My car was delivered - yippeee! Looks wondefully clean and new. My new glasses are ready - what a difference, never realised what a haze I was living in everything is much brighter and clear cut. Much better than yesterday which had a bit of a crisis - got a phone call from Sam's school to say they weren't sure whether she had broken her arm or not... off to the GP and then off to the Clinic for X-Rays (after which we needed a bit of a pick-me-up so had lunch at the Clinic). Luckily her arm was not broken just sore - so today she has gone off to school with a great big bandage on her arm (purely for show!)
Many thanks to all the friends who have given me feedback - and suggested historical stories for me to add!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Rather a hectic weekend!
Very busy weekend - seemed to be non-stop movement. and I feel as though I need another weekend to recover!
Saturday - First off - to the Myerton pawnshop to pick up two wicker chairs that struck my fancy... rather tattier than I had seen in the gloom of the shop but still nice -limed wooden frames with wicker inners - will look great with some nice foam cushions. They will go on the new stoep at the back once it has a roof. So now I have to get foam and material and I think they will look best with piping.
Then back home, canopy back on and then we tried to persuade Patricia to jump in (which she normally does) - she said no - I guess being pregnant and just about to pop makes you a little hesitant about leaping up to chest height. So popped her in the horse box and off I went to benoni. The plan was: take Patricia to my friend Lees' place - she breeds alpacas and has all kinds of high tech cameras etc and moms-to-be are monitored, whereas with me they are more or less left to their own devices and we get a nice surprise when its all over - but if soemthing were to go wrong then I wouldn't be there to help. So Patricia has gone to the maternity ward! Then on the return trip I had Coco in the bakkie (she leapt in willingly - its amazing the two of them have adapted very well to travelling - you open the door and either chivvy them towards it or lead them with a halter and "Oops! In they jump" - makes life a lot easier than running round and round a feild trying to grab them and getting kicked and spat at! And then Raul was put in the horsebox and rumbled around in it - the males are very big and strong close up! He is coming to stay with me so that we can keep testing that Coco retains her prenancy - after 3 "disappearances" we're trying all methods now! he will be kept separately at first and then I'll try putting some of my males in with him - don't want them to get beaten up.
Then off to Southern Riding School with Sarah to visit her mare Chancery and my little pony Paddy and see the new foal fathered by Gwalia. Very dainty and sweet and pretty. Sarah is having Chancery schooled there in return for her training one of their horses (a big friesian cross called.... Ugly Noo Noo - and he isn't ugly at all!) and Paddy is there to be schooled so that eventually Sam can ride him in her lessons. Seems to be very slow progress at the moment which is hitting the bank balance horribly. Then home at last - via Sarah's so that I could taste her yoghurt. I made 5 litres of yoghurt the other day with cows milk, Sarah makes hers with goats milk and it is much less acidic and very creamy - very nice but more expensive because she drains off the whey so there is less produced per litre - but VERY moreish! I've been toying with the idea of getting some goats too so that I have milk on hand as well - funnily enough Johan doesn't seem very keen on the idea, he does have a point - where would we put them? Am sure I can make a plan.....
Johan went to pick up shavings in Walkerville whilst I was gone with the horsebox - the current price is about R16 per bag and these were 3/4 size bags at only R5 each so I took all that they had - 50 bags. A good bargain, the horsey grapevine works well.
Sunday - up at the crack of dawn to get Womble into the horsebox, the carriage on the truck and off we went to Kyalami - about an hours drive. Was really organised this time - even packed some peanut butter sandwiches! We arrived at Kyalami in good time but got a bit lost trying to find the entrance to our new driving arena. It is really great - it is South of the Lippizaner hall and has a large warm up space, lots of trees to park under and eventually we will have a little clubhouse too. Much better than being treated as a second class citizen and having our events moved here there and everywhere so as to keep the show jumpers and dressage riders happy - plus we won't scare their precious thoroughbreds with our carraiges anymore. Very nice indeed, the commitee have only had access to it for the last two weeks so the various ditches, holes etc still need to be sorted out. We were all geared up because our arch rival Jop Granada was going to be there! Jop is the most wonderful tiny grey welsh mountain pony - he only has one eye and is 17 years old but he goes like the clappers - you can hardly see his legs move they go so fast and he always manages to beat us in the cones!
The first competition was "ideal time" - now I never have a clue about this because I know that according to the rule book, ponies are meant to go so many metres per minute but as one never knows how long the course is how do you work out how long it should take? So, we just toddled around at what seemed a reasonable rate and we came third! What a fluke. The next competition was a Faults competition and we knocked off one ball so didn't come anywhere in that - the last competition (in the baking sun) was the time competition and we were determined to put our all into that!
