The Rain Has Come!

The past week it has been cold and wet here on the farm, and the Kammanassie River overflowed several drifts, blocking the shortest route we have to George. The rain is welcomed after a long dry summer, but it is causing some interesting experiences.

The second day of continuous rain brought up a problem we hadn't anticipated - the two smallest poor piglets' pigsty had drainage problems, and was filling up with freezing water. Luckily my dad came to the rescue and hauled them over into a third separate pigsty next to the other pigs' cage.

Much-needed rain.

Flooded pigsty.

 Catching the pig.

In you go piglet!

My parents and brothers then left with our car to find some new straw for the pigs, and got stuck in the mud (literally). After attempts to pack rocks and give the wheels some leverage, my mom went to find help and oom Jan pulled them out with his 'bakkie' (I had a good laugh). 

Stuck in the mud. 

Packing rocks. 

Ponies looking drab - they've grown their thick winter coats, but looked miserable nonetheless. I would too, in their position after 3 days of continuous rain. 

When the rain finally stopped, we went to check out all the drifts.

Oh bother...we can't get through this drift for a while.

Oom Jan and tannie Anel's house is on the other side... so they are literally cut off from the outside.

Part of the field underwater.

JanDiesel and co. having fun on the other side of the river (photo taken by tannie Anel). 

It turned out one morning that sometime during the previous night, the rain had caused plenty of rocks and a big boulder to slide off a cliff, blocking us off from Uniondale as well. Of course this caused lots of excitement (for us). Neither high school nor primary school children from the valley could get to their schools, and in any case it would have been pointless as their teachers were stuck behind the river flooding the roads. Farmlife has to go on though, and as the saying goes " 'n boer maak 'n plan" (a farmer makes a plan), oom Jan made a plan and crossed the drift that separated them from the main farm road with a tractor and trailer. We hitched a ride and crossed the river back with them for fun.  

 Onwards!

Through the overflowing river. 

Thanks for reading!