Musing the day away ...

On my writing course, we were told to write a page a day, of "free writing", anything that happens to pop into your mind. Apparently it gets the creative juices flowing and teaches you to write easily. So as I don't do it regularly and am actually bored right now, I thought I would give it a go. 

This morning I read through all my old assignments from the AAW Creative Writing Course, and some of the stuff is actually quite good - some not so great though, mind you. It shows how much we've learnt from the course and a year of mentoring with Richard and Jo-Anne. It's been a great year and I've enjoyed it hugely. But now, my mentoring is taking so long and I'm ahead and now just have to submit, I'm looking for other projects to work on. 

Problem is, I can't come up with an idea. It SUX. I love writing and would happily do it every day if I could, but it seems I can't. Maybe this is writers block. I have a story that I've been trying to work on but I can't get it off the ground. Nothing about it is flowing and it's pissing me off. I can't get the dialogue going, not sure what to write next, nothing. My characters are in a vacuum as I can't come up with things for them to do either. So I think it might be time to put it to bed until I can write it. Not sure when that'll be. 

This now means that I have nothing to keep me busy at the moment. I'm desperately looking for a project and am just not coming up with anything. I need ideas and don't know where to look for them. My brain has gone blank - how did I used to come up with reams and reams of stuff and now can't even put a story line together? Time to maybe brainstorm with J&R. 

Other than being frustrated with my writing, I haven't been doing much. Work is quiet and I'm enjoying pottering with things. I do what I need to and what comes up, but it's so quiet that this week especially I've had lots of free time and it's been great. Next week will be much busier so not looking forward to that. 

The plot is fine - we're happy out here and enjoying the peace and quiet. So much so actually that I never want to go to town any more and do my best to avoid it like the plague. When I do have to go I try get as much done as possible so that I don't have to go again for another week. 

The dogs are driving me mad. Cady and Coda are running away regularly and not coming back til six or seven the following morning. This means they're roaming for a full twelve hours at a time. I've actually gotten to the point where if they do get shot by some irate plotter for chasing his goats or buck, then it can't be helped and will make my life so much easier. I love them to bits but they refuse to listen and do what they like whilst Bear and Kita toe the line and have beautiful manners. It so isn't fair on them. 

Bear and Kita are fine though and have such beautiful manners. They're truly so special and I wish Cady and Coda could learn some manners from them. That'll teach me for taking on rescues and trying to save the world. It doesn't work. You can't unlearn bad habits and manners, no matter how hard you try. 

Work is fine as well. The business is busy and Pio working himself to death, whilst I twiddle my thumbs which isn't great for him at the moment, poor guy. But we're making money and it's going well. Touch wood it carries on :) we are really so blessed with our life at the moment and quite happy. It's all going well. 

I cut half my hair off, and might cut the rest of it off next month. I quite like the idea of a bob and white blonde all over, so that might happen. Pio will probably kill me as he doesn't like short hair, but I can always grow it again. I'll cut it short now and then grow it out again. Will have to take lots of vitamins and whatnot to get it to grow though. Amanda has suggested biotin so will look into that and see if it works. She's very clued up on all these products, bless her. 

Other than that, life is quiet. We're going to stay home tonight and do a poitjie which is going to be so nice - I have red wine and cream so it's going to be awesome. I'm already hungry so will have to have something for lunch soon. 

Better go and make the staff lunch now too, and maybe see if I can come up with something to get me to write before I die of boredom. I've even cleaned out my one cupboard this morning, for lack of better things to do.  

A Normal Day

I thought that I might write about a normal day. This was brought on by going through my old blogs on Sunday and reading about all the little things that I would normally have forgotten about - and did forget until I read it again. It was great to go through all those old memories, and so it has in turn prompted that I do a bit more blogging. Hopefully. I tend to not as can't think of things to write or am just too busy. 

But anyway. So today was a normal-ish day. Pio flew to Ondangwa yesterday to do a presentation for Click, after much argument with Marius as he backed out at the last minute, which resulted in Pio flying on Sunday and only returning Tuesday for a half hour slot. Ridiculous. I was so angry. 