So we went around as fast as Womble wanted to go (which can be pretty hair-raising as you are cantering flat out towards the barrier and need to make a sharp turn and Wombles got his head down and his legs are pistoning and he does not want to slow down!) but once again we knocked off one ball (&^$^#^%$#) which meant 5 seconds penalty. Our time was 161 seconds plus the 5 and it was the 5 that killed us. Natalie Hogg came first with one team at 163 seconds and then second with her other team at 165 ... but we were very pleased with our 3rd place rosette - another one for Wombles string along the study wall!
Back home in a totally exhausted state but still had to pick up a teff bale in the horsebox as well - the box was worth every penny this weekend! We sat down to watch a Morse episode but I fell asleep in the middle - phew!
Saturday - First off - to the Myerton pawnshop to pick up two wicker chairs that struck my fancy... rather tattier than I had seen in the gloom of the shop but still nice -limed wooden frames with wicker inners - will look great with some nice foam cushions. They will go on the new stoep at the back once it has a roof. So now I have to get foam and material and I think they will look best with piping.
Then back home, canopy back on and then we tried to persuade Patricia to jump in (which she normally does) - she said no - I guess being pregnant and just about to pop makes you a little hesitant about leaping up to chest height. So popped her in the horse box and off I went to benoni. The plan was: take Patricia to my friend Lees' place - she breeds alpacas and has all kinds of high tech cameras etc and moms-to-be are monitored, whereas with me they are more or less left to their own devices and we get a nice surprise when its all over - but if soemthing were to go wrong then I wouldn't be there to help. So Patricia has gone to the maternity ward! Then on the return trip I had Coco in the bakkie (she leapt in willingly - its amazing the two of them have adapted very well to travelling - you open the door and either chivvy them towards it or lead them with a halter and "Oops! In they jump" - makes life a lot easier than running round and round a feild trying to grab them and getting kicked and spat at! And then Raul was put in the horsebox and rumbled around in it - the males are very big and strong close up! He is coming to stay with me so that we can keep testing that Coco retains her prenancy - after 3 "disappearances" we're trying all methods now! he will be kept separately at first and then I'll try putting some of my males in with him - don't want them to get beaten up.
Then off to Southern Riding School with Sarah to visit her mare Chancery and my little pony Paddy and see the new foal fathered by Gwalia. Very dainty and sweet and pretty. Sarah is having Chancery schooled there in return for her training one of their horses (a big friesian cross called.... Ugly Noo Noo - and he isn't ugly at all!) and Paddy is there to be schooled so that eventually Sam can ride him in her lessons. Seems to be very slow progress at the moment which is hitting the bank balance horribly. Then home at last - via Sarah's so that I could taste her yoghurt. I made 5 litres of yoghurt the other day with cows milk, Sarah makes hers with goats milk and it is much less acidic and very creamy - very nice but more expensive because she drains off the whey so there is less produced per litre - but VERY moreish! I've been toying with the idea of getting some goats too so that I have milk on hand as well - funnily enough Johan doesn't seem very keen on the idea, he does have a point - where would we put them? Am sure I can make a plan.....
Johan went to pick up shavings in Walkerville whilst I was gone with the horsebox - the current price is about R16 per bag and these were 3/4 size bags at only R5 each so I took all that they had - 50 bags. A good bargain, the horsey grapevine works well.
Sunday - up at the crack of dawn to get Womble into the horsebox, the carriage on the truck and off we went to Kyalami - about an hours drive. Was really organised this time - even packed some peanut butter sandwiches! We arrived at Kyalami in good time but got a bit lost trying to find the entrance to our new driving arena. It is really great - it is South of the Lippizaner hall and has a large warm up space, lots of trees to park under and eventually we will have a little clubhouse too. Much better than being treated as a second class citizen and having our events moved here there and everywhere so as to keep the show jumpers and dressage riders happy - plus we won't scare their precious thoroughbreds with our carraiges anymore. Very nice indeed, the commitee have only had access to it for the last two weeks so the various ditches, holes etc still need to be sorted out. We were all geared up because our arch rival Jop Granada was going to be there! Jop is the most wonderful tiny grey welsh mountain pony - he only has one eye and is 17 years old but he goes like the clappers - you can hardly see his legs move they go so fast and he always manages to beat us in the cones!
The first competition was "ideal time" - now I never have a clue about this because I know that according to the rule book, ponies are meant to go so many metres per minute but as one never knows how long the course is how do you work out how long it should take? So, we just toddled around at what seemed a reasonable rate and we came third! What a fluke. The next competition was a Faults competition and we knocked off one ball so didn't come anywhere in that - the last competition (in the baking sun) was the time competition and we were determined to put our all into that!
