Main House Kitchen, December 2011

So, beginning of December the man and I moved into the main house with NO kitchen. But only for a while....my Muguyer is a clever bugger, I tell you. This is the kitchen as it stood for almost a year since we bought the place...

Luvverly!!!!! And then the man got stuck in and started to make it look like a proper kitchen.......

And now all we need to do is fit the granite slabs, stoves and oven (and of course get the electricity working), but hey, I'm happy!

HAPPY 2012 EVERYONE - MAY WE ALL BE BLESSED IN ABUNDANCE!

Update on main house - December 2011

And so we are drop kicking 2011 goodbye and welcoming in the new year very soon. Here are some before and after pics of the main broke down farm house. Come a long way. It's looking damn good, even if I say so myself.

Before - the front and the side of the house......

Today....the front and side.....taking shape, slowly but surely!!!!!

Before - the back of the house...............December 2010

Today - back of the house......awwwww......

We'll get there, surely we will.

Nov & Dec 2011 - updates on some interesting times

Ah, so much has happened in the last 2 months. The man moved mom single-handedly to the farm (the belongings of an absolute lifetime), and she is now semi-settled in the cottage. The week preceding the move was pandemonium. The main house was still not plumbed, no sign of a kitchen, and even though we had chased some electrics through the walls, no plugs, no switches, no nada.

My precious antique German piano arrived from mom's house with absolutely no diginity, strapped to the back of a 4x4, over dust roads......and to my surprise (and delight), no additional scratches, and only the bottom C is slightly flat. Damn heavy - at least 6 strapping men to move this baby. Good job MuGuyver!

We managed to clear out the lounge, the bedroom and the bathroom in the main house - and then we moved like demons! On the last day of the move, I was still carting clothes, furniture, fritty little things, back and forth to try and clear the cottage so mom could at least move in and try to make it her own. The dogs were socialised ok I think, thanks to a final frantic call to Pat from Animals in Distress on how exactly to introduce these packs. In my wisdom, I thought I should lock my brood away, let her two dogs out, and then introduce the family one by one.

Pat said that was the worst thing I could possibly do, even though my pack is way bigger and perhaps more aggressive than mom's. Her logic was that this farm belongs to my dogs. They must be out and about, and mom's dogs must take the first step into this territory. Otherwise chances were very big that my dogs would land up killing the "foreigners". We did it Pat's way (I sent mom inside so she couldn't coddle and panic and yell and watch, sigh), and it went well. We are all fine now. Clever Pat!

Moving on. Just before the monumental move, we have this instant bladdy tornado-like wind. Calm one moment, hell the next. We watch in stupefied awe as the double car port slowly collapses onto my little car. Slow motion. Bugger. That poor little car. Stupid double car port.....

So mom is moved in the last day of November, the bull mastiff eventually decides after FOUR hours that perhaps she should get out of the car......send mom inside again.....out the mastiff gets (Magnolia-Mae, LOL), all is well. I did heave a big sigh of relief. It could have been a disaster, truth be told. Mom's dogs have NEVER been socialised. Phew. And there are NO vets in Magalies!

Next day, bright and early, bushy tailed.......have a sarmie with mom and dip all six dogs (mission!). It's 9'0'clock on the morning of the 1st of December. Then the stupid sarmie gives me indigestion. Bugger. Mom starts to faff, I get annoyed and go for a walk. But this damn "stone" in the middle of my chest is really sore. And it's spreading into my shoulders. And my hands are feeling weak. And my jaw feels a bit floppy. I do the right thing, mom makes a doctor appointment, and off I go....still feeling a bit stupid because really, the twelve teaspoons of Bi-Carb I drank just now should surely kick in. Yes?

Doctor does an ECG - and even I can see the man go pale. He gives me some little pill thing, and it was just about then that I felt very "out of this world". I heard phone calls, I heard "helicoptor might be faster than ambulance", and I am not feeling well. And I am getting scared.

