My morning did not start too well, and sometimes I can just shoot myself in the hakskene (heels) , as I am the biggest ninnyhammer on this old earth. Baby Emil was still sleeping peacefully, and as it was only five am, I knew that I had at least an hour to do some outside chores. In peace!
Now, I wanted to cut the grass growing against Peter's ugly fence, and full of optimism I donned my gloves, doing that because my poor hands had to be nurtured for Xmas, as they were looking quite nasty! But my scissors that I used for that was nowhere to be found! For the next forty five minutes I went all over the house, the yard, every one of my hoarding cupboards, all with no result. The day before I was out on hunting down moles, and I knew I had the bally thing to cut down some grass patches under which the little horrors hide, so it should have been lying somewhere on my wee outside table, or maybe where I left it when my phone rang.
Actually I have three old scissors that was no good for anything else anymore, two black handled ones, that had mysteriously disappeared, and this pink handled one, and I really coveted it, trying not to loose it as well. But now it had disappeared, and I even went down to the bramble bushes, where I have a heap of weeds and grass busy changing into compost, and that was quite hazardous, as the bees were very busy at the bramble flowers, and my disturbing their morning nectar hunt made them as cross as wasps, buzzing angrily, and flying around like they wanted to attack me. So I very hastily departed, without finding out whether my scissors were amongst the grass cuttings of the day before.
When I got back to the house Emil was awake, and putting up a nasty show of temper because I was late with his bottle. I knew that I would not be able to do any more work, as Emil would only sit in the push cart for a wee while before getting ants in his pants, and start wriggling and moaning to be let out. My yard is just not compatible with babies, as the steps leading down from the main house to the built-on bit, is steep, and a baby could roll down easily, and to top that, a little furrow runs about two meters from my front door, and that is always full of water coming from the mountain.
I had decided to cover myself in sunburn lotion when Emil went to sleep at ten, and have another go at finding my scissors. After another fifteen minutes of hunting, I stood for a moment in front of Emil's bedroom window to listen whether he was still asleep. I was sweating, and the sun was burning down mercilessly, and then, through a stream of tears as the lotion had come into my eyes and burning like the blazes, my eyes travelled up to the top of my red ladder against the wall, and there, shimmering in the sunshine, was my errant bally scissors.
But with my eyes burning, and the sun not letting up, I had to leave what I wanted to do, and wait till it was cooler!
But my day was not altogether wasted, as I then kneaded some dough to make bread. Today I have put in a handful of nuts, some pumpkin seeds, another handful of oats, and to make it a bitty interesting, some  dried   cranberries.

Baby Emil was now crawling, albeit backwards, and time and time again when I put him on his tummy with a toy to lure him forwards so that I can get a few things done, I was startled when his powerful little voice would suddenly shatter the stillness of the morning. And every time I would find him stuck underneath one of the arm-chairs, having gone backwards again, from where he would tell the world how badly he was used.
It was very difficult at this stage, as he was a very busy and lively child, and not at all happy anymore to sit outside for long spells while I do some gardening. As the only time I could work outside was between five when I woke up, and about eight thirty, and as he now was awake from six onwards, and slept from ten to twelve, I had to juggle the outside chores quite finely.
Jan took him over week-ends, and sometimes when he was at home, or not too busy, as we felt that he should not grow up distant from his family, and never maybe feel part of it. What a wonderful dad-cum-mum my son turned out to be, as he just naturally took over the care over that times, and people were astonished at his dexterity with cleaning the little bum, bathing the wee one, cooking veggies and bottling it, and keeping both the youngsters happy.
I decided one Saturday when Jan had gone to friends for the week-end, taking Emil and Andreas with, to try again to work down the heap of boulders that lay right in front of my window, and it did not look nice, and apart from that, it was covering my water pipes, and if something went wrong, it would be hellish to get to the pipes.I had decided that if I again encountered the big green frog, I will ignore his questioning and myopic eyes, and take him down to the pond, where he would be quite comfy.
So, this time with glove covered hands, I started on the arduous task of rolling the big stones down the heap, as they were too heavy to carry, my back not exactly as strong as that of a horse, but when they were down, I still had to get them to their allotted spaces, and that posed a problem! But when you need to do something, and you try real hard, anything is possible, and with a lot of sweating, and swearing, and asking for help from above, I managed to slowly but surely get the path laid out.
I still had about a meter and a half to do, when, at lifting a boulder from it's cozy nest, a bally mole snake that was having a beautiful morning nap woke up, gave me a very cold look, and crawled right over my (luckily) booted feet, and disappeared into the a crevice in the heap! Must say, nothing wrong with my throat, or my voice! After a good and strong bout of telling the snake where he can go to, I was ready to commence work again, as a molesnake is harmless, but it is just the sudden appearance of one right under your nose that is a bitty scary!
I felt quite at ease, knowing where the snake disappeared to, and decided to not immediately desturb the heap at that spot.
I was sitting on my backside, working loose a stone from the sand that was getting more plentiful the lower I went, when suddenly, from underneath me, a loud, hoarse 'Kwaak' cut through the air, and when I came to my senses again, after going very, very cold for a few seconds, I was standing on solid ground, my heart pounding like a bally race horse at full speed! And there was mr. bally green striped frog, again looking at me with those big black eyes, silently enquiring about the reason for demolishing his house.
I ran for a yogart holder that would be just big enough to catch the frog in, but when I got back, he was nowhere to be seen. I took out some rocks where he was sitting, but he must have had a very long tunnel, and I couldn't just lift the stones left and right.
I decided to call it a day when the mole snake suddenly appeared from underneath a big rock that I was going to move next, as with all this beasties that was in my way, I felt that I had earned a nice cuppa, and a rest, and hopefully snake and frog would decide that it would be in their best interests to move!!