So we went around as fast as Womble wanted to go (which can be pretty hair-raising as you are cantering flat out towards the barrier and need to make a sharp turn and Wombles got his head down and his legs are pistoning and he does not want to slow down!) but once again we knocked off one ball (&^$^#^%$#) which meant 5 seconds penalty. Our time was 161 seconds plus the 5 and it was the 5 that killed us. Natalie Hogg came first with one team at 163 seconds and then second with her other team at 165 ... but we were very pleased with our 3rd place rosette - another one for Wombles string along the study wall!
Back home in a totally exhausted state but still had to pick up a teff bale in the horsebox as well - the box was worth every penny this weekend! We sat down to watch a Morse episode but I fell asleep in the middle - phew!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Ducks and Peacocks et al
Well, life seems to be on the up and up. My car will be repaired soon (courtesy of Subaru) and the vacuum cleaner and washing machine have come back home! So all looks well and all the ducklings are still alive.
A word about Ducks......
We started out with 6 ducks and by the end of 2006 - this number had grown to 84! Rather a few too many. So we decided some had to go and we selected 40 (mostly the ugly muscovys) and took them off to the De Deur Auction. We couldn't find a box big enough so popped them through the back window of the bakkie. Off went Brian and Johan to turn us into commercial farmers! They were inundated by Chinese restauraneurs who even left their contact details for future duck selling sessions. I had a twinge of conscience for about a day - imagining my lovely ducks who had had such a happy home now stuck in freezers but 84 was getting a bit out of hand!
Well, after such a population explosion last year we expected another one this year. The ducks definitely did their part but a sneaky little dog called Sally developed a taste for baby ducklings and hardly any of them survived! Very irritating and very sad, ducklings are the cutest little birds.
So now we have put up a fence around the duck pond and the remaining babies all seem to be doing well. Apart from one. We noticed that a particularly stupid mother duck had lost one of her babies so we went in to look for it. It was sitting on the side of the pond, looking depressed. When the mother approached (after we picked it up to make it cheep!) we placed it in the water - it could only swim in circles, a leg was damaged. Johan quickly had to strip off his shoes and socks and wade in because it was about to drown - so we had to rescue it!
Well, we made it a little nest so that it could be concealed so that the other big ducks didn't peck it and walked away feeling that operation duck rescue was accomplished and planned tp check on it the next morning. As we closed the gate Taffy (fox terrier who had watched the proceedings with great interest) dropped the duckling on the grass in front of us - she must have wondered why we were leaving it behind after all our ministrations and decided to bring it with us! Dead of course. She hadn't bitten it or anything just carried it but obviously some damage had been done - or it died of fright!
The peacock babies are all doing well - there are 4 teenagers and one baby - the teenagers are all starting to get their little stand-up feathers on their heads. I was most concerned about our peacock - his tail feather were falling out and those that stayed in seemed to lose the feathery bit so he is walking around with long white stalks trailing behind him. We considered dousing him with lice powder, taking him to the vet but I have subsequently discovered that this is a natural process and that peacocks lose their tails every year - seems a lot of effort to grow them that long again! http://www.boxes.com/ctail.htm
Yippeee, today is Friday and there is a carriage driving competition on Sunday - obstacles. We always get beaten by a small welsh mountain pony called Jop Granada who is very fast and nippy - and it is our lifes ambition to beat him! Womble rocks!
A word about Ducks......
We started out with 6 ducks and by the end of 2006 - this number had grown to 84! Rather a few too many. So we decided some had to go and we selected 40 (mostly the ugly muscovys) and took them off to the De Deur Auction. We couldn't find a box big enough so popped them through the back window of the bakkie. Off went Brian and Johan to turn us into commercial farmers! They were inundated by Chinese restauraneurs who even left their contact details for future duck selling sessions. I had a twinge of conscience for about a day - imagining my lovely ducks who had had such a happy home now stuck in freezers but 84 was getting a bit out of hand!
Well, after such a population explosion last year we expected another one this year. The ducks definitely did their part but a sneaky little dog called Sally developed a taste for baby ducklings and hardly any of them survived! Very irritating and very sad, ducklings are the cutest little birds.
So now we have put up a fence around the duck pond and the remaining babies all seem to be doing well. Apart from one. We noticed that a particularly stupid mother duck had lost one of her babies so we went in to look for it. It was sitting on the side of the pond, looking depressed. When the mother approached (after we picked it up to make it cheep!) we placed it in the water - it could only swim in circles, a leg was damaged. Johan quickly had to strip off his shoes and socks and wade in because it was about to drown - so we had to rescue it!
