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.

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…