Today was just not my day! The first mishap occured when I took the kettle off the stove, and the wire cover that fits over the gas jets came undone, and I quite forgot that it was supposed to be hot, so I shifted it back with my bare hand, and it was a case of jumping about two feet in the air, as the pain was excrutiating! I held it under the cold tap for ages, but it took a long time for the pain to subside, and I was left with blisters on both my forefinger and my thumb. Eina!
Then I heard people talk outside, and it was oom Vlei, our munisipality foreman and his team coming to have a second try on opening the water furrow running in front of my house, as their first try was not quite doing the thing. I watched from my little bench, drinking my tea, and again of course only one man worked while the others smoked, and watched, leaning on their spades. But after a while oom Vlei, who had gone off after unloading men and tools, came back, and after some talking, all got back onto the pick-up, and off they went.
Still a little while later I heard one heck of a racket, like some huge machine was trying to eat up my house, and on looking out, I found that it was an earth moving machine that was put to use in the furrow. The next moment a deluge of water stormed down to my house, and I ran to close my door, nearly bally drowned! Well, just about! The machine had destroyed the main waterpipe feeding all the homesteads down along the river, and as it was going down so steep, the water pressure was very strong.
There was a lot of screams, and a big commotion, and then oom Vlei who had just came, departed again, followed by the earth mover. And I was left without water. I dressed in clean clothes, ready to go up and complain, when back came oom Vlei, with the workers, and I thought they were going to fix the pipe. No such thing! They stood around, laughing and asking each other what the heck oompie Piet had done now again. Oompie Piet I supposed was the machine driver. Then all of them departed again, and down came the earth moving thing, and started gulping up huge mouth fulls of earth from the furrow, and spitting it out on the side of the road. I think that as the pipe did not look in a good condition anyway, oom Vlei had decided that while on the job, they might just as well make a good job of it.
I salvaged about a liter of water that trickled from the tap, and drank very little tea, so as to save my precious water. When my throat felt parched after about four hours of abstaining, and I was relishing a cuppa, I found that a cockroach had fallen into my remaining water. I have never ever before found a cockroach in my house, and where that thing came from, I will never know!
I tried the tap, and a cupful of water trickled into the kettle, and that was my last cuppa for hours, as the water came back on at about eight that night, after the pipes were fixed.

