past two years, and had a picnic in our favorite grove of pine trees. The trees make a lovely shady spot, and their needles make a soft, springy floor to sit on.

After lunch, we headed down to the beach. Some of us sat on the shore and watched, and some spent the whole hour or two in the water! We laughed a lot at the boys at times, as the large waves picked up the inner tubes and dumped the boys upside down on the beach, sometimes piling all three of them together! Unfortunately, I didn’t think about taking pictures until just as the tide went low enough that the really funny antics weren’t happening anymore.

I told Simon he had grown a beard, so then Mr. Imagination tried to make one, too. Is it any wonder that I was scooping gravel out of the washing machine the next day?

Here is a video clip showing the fun the boys were having. It was a wonderful day!

December 2017 Pictures

January 23, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Simon helped me harvest the garlic on Christmas Day. We got 89 heads from an area about a meter square.

We’re having a problem with fleas on the kittens. I don’t want to spend $30 each to buy the pour-on stuff from the vet, because the mama cat would just lick it right off and I don’t think that would be good for her, so we’re dusting them with diatomaceous earth every 2-3 days. They hate it!

This cat has always loved to sit in boxes—but I think she found one almost too small for her, this time!

This hen hatched six babies right after Christmas. We were able to sell the mother and all the babies.

The positions we find the kittens in are sometimes pretty funny!

Building Project

January 17, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Diligence decided about a month ago that he wanted to build a chicken coop for our new place. We didn’t know yet where we were going to move, or if we would need a coop, but I encouraged him to do it anyway. We figured that if we got a place that already had a coop, he could sell it. We had a lot of boards that Esther’s employer gave us when they remodeled their house, so this project didn’t cost anything except a few nails.

He decided to build in a curtain for times when we have tiny chicks that need protection from drafts. It is normally kept rolled up.

The builders, pleased with the results of their labor.

Simon’s boss wanted to help us move, but can’t the weekend we plan to move, because of family circumstances, so he came over to get a couple of loads during the two weeks Simon had off over Christmas/New Year’s. He used his large car transporter to haul buildings for us. The chicken coop was the first to go. It was a challenge to figure out how to get it on the trailer!

November 2017 Pictures

December 21, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 3 Comments

Here are the rest of November’s pictures.

The kittens were born about the middle of November, and we have really been enjoying them. I allowed Mr. Imagination to choose one to keep, since he so badly wants a pet of his own. He chose this one, and was thrilled when her eyes opened and he could hold her.

For Mr. Diligence’s birthday, some friends came, and the boys went on a 31 kilometer bike ride around the area.

School time!

Esther helped Mr. Imagination make peanut butter balls one day. Little Miss enjoyed helping, too—and they both loved eating them!

The roses are a bit past their peak now, but a few weeks ago Mr. Imagination picked a bunch and made this arrangement!

Mr. Intellectual’s science experiment to show how the diaphragm and lungs work.

He has also been trying to work out how to make a small hot air balloon. So far, none of his designs has been light enough to get off the ground, and now that we’re back into a bad drought, he has to halt his experiments so he won’t cause a fire.

They attached a fishing line to the balloon, in case it would rise.

The geese and 3-week-old goslings.

The kittens at a day old.

Everyone was rather distracted one morning when a trucker came to take away a truck trailer that had been here for years. Mr. Intellectual helped him load some other stuff on his truck as well, to take to the owners of this place. My little people really enjoyed watching the crane in action! Mr. Sweetie took his schoolbook outside so he could work while he watched. He actually got a little done!

Port Robinson

December 13, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

One Monday afternoon a few weeks ago, we needed to be out of the house for awhile because our landlady was showing a potential buyer through the house. We decided to go out to Port Robinson; a few weeks before that date, Gayle had taken Mr. Diligence out for a picnic and fun time together, and they discovered the trail leading down to the old harbor. The rest of us wanted to see it, too, so we went there on that beautiful, sunny afternoon.

The path down to the beach parallels the old slipway for awhile. It’s pretty overgrown.

Gore Bay from the trail.

Port Robinson

This is what’s left of the bottom of the slipway. Approximately 120 years ago, the way I understand, this was about the only way to get goods in and out of Cheviot. They had a surfboat which they lowered down the slipway from the top of the cliff and out into the bay to where ships would anchor, to ship wool out. Supplies were brought back up in the surfboat with a winch.

Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Sweetie

That red blob is a sea anemone.