Anyway, so last night I was alone on the plot, for the first time since I have been here. It wasn't that bad - I watched TV and fell asleep with the shotgun next to me, loaded and ready for bear! Not Bear, but a human trying to break in lol. I was of course fine and nothing happened. I didn't sleep well though, the dogs were really restless and up and down. Kita slept in front of the door waiting for her Daddy to come home and he didn't. She must have been really upset. 

Wilbard dragged me out of bed at 6:45 and I got going. I put the washing on, as I do every Monday, only to have Tresia text me and tell me that she is ill and isn't coming to work. This means that I am so busy and still have to do washing and clean the house. I did minimal cleaning - wiped counters down, packed the dishwasher and washed a few dishes. I also cleaned my desk as hate working in a mess. Other than that, I left it. It can wait until Wednesday. 

I started work at around 7 and cleaned in between til the kitchen was done. I then worked straight through til 4:30 with no lunch or breaks. Most of the day was spent on Click and trying to work out the inordinate amount of oddities and stupid things that keep happening - why can't people just pay the correct amount!! STUPID! 

I then did Embrace for the rest of the day and filled out Garvin's application for a phone that he wants on contract. Cheeky bugger gets so much out in a month with all his benefits. 

It was stinking hot from about 2pm and still is now after 5pm. I had the air cooler on but turned it off when I started cooking as it was nippy in here, but now after a few minutes of being off it's steaming in the igloos again. Might have to turn it back on. The flies are also terrible as my fly-trap has stopped working so have doomed everything in sight as there were about 40 of them sitting in the windows and now two are being particularly annoying as I try to drink a glass of wine and blog ... 

Well that's it for me. I am off to check on my dinner and then I will feed the dogs, eat, and watch some TV. I might write as I am going to fall behind on my mentoring if I don't catch up soon, but I am not sure I am in the right frame of mind to write properly. I might just chill after a hectic day with the fan on and something to drink. 

Anyway ... that's my normal day - apart from the fact that Pio comes home and works in the kitchen on his PC there in the afternoons and all evening, and then we walk the dogs at six on the bikes, over the mountain and around the plot. But, after the python, I am too scared to walk alone in case I run into something else just as dangerous and lose a dog.

Off to finish dinner and chill! Or write! 

Mevrou Mongoose

    It was time for another dog walk. Yes, the dogs get walked every day at around 6pm. Today was different. It was overcast and rainy, so we were walking earlier - something I should learn not to do as invariably something happens on these earlier walks! 

    I had put on a large t-shirt over my vest because it was still dripping and off we pottered on the bikes. We had just crested the first mountain and were free-wheeling down when the dogs predictably began to chase something small through the bush. As usual, shrieking at them did no bloody good whatsoever, and Coda, the evil little sod that he is, grabbed it and threw it into the air. 

    I managed to chase them off and find the little thing that they had been chasing - a little slender mongoose, obviously still a baby. They had hurt it as it was dragging its leg as it scurried through the bush, frantically trying to escape the dogs. I was gutted that they had again hurt a little animal. 

    I ripped off my t-shirt and together, Pio and I managed to catch it and once it was wrapped up in my shirt it calmed right down and stayed still. I put it in-between my legs on the quad bike and rode home whilst Pio walked the dogs on down the mountain. Cady and Kita followed me and forgot about their walk. 

    Back at home, I found a box to put it in and wrapped it in a towel. I took out some meat to feed it and by this time Pio was home with Bear and Coda. We inspected the little mite, and it showed great spirit, hissing and growling at us. 

    This was a great sign - the more spirit it showed the more likely it was to live. I gave it some mince and it ate very enthusiastically, which was another good sign. It was dragging its leg but looked fit and healthy otherwise. 

    I made the mistake of trying to get some water into the box. The feisty little thing growled and spat at me, but I had no choice other than to actually put my hand into the box to put the little container of water down. It launched at me and bit me on the finger, drawing blood. It was more of a scrape than an actual bite, but there was most definitely dripping blood and a plaster was required. 

    As we were off to dinner with Frankie and David down in the valley, I thought that I could take it along and ask David if he had any ideas for what I should do next. David is a big conservationist and works for the Wildlife Fund here in Nam. He travels a huge amount of the time and does game counts all over the country. Sadly - he was away, but Debbie was there. 

    We successfully identified it as a slender mongoose, which I hadn't known up until that point. I knew it was a mongoose but I hadn't known what kind. Debbie also said that it was very promising that the little thing would survive if it was eating and moving around. 