I woke up to a sun that was trying to peep through my window, and the birdsong was something to really get exited about, so I got up, although it wasn't even five yet, and baby Emil was still deep away in the land of dreams.
I had a very sad moment because of the baby the night before.His mother had made a shield for the cot to prevent him hurting against the wood, a beautiful padded one, and she had tied it on the top sport all around, and although I knew it needed a wash, I just couldn't untie it. But one by one the bows came undone, and with every one that came undone, I felt another pang, as that was done so lovingly by a mother for her baby. Last night the last one came undone, and it was as if the last bit of his mother had now gone from his life,and I just felt the tears rushing to my eyes, and a great sadness enveloped me. I stood for a long time looking at this baby that would never know his mother, and realized that the last bow becoming untied was to me a kind of greeting, and also for Emil.
I took my coffee outside to watch the birds doing their early morning things, and sat wondering what was to happen in our lives in the near future. Jan was talking about going back to Denmark, where having help with the kids was so much easier than here in South Africa. He was actually talking a lot about different plans, one other was to go and live in Capetown.
I was really worried about him, as he was becoming so thin he resembled a pencil stripe, and I knew he was suffering tremendously. Not only with the death of his wife, but Rene was also giving him a lot of problems with not being able to cope, and using computer games to escape from the grieve. But I was worried, as to me it seemed as if he was just too into that for his own good, but at the moment Jan could not cope properly with that.
Xmas was nearing, and the fruit was swelling beautifully, and I was looking forward to drying peaches and apricots in Jan's solar oven, as I read that it is masterly for that. It is a wonderful contraption, made of tin or something, with a  shiny alluminium interior, and a strong reflecting lid, that reflects the sun into the oven. He had made bread in it a few times now, and although it could be a bitty browner, it baked perfectly. I mean to get one for myself if I go to the place called Riversdale again, as that is where the guy making them stays.
I mean to can a lot of fruit with the minimum of sugar, as I have been using a lot of the fruit I canned during the last season in my smoothies in the morning. If the peacocks and the snails do not get to the ripe strawberries before me, I managed to get a handful every morning to supplement my smoothy, and I also use bananas and all the fresh fruit I can get in winter.
So I am looking forward to the fruit ripening, as there is nothing nicer than a peach or apricot, picked and eaten from the tree when it is still warm from the sun. Delicious! And my smoothies would be so much fresher!

The people in this village are really strange, not all of them, as I have met some good, hardworking families, but a lot of them just never do anything in or around their houses. In a lot of cases they will let the houses go to ruin, and when a wall gives, and tumbles down, they would just vacate that room, and live happily in the ones still standing, until it was impossible to go on.
There is one very quaint place in our main road, and every time I pass it, I expected another room to have caved in. It was a typical Haarlem built, one of the long ones, with the rooms all in a row, making it possible to rent it out as rooms, in which a whole family sometimes lived. This one, with one room already flattened, was recently painted a sickly pink, I suppose to cover the raw clay bricks, as the biggest reason for so many walls caving in was the exposed bricks, as nobody would ever replaster the walls, leaving everything open to the elements.
In Haarlem of course anything goes, and it looked quite beautiful, but at least they had stopped further damage, and hopefully the house stood for another few years. It is such a pity, as a lot of the houses are historical, and protected by the Cultural and Historical laws, but nothing is ever done to protect them.
The best one to me was still the orange house! Also on the main road, almost across from the pink house, a family had decided to renovate their little house, and I every time I passed there, I saw the guy and his son bussily working, and when I came back from Scotland that year, my eyes got a shock, not only for the reason that the house was beautifully restored, but the colour! It was painted a bright, bright kind of light burnt orange!
Gary had built up the caved-in wall of the old water mill, as the bodies responsible had never even tried to do anything to protect it, but the roof was stolen off, and it is now just a ruin, with the old mill open to the elements.
I think people saw me as one very mad and strange woman, as they would stop on passing by and I was busy painting, or patching up, or working in my garden, and just stood looking at me as if I was exhibit one!
Another house that was actually saved for a while, as the occupant had built up the fallen wall, and had lived in the semi ruin for quite a few years now. But on passing the other day, I saw that the wall, that was built up with pieces of bricks and stuff from another fallen house, had started to kind of lean dangerously to the outside. This was now propped up with a few poles, and the lot living there looked as happy as ever.
I was quite busy in my garden, and as Emil was so happy when outside, I parked his push cart in the shade every morning, and tried to get my veggie garden sorted. I was putting boxes down, with chicken wire underneath, as the bally moles were going crazy, and wherever I put my feet down, I sunk away into their tunnels. It was very frustrating, and I usually went quite beserk if I found my newly planted seedlings all wilted and no soil underneath them.

