Happy New Year Everyone!

May there be the whitest, brightest light at the end of your tunnel!!!

Happy New Year!!

xoxo

Dear Lord......Please Can We Erase,Delete,Backspace Yesterday...???

Yesterday was a little exciting..to say the least...

This is an account of what happened to me..

I was cleaning up the house when I noticed Minki sniffing and running around the house...this was a serious sniffing...her nose was jiggling up and down the floor taking in great big gulps of very exciting scent...very,very fresh too...I glanced out the kitchen window and saw Cules busy welding something and was just about to call him and show him what Minki was doing and then thought better of it as it was the first day of work after the Christmas holidays and he was busy sorting out the farm labourers etc..I got our permanent worker and his wife to help me finish up the painting job on the house' windows we had started before Christmas and after about ten minutes or so I decided to go check on my e-mail as I was expecting a message from someone and as I sat down by the laptop in the kitchen, I noticed Minki was still excitedly sniffing about but by now she was sniffing around the kitchen cabinets..I smiled and called her a silly pup for getting so excited by the smell of a mouse....

The next second all hell broke loose...

What happened next had been my worst fear come true in the two years since I have owned Minki.....

She pulled a ten metre Spitting cobra out of  one of my cast iron pots....

Ok,so maybe it was more like eight metres long....

Okay,okay, Cules said it was one and a half meters long...

I don't ever want to lose my puppy due to a snakebite...

I am scared *hitleessss of snakes...!

Minki threw the snake into the middle of the kitchen..,I heard a very far- off primitive screaming...the screaming wouldn't stop...I realised it was me screaming...the noise still wouldn't stop.....

Minki doesn't like it when I scream,she new I was screaming because of the big bad snake in the kitchen..

She went at it again,the serpent was now sailing all over the kitchen floor..

I jumped up from my chair behind the laptop trying to get away to go call my husband..save my puppy...

The chair fell flat down on the floor behind me...Minki grabbed the snake by it's tail and shook it and tossed it up,up into the air...it fell on me,..I stepped over backwards and fell over the chair..the snake was slithering over my legs and Minki was on top of us....I could still hear that unearthly screaming going on...I could FEEL my blood beating through my veins,I could HEAR my own heart beating...

I scrambled up and ran outside to go get my husband..I could still hear that screaming,my husband was gone..he had left minutes before to go get sawdust for the stables...the farm labourer and his wife had run off when I started screaming...I ran back inside the house to go try and get my precious Minki who must have been bitten by the snake a zillion times by now...I entered the kitchen from the other side to avoid the fight going on under the dining table,only to find the fight had moved back to the other side of the kitchen and once again I found myself slap bang in the middle of it! Minki charged at me with the serpent securely in her mouth wanting to show of her trophy to me so badly ...I was still hearing that screaming going on...I turned and ran..I realised I was getting myself trapped in the corner of the kitchen with the snake and dog..all I could think of to buy myself some time was to tip over my kitchen table with a million Rands' worth of spices, herbs,coffee and an open 5kg bag of sugar that I was going to put into containers...

By this time the kitchen floor was absolutely covered in snake blood,intestines,gore and spit....

I knew I had to now  GET OUT OF THERE!!!

I was slipping and sliding on the blood and gore and sugar and dried chilies and things but I was making headway...I was getting out...Minki followed with the snake still in her mouth...

As I ran out the back door,driven by sheer terror,the labourer and his wife had returned to help me and the wife had stepped inside the door with a broom in her hands 'cause she figured out it must be only a snake that can make the white lady scream so much..As she stepped inside the house, I ran slap bang into her, she thought the devil was in the house and turned to run also and fell over her husband,they both fell down onto the patio and I ground my heels into their bodies trying to find enough traction to get away from the dog and snake even faster...

In such situations,speed is very important...

