Last weekend off on Rich Ranch.

On Saturday we came up to Johannesburg to have a break from the farm as this was our last weekend off until December. It is now full speed ahead with about 15 schools visiting between this weekend and the 9^th December when the schools close for Christmas holidays.

We say that we come up to Johannesburg to have a break but there is so much to do while we are here that I sometimes think we get far more rest if we just stay on the farm. We spend our time visiting the kids, trying to get family dinners organized, cleaning house and garden, replenishing stocks, trying to do some personal buying that we cannot do in Middelburg, I can go on and on. We did not even have the opportunity to do a movie or a restraint this time.

When we go up in December, I will not let anyone know that we are there and we can just enjoy ourselves for the first few days. Just the two of us enjoying some alone time (we wish – ha-ha)

Farmers Getting Ready

Our 4.89 kg Black Bass

Travelling along the road to the farm you can see all the farmers starting to plough their lands and getting ready for the first rains. It is still very dry and no real sign of rain in the Mpumalanga area. Our lands are not that big so first we are going to get rid of the weeds and have the testing of the soil done to see what quantities of lime, potassium and fertilizer, etc is needed. The next few weeks will be very busy on the farm again.

I am sure everyone and everything on the farm is always happy and content. The cattle are now moving slowly and getting ready for their babies. We are expecting calves any day now and on the weekend a 4.89kg Black Bass was hooked in one of the dams. This is great news as we have been watching them grow the whole year. We started off with about 12 and followed them spawning and growing into a very tidy shoal of Bass. Now they are spawning again which means they are quite content in this dam even though we paddle on it every few days.