The heap of sand and stones outside the window was bothering me, so I pushed the baby out and parked him underneath the biggest tree, and that was not very big at all, but I wanted to lay a path with the stones. The path I had done before was just two row of stones, and I wanted to do the whole path, and the trouble was that I could only work till about half nine in the mornings, as by then the sun would be baking down mercilessly, sending the most hardened living things running for shade.
It was difficult with Emil, as actually the only time that I could do some work outside was when he was sleeping, but as he sleeps from ten to one at the moment, I had to take him out with me, and stop when the sun became scorching, or roast myself to an ugly looking red.
I was sweating, and cursing a wee bit, as some of the rocks were too big and heavy for me to get off the heap, and Emil thought it oh, so funny, gurgling with glee every time I spit out a few hard words. Would have to start watching my vocabulary, as he was getting big now, and I would not like his first word to be one of my favourite swear words.
After I had a good old struggle, of course coupled with a lot of grazes, and a few blue finger nails that ached like the blazes, I found that it was quite easy to let the rocks roll down the heap, if I first made a smooth path for it. Emil found it wonderful sports, and he was rocking wildly in his pushcart, laughing and screaming. He was such a lovely little thing, and the fact that he hardly ever cried made him very easy to bring up, well, if one forget about his little temper! But he only revolted when he couldn't get his bottle immediately.
I was really giving my all, and tried to forget my aching and wounded hands, and also my left foot's big toe that somehow got underneath a rolling rock, and I was too scared to look, as I thought it could be broken, as it was aching like the blazes.
My eagerness for the job was abruptly stopped when I took out another huge boulder, and there sat a big, green and white frog. The poor thing must have been in a deep sleep, as he sat for a moment with his eyes closed, while I watched closely in case he was disorientated, and decided to jump, and jumped onto me by mistake. I was definitely not scared of frogs, having a whole army as unwelcome house guests, but a frog jumping on me was a no-no.
But this poor frog opened his eyes after a moment, and looked intently at me with two black myopic eyes, as if to ask: 'What are you doing to my house?' That was the end of my day's work, as I just did not have the heart to destroy the frog's house, so I took baby, and retired for the day. I would maybe be more remorseless on another day!

Baby Emil and Andreas were doing well, but Jan and Rene was struggling to come to terms with Nina's death. Jan was not himself, and I could see that his work was suffering, and when he told me that his partner Mark was worried because he didn't get any further with his work, and I spoke to him about it, he told me that he was not interested in where the company went. That was so unlike him, as he is a meticulous person, both in his private life and his work.

He is a chemical engineer, who is an expert on bio-gas, and also water cleaning, but the bio-gas is his big interest, and he had already spoken all over the world at seminars, and just loved to talk about his work.so this kind of lethargy was strange to me, but I also had to take into consideration his loss. On the other hand, he had three kids to provide for, and that in South Africa is expensive, specially because when going to high school, they have to board.
Time was going on, and Emil was growing very fast. I put him on his stomach, with a toy just out of his

reach, and he was trying very hard to get to it, but kept on going backwards instead of forward, and landed underneath the chair behind him constantly, and from there he would put up a racket that make me run at full speed to rescue the wee one.
He was an amazing child, and as I said to my friend Louise, God was kind, and knew what he was doing, as the little one had one tooth after the other without any fever, or ear-ache, or crying. Also, he never moaned to go to sleep, just drank his bottle, and when I put him in the cot, he would smile while I cover him, and nothing was heard from him till six in the morning.
But he had quite a temper, and I dared not let him see his bottle, and maybe found it to warm, and then take it away to cool down more! He would scrunch up his little face, and screamed so loudly and lustily, that he would go blue in the face. Gave me a scare in the beginning, but I just laughed at him, and told him calmly that his bottle was too warm. Of course he didn't understand, but as time went on, he realized that the bottle would actually come back again.
It was now nearing the end of October, and the temperatures were lifting, and it was quite pleasant during the day, although the nights were still very cold. But the roads were lined with German Camomile, that was brought here by the missionaries from Germany, and it was an amazing sight and I meant to harvest quite a lot this year. Before I was never back in time from Scotland, as I went to visit my sister and daughter Trienkie before coming home.The previous years my whole place was covered with the Camomile, albeit a wee bit dead by the time I came home, but this year the kikuju grass had taken over everything because of the lot of rain we had., but luckily the cattle and horses graze away on the grass growing oalong the road, leaving the Camimile to flourish.

