Arrival

It's been two and a half weeks since we arrived (this time for good) at our little farm near Swellendam, in the Western Cape, South Africa (Swellendam is on the N2, roughly halfway between George and Cape Town).

In the meantime, Wayne has been up and down to Johannesburg to meet the removals company and send off our furniture (stripped of all major appliances - fridge, washing machine, dishwasher *sob*, etc - running off a solar energy installation means not only that we're not reliant on the national grid, but also that we need to run an energy efficient household).

Our ten year old son Michael has also kicked off the term at his new farm school, located approximately 25km away, and while still out of his depth with regards to the language obstacle (Afrikaans as a first language, which will take some getting used to), he has already made some friends and started playing rugby. During break, he feeds the resident goats, which are milked by the children who go on to produce goat's cheese. This cheese is then sold by the kids as an additional source of income for the school. There are 121 other children, from all manner of backgrounds, and we firmly believe that this will be an enriching and invaluable experience for Michael, as he completes the last 2.5 years of primary school.

We are currently staying with my parents (thanks again, guys!), literally 'down the road', while we await the arrival of our things, which is when we plan to move across to our little cabin and effectively camp while we build our raised timber frame house. We are waiting on final approval of our building plans, at which point we can place the order for the timber and call in the assistance of my brother to help Wayne with the self-build.

On arrival, during one of our 'perimeter walks', we discovered that in our absence our olive trees had produced a second batch of olives - the first having been harvested by my parents a few weeks ago.

It was a nice welcome home surprise.