Temporary Hiccups

Please would you bear with me over the next 4-odd weeks for my blog postings are going to be on an infrequent and irregular basis.


Talk about upheaval and turmoil...  Boxes everywhere - here and on the farm, furniture which will have to go in storage in the local town (we have found secure 35mtr2 premises which the owner is willing to rent out to us cheaply for a month-and-a-half until our garage is complete).  We have also managed to secure the services of a recommended building contractor who will take care of everything, or subcontract if he is unable to complete the work himself, as opposed to a local casual builder.  He has given us a fair quote on building the garage and completing phase two of the house - so, all being well, everything should be completed within the next three months - then the farmhouse will finally be our (new) home :)  We were also worried whether we would still be able to obtain more resin roof tiles.  Thankfully, I have managed to track down someone who sells them.  (If the link I have just provided is removed in the future, they guy's name is Malcolm and his contact number is 071 996 9341). Enlisting the services of a couple of the guys who work for my husband, plus the use of the company van, we took another load of boxes and a small portion of the pot plants to the farm last weekend.

Ice crystals on the trailer cover

Before we left Cape Town we were aware that a cold front was headed our way, but weren't aware that there were two of them - back-to-back.  Brrrrrrr - we had our first (early) snowfall on the mountains.  Thank goodness for the Dover stove!  Even so, the house is not completely sealed yet, so the drafts caused the temperature to plummet to 10oC inside the house in the early morning - whilst it was -2oC outside.  Snow usually falls in August / September here - so June is a bit early - another example of the global weather patterns changing obviously...?!

Before the cold fronts arrived, RMan and John, the local community labourer, increased the height of the scaffolding, so that RMan could correct and finish the temporary chimney installation.  You can get a good idea of exactly how high our roof peak is in this pic:

It took 4 sections of scaffolding in order
to reach the apex of our roof!

RMan then also proceeded to complete the painting of the undercoat so that the plastered walls have some protection from the wet weather.

I checked out the trees we had relocated - two of them look like they may be OK - the other three - touch and go. Ah well, at least two is better than none :)

Location of the transplanted trees.  In the
foreground is the pile of renosterbos which
the digger / loader scraped up

And, my final surprise from last season's crops awaited me in the depression we had made for the future cellar, where we are storing the last load of compost we purhased.  Some wind blown rocket seeds had taken root, and they are producing enormous leaves - yummy! 

Self-seeded rocket - the plants are
producing absolutely enormous leaves

We returned to town to discover that the buyer of our home had changed her mind about taking early occupation at the end of June, due to the "domino effect", and wanted to revert to the transfer / occupation only taking place at the end of July.  The transferring attorney's had apparently sent us notification of this on the 6th June - but to the wrong e-mail address! So we have been sorting and packing madly, and were still under the impression that the move was on for the end of this month!  However, yesterday the attorney subsequently spoke to the buyer, and she has changed her mind again (and confirmed it in writing this morning, so there is no turning back now), and has agreed that transfer / occupation can proceed for end of June - thank goodness - I have so much packed and we are living with the bare minimum - to do that for an additional 4 weeks wouldn't be easy...

Don't tell RMan that I've posted
a pic of him in my apron LOL
Doesn't he look cute :)

I have been going through a myriad of emotions whilst packing up / ditching 34-odd years of possessions - some good - some bad.  RMan has steadfastly been my strength, bearing with my ill-humour, and even offering unexpected assistance.  Bless him, he has been an absolute star.  For instance, not having used my oven for over 2 years I gave it a final quick clean out.  RMan volunteered to give the shelves a good scrub - even if it meant that I insisted that he (under protest and very briefly) wear my apron - well, that is wet, dirty work LOL  There is nothing like man-power when it comes to removing baked on dirt - the oven shelves are now so sparkling clean that they look like brand new :)

Now - I just have to tackle all the kitchen and bathroom wall tiles and empty cupboard shelves and cupboard fronts...