Minki put the snake down on the patio..it was now either dead or playing dead as cobras are notorious for doing...She was absolutely covered in blood and gore,she had bitten the snake nearly in half....The farm labourer thought he was going to take the snake away and get rid of it..only...Minki wasn't giving away her prize...this was when I remembered her last encounter with a cobra when it spat in her eyes and her eyes was swollen shut and weeping for almost a week....She got retaliation and there was no way she was  giving up her prize...there was only one person on that farm yesterday that could take the snake away from her...Mommy.

I got Minki washed and cleaned her eyes out and checked her over for snake bites,Cules' phone was off,he was in a no signal area,I left a panicked message...

I managed to grab Minki and washed her, I realised that her eyes seemed to be fine as the last time a cobra spat at her the burning started instantly..

One spot on her side that was particularly bloodied caught my eyes as a possible bite site and I clipped it...no bite marks...my phone rang...it was Cules wanting to know what happened..,he told me to calm down an check her breathing, was it irregular?....a short pause from my side ,yes she wants her snake back!....Was she having heart palpitations?.....another short pause...yes! She wants her snake back!

Picture this,you are sitting on a blood and gore plastered kitchen floor trying to hold down a Jack Russel with the killing mood still over her and a electric clipper in the other hand and a phone stuck to your ear with the shoulder and having to try to establish whether your doggy is dying of snakebite...

...In comes the farm labourer's wife and all she can do is whistle and say..

Hau....

...All that sugar.....

Tsk,Tsk!

Never mind the overturned chair and table,blood and gore covered kitchen....

No doubt she could think of better things to do with sugar than spilling it out all over the floor,just because of a silly snake!

20 minutes later, things have calmed down a bit,the dog was fine,the kitchen cleaned up I had spoken to Cules on the phone and confirmed that Minki was all right.

The farm labourer's wife and I was finishing up the window job when my husbands' presence filled the door, and I thought my chivalrous husband would take me in his arms and comfort me a bit after all that terror I had gone through all on my own....

"What's for supper?" He says....

The African lady collapsed on the floor in a stupor of giggles and then ran out the house...

The End

P.S My throat hurts....

To All Of You.....!

                                                                           Merry Christmas!!

Hope you all have a lovely day!

Reconciliation Day

 Today is Reconciliation Day here in South Africa...very interesting to Google... In short, our “Boer” forefathers where attacked by the Zulus this day in 1838. 470 Voortrekkers defeated 10 000-15 000 Zulu warriors! 3000 Zulus died and only 3 Voortrekkers where lightly wounded,including their leader,Andries Pretorius. The blood of the dead Zulus turned the Ncome River red, in what is today,KwaZulu-Natal and from there it was called the Battle of Blood River. Andries Pretorius made a very interesting pact with God should He make victory  the Boers'....very long and interesting story,but still,today,we Afrikaners commemorate this day and spend it honouring our God and brave forefathers! 

This bronzed picture is a piece of Africana which belonged to Cules' Grandparents. It depicts the hard times experienced by the Voortrekkers after escaping British Rule in the Cape Of Good Hope . These pioneers trekked all the way North from the Cape and suffered through terrible ordeals on the African mainland,fighting,Zulus,Xhosa,Matabele,Khoisan,wild animals and horrible diseases....to name but a few...The men,woman and children walked over mountains and fought their way North....They literally took their ox wagons apart and reasembled them at the bottom of the mountains whenever they couldn't drive them across..time and again and carried them piece by piece over these mountains...Talk about tenacity!!

                                                    It has pride of place in the short hallway in our old farmhouse.

Typically me,my house can be a mish -  mash of styles because I can never make up my mind as to what I really like,except for the fact that lots of thingies needs lots of cleaning and I like to spend my time doing more fun things off course! I bought this chandelier in a frenzy of French Country style loving and then realised that all those white thingies wasn't going to work in my household of greasy hands,lots of animal poo no doubt being carried in from outside etc

The black Stetson on the right was given to Cules as a gift when one of his fellow  horseshoeing student buddies in Oklahoma,won a big rodeo event one night and got a huge horse float and truck as prize!

