Bird’s Hide

We thought the first squatters in the new house would be vervet monkeys, but they only visit – quite regularly. Our actual roommate is a bird that makes a nest right above Maud’s desk-to-be. The builders leave a nice hole in the plastering for an entrance, so we hope they will have left by the time we wanna enter.


It’s amazing our bird just keeps feeding her young while the builders keep building.


Right now the second and most exiting roof is being poured: the concrete top / terrace on top of the bedroom (upper left hand corner). As if the making of zinc roof on the main house wasn’t nerve-wrecking enough!


Looking down from our future roof terrace (with a to be shade, fridge, hammocks – the full Monty), our dwelling resembles an eastern temple complex.


And another load of cement bags. It’s amazing how much goes into just one small house! The Mother of all (our dogs) doesn’t only help us with the gardening; she also keeps an eye on everything that happens on site.


And another load of river sand. Foundation, bricklaying, plastering, floors, roofs – everything seems to eat cement, sand, gravel and water.


And another load of steel – despite the Afrikaans we do order everything in Gabs or Mochudi.


Plastering inside…


… and outside.


The real building management: Dammit Louis (left) and Nadia, right on top of it when it’s their shift.


All the sand has to be sieved before it is fit for building.
The pile of stones in front of the house is in fact a big circle around the braai area. We do try to fit in!


It’s amazing how fast one learns. For starters Maud knew basically nothing about gardening in this climate and soil, but thanks to loads of advice from friends some things, actually more and more, turn out nicely, like the lilies we got from Tears.


Imagine we’ll live in there by the end of this month…


Our girls Lisa (left), Moira, Nadia enjoy a well-earned rest on their brand-new furniture after another day of sweating their asses off.

Moving forward

Everyone who tells us to update our blog more often: THANKS! It’s really great to know people actually like our posts enough to request more! We’ll really try to do better...
So much for ‘well-equipped big companies’… Bashi & Bram thought having the roof-rafters made by one would save a lot of time. In theory, yes, but since the ‘experienced craftsmen’ don’t know basic mathematics like Pythagoras’ law they managed to deliver the wrong sizes, over and over. In the end Bashi & crew with hand tools & brains would have been so much faster then brainless morons with fancy machines!


After much hassle and remakes we got ‘good enough’ trusses, meaning stuff Bashi, Foraman and crew could fine-tune to fit.


Another visitor / building inspector: Bram’s way-back-when-friend Eric. After spending years on converting a nice, big, empty plot in Gaborone into a beautiful big mansion, Eric sure has an eye for building!


Now that the trusses are finally up, the roof sheets can be put. First comes the veranda roofing, to prevent the builders from getting seriously damaged when they slip.


Is it strong, Foraman?
Note the view – it’s part of what we see from our roof terrace on top of the bedroom.

Set for planting

The basic layout for the rockery is finished!


Out neighbour Rachel and her niece-daughter Lianne walk over to check out the basics. Since Rachel & Melvin started gardening before us, we get a lot of valuable warnings and advice about the to be expected setbacks on this piece of soil.


By now friends start to offer plants and cutlings. This is part of ‘Peter’s’, filled with aloes he dug out for us somewhere.


More Peter’s: he also brought us cactuses.


Cormac & Duncan will join our aloe-digging-expotition coming Saturday.


Who cares about lack of facilities like a gym in the village? This is much more fun!

Packing

This picture is just to show we started packing already – can’t wait to move to the new house! So it’s not about how the security crew & Maud watch their evening movie.

Where to find us

From Sunday September 27 or Monday September 28 early in the morning until Saturday October 3 around lunch we will be in South Africa. Our RSA cell numbers are:
Maud: (+27) 765604009
Bram: (+27) 768358656
We don’t know if we’ll manage to check our mail.

Building progress

The Morwa-house is really progressing now, and we even started to make the yard ‘fit to plant’. Looking from just outside the front fence, you see the walls already up to roof-height. Right now we are waiting for the roof rafters. Figuring out how to make them is not rocket science, but the supplier struggles to get Bram’s drawings and 3D-model into his cad/cam-software…


Our soon to be next door neighbour Rachel with her firstborn Ntsiki and her lastborn Anele. Melvin & Rachel also are in the process of building, but they already roofed two rooms.


Halfway these huge gum poles the deck will appear soon. Not just any deck, but a stoep that measures more square meters then the house itself, cause we live mostly outside. The upper half of the gum poles will serve as a support for the roof over the deck. Imagine us on the shady stoep, swinging in our hammocks while sipping a cold beer.


Storeroom – his. To avoid debates over ‘why are you keeping that crap’ we’ll have a his and a her storeroom. Hers will contain the washing machine and the safe, while his can serve as the spare small house.


