Yesterday we had a runaway veld fire here. It's hot, incredibly dry, the whole environment a tinderbox, ready to burn. A potential disaster.

Except... the call went out, and next thing you know the whole community was there. Ben with his team of fire figters. Lourens with his waterkarretjie, Div with his backpack sprayer, the Browns with support team, Henry with his people, the staff from Eight Bells, Werda with support team and waterkarretjie, and more. I did not get to see everybody; but basically everybody pitched in, grabbed a fire beating branch or instrument, and set to it.

hi all of you Ruiterbosers and Leeukloofers........ I have been tasked with writing an article about our wonderful neck of the woods, however as most of you know i am as yet not a permanent resident and hence somewhat at a distinct disadvantage ....since i probably know the least of the comings and going and who is who. The easy part is the guest houses, and accomodation, and known landmarks, the hard part is the unknown and different or unusual - the interesting people that you only find out about after living here for years, the colour and the life !!

Of bleeding hearts, bunny-huggers and good intentions:

Many of us inkommers that left our city lives behind for rural bliss arrived here with starry eyes and unrealistic expectations.

Has anybody in this area ever put up an owl box?

We often hear the owls at night on the farm, occasionally we see them too, then it can go quiet for a time and we’d hear no owls. It would be wonderful if we could encourage them to breed in the area – more owls will eat more mice and rats… of the latter we seem to have an unending supply, judging by the rate our 2 cats bring them in.

Putting up owl boxes can be a trying thing. The boxes stay unoccupied for ages, eventually one just despairs and stops paying attention. Next thing, an owl pair moves in…

Hi there friends and neighbours. What a glorious day!! We now have a community blog and I've been co-erced into making the first entry. The idea, I think, is for the community of Ruiterbos to share information, stories, what have you, without making a heap of individual phone calls. So I thought I would share may my "afternoon that felt like a holiday" with you.

Well folks, here's to happy blogging.

I really hope you'll enjoy this blogging and forums platform.

Join up now by clicking "create new.." under the log in block on the right, fill in your email address and name, and shortly you'll be notified of your password.

Using that name and password, log in to this site, then, bottom right offers you a special menu all of your own.

Select "Create content" from this menu, supply a title of sorts, and type your thoughts into the "Body" section.

Save your stuff with the ...." Save" button at the bottom, and, you're published!