Anyway..,here is a close- up of the picture

Have a great weekend everyone!

The End

Big Game Fishing,Sodwana and St Lucia

My youngest daughter,  Jessica is on her yearly scuba diving vacation to Sodwana and has also been big game fishing...thus far she has caught Tuna, a 208kg Blue Marlin and a huge  shark that took her and four of her chums 8 hours to reel in!!!...no joking!! She is coming back in a week's time and we will upload some pics of this whole adventure. The first time she went out onto the ocean on the boat she was sick the whole time but was very happy to find that after that she hasn't been sick again! She has taken her own tent and camping equipment and is having a ball! I wish I was there too!


This pic is not related to the topic today but I thought it such a cute moment in time I had to share.....

Minki and Scruffy on a rainy afternoon...

Be Afraid....

Yesterday morning after washing the dishes and a quick cleaning of the kitchen I stepped outside to check up on  all the animals..Much to my surprise I saw our truck and horsebox arriving through a secondary entrance to our farm.., kind of scaly like...Cules, who I saw literally just minutes before being busy on the yard, got out and he had this"Boy have I got a surprise for you..." kind of smirk on his face...

                                                             To me that look translates to:

                                                         "Be afraid...be very,very much afraid!"

Like this....

I was stunned...perhaps he had arranged for someone to go and fetch that Welsh Sec C stallion in the Johannesburg area I have been eyeing these last few weeks...

Could it be???

My excitement building..... I ran on over..

I had my camera on me as I was going to take pics of another chicken hen with two guinea chicks..but alas I clean forgot all about that!

He told me to stand back a bit when peeking inside the horse trailer....

"No man! I don't want no stallion who would like to take my head off!!"

"What stallion are you talking about?" he asked me with that stupid grin on his face..?

"Ha! I was quick on that one,wasn't I?"

Then I heard a grunt..like no horse can ever grunt....

Then I peeked in to see this....

A trailer load full of very upset pure bred European wild boar!!!

Oh Lordy!!!

Remember our neighbours right across the road from us with the ostriches...

Well,their youngest son phoned Cules and told him he needs to sell his wild boars because he needs to buy himself a laptop!

Cules was more than happy to oblige...

These things are huge!

I think there is about 11 of them....

So much for my stallion! (for now)

The End

Cutting Cow

Dolly has trained herself to cut sheep...she kick starts them,she can run a Figure of Eight.....BOTH ways,she changes legs....she even bawls at the sheep!

Dolly making her grand entrance....

Look and learn Quarter horses....

She lopes along letting them sheep know what is about to happen...

Just getting her bearings and warming up....

Ok,you see THAT look?

Now she is warmed up and ready to go......

Kick-starting the show....

Look closely to see what she is doing,my little camera wasn't fast enough to take a clear shot...

Look at her legs....

......and she's even bawling at the sheep here....

After kick starting the sheep into action,

.... she gives herself a jump start....

Perfect flying change in front and behind!

Look at that bend to the inside..!

You go Dolly!

Collecting herself for changing over to the right...

Ohh,she changed her mind and did a downward transition to the trot...

Oh Dolly you forgot to half-halt!

I keep telling you ...inside hand to outside leg you dimwit!

Ok,here we come again for another try to the right...

This is looking so good...!

Dolly, Dolly,where are you going?

A little bit of constructive criticism never hurt anyone, you know!

I promise I will shut up!

Dolly.....?

I realize you never booked a lesson,but you did some pretty darned nice moves there, come back!!

Dolly???

Never a dull moment on this farm...

The End.

Foal Update

The little cutie is growing so fast now and just too gorgeous...He provides me with ours of fun just watching him run and play..

Is this food???

Can't I go back to my stable with a good Joan Collins book and a cup of tea???

We can hire a babysitter to look after him for today!

The End

The Time Of The Stormy Nights...

Yes..That time of year again. This happened two nights ago:

Part of the stables' roof blew off!