In due course Jan found some time to help me with installing the washing machine, and from then on things looked a lot brighter.
The bathroom floor had still to be done, so once all was installed, joined, and working, I redid it, and it was such a good feeling.
A new problem had now stuck out its head in the form of water syphering through from the road, and down to the bottom part, and the walls first started showing signs of damp. I went up to the munisipality offices to complain, as the little furrow running down passed my house got blocked just before going underneath the road across from my house, and as it on public property, it is the responsibility of the munisipality to keep it open. I have tried before, as they never appeared the previous time I complained, but as a lot of soil gets washed down and pack solidly in front of the hole, I was not very successful.
Oom Vlei, the bloke who was the master of the works came to have a look, and sent down a group of workers to open up the furrow. When the furrow's inlet on the other side of the road is blocked, the water can't get through and run away down to the river, and it accumellates on the side of the road, from where it then drains down to my bottom room, as there is a steep fall down to the river.
It was wonderful to watch the guys work. I don't know if in other countries the same method of working applies, but in South Africa, specially workers from the munisipality have their own special way of doing things. One bloke will work his butt of, while the others stand leaning on their assorted tools, and if no handy leaning-on tool is available, they would either lean against the closest tree, wall, or fence.
What is so strange about this, is like I said, this method of working happens mostly in the munisipality, and what to me is just absolutely amazing, is that it doesn't happen only in one town or area, but all over South Africa.
As there was just too much water coming down, and the furrow running down was too shallow, a lot of water started leaking into my garden, and I went to complain again. Nothing was done, and then Bush told me that the gadget closing off Danny's water was broken, so I went to have a look, and found the pipe and the gadget that was inside the bigger furrow coming down rom the mountain, all broken. I again went to complain, and when after a month nothing was done, I complained again, and then went to see Gary, my neighbor, who had some doings with the water supply.
He phoned Oom Vlei, and some hard words fell, but nothing was done, and when I complained again, I was told that there was no money to buy the gadget, and I wanted to laugh hysterically. So Jan fixed it temporally, and for some time my place was a bit drier, although my almond and lemon trees had died from too much water, as the whole area was now soggy.

With the floor painted in a much lighter colour than before, the sittingroom looked bright and cheery, and I was really pleased with it.

But Jan was away a lot with their newly won project, and just never got so far as to fix my pipes, and I was later quite disheartened, as there was no water in the bathroom, except for the toilet.

So one morning when I was again carrying water down to take a bath, I decided that I had enough, and would rejoin the water pipes myself, and shift the washing machine, and fix the brackets on the wall for the hand basin.

I had a good look at where and how, but as I did not have the right tools I had to ask Jan for his, and he was a bitty embarrassed, and told me that he would just finish a telephonic meeting with the clients, and then he would definitily come over and do it. I told him that I had a good look, and I was quite sure that I could do it myself, but he was adamant. I knew how busy he was at the moment, but on reflection, and remembering when I had put the gadget for the washing machine's connection in, with the plentifull runs up and down to close the main supply, when the thing kept on jumping off, so I said yes gracefully, and went back to wait. 

While waiting, and trying to re-arrange the furniture to a practical state, I got a brilliant idea. I had an old washing table from Irma when they moved, and had a bowl and beaker that I had made in pottery class years ago on it, and trying to find a space for it, I was hit by the most brilliant idea. Instead of fixing the brackets for the basin, I tried the basin into the hole of the little table, and voila, it was a perfect fit!

Jan was also impressed with this, as I would have struggled to fit everything in nicely and practically, and I wouldn't have liked to get rid of the antique little table, as I loved it so much.
He later came over with his tools, and it took him the whole afternoon to sort everything out, and connect the pipes.
It was wonderful to have water in my bathroom again, and that night I lay for a long time in a bubble bath, just my eyes and nose sticking out. The bath is very old, and very green, and very ugly, but it was the longest bath I had ever had a bath in, and as I am tall, I kept it, closing my eyes to the colour. But I had mixed the same kind of green and applied touches of that colour to the floor, and painted the bottom part of the wall in it, and now it doesn't look quite so bad!
but the washing machine was still to be positioned and the drain pipe connected, but at least there was movement, and I could shower or bath again.

