April 2nd Kids Outing

On April 2nd, my mom and 7 kids went on a fun outing to Vic Bay, Wilderness, and Knysna (similar to what we did with ouma Elna during February), because 1) we had to pick up some more piglets at the farm near Knysna, 2) my parents decided it's a way of thanking the 'team' for their help with our horses every day, and 3) me and Kate (the friend from up the mountain) had to be taken to George anyway because of a youth camp we were going on.

 The majority of the morning was spent at Victoria Bay.

There weren't too many people as it was a cool day - we swam nevertheless.

"Die hele spul".

After fun on the beach we drove to Knysna, where we had KFC at a beautiful little church.

Our picnic table.

A stroll around the church.

Driving up the rough dirtroad of Gouna, we took a walk in the forest (the Terblans walk). It was not raining in the rainforest, and it was noticeable how different the forest-atmosphere was compared to our previous wet walk with ouma.

The starting point.

Late Summer Fruit Harvests (Plums and Figs)

Here on the farm, we have been observing the harvesting seasons of fruits, mainly plums and figs. It has been amazing being able to see directly where the food comes from, and how hand intensive the entire process is.

 Plums everywhere.

Right in front of our house is a plum orchard, and during January we often heard the tractor spraying insecticide on the plum trees. 

At six in the morning...

 Whoosh!

Walking past the orchard and seeing the fruit ripening daily is special, and when in early February groups of workers started harvesting (in a similar way to harvesting peaches), we went to take a look. 

Ripening plums. 

The trees are literally covered in purple. 

 Teams of plum pickers.

Plenty of Socializing

During the past 2 months, we've had some people come and visit us for a day or two, as well as my mom's birthday on March 21st.  So even though we stay on a farm, we are blessed by people visiting us. We have the privilege of having a separate flat where people can stay, and this has proven to be very handy.

'Tannie' Johanneke has been following my mom's website for a while and contacted my mom to hear if she and her 4 children could come and meet us one day. They've been on an amazing journey with similarities to ours, and their visit meant a lot to us.  We have now made new friends all over the  country.

Our other new friends from nearby at the Goukamma Nature Reserve also came for a visit and helped a lot with the ponies ('tannie' Louise and her eldest daughter are great horse lovers). We had fun swimming and folding origami.

Handling Arend.

Getting Valk into a small enclosed area was a mission the first few times... 

Trying join up. 

Enjoying the late evening sun.  

We also had another friend from Oudtshoorn stay over one night - 'tannie' Nanie enjoyed being so close to nature with us.

Lunch under the tree.

On my mom's birthday, people from the valley and some friends from George all came together for a braai, and despite the weather starting out cold and rainy, it cleared up later the afternoon so we could sit outside.  We laughed, star gazed, took a walk, and everyone went home stuffed and happy. The day was good, the food even better and the company the best!

Our very own photoshoot.

Thank you for reading!