I was intrigued by the swirls in some of the rocks.

When we saw this flock of seagulls feeding just offshore, we wished we had brought our fishing poles! There would have been big fish there, too, feeding on a school of small ones.

There are two paua, known in California as abalone, in this picture. Can you find them?

We enjoyed finding these two large starfish!

Mr. Diligence was fascinated by the way the starfish held on to him.

Mr. Sweetie

Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Sweetie, with Mr. Imagination in the foreground.

We even got to see a jellyfish!

Another starfish!

When it was flipped over, we discovered that it was feeding! A couple of the children were able to see its stomach being sucked back inside after it let go of the snail.

This was a very fun afternoon—don’t tell the children it was a field trip! We ended our time with a stop at Gore Bay to play in the water for 15 minutes. I’m so glad I didn’t twist my ankle until after this trip and the one to Hurunui Mouth several days later.

Fishing Expeditions

December 2, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Gayle took the boys fishing one Sunday evening about a month ago. They were very excited to come home with 14 large kowai! Mr. Diligence had a birthday the next day, so we had fish for supper.

Today, we tried again. We all went out this time, hoping for a repeat—but not even one fish was caught this time. Oh, well. You never know when a school of fish will be coming in the river. It was a beautiful day out there anyway! This is what the Hurunui Mouth looked like today; quite different from the last time I was out there. We walked all the way around the lagoon to get to the mouth this time.

These gulls were flying around making quite a fuss. We found out why when someone discovered a nest!

I saw these ducks swimming in the lagoon.

A lupine bush. What a wonderful smell!

It was interesting to notice the variety in terrain just on that short walk along the lagoon. Here was a rock cliff; soon there was a patch of white limestone; and a lot of the time the hillside was covered with grass and bushes!

I wish I could share more of the experience with you. All I can do is give you a little glimpse of the scenery. There is so much more to it than that, however. There are the sounds—gulls screaming, waves crashing on the shore, and ripples lapping on the rocks and shores around the lagoon. There are the smells—the sea smell and the wonderful aroma of the lupines. There are the sensations—the hot sun, the cool sea breeze, the hot rocks and sand under foot. There is even taste—salt on your lips from the spray blown off the tops of the waves! And of course, the scenery is so much bigger and more beautiful than my camera can capture.

Back Route From Culverden

November 29, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One recent Sunday, when we went to church at Waikari, we joined our friends for a picnic lunch in Culverden in honor of a 40th birthday. Although it was a cloudy, windy day, we enjoyed our time with them. When we left, we decided to take the back way from Culverden back to Cheviot. We had seen that route on the map years ago, and always wanted to know what it was like. In fact, our children had been talking for quite awhile about riding across it on bikes. This is what the road was like for about the first 30-40 minutes we were on it: a farm track! We kept going because there had been a sign at the beginning, indicating that it connected to a road.

Looking back toward Culverden. The views were incredible!

Finally, the track turned into a real road again, and we got back home, only spending an extra 45 minutes or so traveling. We may never do that again, but it was fun for once!

October 2017 Pictures

November 4, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the rest of the pictures from October!

It’s hard to see in this picture, but one thing they’ve done to stabilize this cliff face is to put black netting over the loose rocks. You can see it on the left side of the top.

These are five-ton blocks of concrete—and a slip pushed them over!

Mr. Intellectual is doing a course called “Thinking Like an Engineer.” He’s loving it, especially the experiments. In this one, he had to pile books an inch above the floor, using one sheet of printer paper. You’ll have to wait till I write the review of the course to see how tall a stack he achieved!

Mr. Sweetie built this stack of animals, and then took 16 pictures of it!

This was the latest dump find. Mr. Intellectual is loving his “new” roll-top desk!

We got out the microscope one day to look at some algae. It was still out several days later when I was cutting up meat, so we looked at that, too.

The first picture is skeletal muscle; the second is cardiac muscle. Mr. Intellectual had just been studying about these muscles a few days before, so this was a timely opportunity.

Mr. Imagination and Little Miss spend most of the morning playing together while the bigger boys do school. They got out the rocking horse one day and had great fun on it for a long time.

Little Miss can spend hours playing with these tiny animals. She loves sorting them.

One day, Little Miss wanted to paint, so I gave her a brush and a bucket of water and told her to paint the house.

Mr. Imagination was delivering quite a fiery sermon to his brother and sister! I enjoyed listening, while I picked lettuce nearby and pretended not to pay attention.