We were lying awake in bed amidst loud claps of thunder,howling winds and rain pouring from the skies,when there suddenly was this very unusual,disturbing noise....

Peeking through our bathroom window we saw that part of the stables' roofing had come down and Cules told us to stay inside while he went to try and move the three horses who no longer had any shelter from the rain. We had no idea as to whether some more sheets of  roofing could come down and I anxiously watched through the kitchen window as my horse, Ghost, refused to let my husband catch her. The loud claps of thunder and torrential rain didn't help matters much... I called out her name and told her to "stand" which low and behold, she did and Cules quickly caught her and ran to an empty stable at the back of the building... I will never forget the sight of my horse trotting quietly along with pricked ears through the rain and thunder next to my husband whereas normally she should be behaving badly by rearing and trying to break loose...

I'm thinking she was keen on getting into a dry stable...

Well, we are going to be busy fixing the roof for the next couple of days!

The End

Rabbit For Dinner Anyone?

One evening a couple of weekends ago, I was sitting in my favourite armchair which belonged to my beloved's Great Grandfather and my Beloved was sitting right next to me in his favourite armchair which belonged to his Great Grandfather. Both chairs look exactly the same but there is a difference..he prefers his chair and I mine..

.I was reading through Jamie Oliver's book called "jamie's italy" and low and behold there was this chapter called "My thoughts on rabbit" ..WHAT??  I read the recipe for the marinade out loud to him and said that I actually have all the ingredients for this growing in the garden..except for pancetta,we never have that in the house,I have seen it at our local Woolies,but it is rather expensive...so anyway wrapping rabbit pieces in bacon should be more or less the same thing...?Jamie also said that wild rabbit tastes WAY better than tame rabbit.... I have NEVER eaten rabbit you know.

 So, my beloved perked up a bit out of his slumber and asked me if I would like to have a rabbit for barbecue the next day, seeing as it has to be marinated overnight...I looked at him and the warning bells started ringing in my head,sure, I said, but," Lovey I don't want you packing up the hounds and going out hunting tonight..,we were having such a nice time sitting around just quietly chatting and watching telly... " "No dogs necessary" he said, jumping out his favourite Great Grandfather's chair and calling out to Jessica (who was home for the weekend from varsity)  "you feel like going rabbit hunting?" he says to her ..in a flash she was there with the .22 rifle and out the house the two of them with Minki in tow marches.

There I was sitting,still trying to wrap my mind around whether I really wanted to eat rabbit meat....

Not three minutes go by before a shot rings out...and back into the house they march with a wild rabbit shot in the garden!!

I should have named her Dianna,quite the huntress she is!

It was so hilarious,

'cause I went scrambling out into the garden for the thyme,rosemary and lemon and ..voila!

In a matter of minutes the meat was hunted, slaughtered and marinading for barbecue the next day!

Excuse the tobacco that crept into the picture,but here is the rabbit meat as we were devouring it the next day.

It was really very tasty and looked and tasted a lot like chicken!

For those of you who would like the marinade recipe,here goes;

A handful of fresh thyme and rosemary,leaves picked

4 garlic gloves

8 teaspoons of olive oil

zest and juice of one lemon

1 teaspoon honey

Bash it all together in a pestle and mortar or a liquidizer

Enjoy

Thanks Jamie!

The End

Great Balls Of Fire...

Yes..it was THAT time for the pigs and colts on the farm two weeks ago! The younger male specimens of those two breeds of animals on the farm never saw it coming...they still don't know what hit them! Some of them are still a bit stiff in the groin and don't know why...!

This is the picture that will spring to mind every time a man annoys me!!

This is how we do it..

First the colt is sedated by the vet...

We had the Chief  Vet Mr Paul van Dam and his veterinary wife Franza Keiser and our newly elected President of "The Endurance Ride Association Of South Africa" who lives just down the road from us, all present at "the proceedings"

In this picture above the President Mrs Francois du Preez is lending a helping hand on the right..

