Quick,Quick,Look To The East!!

I woke up to the sound of thunder this morning and hopped up out of bed (why does thunder always do that too me?)  to see this glorious sight....yellow skies,sun a shining brightly,rain pouring down and I just had to run outside in my pajamas to take a picture standing in the rain!! This was the best morning shower I have had in a long time...You'all should try it!!

I Do Declare..

I Love Sunrises!!

I am going to lodge an official complaint,in writing if you will...,that....,too my mind....

Sunrise is over way to quickly every morning!

The End

Letaba River Farmer's Day 2012

I can't believe time has flown by so quickly and before I knew it, I heard the words "Farmer's Day" again. This year the girls and Cules and I just went along to see the sights and catch up on every body's news!

This monster was the highlight of the morning and made the word "chipper" seem insignificant..

They fed whole trees into that thing and it munched them up like no body's business!

Cules and I called for refreshments quite soon after arriving there...

The auction opened with a cockerel being auctioned up for the Old Age Home here in Tzaneen and it fetched a whopping R5700!

The most expensive chicken I've ever known!

This young Brahma bull kept measuring the height of the corral fence with his nose,so we all kept our distance...he was sold pretty quickly before he could jump out!

There was an impressive display of acrobatic planes.....

These guys dropped by for a beer.......

They had a baby with them so their requests were ignored......

Tarien and Jess had a great time and danced the night away....

Imagine the whiplash a short person like me could get from having a very long conversation with someone this tall!!

This tall guy is a friend of the girls and is a metal artist,he does the most incredible statues etc...

Later that night he asked me for a dance and I told him I can't dance and anyways I wasn't going to embarrass myself trying to dance with such a tall young man!

To which he answered "no problem auntie," and scooped me up and carried me around the dance floor dancing away...(blush,blush) people were taking pictures of the spectacle on their cell phones and  I don't want to appear in public again for the next ten years.....!

I shall just hide away on the farm....

Entertainment was provided by  this really cool band called  "The Storyteller" and boy,did they bring the house down!

Jess,in the white shirt twirling away on the dance floor.

Tarien and Cules having a great time, barefoot and all and who cares...!

The End

Cantaloupes In March???

Yesterday Cules and I whizzed into town latish in the afternoon to have the truck's air con fixed...yes,that is just so like us to wait until Autumn before we remember to have the air con fixed when we are in town....Anyhow,it is done now..Whoop, we have cool calamity again! That done,we went to our favourite  "out of the mid town traffic and hubbub grocery store" and the next minute Cules went weeeeee driving off the road..I thought  "what are we being hijacked! But no,he saw something amazing,something so mind boggling it seemed right to drive off the road in town! A truck loaded with sweet melons (cantaloupes!),yes that's right,they had green ones and orange ones."Where do these come from?" he asked the seller...Why would that be so mind boggling you may wonder...well it is rainy season here..no-one in his right mind would plant cantaloupes over November/December and risk them bursting from too much rain...It just never is a success..ask our neighbour who learned the hard way when he arrived here 3 years or so ago and thought the Internet can teach you everything....Well,it turned out these cantaloupes came from Musina and the driver has only just arrived and stopped his truck in that spot and was doing a roaring trade! At present we pay R10 for ONE avocado in the shops! The melons went for two @ R10 ea!! Musina is about 4 hours drive from us towards the North,so I plucked out my brand new planter's guide (because "things"interest me and I am nosy that way!) Well,it turned out some clever farmer in the arid,dry region of Musina is planting according to the Northern Cape's planting  guidelines and probably making a killing too. Those melons were SO delicious. The people who owned our farm before us also planted cantaloupes apparently....We would like to give it a shot although we are no fruit and veggie farmers..animals being more our thing!

Cantaloupes in March in all their tasty,sweetness,delicious glory!

See,we are Lowveldt region and interestingly,the Northern Cape/Great Karroo appears next to each other on this chart...

On another note...here is Cules' latest acquisitions..a Dogos Argentina male and female,the female is visible to the back left of the picture. The Male's name is "Tagad",which basically means something along the lines of "sh&t stirrer,and the female is called" Yellah...".which I haven't got a clue what it means.....

They are both lovely,obedient and well behaved dogs.

Cules got these dogs from a PH friend of his who imported their parents from Argentina.

Here he is showing of his new "bullet proof" protective  hunting jacket that a friend brought over all the way from the United States...

Just to say,the jacket now has flickering lights on it too!

I chose this pic seeing as both the dog and the workers are wearing clothes that make them look like something that escaped from Alcatraz...not that Alcatraz is in South Africa....

The End

My Week Past

Last week was rather busy and over and out almost before I knew it. The baling season is getting  underway and so Cules is having to start buying some new implements..first off was a brand new rake and a teeny weeny little tractor....

Sweet old Tosca is like me..,

 a racy little red tractor makes her want to sing it out loud baby!!

Minki had to check out the seat for comfort.....

Oh yum,we are  going for a spin Maaaa!

On the day he went to take delivery of the rake he promptly took it apart ,

only to reassemble it again...

Ok old man,lets do this...

Whoops,we have to take of the plastic!

His first job for the week was in the beautiful,historical Ofcolaco area that still oozes Old Colonial style Africa!

Here roamed wild lions in the not too distant past...

Now they are being purposely bred in this area on Game Farms!

The old baler waiting for it's tractor.

Those two aeroplanes returning from the airshow crashed into those mountains to the right hand side of the picture last year...

See how ominous and low those clouds are on the mountains even on a sunny day.

Minki had lots of fun exploring...

Then, on Sunday(Yesterday) morning,this visitor dropped by for breakfast!

He sat for ages in this tree above the front patio and refused to budge.

I got the idea it was a young hawk..because it showed no fear of humans or dogs.

He said he heard the Peking Duck was divine in this joint....

The End