Woke
at 7am to go out and help Shantal get ready for her basket rounds,
dark, cold and wet and the dogs kept fighting, old Katya the Alsation
would growl and dominate my two and the young Henry, a tough and
solid ridgeback cross, would then jump in and want to kill mine so I
had to put mine in the camper while we picked spinach and tied them
in bunches, packed half frozen free range chickens, cleaned radishes
and filled bags with wood. Once packed Shantal then does the rounds
of her neighbours where she collects olives and cheeses and other
odds and delivers them in baskets that are pre orders by people in
Swellendam 30 km away. A lot of work for a little profit if you ask
me, she was completely stressed during the picking and packing
process. The two of them also fought continually so I finished my bit
of work and opted to take the dogs for a long walk only coming back
just as she was leaving to head off on her rounds.
our first nights spot, frigging cold in the wind
future greenhouse, not practical but solid in this wind
Karel
and I then spent a very pleasant day chatting, discovering we were
soul mates in attitude, I learnt a lot from him and did a bit of work
but not much, we spent a lot of time keeping the dogs seperated from
each other, also drank coffee but had no food to talk of, just a
sandwich with lovely oat bread I bought in Riversdale, the wierdest
thing, they take organic produce to sell in town at prices to match
Spar in order to be competitive, and then they eat bread and eggs and
white pasta for dinner? Loony tunes if you ask me, especially as her
clients who take delivery of her products don't care if it's organic,
they only care that their food is delivered for free at a price
comparable to the junk at Spar.
I
spent most of the day walking the dogs all over the place, helping
some in the garden, replanting broccoli, fed the animals, the 4
calves, mommy cow, the chickens and the ducks. Shantal came back late
and went straight to bed, exhausted, can't blame her at 7 months
pregnant and the running around in all weathers and stress she has
put herself under and the bad diet can't be helping. I cleaned their
guest room out so the dogs and I had a better place to sleep, but no
lights and the shower in the loo was only put in today so I became
it's first victim, worked well to start with as it only had hot
water, so it was too hot to start but cooled enough when it came to
rinsing off and then got cold quickly so I dried off quickly and
hopped into bed early to catch up with little sleep from last night.
I did get an SMS from Shantal before falling asleep 'please keep the
dogs off the bed' it read.
why would anyone want to eat one of these?
the only livable portion of the house in front
I
woke from a much better sleep having decided to leave, the dog
situation is too stressfull for me especially as Pepi is a bully when
attacking another dog but a real baby when getting attacked herself,
screams like a banshee and as she is still getting over her biliary
and is my baby, I do not want to stay where there is a chance of
getting eatedn by a big brown dog. There is also no place to go to
get out of the wind or to relax, no power to charge up my laptop, no
light to work in at night and I really do not want to be in the
middle of constant fights with two alpha adults with the same
aggressive personalities, Karel says they fight all the time.
I
packed up the camper and went in to the lounge to let them know I
would be leaving and we spent a pleasant 2 hours talking about all
manners of things, Karel very kindly explained reverse osmosis to me
so I could get it in laymans terms, then he showed me his system and
how it works and promised to fit a system for me if I ever needed
one. We also got to talking about their personalities and how to
improve attitudes and our dealings with each other and ended up as
good friends with different opinions on just about everything.
In
retrospect I am sorry to be leaving, there is clearly a lot of work
that can and needs to be done here, Karel spent a lot of time and
money getting the plot to this point and needs help to finish it off
but has the right attitude in that it will all get done in time,
Shantal is a gogetter and does well with her garden but puts too
much stress on herself to perform, I wish them both well and hope the
baby brings them a lot of joy and happiness. I would love to visit
again in a year or two as I think this place has the potential to be
stunning, right on the river but high above it so it needs a wind
break of trees to combat the wind, power and water is not complete
but in the works, Karel has great hands on skills and Shantal has
knowledge and I believe the synergy of their union is far greater
than the sum of there individual parts, I just hope they can see that
for themselves in time.
Karel's outdoor veggie garden
a lonely windblown plot with lots to do
We
left with a lovely pumpkin as a present and headed into Swellendam for
a few nights, popped into the campsite where the rate has increased
from R131 to R166 from last week, my charm encouraged the lady to
kindly gave it to me for R144 and pretended that I was not going to
use the electricity, not sure how that is going to work if someone
comes and checks as I am the only person here, but ignorance can be
bliss.
I
took a walk into town to buy some supplies, back to the campsite to
phone around the various Wwoofer farms in the area to find a new one
to go to on Sunday, My first call said 'no dogs', second said send an
email with details, third one said please come with pleasure, we
always need help, we'll work out something with the dogs, so I am off
to The Place near Oudtshoorn.
So
into the laundry, filled the sink with warm water and washed two very
dirty dogs ffll of ticks and dry skin, ticks all over their eyes and
nose, Pepi fell into Karels bowl of turps, petrol and parrafin that
he used to wash his metal tools with and she stank of petroleum, too
much even to want her on my bed the first night, so they are now
clean dogs and I could throw the ball for them in the campsite as it
is empty, great for them to run around with no fear. The wind has
picked up here the same as it did at Shantals place but becasue we
are surrounded by trees it has little effect on our comfort even
though I am sitting outside sourcing the electrical point, the one
I'm not paying for, in order to charge up the laptop. So how
important are the trees around a smallholding as a wind break, very
much so in my opinion and I will certainly have a ring of trees
around my future plot.
looks a bit like Dracula's house in the mountains
Once
I am done with this blog update I will carry on writing my book, also
had some internet time in town at the library so could catch up with
emails and tomorrow will get laundry done, have a nice veggie meal,
play with the dogs, chill out, have lots of hot showers and leave on
Sunday feeling great. I want to make the next farm a long stay so
will try and keep the dogs away from their dogs so maybe they will
settle down eventually and at least be cordial.
So
after a relaxing day we enjoyed a shower and hopped into bed with
clean linen to boot, maybe I will wake up with no ticks on me for
once.
Boy
do these dogs snore, sleep well guys.
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