    But as the evening progressed the quieter and more sleepy the little creature became. He was also covered in lice that crawled over him and the towel. He moved into one position and lay there all evening, not even getting up to growl and spit at us when we poked into the box to check if he was OK. 

    Debbie also advised that I go for a rabies shot, as I had posted the question on Facebook and everyone said yes, I would need to get the shot as mongoose are natural carriers of rabies. Damn - what a mission. 

     The next morning, the little mongoose was sadly no longer with us and had gone off to the Happy Hunting Grounds. I was gutted and so angry with my dogs - why of why did they try to kill absolutely everything that moved? It meant again that I would never be able to have the menagerie that I so badly wanted of goats, piggies, meerkats, cats and dogs, all cohabiting happily. 

    I had to get over my little bout of misery and phone the doctor to ask about the rabies injections. They managed to push me in urgently and I had my first shot that morning, with follow ups required on Day 3, Day 7, Day 14 and so on. 

    Piet was visiting from SA and landed that afternoon after my first shot. He then came with me to the doc the following week on day 3 and day 7. It was when he was with me that the doctor came out to call me in - and instead of announcing my name, he called out, "Mevrou Mongoose..."

    He has since called me that on every occasion, and I have now been for my 6th shot, the 7th being in two weeks time. He really is a funny soul. I now have bruises and two lame arms with these endless shots. And yesterday I seemed to have my first side effects, coming down with a horrendous headache, being unbearably sleepy and feeling generally under the weather. I slept most of the afternoon. 

    So the memory of the gorgeous little mongoose will remain with us for some time yet. We wish that things had been different and that we had been able to save the little thing. We are gutted that he didn't make it and that our dogs are again to blame for the lack of wildlife in our area as they chase everything that moves. We would love to live harmoniously with the wildlife around us, but it would seem that it will never happen. 

    Maybe one day when the dogs are older they will calm this insane chasing of everything and we will be able to co-exist. 

The Python

    It was five-thirty and time to walk the dogs. Sigh … there are days that I really don’t feel like hopping on the bike and tearing around the mountain with four psychotic dogs who chase everything that so much as twitches a whisker.

    But oh well.

    “It’s time to walk the dogs, are you coming?” I asked Pio.

    “Nope, I’m working on NamScape.”

    Great, I would have to go alone – but wait, there was Pieter, my cousin from SA that was visiting.

    “Do you want to come with?” I asked him.

    “Ja sure,” he said, and off we pottered on the bikes up the mountain.

    We crested the first mountain and were sitting on the top waiting for the great galumphing Kita, way behind us. That dog gets fatter and lazier by the day, and no matter what you do, she goes at her own pace. Africa Time takes on a whole new meaning with her.

    We just spotted her coming over the top of the mountain and I was starting to free-wheel down the first stretch, which is quite steep, when Piet said to me:

    “Your dogs have got something – I can hear them.”

    “Shit! Not again.” Seriously, the poor pigs in this place kakked daily. And then of course there was the recent seven grand bill from Coda trying to take on a pig and coming off a sad second best.

    I hit the accelerator on the quad and screamed down the mountain, through the dip, up hill and down dale as fast as I could. I could now hear them barking. And – bloody Kita – after taking her sweet-ass time up the mountain she had now beaten me to the scene of the crime. The fatty could move when she wanted to.

    I skidded through the trees and down into the valley, narrowly missing being impaled on the bloody overgrown thorn trees that I hadn’t had time to cut back.

    I saw what was happening before I could stop the bike but couldn’t actually process it. It couldn’t be my dog, it had to be something else. But no – that was Cady’s striped fur and her long legs sticking out between the coiled rolls of the biggest python I had ever seen. Somehow, without actually knowing what a python really looks like, it had to be one.

    You hear stories of them taking dogs but you always think “Ja whatever. It would have to be seriously big to take a dog.”

    Cady was almost buckled in half and backwards at that. Her tongue was lolling out and her eyes were black and glazed. It had her so tight in its coils I thought she was already dead.

    I won’t forget that first sight of it and the following few seconds that it took me to get around the trees and to stop the bike before I launched off at the snake. What do you do with something that big? How do you stop it? How do I get it off her? My baby looked dead and I started screaming for Piet to hurry up and help me.