Well, we made it a little nest so that it could be concealed so that the other big ducks didn't peck it and walked away feeling that operation duck rescue was accomplished and planned tp check on it the next morning. As we closed the gate Taffy (fox terrier who had watched the proceedings with great interest) dropped the duckling on the grass in front of us - she must have wondered why we were leaving it behind after all our ministrations and decided to bring it with us! Dead of course. She hadn't bitten it or anything just carried it but obviously some damage had been done - or it died of fright!
The peacock babies are all doing well - there are 4 teenagers and one baby - the teenagers are all starting to get their little stand-up feathers on their heads. I was most concerned about our peacock - his tail feather were falling out and those that stayed in seemed to lose the feathery bit so he is walking around with long white stalks trailing behind him. We considered dousing him with lice powder, taking him to the vet but I have subsequently discovered that this is a natural process and that peacocks lose their tails every year - seems a lot of effort to grow them that long again! http://www.boxes.com/ctail.htm
Yippeee, today is Friday and there is a carriage driving competition on Sunday - obstacles. We always get beaten by a small welsh mountain pony called Jop Granada who is very fast and nippy - and it is our lifes ambition to beat him! Womble rocks!
Monday, January 21, 2008
Appliance conspiracy?
First it was the car, then last week the vacuum cleaner packed up (Kirby - I haven't heard from you????) and now today the washing machine is not pumping water.... Can we skip to 2009 please if this is going to carry on?
Last week, I went out of the house and Samantha had opened the garage door, not thinking, I jumped in and started to reverse the car out, there was a horrible noise! Scrawtchy... I thought I had run over Biggles! So I jumped out, looked under the car - nothing there! So I continued to reverse out - horrible noise again! I jumped out to go back into the house and glanced at the garage door.... Oh Oh...... a 10 year old cannot open the door right to the top and the bakkie canopy is very tall ..... so effectively I had reversed through the garage door... which now has a frill along the bottom and will not close because the sides are no longer fitting in the grooves..... oh woe is me!
Last week, I went out of the house and Samantha had opened the garage door, not thinking, I jumped in and started to reverse the car out, there was a horrible noise! Scrawtchy... I thought I had run over Biggles! So I jumped out, looked under the car - nothing there! So I continued to reverse out - horrible noise again! I jumped out to go back into the house and glanced at the garage door.... Oh Oh...... a 10 year old cannot open the door right to the top and the bakkie canopy is very tall ..... so effectively I had reversed through the garage door... which now has a frill along the bottom and will not close because the sides are no longer fitting in the grooves..... oh woe is me!
Bit of History
Hi Everyone
A VERY lo-oooong time ago, I used to write a Christmas letter to all our friends, unfortunately as the years seemed to go much quicker the time for writing cards and letters got less and less .. but I have made a New Year resolution to start again, it makes me feel so guilty when I get all your news and we don't send anything!
So, here we go for a synopsis of life in the Kruger family for 2007!
Johan
It was a really eventful year for Johan - he left the company where he had established a lab after leaving Wits, and started his own closed corporation "GeoTarget" - working on contracts for varying periods of time.
During the year he spent time in Botswana (Geological survey right next door to the mental hospital - enough said!), Upington, Northern Province and Stella. Most of the time he would be away all week but back home on the weekends. The old double garage has been converted into his office but however many bookshelves we have, it is never enough for all the files that he brought back from Wits!
For his birthday this year we arranged for him to have a microlight flight which he enjoyed very much - but the little plane looks so flimsy!
Michael
This is the year that Michael grew - he is now a lanky 15 year old. This year he decided not to continue rowing (big "Phew" from parents who had to get him to various dams at 7 every Saturday!) and to concentrate on tennis instead. He is still a big reader and is seldom seen without his nose in a book (wonder where that came from?). He will be going into Grade 10 in
2008 and has had to decide upon his subjects: History, Science, Maths, Technology, English, Afrikaans (can't remember the rest!)
Samantha
Samantha has successfully completed Grade 4 now - she still had extra lessons with the remedial teacher but only once a week instead of twice as happened last year. Her results were good so we hope to discontinue them completely in 2008. She is also getting taller, her hair is getting very long and her feet are almost the same size as mine now - looks like I am going to be the dwarf of the family. For her birthday she arranged that she would not get any pocket money for a whole year and that the money be used to buy her a puppy - so along came Biggles. Biggles is a highly pedigreed miniature wire haired dashund but out of the litter of 5, he and his sister came out with silky, curly hair - not at all kosher! But he is very sweet and follows Sam around like a little shadow and is stuffed full of character. He looks a bit peculiar now as he went for a clip and they gave him a schnauzer cut so he is all moustache and eyebrows and a weedy little body with stocky legs - but with a big voice!