As soon as the colt is showing signs of going down the ropes are put in place to help him go down in the safest possible way and to pull his hindlegs forward so the vet can go about his/her bussiness in a safe way...

Something to make sure he feels no pain...

Ouch..ouch..

She makes sure that both testicals are "present"

..and there goes a whole lot of attitude.., biting,rearing,nipping..,bullying,screaming and shameful behaviour etc!!

The End

The Making Of A Spoiled Brat!

Only one of the two baby geese have survived..He/she have four adult geese looking after and spoiling it silly.
He Who Bites is teaching his baby all about being mean and nasty in order to stay at the top of the pecking order on the yard...

..except for one little thing..there is another spoiled brat lurking about who KNOWS she is right there at the top...and no-one is toppling her of the podium!!

Everyone on the farm knows you don't let the geese waddle past your behind without keeping a wary eye out! 

He Who Bites is teaching his baby it is better to quickly move past Minki in a non threatening way!

Yep..harass all the humans and other animals dearie,but not this she devil....

She pulls out ones tail feathers!

She is sooo mean.

Chaos And Confusion

Ever had three days running where you just didn't seem able to get things to calm down a bit..?
Tuesday one of our young ewes that we bought a week ago had a difficult birthing with a lamb that was just too big..,even the vet said he hasn't seen such a huge lamb in a long time...

The lamb didn't make it,but the ewe is just fine today.

A bit graphic, but with animals it isn't always moonshine and roses....

This morning we had a bloated ewe and another lamb with a bad case of diarree..

The vet put the pipe down her throat and thrust the end under Cules' nose..I thought he was going to faint ,the smell was so bad!

I love it when the vet pulls a fast one on Cules and catches him unawares!

Before she was drenched the vet unbloated her with a needle..it looked darned sore but she didn't even flinch when he inserted the needle...

There was vile looking and smelling stuff splattering out the needle!

The little lamb was injected and treated after the vet took a sample of dung and checked it under the micro scope..

Back home this is what my lawn looks like..

We are having to put in a whole new sewerage system as the house had a septic tank right by the back door and finally I said "NO MORE!!" 

Whatever did the previous owners think when they built it there???

We now have to redo all the plumbing for three new toilets...the bathrooms are badly in need of revamping..

I now understand why they call it a "manhole" only enough room in there for one person to dig and it has to be as deep as a person stretching a spade above his head....

We are having one of those plastic ones installed...apparently guaranteed not to smell...

We are having a plumbing company do this for us...it would be one bad mess if we had to try this ourselves...

Then these people arrived to come and put up some security lights and an outside alarm system,they also fixed some of the lights inside the house.

At one stage it all got a little too much and I ran outside to have a conversation with my ducks under my favourite  tree..

Of the fifteen baby ducks only one died and all the rest are going strong and are almost as big as Mom and Dad! 

The sheep ewes provided me with some comic relief as I watched the big camp clean out after the rains we have had...to them a big plastic bag means food...

...there were a lot of big plastic bags coming and going throughout the morning,they ran hither and dither after the bags..

.....They had a real good workout...!!

This is what had to be moved out!

This is what they do before the plastic bags arrive...

This is what they do when the bags are seen!

A lot of baaing and jostling...

and for nothing.....

Lunch time is a bit later girls!!

A Boy And His Toys...

The day before yesterday Cules bought himself a new inverter welder thingey....

Ever since that epic event..he has been rather pre-occupied....

He has been building (welding) new stock sales camps...

He is putting up (welding)  a new fence and gates around the house....

Minki is like me..,

...she opted for the supervising job...

Yes, I clipped her, it isn't someones poodle standing there!

Sunset over the neat new sales camps..

Yesterday he went and bought himself another toy...

A little machine that chops the grass and lucern for the sheep finely.....

It can also grind maize...

It is rather handy.

My hubby seems to like red toys...

Look, his socks (Jess') matches his new toy!!!!

Now for the red,racy, snazzy sports car....(In my dreams)

The End