Mower action...

RMan needed to do a whole bunch more mowing before the family (and their pets) arrived, to make the area safe for children and animals.

Scallywag came with us for this visit - we were going to be away for too long for RSon to pop by the house, spend an hour or two and feed him.  Not being used to driving for extended periods, old Scallywag took a couple of days to acclimatize - choosing to take it easy from a high vantage point on the patio. Scallywag is besotted with RMan, and he has to have him in his sight at all times!

Scallywag on the patio watching, watching,
watching...

Eventually, RMan drove where he could no longer be seen.  That necessitated Scallywag venturing forth into the great unknown, also known as our plot. This was a strange place - no cars driving past, no dogs being taking for their daily constitutional (and thus ripe for an ambushed barking session), no children / adults / beggars / hawkers walking past the property, talking, laughing, shouting,singing, arguing.  Just perfect peace and quiet.  I wonder if silence is deafening to a dog too?


Thankfully, we had medicated him against ticks and fleas prior to leaving town, so whether he walked in the overgrown area, or the newly mown area, it didn't bother us.

Scallywag finally investigates

And RMan just plodded on regardless. Well, it's a big area to mow, and our brilliant 2nd hand ride-on mower chugs along at a steady 3.0 - 3.5 km / hour (1.8 - 2.0 mph).  Perfect for sight-seeing actually :)  Hours and hours and hours were spent driving round and round, repeating some sections which were initially resistant to those spinning blades.

Patient, plodding, persistant RMan, the mower
operator

But, finally, we had roughly a third of the property cleared of renosterbos / high grass / any snakes hiding under bushes, and in some instances, even stones went flying... (sorry about the car door WGuy)  Actually, those ruddy stones caused a massive delay. We had to clear, by hand, the stones from each area which was to be mowed - back-breaking, tedious, laborious work. And then the vast number of wheelbarrow loads of rock that had to be schelpped away.  Who needs gym...

A small part of the pile of rocks 

We know that all this work was worthwhile - judging by the fun that was had in the cleared area, the lack of ticks (on humans and animals), and the complete absence of snakes was proof of that, I reckon.


And, to top it all, RMan took MKid for a spin on the mower - I wish I could zoom in to this photo and show you the grin on MKid's face.

MKid being taken for a (slow) spin...

Well done, RMan.  You did good - really good :)  And, I can imagine that if any of the fallow deer visit out property whilst we're not around, they now have a fully prepared meal waiting... LOL

But, talking about stones - this one got shattered by the mower.  Is there anyone out there who knows a geologist, or does anyone know what type this stone could be?

Sharp, shiny glass type areas

I'm tending towards the meteorite type, but RMan reckons volcanic.  Unfortunately for that theory is the fact that we have no volcanoes in the area (the closest extinct one is in Pilansberg which is 1600 kms away).

"Air" / gas holes?

It has shiny, almost glassy-type sections within, which are incredibly sharp. And seems to be made up of a number of different rock types all bunged together.  As well as "air" (gas?) holes...