Sam also rides each week now at Southern Riding Centre so her riding is coming on nicely and she enjoys the pony camps where they sleep in tents in the stable yard for a couple of days and do only horsey things! She also does Modern dancing at School and enjoys swimming in the galas.
Di
Well most of my news revolves around animals and cars and it really was a very eventful year!
First up was Patricia - my female alpaca that I bred. She had a little boy on 30th January - a light cream colour with a very good feel to his fleece, so he is the star of the show at the moment! His name is Tolstoy.
Then it was Pippits turn. Pippit is a Section A Welsh Mountain Pony that came to stay with us when we bought Sams pony Lass, so of course she has stayed too. At 11.30 at night (Valentines day) Pippit had a foal - it was wonderful, I watched and it was all so simple and easy and I leapt around the stable yard and phoned all my friends to tell them the good news. Then I started to get worried - no afterbirth came out. So I went in to read my books and it said this is a very serious condition if not expelled within 2 hours, what was just as alarming was the way Pippit was lying with her legs stretched out stiff making horrible groaning noises (which is normal in
these cases but I didn't know it). Instead of leaping around in joy I was now pacing around, going "oh help, oh help, what do I do," etc. Phoned all the local vets and listened to the various answering machines- no good! Finally got through to the emergency clinic, no problem she said - just bring her in! Well, how do I get a mare lying on its side into a horsebox, plus haul 2 kids out of bed, plus Johan took his truck on his trips so I had nothing to pull the box with. Panic! Finally I got a horse vet out from Alberton who arrived at 2.30, gave her an injection and all was fine and there was a gorgeous little dark grey colt - named very originally "Valentine"! Many thanks to the friends that I woke up at 1.30 in the morning asking for help!
So, off I went to work the next day - a bit frazzled but very happy - only to get a phone call at about 10 to say that there was something wrong with my Friesian mare (also pregnant) - so pull the kids out of school and back home again! The vets treated her for colic but after 3 days nothing had improved so off we went to Ondestepoort. Johan arrived home and drove in
the gate only to have to turn around, hitch up the horsebox and off we went! They discovered that she had ulcers! So was put on a drip and stayed there 3 weeks - during which time she had a wonderful little filly foal - Xanadu (known as Zoe)! She had to stay on medication 4 times a day so our maid, Nomie, also became horse nurse!
All went well until Zoe was 5 months old and then the colic struck again. I got home, took one look, phoned a friend to borrow her truck, and at 7 at night, in the dark, Brian (our wonderful gardener/groom) & I we set off for Ondestepoort again. That m akes it sound so easy but it wasn't. First the foal went into the box and then the mother wouldn't go, so then the foal freaked out and threw Sam on the floor. Total chaos, in the end we shut the foal in the stable and just went. Once we had delivered Sjoukje to the vet then I had to park the horsebox and unhitch it - which I had never done before, so after backing it into a parking bay (which took lots of backing and forwarding, running over verges and much cursing) I then tried to unhitch it and the little wheel fell off! So, there I was in the dark, having a sick horse, driven a car on which I couldn't find the light switch and now the blasted wheel fell off in my hands! AAARGH! I phoned Johan
(several hundred Km's away to wail "What do I do") - who's very sensible advice was to switch the car lights on as I was trying to do the whole exercise by light of my cell phone! Sorted out the horsebox and then came home as the kids were alone and Sjoukje definitely had to stay there. Poor little Zoe was neighing her head off in her stable so put one of the welshie mares in with her for company. They phoned me that night to say that Sjoujke had a twisted bowel and needed an emergency operation, later on, they phoned to say that they could do nothing and to ask for permission to euthanize her. Very very sad.
Next one along was Coco the alpaca who had scanned as pregnant and who proceeded to get very fat - well, we waited and waited until we thought we would definitely have a entry in the Guinness book of records for the longest pregnancy - only to find out that she was no longer pregnant - just very fat! So back for covering again - pregnant but when next tested she had lost it again. So off to Ondestepoort who says there is nothing wrong with her but to date she has been re covered - acts pregnant and then seems to lose it and this has now happened 3 times so we need to get her sorted out somehow!
So, that was all I can remember with regard to the animals (enough!) so then we began the car saga.
I had purchased a second hand Renault Scenic in 2005 and loved it - it was a real dream to drive and all was well - for the first 2 years, then everything went wrong with a vengeance. Over a period of about 6 months, the fuel pump needed replacing, the fan stopped working, the passenger door would not open, the boot would not close, the central locking started to
pack up, the final straw was the gearbox packing up (not fun in an automatic car and cost a bomb just to get it to a saleable state) and so it went on. The kids and I became used to being stranded on the side of the road with steam pouring from the bonnet - not to be encouraged. There was a period of two weeks when I was alternating between the Scenic, the Kadett
(now sold) and the bakkie - and things went wrong with each of them in turn - so that I was using my local mechanic as a swop shop, drive in with one, take out the other one, bring that back and swop it for the other etc - it was very stressful to say the least! Then I tried to trade in the Renault, dealers wouldn't touch it with a bargepole and we were lucky to get the pittance that we did get. Overall, the depreciation on the car was R120 000 - not including the costs of services, fixing and fuel.