    I tried kicking it, but it had its mouth over her side and was biting in, coiled around her so tightly that my kicks did nothing. It was like kicking a rock – pure muscle coiled tightly and killing my dog. I saw its tail flip up as it rolled and grabbed it, pulling it backwards as hard as I could to uncoil it.

    It actually stopped biting Cady and I saw it’s jaw yawn wide with hectic teeth.

    I got a couple of coils off but Cady was lifeless and not moving. I screamed for Piet repeatedly, but this was his first time on a quad in a good few years and he was taking it slowly, not expecting this at all.

    When he got there, I was still screaming at him to help. He left his bike and ran. As he later put it, “I regressed to the stone age and used a good old rock to smack it in the head.”

    It took him throwing numerous rocks at it and me pulling on its tail like a mad thing for it to eventually give up and drop its prey. I don’t even remember how it happened, but I do remember Cady lolling on the ground, her eyes glazed and she was shaking like a leaf.

    I tried to hold her but she had been bent so far over backwards that I was terrified her spine was broken and she couldn’t walk. I was almost crying in panic. Piet continued to launch rocks at the python and chase it with a stick, shouting at the other dogs to get back as they moved closer to see what was going on.

    Cady struggled to her feet and tottered off, sitting under a tree. I have a new respect for this little bush mongrel that we picked up on the side of the road – she’s as tough as nails.

    The python lay in the bush, not moving. Piet and I didn’t know what to do – how could we leave it there? Tomorrow we would be back for another walk and the bastard would probably still be chilling waiting for the next innocent dog to walk by. Piet grabbed a long stick and started trying to chase it out the bush.

    The python decided that it was time to head into the trees and it picked itself up on its tail like it was nothing and curled onto a dead branch. By the time its head was around the branch, its tail was still on the ground and there was a six foot gap in-between. The thing was enormous.

    When it got itself up into the tree it lay there and chilled. Piet and I looked at each other – what to do?

    Phone Pio. I now had to get up the hill as we had no signal in the valley – and go right past the monster chilling in the tree.

    I darted past it and shot up the hill, waving my phone in the air like a lunatic until I got signal. I called him.

    “There’s a ten foot python and it almost ate Cady!” I shrieked down the phone.

    “Come fetch me, I’m going to shoot it.”

    I darted back down the hill, past the python, and asked Piet to watch it whilst I went to fetch Pio. I raced back up the hill on the bike, sliding around corners and spinning up the mountain.

    Pio was already half way up the hill with the shotgun over his shoulder – nothing harms his dogs. We turned the bike around on the narrow trail and I jumped on the back, heading back over the mountain and through the valley.

    He almost fell off the bike when he saw the monster lying on the branch.

    “We can’t shoot it – it’s too beautiful.”

    “I did tell you so,” I muttered. It may have almost killed my dog but I couldn’t shoot something that big.

    “Let’s call the snake guy.” I darted back up the hill until I found signal again and phoned Francois Theart, our local snake expert.

    “SMS me directions, I’m on my way,” he said.

    Piet and I stayed in the bush watching the titan of a snake whilst Pio raced home to meet Francois and his mate.

    Francois and Mike arrived in a stonking great Land Cruiser, taking on the mountain like it was nothing – however they still had about a kilometer to go on foot before getting to us down in the bush. We ferried them in on the quads and even they were awed by the size and condition of this great snake as it stretched it’s 3.5 meter length across two trees.

    Then began the battle to get it out the trees. We were surrounded by massive thorn trees and it was virtually impossible to get within reaching distance of the python.

    Pio raced back up to the Land Cruiser to get Mike’s tongs, which on arrival didn’t even fit around the snakes bulk. He then raced back home again to fetch a saw so that we could cut away the trees to get to it as the more we tried to catch it the more it curled up in the thorn trees, ripping its skin. Thorns were imbedded in its body from the lethal trees, and also in Mike and Francois as they tried to get close to it.

    Piet grabbed the saw and climbed in with great gusto, sawing branches left, right and center. Eventually, Mike had the tail in his hands and Francois the head, with a bleeding thorn tree in the middle.

    Needless to say, there is little left of that tree after Piet gold hold of it.