I had decided to colourwash the walls lightly to hide all the bad places, as it is a wonderful camouflage for walls that were fixed by the likes of self! Definitely no expert! It looked really good, and I had just finished with that when Jan returned from Johannesburg, and he could take the baby for a while so that I could repaint the floors, as I did not like to expose his little lungs to any fumes, although as I used a waterbased paint and varnish, it wasn't too bad.
My room looked stunning, and I was very pleased with it, but what I appreciated most was the fact that I did not have to sprint down to the bathroom in the freezing cold.
I couldn't decide what to do with the steps going down to the bathroom. The two top ones were just cement, while the bottom ones were bricks, and I hovered between just varnishing it, or tile it, maybe doing some mosaic.
As my house was known to the locals as the Snake house, they believing that a big snake lived in my roof, I decided on a bit of fun, and painted a snake crawling up the stairs, so that if someone try to burgle me, they would think it was a real snake, and take off without taking my stuff. That was just for the interim, while I try to decide what to do.It was such a good thing that someone had started the rumour about the snake, as my house stood alone for six to eight months every year, and nobody had ever touched it.Yet.
As there were lots of burglaries around, I was actually extremely fortunate.
We have this druglord called Zjivago living in Haarlem, and he gets the kids onto drugs, and then sends them out to burgle houses in order to obtain drugs. The most horrid stories went around about this man, and I was sure he was behind all the nonsense, as he was in jail for about five years, and the drug problem was a lot better, and there was also a lot less burglaries.Now that he is free again, there is a lot of problems, and a story went around that a house that burned down killing parents and two kids, was him taking revenge
But our policemen were so corrupt, and the people tell me that they have seen the police bringing alcohol to the shebeens on Sundays when they had run out. Shebeens are illegal drinking houses, usually in somebody's house, and according to Charmaine, there was about twenty one shebeens in the little village with not more than maybe  two and a half thousand people.

It was quite a lot of work to fix the floor again, as it meant a few days spent on my knees, and me not exactly a spring chicken anymore, by the end of the first day, when I had filled all the holes with tile cement, they were red and swollen. The next day I could take a bit of a breather, as the cement wasn't quite dry, and as the bathroom floor was also damaged, I started sanding it down to be re-painted. The guys had mixed cement on the floor I think, as the paint had lifted, but at least no rocks were dropped on it.
As Jan had to go to Johannesburg again, I was left with the two kids, and no water in the bathroom, as the pipes were not connected yet. What a botheration, as I had to take the children over to their own house for a bath, and as it was so bitterly cold, it was not quite an idillic time for me or the kids.
When Jan came back Andreas went to have his casts removed, and he cried hysterically when he saw his thin arm and leg, and was miserable for about two days, not believing that it will ever come right again.
The winter holidays had now come to a close, and the two boys had to go back to school, Rene to boarding school in George. Andreas went with the little school bus, and had to be taken to the busstop before seven, when it was the coldest part of the morning, and when Jan was away it was quite an operation to get the baby in the car without him freezing, but I had found that one can always find a way to manage.
The people in Haarlem was wonderful during this time of stress, and some came regularly to see that I was okay with the kids when Jan was away.

There was this one delightful old lady, who told me she was going on for eighty nine, who regularly walked down from her house, about two kilometers up the road, to come and see how we were. I asked her in for a cuppa every time, but she always declined, until this day, when she said she would be glad for something to wet her dry tongue. She sat on the point of the chair, and looked at me without her eyes wavering once from the minute I put the tea down, then she took the cup and holding it oh, so daintily, she took small, elegant sips. I was entranced by her, as one just couldn't make out one special feature on her face, the wrinkles curling like small snakes all around her face, and her toothless mouth almost completely obscured by her chin! I thought her amazing.When taking sips of tea, her top lip would first emerge from somewhere between the chin and her nose, then the bottom one would peep out, and they would both disappear the moment she had taken a sip of her tea!
I had decided to re-paint all the walls in the almost destroyed room with the new door, so I put baby in the stroller to watch me, and he was quite happy for a while. He loved being outside, so when it was a nice day, I put him amongst my flowers, where he would sit gurgling for quite some time before starting to moan.
But with Jan away so much, it wasn't always so easy to do my reparation work, and it went much too slow for my very impatient nature.

