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.

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.

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.

We are settling in

We are finally settling in our new home.  There is a lot of work to be done and things to find amongst our still packed boxes.  The house is great.  A bit rustic and needs a fair amount of repair work done (a work in progress).  We have had our first visit from a Puff Adder and he came puffing into our lounge.  I dispatched him back to the long grass as I am not too fond of snakies.

We have had our first overnight visitors.  Liz's sister Claire and brother-in-law Neville spent the last long weekend with us.  Nev is a keen fisherman so he and his friend Rob disappeared fishing for most of the time.   Nev also took some really good pictures of the area.

My workshop is getting sorted and soon I'll be able to make a few things.  I have already done a few small jobs but things will go better when all is tidied up and tools are put in their correct places.  The workshop has good lighting so that is a battle won before fought.

The telephone collection has a new home in my office.  We finally had our telephone line installed and so the PABX system is up and running.  We will soon be able to take calls all over the house and in the workshop.

I really feel that we have made a good decision by moving here as it is so quiet and private.  The owners are great folks and they trust us to look after the property.  My handy man skills are a great help in fixing things so the cottage is improving as time goes by.

OUR NEW TELEPHONE NUMBER: 0337011973

You can see some of the pictures that Nev took for us.  Please click on each picture to enlarge.

 Hilltop view of the farm

 Sunset

 Moonset

Hilltop view of the Umzimkulu River and Garden Castle far centre

Space view (Google Earth not Nev!)