    The python decided to take a crap on Mike’s hands – apparently it’s a defense mechanism. Mike almost vomited, swearing like a trooper as he couldn’t let the tail go even if he’d wanted to.

    Francois ID’d the python as a boy by the length of the tail. He really is very clued up when it comes to snakes, and explained to us about the heat pits in the nose and how they build up lactic acid then strike.

    His hands were going numb and cramping as he gripped the snakes head in his hands, whilst it tried repeatedly to take a piece out of him.

    He also told us that snakes are deaf.

    It took a very long two hours to get the python out of the tree and into the duvet cover they had brought for it.

    Then began the long trek home, with five people, two quads, a giant snake and Cady, who had stuck to me like glue since the story began. She had refused to go home with the other dogs on one of Pio’s many trips up and down the mountain and had stayed by me, quivering in fear when she went near the spot that she had been grabbed. She has holes where the snake had bitten into her and was bleeding a little but otherwise seemed fine.

    We walked back up to the Land Cruiser in the pitch black, struggling to carry the snake, shotgun, backpack, saw, three torches and with Cady sticking so close she literally tripped me up with every step.

     All’s well that ends well – we got home, tired and filthy and full of holes from the thorn trees but thankful that our dogs were ok and the snake was safely on its way to a reserve nearby where it hopefully will live peacefully and never make it back to my plot!!!

   

    

Spring!

    Spring means warm sun, no more jerseys, slops on my feet and air conditioners! Not that we have one but hey, the thought is there. We want to put one in but never seem to get there. If people would actually pay me I would be able to, but that seems a rather fragile hope at the moment. 

    Today is also the day that I go for IQS auricular therapy and try stop smoking ... again ... I'm not sure if it will work but I'm hoping that it will. I have tried to many times - well in all honesty I talk about it an awful lot but this is the third time that I will actually be putting them down and seeing how long I can last. The first time was a few months but then I started social smoking again and it all just went downhill from there. The second time was in January this year and I stopped solid for four months without so much as a drag and then got sucked in socially again. I also stopped drinking, and when I started drinking again I then started smoking too. Now probably isn't the best time as it's going into summer and there's lots going on, but let's see if I can do it. 

     Pio is going to see if it works on me and then try himself in a months time - so for a month he has promised to not smoke here around me and will just carry on through the day as normal. I don't know how well that will work but we will have to give it a shot anyway. 

    It seems so ridiculous that something so small and innocent-looking can affect your life so badly and be so hard to put down. I still enjoy it but it's the health concerns that are really eating at me. I have even tried hypnosis and nothing has worked so it remains to be seen - if this doesn't work then I don't know what I will do. 

    But, back to Spring :) I can't wait to not be able to wear a jersey and to be able to wake up early feeling like I can actually get out of bed. I'm a miserable git in winter and hate being cold, so this just couldn't come soon enough. My only issue is Bear and his coat - shaving him makes his coat rough and wiry and you can't get a brush through it. Being a Husky, he also doesn't have pigment in his skin so shaving exposes his baby-pink underneath and he could burn very easily. We did it a few times two summers ago but last summer decided to try go without and it seemed to work. He spent a lot of time inside hiding and we walked late evenings when it was starting to cool down so that he didn't have to go out in the extreme heat. It seemed to work. 

    We want to get the air cooler put in by October hopefully and then it will make life much easier for him as inside will be a nice even 20 degrees and he will have everything he needs, but it's still going to take monitoring to see how he handles it and if he can't, it's off to have it all shaved. 

    I'm hoping that by the end of October the braai area will be completed as James didn't get to finish the retaining wall, so will come back then, and to put a new deck in. In the meantime I am going to level and dig out the other hill and use that to fill in the hole we have made, make pavers like it's coming out of our ears and fix the main road coming in as I can't handle the bumping anymore. My bakkie has got horrendous suspension so I bounce around like ping-pong balls in a popcorn machine. 

    Then, when that's done I will put shade cloth up, the pool will go back up, grass will go in, and I will prep all my pots so that my plants can go all over the place and make it look pretty. I can't wait to actually do some gardening again - so good for the soul! 

    It's definitely something to look forward to and can't wait til it's all done. 

Building

    Well, wasn't I depressed last time I wrote! How dull and miserable. 