So, as soon as the gearbox was done we traded it in - on a second-hand 2 year old Subaru Forrester - the car that doesn't break according to everybody and has rave reviews from all the owners we met. I asked for a motorplan and was told by the salesman that I really didn't need one - these cars don't break...
Well this car hadn't met us. Within the first week I had popped a tyre, and in the second week Johan drove it and it cracked its radiator and looks as though it has bust its head gasket as well - back to the shop and I'm back to the bakkie and I haven't even paid the first instalment yet! Very disappointing.
The House - as usual we have worked very hard on the house and garden, the kitchen had a revamp at the beginning of the year and really looks great! We painted the walls grey which looked a bit dull at first so the kids and I painted flowers, ducks, etc Griebo the cat (Terry Pratchett character) all over the place which has livened it up considerably. The "big room"
which was created by blocking off the part of the house that formed a U shape has been very successful apart from the sliding doors which leak like a sieve - we have to stay stocked with newspapers and towels for when it rains. This will be remedied when we put the roof on the outside verandha.
We also built our big duck pond in the front and it is lovely to watch them sailing around. However we had a bit of a battle as, although they now have their very own big pond, they also took over the koi pond and the swimming pool as well. This necessitated the draining of the dark green murky yucky swimming pool which Johan and Michael then acid washed and repainted so it looks lovely, the poor koi are still under attack but we will cover their pond with mesh - once we can move the plants in the middle but we have to wait for the birds who are nesting there to move first!
In August I went on the "Fibre breakaway" arranged by the Johannesburg Guild of Weavers and Spinners - a very good place for me to sell my alpaca fleece. I did the weaving course which I enjoyed very much! So now I can felt, spin and weave - if I only had the time!
Johan and I still ride each weekend (Lulu and Inkspot - Inkspot had to come out of retirement once Sjoujke had gone) and we compete with Womble in carriage driving which we enjoy very much. Womble is a whiz in the marathon and obstacles but we don't do very well in dressage.
At work, we had to move the whole library from the 13th floor to a smaller location on the 1st floor which was quite a massive task and it took us over a week to achieve. The only advantage of being on the 1 st floor is that now we are having so many power cuts it is not so many
stairs to climb up and down! This will be a temporary location until the the company gets a new building in about 3 years time when we will have more space again.
My mum is still managing to copy by herself although it is becoming increasingly difficult as her eyesight deteriorates more and more, she has very kindly offered to pay for us to fly over during the June school holidays so we will be in the UK for 3 weeks in the middle of the year (we
can't afford to pay for ourselves due to the CAR issue). I would like to attend the Royal Show in Warwickshire so maybe we would meet up with some London friends at this halfway spot?
A VERY lo-oooong time ago, I used to write a Christmas letter to all our friends, unfortunately as the years seemed to go much quicker the time for writing cards and letters got less and less .. but I have made a New Year resolution to start again, it makes me feel so guilty when I get all your news and we don't send anything!
So, here we go for a synopsis of life in the Kruger family for 2007!
Johan
It was a really eventful year for Johan - he left the company where he had established a lab after leaving Wits, and started his own closed corporation "GeoTarget" - working on contracts for varying periods of time.
During the year he spent time in Botswana (Geological survey right next door to the mental hospital - enough said!), Upington, Northern Province and Stella. Most of the time he would be away all week but back home on the weekends. The old double garage has been converted into his office but however many bookshelves we have, it is never enough for all the files that he brought back from Wits!
For his birthday this year we arranged for him to have a microlight flight which he enjoyed very much - but the little plane looks so flimsy!
Michael
This is the year that Michael grew - he is now a lanky 15 year old. This year he decided not to continue rowing (big "Phew" from parents who had to get him to various dams at 7 every Saturday!) and to concentrate on tennis instead. He is still a big reader and is seldom seen without his nose in a book (wonder where that came from?). He will be going into Grade 10 in
2008 and has had to decide upon his subjects: History, Science, Maths, Technology, English, Afrikaans (can't remember the rest!)
