Dedicated to Alfie 2006 - 2010

Dedicated to Alfie 2006 - 2010
Dedicated to Alfie 2006 - 2010. Our Alfie was attacked and killed by poaching dogs from the farm across the road on 28 November 2010

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Splashy Fenn

Splashy Fenn has come and gone.  We saw the rain preparing the ground at Splashy on Thursday last week, making Wellington Boots almost mandatory.  The village was overflowing with visitors and the shops were crowded with folks getting stocks of grub and booze for the festival.   The event brought in some good cash flow for our village businesses.  Good stuff indeed.  And now that it is all over the village is reverting back to its daily routine with a few stragglers staying on for the rest of the holidays.  The clouds are still with us but the mountains are quiet again, the throbbing of the festivities but a memory.  Splashy 2011!  We look forward to the next bash, Splashy 2012.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Snow?

We had our first snowfall last night on the Drakensberg Mountains.  Snow on the 17th of April?  It is still summer here!  We can't see the snow from here as we are away from the mountains. The snow was visible from the village early this morning but the clouds have come down and blanketed the mountains.  I think we are in for a long, cold and wet winter.  The fire is almost ready for this evening and we'll just sit in the lounge and watch TV in front of the fire.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Unleaky Roof?

I am holding my block of wood known as my "Writer's Block" as, so far the roof has stopped leaking.  It seems I may have fixed it!  Hold thumbs and touch wood for us.

Friday, April 15, 2011

More Rain and Leaking Roof

Last night was rainy and cold so we had our first fire at the new house.  The fireplace works great and keeps us pretty warm.  There's nothing wrong with old fashioned fireplaces. The rain is still with us and I have been up on the roof fixing leaks.  I just hope that all the effort has stopped the leaky roof.  With a bit of luck we won't have to trip over pots and buckets.

The river has turned back into coffee and is flowing speedily along.  The water is deep opposite us and so swimming is not a good idea at the moment.  The water will be nice and clear in the winter but then, swimming would not be a good idea either.

The telephone collection is really looking good and most of the collection is set up in my office.  The little electronic exchange is working fine.  Liz has a nice little "old timey" telephone next to the bed which she is enjoying.  I reckon I should put the payphone in the guest room, he he!  The next project phone wise will be to install a phone in the workshop.  This means digging a trench from the house to the garage and laying a cable.  A nice big job to be sure.

 The office shelving


 The Ericsson in the entrance hall


 A view from the doorway to the office


Farm watch radio, batteries, SR18 party telephone unit,
walking sticks and a duck-call hanging down on the right
next to the electric plugs.
The middle "black box" is the PABX. It has eight extensions
and two incoming line ports. We only use one incoming line.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Weekend Visitors

On Friday our good friend Jen arrived with her daughter and grandson.  This gives us a respite from being all on our own.  Alley cat has had a ball being chased by and chasing Matt, the grandson.  Poor little Alley, he is exhausted and lucky us, Alley is exhausted.  We can sleep at night until he rewinds.

I had a note from Philip in Estcourt who is a very keen fisherman.  Well I say that is great and I think he's going to be a little jealous of us living right next to the Umzimkulu River.

The garden is coming along and looks less like the Amazon!  It is a lot of work but when we get on top of everything, grass mowing etc, it should be more manageable.  Fire season is approaching and so we'll have a brown lawn soon.  At least in the cold season we can relax a bit (apart from fires) and I can get some roof maintenance done.