Long story short - off to Flora Clinic, cardiologist waiting for me - they do some procedure where they stick a scope right up your artery from your groin and poke around in your heart (eeek - that felt so weird) - confirmed full-on heart attack and into ICU for days. WTF? I haven't even turned 45 years old yet. Crazy stuff. Hoping that meds will strengthen the heart muscle in the left coronary artery (which collapsed and stopped blood flow apparently), otherwise they will put a stent in. Sh*t.

Anyway - all done now - up the ying-yang with all sorts of heart meds. Read the inserts of the medication the other day - oh what a bad move - what was I thinking? Feeling tired, but good.

And now begins the work on the main house kitchen......and to get the bathroom up and running......but as you will see in the next few posts, we did good......nearly there for now!

Between all of this, I got tick bite fever. Then I sprained my ankle. Then mom fell up the stairs. Then mom got tick bite fever.

Bring on 2012. Please......

OCTOBER 2011 - TYING UP LOOSE ENDS

Well it certainly has been an interesting and stressfull year. Mom and I finally sold our house in Jozi, papers signed, deal done. She is moving into the cottage here on the farm, and the man and I will move into the main house. What a job. Main house has absolutely no plumbing or electrics chased in the walls, no bathrooms, no kitchen. Still have to install all the burglar bars and security gates to make it safe and the slate floor is a disaster. LOTS of work to be done.

The man has started to move mom and all her belongings, the gatherings of a lifetime. So much stuff. And she is stressing no end about bringing her two dogs here. One Mastiff and one Russell. Ah well, we will just have to cope. Live in harmony or bugger off, I say. (Meanwhile back at the ranch, I'm am also sh*tting myself at the initial introduction...)

The rains have come. A few flash storms which didn't do much, but now a nice fine rain has set in and it's really looking beautiful here. Farmer Brown mowed the lawn the other day in his ol' John Deere. Still having to drag it down the road to start it, but it does the job.

Patio of the main house looking a whole lot better with a built in bar and jet master braai place. We've used it a lot already - much fun!

I think we will make a lot of memories here.

Cottage - THEN and NOW (Jan 2011 to Oct 2011)

Ah what a sweet little cottage this turned out to be. It was so sad when we first got here. I reckon if the roof gets a lick of pine needle green paint, she'll be almost perfect!

A bit of trivia here.....the previous owner popped in for a visit. Said the rights things you know, like, ah, so much work done, looking good, etc etc. Told him I battled a bit through winter with all the plants dying, but we were trying our best to get all the shrubs and trees going again. He said "Ja, best you do, my dead ma's ashes are buried under that Cape May" and points to a bush that I thought was long dead. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! What a thing to say!

So with copious watering and pleading and classical music, I coaxed the bladdy thing back to life. Thank the Lord. It's the brilliant bush in the front of the pic with tons of pretty white blooms.

Shew! My nerves, I swear. Hope you're happy Mrs Harper. Just stay where you are.....

Whahahahahahaha!

September 2011 - Sundowners on the raft!

Late afternoon is always the best time here, and now that the days are not so cold, and things are looking a tad greener, we decided to get onto our raft (clever Farmer Brown) and drift into the middle of the dam. We had a small braai, a couple of drinks, and just sucked up the loveliness.

The cottage in the background is the first one we started to build, Cottage Callum. It's nearly done, just the inside fittings left to do.

But ah......nothing like Mother Africa to lift your spirits. This was a good day!

29 September 2011 - ESKOM !!!!!!

Whoop whoop, happy dance of bladdy note. Eskom finally decided that perhaps we poor peeps deserved power. And they arrived en-masse to install it for us.

Then, in all their Eskomly wisdom, they promptly threatened to lock the power box they had just installed because we couldn't supply them with a Compliancy Certificate. WTF? The place is a shell. There is no wiring left, everything has been stripped. There is NOTHING to comply with, but if they lock that damned box, we can't even carry on fixing the place.

I stomp off to get my 38 - I am going to blow that damn lock straight off that box.

The man willingly liberates half his nursery stock (apparently electricians garden too), and by the time I get back, Eskom is gone and he is a happy Farmer Brown with a key in his hand.

It's a good week. Mom and I sold our house, my friend got a killer job.....yip, things are looking up indeed!