Samantha
Samantha has successfully completed Grade 4 now - she still had extra lessons with the remedial teacher but only once a week instead of twice as happened last year. Her results were good so we hope to discontinue them completely in 2008. She is also getting taller, her hair is getting very long and her feet are almost the same size as mine now - looks like I am going to be the dwarf of the family. For her birthday she arranged that she would not get any pocket money for a whole year and that the money be used to buy her a puppy - so along came Biggles. Biggles is a highly pedigreed miniature wire haired dashund but out of the litter of 5, he and his sister came out with silky, curly hair - not at all kosher! But he is very sweet and follows Sam around like a little shadow and is stuffed full of character. He looks a bit peculiar now as he went for a clip and they gave him a schnauzer cut so he is all moustache and eyebrows and a weedy little body with stocky legs - but with a big voice!
Sam also rides each week now at Southern Riding Centre so her riding is coming on nicely and she enjoys the pony camps where they sleep in tents in the stable yard for a couple of days and do only horsey things! She also does Modern dancing at School and enjoys swimming in the galas.
Di
Well most of my news revolves around animals and cars and it really was a very eventful year!
First up was Patricia - my female alpaca that I bred. She had a little boy on 30th January - a light cream colour with a very good feel to his fleece, so he is the star of the show at the moment! His name is Tolstoy.
Then it was Pippits turn. Pippit is a Section A Welsh Mountain Pony that came to stay with us when we bought Sams pony Lass, so of course she has stayed too. At 11.30 at night (Valentines day) Pippit had a foal - it was wonderful, I watched and it was all so simple and easy and I leapt around the stable yard and phoned all my friends to tell them the good news. Then I started to get worried - no afterbirth came out. So I went in to read my books and it said this is a very serious condition if not expelled within 2 hours, what was just as alarming was the way Pippit was lying with her legs stretched out stiff making horrible groaning noises (which is normal in
these cases but I didn't know it). Instead of leaping around in joy I was now pacing around, going "oh help, oh help, what do I do," etc. Phoned all the local vets and listened to the various answering machines- no good! Finally got through to the emergency clinic, no problem she said - just bring her in! Well, how do I get a mare lying on its side into a horsebox, plus haul 2 kids out of bed, plus Johan took his truck on his trips so I had nothing to pull the box with. Panic! Finally I got a horse vet out from Alberton who arrived at 2.30, gave her an injection and all was fine and there was a gorgeous little dark grey colt - named very originally "Valentine"! Many thanks to the friends that I woke up at 1.30 in the morning asking for help!
So, off I went to work the next day - a bit frazzled but very happy - only to get a phone call at about 10 to say that there was something wrong with my Friesian mare (also pregnant) - so pull the kids out of school and back home again! The vets treated her for colic but after 3 days nothing had improved so off we went to Ondestepoort. Johan arrived home and drove in
the gate only to have to turn around, hitch up the horsebox and off we went! They discovered that she had ulcers! So was put on a drip and stayed there 3 weeks - during which time she had a wonderful little filly foal - Xanadu (known as Zoe)! She had to stay on medication 4 times a day so our maid, Nomie, also became horse nurse!
All went well until Zoe was 5 months old and then the colic struck again. I got home, took one look, phoned a friend to borrow her truck, and at 7 at night, in the dark, Brian (our wonderful gardener/groom) & I we set off for Ondestepoort again. That m akes it sound so easy but it wasn't. First the foal went into the box and then the mother wouldn't go, so then the foal freaked out and threw Sam on the floor. Total chaos, in the end we shut the foal in the stable and just went. Once we had delivered Sjoukje to the vet then I had to park the horsebox and unhitch it - which I had never done before, so after backing it into a parking bay (which took lots of backing and forwarding, running over verges and much cursing) I then tried to unhitch it and the little wheel fell off! So, there I was in the dark, having a sick horse, driven a car on which I couldn't find the light switch and now the blasted wheel fell off in my hands! AAARGH! I phoned Johan
(several hundred Km's away to wail "What do I do") - who's very sensible advice was to switch the car lights on as I was trying to do the whole exercise by light of my cell phone! Sorted out the horsebox and then came home as the kids were alone and Sjoukje definitely had to stay there. Poor little Zoe was neighing her head off in her stable so put one of the welshie mares in with her for company. They phoned me that night to say that Sjoujke had a twisted bowel and needed an emergency operation, later on, they phoned to say that they could do nothing and to ask for permission to euthanize her. Very very sad.
Next one along was Coco the alpaca who had scanned as pregnant and who proceeded to get very fat - well, we waited and waited until we thought we would definitely have a entry in the Guinness book of records for the longest pregnancy - only to find out that she was no longer pregnant - just very fat! So back for covering again - pregnant but when next tested she had lost it again. So off to Ondestepoort who says there is nothing wrong with her but to date she has been re covered - acts pregnant and then seems to lose it and this has now happened 3 times so we need to get her sorted out somehow!
So, that was all I can remember with regard to the animals (enough!) so then we began the car saga.
