Tales of the farm

The Farm.. except for the mountain peaks in the back gound, my piece of paradise ;-)

Well well... trying to blog for a bit.. first time ever so lets see how this goes.. ! Keeping those who are interested updated on the progress of my 'farm adventure', which will make quite a change from city life one could say..

Going  back in time just quickly.. Been wanting to buy a farm for a while now, and found a suitable 'candidate' August 2010 in de "Hemel en Aarde" (Heaven on Earth) Valley, just between Caledon and Hermanus in the Western Cape, South Africa., a rather unknown and truly amazingly beautiful, virtually untouched,  Valley. To finance it  I sold my house in Cape Town,  twice. (!).... once to a family who could not get their house sold on time, and once to a family who did meet the 'suspensive conditions' in the offer to purchase on time, which in turn proved to be JUST on time for me to acquire my little 'heaven on earth'.. let me spare you the details, its just too complicated ! The second sale happened so fast that I now have to leave my house within 5 weeks, the  time I will have to make the cottage on the 'farm' habitable, but no stress, since that is what I want to leave behind, and not take with me.

Anyway.. as you can see on the picture above, the 'small holding' as they call a 26,8 ha plot in South Africa (662 acres or 268.000 sqmtrs or 36 football fields or the size of a national park in Holland ;-)  is quite rural  and that only an hour and a half drive from Cape Town! No houses in sight, and the nearest 'village' is 20 minutes by car, not counting the hamlet next door which is only 8 minutes away and is populated by about 2.500 people, has a bottle store (of course) and a tiny small shop which sells the most basic necessities. Tried the wine from the bottle store but the very best they had was only just suitable to disinfect my toilet bowl, and left it with a very strange color indeed.. So have to bring that from one of  the wine estates nearby !

The 'blind wall' needs some attention, no views from the house at all !!!!

A trip of a thousand kilometres, starts with the first step
(old Chinese proverb)

The week of the 7th of February 2011 went there for the first time with the intention to start the renovations.. the aim was to transform a 'blind wall' of the cottage into something more 'open' and airy, and insert two double door frames, with in time, to doors each to boot ! Arranged for two locals to come help me out, and normally the openings in the walls should have been there within two days.. But... the walls of the house appeared to consist of mud/clay brick of the home made kind, which complicated matters slightly, not in the least because they are 51 cm thick ! A normal wall in a normal house is about 10 cm thick and needs one lintel to support the walls above the opening, however, in this case 5 lintels for each opening would be needed ! And it would prove to take 5 times as long to make the openings, so after a week only one hole appeared, and we're halfway towards the second opening.. the result of 4 days hard labour by two guys with jackhammers and what have you, can be admired here..

Max(i) my Jack Russell pup keeping guard, no unauthorized entry, no way !!!

The result is that I now do have a view from the cottage, if only from one side, and rather too airy at that ! The other hole is in the process of being made and should be there somewhere next week.. Note the three lintels to support the upper structure of the house, (2 more will be added) and  the crack on the right that appeared when the screeding fell off at a certain stage, which gave me quite a fright, since I thought the house was coming down ! A little too high you might think from there to 'ground level' and you're right, I am thinking of making a deck in front of this house, or a 'stoep' in local slang, or a 'veranda' in posh English ! 

To work on the 'other' opening we would have to move the rain water container and before that could be done, it needed to be emptied, which was not too daunting a task. Just connect a hose, open the tap and let it run onto the path in front of the house.. the sound of running water attracted the puppy,  who came to investigate this unknown and very strange phenomena ,  which resulted in the next picture !

Catch the water, roll in the mud, turn a white dog into a brown one, fun was had by all !

Anyway.. the container is still in place, its a cement one so rather heavy,.. hinges on doors have been fitted, door frame has its first 2 under coatings of paint (pink can you believe ;-) and pre drilling the  holes for the hanging of those doors into the frame has been done ! Next week the second one, then fitting the frames , hanging the doors and voila, I'll have my doors in place, a little later than planned, but there none the less ! So the weekend the outer wall should be re screeded (the old screed has to come off since it is hanging on by a thread, literally) and that, I will HAVE done, since its just too big a task for an old man ! So this is what the cottage looked like when I left Friday afternoon,

A Man on a mission, a Cottage with a vision !!!

to recuperate from all the work during the first week which included:

Waterproofing part of the roof where it connects to the future pantry

Sorting out the water system which now provides water to the house from the stream bordering the property (I still shower using a garden hose ;-))

Assembling the toilet bowl and econo flushers

Driving out to Hermanus, twice, to get building materials, props etc..

On the way to Hermanus, how beautiful the country side !

Walking over the property with a water diviner to assess where to drill the future borehole

etc etc etc... eventful days to say the least.. but we will get there, although it may take a little longer than expected.. which is not so bad knowing that the result will be worth it.. more next time, thanks for reading and do leave a comment if you like.. its easy.. post under 'anonymous' and just include your name at the end of the comment please.. xxx Rick die Boer met 'n plan (the farmer with a plan !)

Thunderclouds gathering over the farm, sensational sound !