As it's been so long since I updated the blog, a whole hell of a lot has happened. Life has changed rather a lot, and I am just not sure where to even start ... Firstly, we got rid of shitty Stelzen Street and as usual, it caused a problem and was sold for 400 thousand less than what we wanted for it. That house was never anything other than a problem, and it is still giving me grey hairs as the person that bought it won't pay his water and electricity account. I can't wait for it to be out of my life permanently and to never hear or see it again.
We bought Plot 69 and moved out here on the 13th of February. As usual, we are cursed lol, and the truck dumped everything at the bottom of the hill and we had to drive it up in bakkies. The mountain is REALLY not that bad, people. If Joani can drive up here with a Polo, you lot can drive up here with a truck, you dumb twit. The move took ALL day even with about ten guys helping, as they were all useless and lazy and by that night, there was still half a household standing outside and the rain was building. In a panic, we desperately tried to cover everything with plastic in the dark, and a thorn from the horrendous hak-dorings outside the door went straight through my nail. Blood everywhere. I burst into tears like a proper girl, hated everything, and that day still clocks as the worst of my life.
So we settled in slowly - it hasn't been an easy adjustment. We are far out of town, the dogs give me grey hairs, our petrol bill has doubled, the white bakkie kept breaking and leaving me stranded with no car - and so it went. It is also a huge adjustment to go from a big three-bedroom with two bathrooms and plenty of space to a one-bedroom, one bathroom igloo in the middle of the bush. And yes - it's an IGLOO. Like the ones in Alaska. Round and all.
Anyway, so here we are. In the first week, Bear decides to tackle a cow on YWAM, which is the 900 hectare farm next door. There I am, running through the bush in my yellow silk pyjamas chasing a dog that's hanging off a cow's ass and praying that the neighbor who owns said cow won't come charging down from his house to find out what all the hullabaloo is about. Luckily he didn't we caught the dog, gave him an enormous hiding born out of fury for him not listening, panic for him being almost gored by the cow, ME almost being gored by the cow and having to run through the bush in my pj's, and whatever else pissed me off that day. Pio had to phone the neighbor and tell him what had happened. It was a dark day - but Brian was quite chilled about it and there seemed to be nothing wrong with the calf and cow after their drama-filled day. Thank heavens.
Then he jumped out the car window and chased the whole herd of goats - Heaven help me. There we go, running through the bush again, although this time I was luckily not in my pj's, but I had just showered and dressed to go see a client. Up mountain and down dale until the shit simply got bored with chasing them and trotted home. I wanted to take him to SPCA then and there, but first had to shower again and get dressed to go see my client.
THEN he and Coda ran away and spent seven hours chasing and barking at something on Christmas Eve. I didn't sleep, as we had no way to catch them, and no way even to tell where they are as noise echoes in the mountains. It was hell, but they eventually came back at 2:30 in the morning full of blood. We still have no idea what they chased and killed. I don't see them giving up on an animal unless it's dead, so I can only imagine that it was something big if he took seven hours to bring it down. He took a sheep down in less than a minute.
So, on we go, and now we walk only when there are no animals in sight, and we don't go up the mountain but rather down the road where there have been less animals sighted. Every day is a bit of a stress as we expect them to go caning off at the drop of a hat to try kill something. We pray it doesn't happen again, although I am quite sure it will as there are just too many animals around.
Oh, the latest was of course a porcupine, but there all the dogs seemed to show a modicum of respect for it so at least used their one combined brain cell. This happened one night when Coda and Bear decided to sleep outside, and I was woken up with a bark from Coda at 2:30 am. I kicked Pio awake and we bolted up, as out here, when the dogs bark there is something there and you don't wait for the second one. Pio tried to shine a torch out the window to see if it was possibly a person with a gun - although that would have gotten him shot anyway. He doesn't have much logic at that time of the morning - at least until 10am anyway.
So I give up on him, and can anyway hear something in the bush that is our garden - there is no difference between the inside of our fence or the outside at the moment. I open the door and charge out onto the deck, which is a death trap as with the recent rain the wood is rotting and falling away at a rate of knots. I manage to miss all the gaping holes, and see a flash of black and white underneath me. The last time I saw a porcupine I was a tiny scrap of a thing that was probably too young to remember it. I shriek "It's a porcupine!" and dash back inside for my slops. Once they're on I fly back out, down the broken deck stairs and into the bush. Again in my yellow silk pj's, might I add.
Pio rather thoughtfully stays on the deck shining the only torch we own away from me, and then suddenly realizes at my snap of annoyance, that I am in the dark, in the bush, and have slops on. He tosses me the torch and I dash after the dogs and porcupine. I find the poor bugger nose to the kitchen wall, flinging his tail in Bear's direction. At this point in time, Kita and Coda must have realized that my yelling at them was for a reason and had disappeared. Bear chooses when he wants to listen and when he doesn't, and so totally ignored me but did show that he isn't all that dumb and didn't try bite the porcupine, just hovered and went at it occasionally. With me screaming at him, he stayed at a distance, and the porcupine shuffled back to the fence, me and Bear behind it, and zipped through.
This is what happens when you turn your electric fence off and forget it off. We turned it back on immediately.
Then there's Coda running away, but now he stays with me pretty religiously. There's Cady coming to live and her story - that will be posted on Dog Bless You's page. There's the daily happenings, snakes, warthogs, bugs and dead goats. Spiders the size of my hand and definitely too big to squash with a shoe without me screaming like a three year old girl.
Frankie and I are working well together but I have taken a rather slow start to this year - I am taking things easy at the moment as have had too much stress lately and struggled to cope a bit. So we are working through our list slowly and getting things done bit by bit. She has been amazingly understanding of everything.
It is fun - I love my evening walks with the sun dropping and the rain coming in across the valley. I love that I am alone out here and no one will knock on my door when I want to be alone. I love that I can look out my window and see nothing but a mountain and bush and the odd animal pottering by. I just love the peace that I have found out here even with the worries of the crime and shootings and whatnot. It's a happy life and we're enjoying it despite the down side of longer traveling and larger fuel bills and and and. It's no longer a quick case of "Pop into town". But we're working out the kinks with time and we will get there.