    We have our builder here now for a month and he is working away like a little bee. We thought that we would start by building a large retaining wall so that we could have a flat spot on our mountain. Then I will pave and out grass in, put shade net across it, and have a lovely area for summer where the pool can go and we can sit to relax. 

    The foundations have now gone in for the mofo of a wall that looks like it's going to be the same height as the electric fence (I miscalculated slightly it would seem lol). Whilst they're drying, James is making pavers and painting the igloos. They managed to get up on the roof and seal it so that's going to be brilliant - no more leaking come rainy season we hope. But the colour choice is very limited when you're buying roof paint, so I chose green, but it's awfully dark :( am hoping that it lightens slightly with time. I thought that I almost might frame the windows in white to break it and make it look prettier. 

    When the flat area is done and the wall up, it means that all my plants can go out in proper pots and make it look really nice with flowers and pretty things again. I can't wait. Speaking of, I must water my plants this morning and see how they're surviving. They aren't happy out here - its either too hot or too cold and they're struggling in the bags so it will be great to get them out into pots again where they can live properly. 

    Then at the end of the month James is off home to Katima for a month, then back to Marius and Nadia to finish their bathroom before he can come back here. So it's going to be a while before he gets back here to start building the garage, but it gives us time to get the architects in to measure up, correct the igloo plans and to add the garage so we can start with that when James is back. It will be great to have a garage where we can store the bikes and cars. 

    There is so much to do and I just wish he could stay longer to get there quicker, but everything comes with time and we mustn't be hasty. Let me go water my plants and see what they're doing :) 

Time

At the moment I seem to have too much time on my hands and not sure what to do with it - which is ridiculous as I always have so much to do but just no motivation to do it. Damn medication. I am trying to take it in a different way to see if I feel better about things, so will see how it goes.

Back to the issue of time. I sit here looking around me and have so much to do but just can't seem to get there to do it because I am being lazy. Today I bought a little chest at the market and put it in the bathroom. I have packed all the medicines and and toiletries into it, which gives me more space in the bedroom cupboards by a little, and means that I don't have to have tubs in the bathroom with things in. Now I need to go through and sort out the bedroom cupboards, but also want that to be a job for tomorrow when we go through and clean - repack cupboards and get that sorted. Gives the girl a bit more to do as well.

The weather is so weird today - wind is howling and the dust is driving me mad but I hate having the doors closed so am living with it. I cleaned twice over the weekend to try and keep on top of it and now have given up. It can wait until tomorrow now.

I feel like I want a change in life. I'm not sure that I am happy out here on the plot. There is so much to do and not sure that I can face dealing with builders and graders getting out here just so that we can try and build. Not that we'll ever have enough money anyway, and I don't want to live in the igloos forever, they're too small and cramped and we have to share a PC and share a table and there's nowhere to go away. I think we did the wrong thing moving out here and it should go back on the market, but we will see. Maybe Pio will finally realize that I can't manage out here on my own so much.

Tomorrow I want to work on the roads, which may help getting the soil that is sitting out the front door away and help a bit with the dust, and then we have a meeting with accountants in the afternoon so it will be a busy day. We have to sit this afternoon and get all of the accounting stuff up to date and sent out when Pio arrives home. I did some of it this morning but he needs to help me with the rest.

Anyway, not much more to report. I am as bored as the dogs are and have nothing to do - I should take them for a walk maybe and then if I have time go ride this afternoon with Frankie.

It's been a while...

It has been a while since I last blogged - again. Its' amazing how life gets so busy that we don't get to the little things that we love doing and they get left by the way side. 

Everything has sort of flown out the window lately. I was diagnosed with bipolar and medicated for it, but its taking time to sort out the medication and to get used to living on meds. Its not an easy adjustment and although the first few months were bliss, it seems like they are now wearing off and life is becoming a little more difficult to deal with again. Its time to go back to the doc and speak to him again about everything, but its so expensive that it really has to be thought through properly. 

I am still writing, and that is going really well. Its the only thing that I have managed to keep on top of, and I think its because I have a deadline to work to and other people in my group, so its a really motivating factor in my life. I am getting good feedback from the others and its such a creative release, so look forward to it and am ahead in my submissions now. Let's hope that the latest feedback is good. I also managed to work through everything that I have submitted and create a master copy, so hopefully I can keep adding to that and have my final draft when I am done with everything, although it will take time to get that far. I'm hoping that I will have the money to carry on with it in July. 