I had purchased a second hand Renault Scenic in 2005 and loved it - it was a real dream to drive and all was well - for the first 2 years, then everything went wrong with a vengeance. Over a period of about 6 months, the fuel pump needed replacing, the fan stopped working, the passenger door would not open, the boot would not close, the central locking started to
pack up, the final straw was the gearbox packing up (not fun in an automatic car and cost a bomb just to get it to a saleable state) and so it went on. The kids and I became used to being stranded on the side of the road with steam pouring from the bonnet - not to be encouraged. There was a period of two weeks when I was alternating between the Scenic, the Kadett
(now sold) and the bakkie - and things went wrong with each of them in turn - so that I was using my local mechanic as a swop shop, drive in with one, take out the other one, bring that back and swop it for the other etc - it was very stressful to say the least! Then I tried to trade in the Renault, dealers wouldn't touch it with a bargepole and we were lucky to get the pittance that we did get. Overall, the depreciation on the car was R120 000 - not including the costs of services, fixing and fuel.
So, as soon as the gearbox was done we traded it in - on a second-hand 2 year old Subaru Forrester - the car that doesn't break according to everybody and has rave reviews from all the owners we met. I asked for a motorplan and was told by the salesman that I really didn't need one - these cars don't break...
Well this car hadn't met us. Within the first week I had popped a tyre, and in the second week Johan drove it and it cracked its radiator and looks as though it has bust its head gasket as well - back to the shop and I'm back to the bakkie and I haven't even paid the first instalment yet! Very disappointing.
The House - as usual we have worked very hard on the house and garden, the kitchen had a revamp at the beginning of the year and really looks great! We painted the walls grey which looked a bit dull at first so the kids and I painted flowers, ducks, etc Griebo the cat (Terry Pratchett character) all over the place which has livened it up considerably. The "big room"
which was created by blocking off the part of the house that formed a U shape has been very successful apart from the sliding doors which leak like a sieve - we have to stay stocked with newspapers and towels for when it rains. This will be remedied when we put the roof on the outside verandha.
We also built our big duck pond in the front and it is lovely to watch them sailing around. However we had a bit of a battle as, although they now have their very own big pond, they also took over the koi pond and the swimming pool as well. This necessitated the draining of the dark green murky yucky swimming pool which Johan and Michael then acid washed and repainted so it looks lovely, the poor koi are still under attack but we will cover their pond with mesh - once we can move the plants in the middle but we have to wait for the birds who are nesting there to move first!
In August I went on the "Fibre breakaway" arranged by the Johannesburg Guild of Weavers and Spinners - a very good place for me to sell my alpaca fleece. I did the weaving course which I enjoyed very much! So now I can felt, spin and weave - if I only had the time!
Johan and I still ride each weekend (Lulu and Inkspot - Inkspot had to come out of retirement once Sjoujke had gone) and we compete with Womble in carriage driving which we enjoy very much. Womble is a whiz in the marathon and obstacles but we don't do very well in dressage.
At work, we had to move the whole library from the 13th floor to a smaller location on the 1st floor which was quite a massive task and it took us over a week to achieve. The only advantage of being on the 1 st floor is that now we are having so many power cuts it is not so many
stairs to climb up and down! This will be a temporary location until the the company gets a new building in about 3 years time when we will have more space again.
My mum is still managing to copy by herself although it is becoming increasingly difficult as her eyesight deteriorates more and more, she has very kindly offered to pay for us to fly over during the June school holidays so we will be in the UK for 3 weeks in the middle of the year (we
can't afford to pay for ourselves due to the CAR issue). I would like to attend the Royal Show in Warwickshire so maybe we would meet up with some London friends at this halfway spot?
Hi
My name is Di, I am 49 years old and am married with two children aged 10 and 15.
Why would I want to write a blog?
I work as a full-time librarian but live on a smallholding with alpacas and horses and many other animals, life is pretty busy and there is always something happening so this blog is my way of recording it. With animals and children life is never dull!
I also think I am a bit odd, the kids are always asking me why my mouth keeps moving and why I am talking to myself - I talk to myself in my head as if I were describing the situation, or what I should have said or what I plan to say - so I have just turned this inward talking into a blog!
My name is Di, I am 49 years old and am married with two children aged 10 and 15.
Why would I want to write a blog?
I work as a full-time librarian but live on a smallholding with alpacas and horses and many other animals, life is pretty busy and there is always something happening so this blog is my way of recording it. With animals and children life is never dull!
I also think I am a bit odd, the kids are always asking me why my mouth keeps moving and why I am talking to myself - I talk to myself in my head as if I were describing the situation, or what I should have said or what I plan to say - so I have just turned this inward talking into a blog!
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