What should have taken just one week, took three weeks in the end, due to my builders's complaints about their backs after again not appearing the next Monday and Tuesday. But when they had the opening done to the height of my hand basin, we found that they had their calculations wrong, and the basin had to be shifted to another wall altogether.
It was quite inconvenient, as everything was fitted in so neatly, and I was a bitty sour because I had asked them how many times about the position of the opening in relation to the shower wall and the basin, and I was assured over and over that they do not make mistakes. They were like two schoolboys caught out in doing some mischief, explaining with wildly rolling eyes that because of the huge stones they went a bit off target, but I did not buy that, as when the drew the lines of where the opening should be, I already had my doubts, and told them so.
So they removed the basin, and Jan promised to fix it for me, but that meant that the washing machine's draining pipe had to be moved, and also, with the basin's pipes that was connected to the shower, all the pipes had to be redone! What a botheration, and all could have been avoided.
The next step was to built the steps, as the bathroom and adjoining bedroom. was about half a meter lower than the rest of the house.
But they did finish, albeit after two weeks more than was neccessary, but I was glad when at last they started on the plastering, but had to laugh at the main man's idea of nice. As the house is so old, and was so neglected through many years, and most of the plaster was patched up by me, with plenty of mishaps, said walls were not what could be called a nicely finished bit of plastering.But my builder thought it very nice, and told me that as the rest of the wall was kind of done in Spanish style plaster, he would do the parts he had to plaster in the same way. Sweet!
I was elated when I paid them their last wages due, as I couldn't wait to start cleaning up the mess. The whole room was covered in about three inches of dust from the grinder, and the other room, although not too bad, had also to be cleaned from top to bottom.Only when I had cleaned the floors did I see how they had ruined my floors, but as I knew what a heavy job it was, I just shrugged and started fixing the holes made I suppose by rocks that slipped from their hands. Luckily my floors are all cement, painted and varnished, so the damage was not too severe.

Slowly but surely the hole became bigger, and the two builders shakier. I don't think they had thought that the wall was that thick, and the heap of stones building up outside the window was becoming like a small mountain. But they manfully struggled on, and when Friday came they were eager to get paid for the week, and make for the liquor shop, to get a 'papsak', that is a kind of a tinfoil, but not quite so easy to tear, bag that holds three liters of wine, cheap and deadly for the normal stomach, but they were so well seasoned that they just get very happy.
I asked them if I will see them on Monday, and both immediately became very shy, and like two naughty schoolboys, stood scratching the ground with the toes of their shoes, and looking well passed my eyes, they very solomnly promised that I will not be disappointed, as they meant to be in on Monday. Of course I had no hope of them being fit  to come in, and after they worked for Jan, and wasn't at work on any one Monday, I just laughed and told them not to drink out their children's food money, and have a good rest, and to go slow on the pot.
Almost all of the men smoke pot, but it is just one of those things, and as long as there is no stronger drugs involved, we except it, as that is so much part of their life.
It was a week-end from hell, as the house was so dusty, and I had to clamber over the furniture to get to my television, but Jan came and brought it into the front room. Nice.
On Monday there of course was no sign of the two, neither was there on Tuesday. On Wednesday I was just starting to give up hope, and did a bit of quiet swearing, when I saw the two come ambling down the road, both a little bent, and both looking well under the weather. They looked at me with yellow miopic eyes, and explained with much gusto that the stones they had taken out the previous week had buggered their backs, and on saying this they got a bitty more bent-up, and, they groaned, that is why they were absent the first two days of the week.When I told them that they looked a bitty sozzled still, they sagged even more, and said that they had to take in a lot of wine before the back aches were feeling better, and I did believe them, about the back aches, as the stones they had taken out were enormous.
I made them a strong coffee, and they sat outside on my little bench, lamenting in whining voices about their poor backs, but as the biggest stones were already out, I turned a deaf ear, and before long the two were working away quite happily.
The picture is of the heap of stones, now much deminished, and overgrown, as I had laid a garden path with most of it.

