Blog Followers

What do I have to do to get more followers? I guess it would help if I were a little more active in this blog for a start. If any of my readers can leave a comment with a constructive idea I would be most obliged. I currently share on Twitter and Facebook - some ideas please!

Back to reality. Still stuck here at the farm. Things are moving out there though. I had a viewer come through a week ago, and another query from an East London estate agent specializing in farms on Monday. I'm being very positive about it, more than anything else because I miss the Love of my Life. Today I will repost some farm ads.

Liz has been back in Washington State for six months now - sent her a GPS unit for Christmas so she can find her way around. Liz was never that good at navigating, and when working for Chris & Terri in Woodmead would phone me at KDHS asking for me to email her directions to some address in Pretoria or Sandton or wherever. I don't miss the big city at all.

There's a steady drizzle falling at the farm today, in this idyllic corner of the Eastern Cape. My nearest neighbor is some 2 miles away and occasionally stops by with farm eggs , home cured bacon or, a couple of weeks ago, a honeycomb. Talking of honeycomb, a couple of years ago a bee-keeper who has a honey farm near Southwell stopped by and asked if he could place some empty hives on the roof of our workshop - of course we agreed and he left four. He collected them, each full of bees, a few months later. We were most surprised when, a few weeks after collecting them, he dropped off a container with 2½ kgs of honey - I still have about a kg left over. That's the way things work in the countryside!

The swallows have finished rebuilding their nest and are now lining the interior with small pieces of straw and feathers. When they've completed it they will raise a new nest of fledglings - last year there were 3  . By the way honey, sorry I didn't vm last evening but my landline was down. Seems to be working gain today though. I'll see you in my dreams.

Reflections

It has been quite chilly of late, especially early in the morning, which is to be expected in May in South Africa, since the Sun is already 6 weeks into the Northern hemisphere. Today is quite unusual - 87°F (that's 30°C) here in Martindale. The farm is looking good after the 2 inches of rain we had during a thunderstorm about a week ago. The lawn is green but has just about gotten into its winter hibernation program. This is the time of year when molehills start appearing, but so far there are just scattered examples - warnings of things to come. 

The farm is still for sale (and will remain so until sold). One prospect who looked over the place 3 weeks ago took 2 weeks to let me know it was too far from Grahamstown and lacking in security. How little they know, this must be one of the most secure farms in the area - not one incursion in the six years we've been here, other than the locals collecting firewood, which I have no objection to. I have enough wood here to build a couple of houses and to keep the stove hot for several years. A German couple turned up with Philip, an old friend, on Saturday to look over the place. They are interested but have to sell their property in Deutschland. They did enjoy the Guavas though, and carried of a few handfuls. I'm glad someone likes them - I personally cant stand them, and I have 14 guava trees (4 pink and 10 white) on the property, as well as nartjes. A local farmer phoned a few minutes ago and has taken the details of the farm. He seems fairly interested so will join the list of hopefuls.

 Headman, who is the local preacher and "odd job man" had his last remaining teeth removed yesterday - presumably at the government hospital in Grahamstown. He was told, and I find this odd, to expect his false teeth to be ready for a fitting in December - 7 months? I guess that's yet another sign of the way things are going in this country. I think everyone (except for HRH Robert Mugabe) knows how Zimbabwe became a god forsaken country. It seems as if South Africa is going the same way - a little more slowly perhaps, but the signs are all there. Even today there was an extensive item on CNN investigating the gradual failure of democracy in the country.

 Liz  has now been back in the US of A for 2 weeks - how time flies, and yet the days are very long when she's not here. We chat either on the phone (MagicJack) or Skype every afternoon or evening for a good 30 minutes or so. She looks very happy, and clearly enjoys being with Dena and the kids. Come on someone - buy this little corner of Paradise so that I can fly myself and Katie across the Pond to be with her. What I need is some keen philanthropist who wants to set up a small home industry school, or some other project, for the local Martindale community. At present they just exist, and there will be few opportunities for the 14 kids who attend the farm school in the future, unless someone steps in. This place would make an ideal base for such a project. Indeed, one of my prospective purchasers (who was turned down by the banks) had such a project in mind, had the sale gone through.