We’re officially back in the land of the living. A few good nights of sleep, settled into our new home, got the toilet to flush in our room, got the new storage tank set up and the hot water system running. Now we can take showers right outside our back door. We drove to Greytown to church at shalom ( for those who are reading “Faith Like Potatoes” ) on an awesome sunny Sunday and then when we got home did a family hike to the coolest tree platform I’ve ever seen ( pictures will follow sometime) and then after changing the tire on the Lada ( our little Russian 4x4 two kids in one seatbelt in the back seat ) we headed off to see a good friend in town. It’s great to catch up with old friends after so many years. So I’ve spent my last few days fighting with plumbing, not always having the right parts, so having to “make do” since town is an hours drive away with a horrible driveway that can only be negotiated by 4 wheel drive and a “do or die attitude”

So after a week we feel like we’ve finally arrived, the weather has started to feel like summer finally, hot sunny days with an afternoon or evening thunderstorm. The sun rises at about 4 am and the birds start singing shortly before that, probably at least twenty distinct varieties can be heard at the loudest volume they can muster, which is pretty impressive. Sun set in the evening is at about 6pm ish. Church at shalom ( about an hours drive on dirt roads ) was very refreshing. A simple service in a barn ( about twice the size of the bridge) mostly filled with farming folks, many of whom drive a long way to be there.

Learning to drive on the left again has been fun, and Becky’s back seat driving ability has been much appreciated as I pull out onto the right hand side of the road. We are driving a beat up (recently rolled onto it’s side) but still functional Lada Niva A Russian made 4x4 , sort of a cross between a beetle and a Toyota Rava. It’s a gem for negotiating the worst driveway in the world, one that would make the most die hard weekend warrior off roader wince! We hear the samango apes calling to each other in the trees outside our house, we’ve seen zebra and blesbok ( a kind of gazelle) lots of hawks and eagles and cool bugs galore. WE get to ride up and down the hill to get firewood in an old landrover that has to be seen to be believed, but the boys love it. They love no car seats and sitting in the back of the truck and the Pajero ( Ben and Russ and Rick you all can relate ) and all the adventure of new discoveries and heading off into the bush to find cool stuff. So as the weather improves we’ll hopefully be able to do more exploring as the rain and cold kept us pinned down last week. Well I miss you all terribly and it’s pretty isolated out here, which makes me realize how much of a social animal I’ve become since I lived here last.

I've spent the past few days framing some walls upstairs in the lodge. The first day all the cutting was done with a handsaw, but i've since been able to borrow a circular saw which has speeded things up a bit. Coming from having a fully eqipped shop to having a few archaic hand tools has been a little trying to say the least, but since production is not the goal here at the moment, the slower pace is okay. I have two young guys that Anton has employed for the holidays helping me. Andile and Tabani fetch and carry lumber and ar learning some basic wood working skills with me between farm chores. Keldan spent the day with me yesterday, pounding nails and holding boards while i cut them and generally being very useful extra hands.

I'm still trying to figure out how to put photo's on this blog and when i do we'll post some.