All of the work is done by hand, even moving the big rocks that had to be dug out the hill to make room for the house. The circle of rocks on the left will be the fire & braai pit.


The ‘old’ sisters Moira (left) and Nadia (born January 2008) are the real forewomen, carefully studying everything Bashi and we do in their new yard.


Those huge gum poles need a strong foothold. Once again Bashi (right) manages to get them level.


Standing next to the main house, looking at the bedroom. On top of the bedroom there will be the amazing view & star gazing deck.


Standing on top of the bedroom you can really see the lay out of the house by now. The fireplace will be the central point of the living-kitchen-Maud’s office area. You see the bathroom (right hand bottom), the kitchen (right hand top), the living room (almost all of the left half) and Maud’s office (left hand bottom).


Bath, shower, washbasin, toilet, closet – what else does one need?


We want to convert the diamond mesh fence into a green, flowering wall, with a lot of bougainvillea, like this one in front of the house we rent. For the green fingers: we’ll also put hop, golden shower, plombago, and something call ‘Christ’s thorns’ in Dutch.


The four bitches sleep in while Bram & Louis are making Real Dutch Coffee.


Now that we will have a big braai circle, we’ll need something to put over the fire. Maud got some practice when she joined our neighbours Jeff & Zach to Tsabong (south western Kalahari), to visit Jill, stay at her place Berrybush (www.kalahariberrybush.com), and hunt gemsbok.
It was a great trip: the Kalahari is stunning, Maud quickly made friends with Jill, Berrybush is a fabulous place to stay, and there was nama ya kukama to take back home.


Though the tracker & the hunter think they did it all, it’s of course Zach & Maudi who do the necessary brainwork.

Ditau

Ik vond de 11 leeuwen heel leuk.
I liked the 11 lions very much.


Hoe ze met elkaar speelden, het zag er zo lief uit, maar je weet dat je ze niet mag aaien. Wat wel eng was, was dat mijn moeder en mijn tante het raampje open hadden staan. Ik dacht dus de helft van de tijd doe dat raampje dicht, doe dat raampje dicht.
How they played with each other, it looked very sweet, but you know you’re not allowed to stroke them. What was scary was my mom and my aunt left the car windows open. So I thought half of the time close that window, close that window.


Ik werd (gelukkig) gerust gesteld dat de leeuwen niet op ons af sprongen (want er zat maar 5 meter tussen de eerste leeuw en ons). Er zaten 3 jongen mannetjes in de troep en 8 jonge vrouwtjes.
I was lucky as they comforted me, the lions wouldn’t attack us (because there was only 5 meters in between the first lion and us). There were 3 young males in the group, and 8 young females.


Het spannendste stuk was dat een van de 8 vrouwtjes opstond ... en zich uitrekte. En tenslotte weg liep. We hebben ook foto’s gemaakt, waarvan ik er nu een paar opnoem: een met z’n bek open, een ander die lag te rollen en weer een ander die ons recht in de ogen aankeek.
The most exiting part was that one of the 8 females got up … and stretched her legs. And in the end left. We made pictures, of which I name a few: one with his jaws open, one who was rolling over, and another one who looked us straight into the eyes.


Groeten Jolin (-:

Game

‘s Morgens vroeg reden we boven op de auto van Bram en Maud door het Khama Rhino park. Het was koud, zo koud dat we mutsen en sjaals op en om hadden.
Early in the morning we drove through Khama Rhino park on top of Bram & Maud’s car. It was so cold that we had to wear caps and shawls.


Het moment dat we na een diepe kuil in de weg weer omhoog keken en plotseling oog in oog zaten met 3 giraffes ... daar word je dan helemaal stil van. Ze keken ons heel vriendelijk aan en gleden toen rustig door de bush steeds verder weg.
The moment that we looked up again after a big pothole in the road and suddenly looked 3 giraffes into the eyes … that makes you completely silent. They looked very friendly at us and gracefully walked away through the bush.


De hoeveelheid ‘wilde’ dieren die we in 2 weken tijd ontmoetten is overweldigend, als of het allemaal voor ons in scène is gezet.
The amount of ‘wild’ animals we met in 2 weeks time is overwhelming, as if it was all staged for us.


Het land ruikt heerlijk: soms bush lucht waarvan ik niet weet wat het is, soms eindeloze vlaktes wilde salie.
The country smells delicious: sometimes bush fragrance of which I don’t know what it is, sometimes endless fields of wild sage.


En natuurlijk Bram en Maud als zeer toegewijde reisleiders/gezelschap!
And of course Bram & Maud as dedicated tour guides / company.


Groetjes van Harriet