A special lunch...

My beautiful friend Angie. :)

Yesterday, I had the privilege of catching up with a friend of mine over lunch. I must say that this time was probably the longest that we have ever talked over lunch. I had such a great time and didn't want to go but knew that Russell would want to work a bit more on the cubby.

It is always a great time catching up on each other's news. I love it how interested she is in my life and how open she is in sharing hers with me. I have allot of respect for this lady, that's for sure. She has been through allot and admire her immensely. I also found out about Angela's plans to go to Ireland and Denmark... Hope Crown Princess Mary remembers to meet her for coffee. hehe

She sooooo deserves this holiday. She has worked so hard for it and wish I was going too... I love it how the pressure of the plane taking off pushes you into the seat... Dreaming, dreaming, dreaming... One day again. I am sure of that...

Can't wait to catch up again. Thanks for a fabulous time Angie. :)

Cheers Damaris

Darling Nova...

Our darling Nova...

Joshua's darling Nova has been losing weight for some time now... She looks soooo thin... I changed her food from what we were on to Science Diet about two months ago and made sure to give her 1.5 times the serving she was supposed to have. Still no weight gain. I checked her over to ensure she was not in pain, no arthritis, Sentinel is given every month on the first day as usual... I just couldn't explain it.

Friday morning she didn't want to really get up to go to the toilet first thing in the morning. Alarm bells went off in my head and had her to the vet that afternoon... Greg our lovely vet did a full blood test on her as he was stumped as well... Well the tests showed nothing at all. Very frustrating... Greg is thinking that maybe she has liver disease or something wrong with her pancreas. Either way he has given her steroids and he has changed her diet to puppy food (even though she is nearly 11) as it has more protein in it. Hopefully this will help her put on weight. We also found out that she is starting to go blind in her other eye as well. Just at the bottom of the right eye but all the same is till happen... Joshua was very concerned off course but glad to be there for her when she was going through all of this...

Here is hoping we get to the bottom of what is going on with her weight loss... Though must say she loved having two rides in the car in two day. :)

Cheers Damaris

Cubby update...

Getting the angle right :)

Frame going down on the base...

Back wall nearly finished...

One side down...

Well this was the weekend for things to start really to move... We got the frame outside and it has now been screwed together and down onto the frame. Last weekend, Russell had concreted most of the posts into the ground so that there was no way for it to move. We get some pretty awesome gusts of wind here on the hill so didn't want it going anywhere :)

Yesterday afternoon we had some spare time so Russell wanted us all outside again so that we could do the back wall... Was so good to get that done. Makes a huge difference.

Yes we still have a long, long way to go but this next weekend we are spending the whole weekend on it as well so hope to have a huge chunk of it done by the end of it. Here is hoping the weather behaves and we can then really get into it... :)

Cheers Damaris

Power losses...

Out come the candles, by force...

This week has been rather interesting, I must say... Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights we had quite bad electrical storms and on each night we lost power... Was wonderful to see the village below us in darkness. :) Couple of lights illuminated as people had candles on or torches... I know of one couple that is off the grid and they made sure that they turned on all of their lights so that people knew they had power. hehe

We had no problems here off course. Part and parcel of being part of this household... We had the candles going and had our normal 20l water container with the tap on it over near the kitchen sink... Amazing how water wise the boys get when they can't just turn on a tap. :)

Either way had we lost power for a long time, (longer then the six odd hours on the Wednesday night) thanks to my brother, I would have been able to put on the generator anyway and plug it into the house to keep the fridge and freezer running... Am sooooo grateful for that. :)

Am also very grateful that none of the electrical storms hit us directly. There were allot of lightening strikes around. We could see them dancing in the night and Timothy especially was very scared. But we hung out together and all was good :)

Cheers Damaris

Drawing Adventure update...

A handmade clay vase from Pompeii, Naomi's treasure.

My drawing...

Naomi's children's bootee

My drawing of it...

Well I have had three lessons now and have had allot of fun sharing with my family what I have been getting up to... They are very encouraging which is wonderful...

I must say that I am really loving drawing. The black and white is very effective and I am starting to get the hang of shading and perspective. I start by drawing in shapes and then mould the drawing after that.

Am so thankful that I have Naomi teaching me from the get-go as I am a clean slate so to speak. I have never been taught before and she is such a wonderful teacher. I feel very, very privileged that I am attending her classes. I have learnt so much in just those three lessons that now I look at nature or anything for that matter completely differently... I am also gaining confidence... And that is great for me to see and experience.

Must say I am having allot of fun learning... :)

Cheers Damaris

Nearly Fixed...

Our Street nearly finished getting fixed. :)

Our road has been out of action since the second lots of flooding. The underground spring was full and pushing all of the road base up from underneath. Lots of drying out time was needed and now they have been working on the drainage for the last two weeks...

It is nearly done now. The road surface has been fixed and the steam roller has been out. Should be open again soon. Thank Goodness. :)

Cheers Damaris

Joshua's Project...

Snake wire on top and chichen wire on the bottom for access...

Josh pointing to the egg laying area...

At school the older children are making their preferred models of chicken coops for when they actually build them... Joshua got started on his straight away and loved getting into it.

Now all he has to do is cover the egg laying area and finish sowing up the netting... The pipes on the sides are actually made of rolled up pages of paper that are glued together to give it strength. Then the ends are hole punched and screwed together... That last part was hard work he says but has been so worth it.

He said this morning he hopes to have it done by Wednesday but at the latest on Friday. Can't wait to see the end result. :)

Cheers Damaris