Other than that, I have stopped writing in my diary as I think that my life isn't interesting enough to even keep track of, and started drinking and smoking again, so its all gone out the window and I am disgusted with myself. It's very hard to have kept up with everything and to not keep cheating. I must find the courage to start again though, as I can't carry on like this, it's not what I want out of life. But we will get there again, and hopefully stop using the excuse of not putting so much pressure on myself to do everything; but I'm pretty sure that its just an excuse. I'm too tired and lazy to keep up with everything and I blame it on the meds and the bipolar and am hoping I come out of my funk really soon. 

The Plot is becoming a burden as well, because we don't have the money to renovate and its becoming a plague! We still walk every evening, so we enjoy that with the dogs and with the sunsets, but winter is now setting in and it gets dark really early. We're hoping that if we can sell the Swakop house that we will have some money to push in, but there are no bites on that at the moment and its leaving us with a big worry that we will be stuck with it standing empty and not rented out or sold. Its going to cost a lot of money that we don't have, so its panic stations all round. Not much we can do about it though, just keep plodding and pray that something comes up and that we have the money to keep it going. We are in a bit of a financial bind at the moment - maybe I can make a sale and have enough money to carry us for a month or two again. 

So nothing happy really - I sound like I am just grumping and everything is miserable, which it isn't I suppose, but it probably just feels like it at the moment. Oh well, got to go do some work so will stop my miserable moan and get back to it!

What wonderful weather...

Finally, the news forecast has been correct. It took them two months to get it right, but it seems that it finally is! This means that we are having wonderfully overcast weather, which is absolute heaven after the terrible heat, and thunder storms every evening. We have the most amazing sunsets and sunrises because of the clouds and the mist - so beautiful. It just makes me want to sit and write and create - it's that perfect weather that is so different to what we're used to that it's like a holiday and I am struggling to work in it! Look at the storms rolling in - we have the most amazing views from the top of our mountain!

It almost looks as if you could reach up and touch the clouds, they're so close!

So, in the midst of all this rain, we have leaking ceilings (oh wait, an igloo doesn't really have a ceiling, it's all just round ... ) lol but they're still leaking. So no painting until the rainy season is over! The cats hate being inside as they have serious issues with Cady and Coda, so they hide outside. This means that when it starts bucketing down, I have to leave the bedroom window open so that they can get in should they choose to make the mad dash through the rain and inside.

The changing colours of the red evenings at sunset - everything goes a weird shade of orange or pink. 

Rain drips everywhere and depending on the wind and the angle, the bedroom gets flooded because of the open window. Of course, unless it is just a super bad storm, we leave the front door open so the dogs can prance in and out, dragging mud throughout and getting wet dog smell all over their couch. I have washing come out of my ears with the towels and blankets and covers!

Yesterday afternoon we had blue sparks flashing up in the lounge twice - we thought that the power lines had been struck by lightning but nothing was fried, so it couldn't have been. It was a serious pop and a big blue flash - something would have been fried. We're also sure that had it been lightning hitting the house, our hair would probably have been standing on end. So we have no idea what it was, but are of course extremely grateful that nothing was fried and we still have a TV - with no drinking or smoking there isn't much else to do!

With the rains the roads are of course washing away, which is such fun - IF you have a bakkie. Joani is getting more and more depressed as the road disappears into a mess of rocks and mud puddles, whilst I have fun sliding through the mud and ramping over the rocks. One of these days I am going to miss and land in a tree down the hill - that will not be an amusing explanation to the insurance! Well, it probably will be after it's been done and over with lol. I will have to get Wilbard out and have him do some work on the road, but I am more interested in getting my house sorted. 

These next two photos were taken on Sunday morning just after 6am - I got up and found that the mist was drawing in around the house or pulling back into the hills. It pulled in and out twice - shrouding the house and we had absolutely no visibility out the windows, then hanging in the hills. It was really beautiful - and the same again this morning. It stayed misty for hours and has given us a much needed break from the terrible heat and humidity that's been plaguing us! It is such wonderful weather after months of sun!

And the final one of the mist hanging in the hills - and now I am off to do some work as I can't spend the entire day blogging and writing as it doesn't pay the bills!!

Have a happy day!!!

Changes!

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.