Merry Christmas Everyone!

I would like to wish all my fantastic Blogger friends a blessed and merry Christmas. I hope you are all filled with love and joy these Holidays!I am so glad I have found Blogging this year and made such wonderful friends! Jess and I travelled to BaPhalaborwa where my Mom  lives and had a lovely time visiting and enjoyed a delicious lunch.Tarien is working at a Game Lodge in Bela-Bela and is only coming back on the 2nd of January. Poor Cules had to stay home looking after the 200 head of goats,sheep and horses. We are safely back home now,but there is a huge storm coming in,I suspect we are looking at hail coming on! The electricity is off,the candles are at the ready, there is some really bad lightning and thunder crashing about and all the animals under roof. It will be my first Christmas ever that we have rain!!
                                                                
                                                                      Blessings and tons of love

Liesl,Cules and kids

Goliath,the biggest goat I have ever seen. He is what is known as a Apple Goat. On Cules' wish list for 2011!!

The stuff that champions are made of, an Arab colt that I dream of buying in 2011!!

He visits my dreams all too often.....

                                                                       xoxo

Minki's Favourite Chore!

Minki just loves it when we bottle feed the kid goats, she finds the milk too tasty!

A Busy Day on The Farm

Having had such a busy week I neglected to tell you about the new addition to the farm,she was given to Cules by a friend 5 days ago and this morning we woke up and found out she had babies..only three little ones but oh, so cute.

Now she can keep this lonely soul company..

We left the farm to go on a sheep buying trip to Polokwane which is a one and a half hour trip away from us...

As we started up our beloved mountains...

We saw huge bush fires which is quite unusual for this time of year,especially since it was obviously raining higher up the mountain. We then got a phone call from the owner of the sheep that they had a downpour of 100mm of rain in a matter of minutes and that the entrance to their farm is inassessable...so we turned back home.

Raging fires at the foot of the mountains

We got back home just in time to offload our first delivery for our new food company..

This should start taking off in the New Year.

We ended the day bottle feeding baby goats,with Minki's help...

Jessica's Scuba diving Adventure! Part 2

Float around on your backs,keep the heads up,no bending over backwards and breathing in...!

Add the weight belts..

This is were...if that was me under the water...this whole expedition would blow up...I get claustrophobic...standing on me and keeping me under would not go down well at all!!!

Now you get the big guns out...

Oh my word,do you really expect us to go under the water wearing these heavies....!

Remember...NO PUKING!!

You have to spit in those masks to be able to see clearly....

And lads and lass,you are hereby pronounced, ready to go diving in the  Ocean!

Jessica's Scuba Diving Adventure! Part 1

The course was in Sodwana Nature Reserve in the Kwazulu Natal Province. Sodwana is not far from the Mozambique border. This is Kevin,their very patient Diving Instructor.The Indian Ocean is on the left of the picture just behind those trees.

Helping each other with their gear...They reminded me of spies in a James Bond movie in their wet suits..

Serious looking faces as they try to get their flippers on. Jessica says that little punk on the left puked a lot...both under and above the water....Speaking of which, her friend advised her to be really careful when surfacing from sea dives to not, under any circumstances, surface near the boat as vomiting people lean over the sides and vomit right on top of you!! She speaks from experience....Put that away for later use if ever you should go diving in a beginners class!

Now breathe through that thingy in your mouth...

Close your eyes and swim from this end of the pool to the other side..only using your legs,no arms..

...and this is where it was proven, for once and for all.., that..

...guys have no sense of direction..! Just joking!

See, girls can swim in a straight line with their eyes closed...did I mention that before..?

BTW if you get a leg cramp in the sea,this is how you get rid of it...Don't yell out in pain,remember,you are under the water....!

I have divided this up in a couple of posts as there are quite a few pictures. The pics of the kids in the ocean will be developed soon. Jess picked up as many shark's teeth on the bottom of the ocean as she could!

Part 2 follows soon.

A Chorus Line

The frogs really throttle it up in the pond nearest to our house! Excuse the quality of the video clip and turn up the volume on your computers. That is Minki in the foreground. I was scared they will go quiet as they sense our approach,but they never even bothered! The frogs were way too busy mating and singing,Minki didn't even really want to go into the water...

My Package from Texwisgirl has Finally Arrived!!!

The package on arrival...

I have the most inquisitive husband on earth...OK, he says he is just being helpful..excuse the torn shirt,that's just so him,he has been working with the goats you see,and that ain't paint on his hands, it is wound aerosol....!

Neatly packed inside the box,you can see the 500 piece candy puzzle..hidden among all the candy...

Another "inquisitive" helping hand...Tarien...Jessica is away Scuba diving in Sodwana so there was no fighting over who gets to open what!!

Hmmm, have to taste the sweeties Theresa sent from Texas....Cor..look at those fingers!

Off course Minki also had her fill of candy...

This got my already tied up throat all knotted up! Real Ponderosa Pine Cones all the way from Texas for our Christmas tree!! Everything was neatly packed in a Zippy bag to keep it fresh.None of my friends got send Ponderosa pine cones from Texas for Christmas!

The dearest little porcelain snow man.....because we don't ever have any snow here...

Theresa also send us snow...8 feet long snowy garlands and other snow Christmas decorations for our Christmas tree,just when I was thinking this morning that I need to buy some new Christmas decorations...

The pine cones opened up...

Caught you in the act! See how much pleasure this treasure trove of candy from Theresa in Texas brought to our house this Saturday morning....??There is LOTS of candy,cannot place pictures of everything,but...

I have been dreaming of this....

Sweet little notes on everything!!!

Peppermints for our horses!! They will never be the same,they will now be spoilt forever!!!

Root Beer candy!!!!!

More candy....

Did it have to stop...? We were all hoping the box was bottomless....

Thank you,thank you,from the bottom of my heart for these wonderful,thoughtful gifts Texwasgirl!!

xoxo

Goats,Goats Everywhere!

My husband arrived with this on the back of our truck and the horse trailer filled to capacity 2 days ago...

The babies and one ewe with a injured leg on the truck and the big goats in the trailer.

                                                             The babies are so sweet......

Can you tell that this little one is bottle fed???

Just off loaded into the shed...Their owner sold them as he is retiring and due to health problems neglected them a bit and offered them to Cules for a very fair price!

Going out this morning.....

Err,yes those are Cules' gumboots drying on the fence. 87 Boer Goats on the place all of a sudden....They will all be kept for breeding purposes except for the little males.....which will be sold off. The riding school is now closed until mid January and I am starting work on our endurance horses and schooling 3 youngsters!

xoxo

Eggs Galore!

 The chickens and ducks are laying eggs like crazy. I have stopped taking out eggs as I would love to have some more chickens and ducks on the yard. I have had one baby duck hatch so far but decided to leave it with mommy and sadly,the next morning it was gone! Lesson learnt! I have 5 mature hens of which 3 are brooding currently, my baby chicks survival rate has been 100% so far,it looks like my chickens are better mums than the ducks. In fairness I have only 2 ducks brooding at the moment!

The newly hatched baby duck who arrived late one afternoon and was gone the next morning......

Duck eggs

This hen has scored the jackpot! She is brooding on about 17 eggs!

Just an update on the goats, see these ewes have an "L" for Liesl tagged on their ears! Thank you Cules! xoxo