Garden Times and "the Beach"

Our garden is coming along swimmingly. Apart from an "ingunbumbane" (porcupine) visit and some nasty slugs, we've avoided too much wildlife damage! I'm hoping the impala and warthog skulls we've found and placed around it will haunt the other critters away. Note the powerful green of the spinach zucchini soup I made fresh from the garden! It's exciting, now we're having full meals of venison and fresh salads 100% local to our farm.

























As for "the beach," it's a glimpse into another one of the dozens of rivers running throughout the farm. It actually has a beach, but geeze, I don't know if I'll get over the thought of a creepy indigenous crocodile making his way over to my towel. It certainly is more difficult to relax outside here than it would be by the seaside! The great outdoors really are quite scary.

A few weeks ago when Johannes was out fishing, he and a friend noticed two lionesses creeping up on them through the grasses. A wee bit scary and now I'm fast to close the gates to the farm on my way to work, lest my legs get nipped by one of these gargantuan beasts.

We've had a few encounters with snakes in our house and a couple of rats, but I'm getting friendly with the geckos and the frogs who are anything but menacing. There is unwritten law between snakes and man here....if a snake enters your house it's a goner. No two questions asked, because if you don't kill it, it will continue to lurk around your house. The snakes here are just too dangerous. I was sitting on the toilet the other day when I heard a thud on the hallway floor....my pants around my knees, my adrenaline sky high, I saw this "Boerslaang" (farm snake) creep down the hall. Nothing could make you feel more vulnerable when on the pot, I swear! With the help of the next-door gardener, we managed to locate it under the fridge whereupon he swiftly stabbed it with a pole. Johannes has also had a couple success stories with some "boomslaangs" (tree snakes) and his mean belt. Me, I'm not so sure about my aim! I think I'll be a bit of a Calamity Jane when the moment produces itself that I have to whip off my belt and beat the life out of a snake. Let's just hope that I can avoid that moment....