As I was dying from hayfever, and needed a gasmask to go into my house, with the two builders grinding away with gusto, I cladded myself with about five layers of clothing, as it was freezingly cold outside, and sat down in Charmaine and my lean-to that we had put up on the back of the house. I had started a painting of Irma's cat Nina some time ago, but with bringing up baby, and helping to pick up the pieces of my son and his family's broken lives, I had almost put it on the never-never. But things were a wee bit brighter , and as the baby had to stay with his dad while the grinding goes on, and finding myself with nothing to do, I thought it a good idea to finish said painting.
At last all the stones that had to come out were exposed, and I was alarmed at the size of most of it, and had grave doubts of this two men actually finishing the job.
But, I underestimated their wine and pot beleaguered bodies, as after some hard chipping around one enormous stone, it was ready to come out, and with bodies almost doubled up, and legs shivering like jellies, they managed to get it out, and carried it out and onto my front lawn. After that they asked for coffee, and sat down under the Oak, and soon the overwhelming smell of their pot blew downhill, and into my nostrils.
It was very difficult to carry the large stones through the house, so we decided that they would take the window in that room out, and shove everything through there. Then he had to first put in a lintil where the stone was taken out, so they chipped away the mortar to the sides, which was at the height of where the top of the door would be.
I was beginning to have a thin ray of hope, as at least, if they couldn't go any further, I thought I could put ladders on both sides and crawl through to the bathroom! Joke!
On Friday when they finished for the week-end, the hole was big enough for me to actually walk into the bathroom, but I was too scared in case the whole kaboedel collapsed onto my head. So I still did my running up and down in the freezing cold, but knowing that after all this time my lavvy and bathroom would actually be part of my house, made this just a wee bitty better.
The top picture is of the giant old Oak under which my two builders had their pot smoking sessions daily, the other one is of my painting that is still not completely finished.

Knowing from experience on just how hard the plastering was, I did not envy Johnny's helper, whose name I never managed to catch, his job of chipping it off the stones. I have tried umpteen times to drill holes to put up some paintings, without success, as I think the plaster was just as hard as the stones itself. But he manfully laboured on with Johnny watching him like a hawk, very cool and calm, why his labourer sweated and suffered.
But after the first morning had passed, without much of and indent into the plaster, the two sat conferring under the oak tree, and as the wind blew strong smells of pot down to my house, I knew that they were indulging in a favourite passtime of a lot of villagers, and only hoped that Johnny would have the guts after inhaling this to help the other one, as it was indeed backbreaking work.
But after lunchtime none of the two were any good, and although their spirits were sky high, and they talked and laughed a lot, not much was accomplished, and I was starting to think about also having them in the mornings only.
The second morning things looked bad, as the plaster was like rock, so Johnny said he would ask Jan for his big electric grinder, and he would try to first get some starting place from where they could then do the chipping. I ran for old bed sheets and plastic building sheets to cover my furniture, as this grinder made one big cloud of dust. I also took baby Emil over to Jan, as it was impossible to keep him with me, as he was already sneezing and wheezing, and they had only started.
It wasn't long before everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, including the two builders, who looked very strange with their tight curls all grey, and their yellow eyeballs peeping from between their powdered lashes.
The grinder was a big help, and it wasn't long before the stones became exposed, and I started having doubts of this two slightly built men getting the huge boulders out.
When lunchtime came I made them a good lunch, and some strong and sweet coffee, and told them not to smoke such a lot of pot, as I was not going to pay for them having a social afternoon while the work didn't get any further.
The rocks in the pictures were the first to come out, and I stated making a rockery, as I could not move it from where the two men had put it.

It needs a lot of patience if you employ one of our villagers, as about eighty percent of them just never turn up on a Monday for work, and it was the same with Johnny and his helper. And because Jan refused to let them work after lunch, it took a few days for them to finish, and he then told me that they were busy the rest of the week, but will be at their post on Monday.
Of course Monday came and went, and when he came on Tuesday, with his helper in tow, both looking well under the weather, I couldn't think that they would do a lot that day. As they had to start taking out the huge rocks to make an opening in the half meter thick wall, I waited in awe to see how they would manage, as I think their heads must have been pounding from overindulging the whole week-end. They had to be very careful, as one wrong move, and the huge rocks might start tumbling down.
Karel, Irma's husband's parents came to visit the previous year, and he is an architect, who looked at the wall to be opened up, and said that the rocks would have to be taken out in a kind of a bow, with the rounded side looking upwards, and that would prevent the rocks from falling, which made very good sense.
I tried to tell my builder what I was adviced, but he immediately took great exception to this white woman who wanted to tell him how to do his work, and I decided to stand back and watch the proceedings with hawks eyes.
First he and his helper had to empty the room, he said, as it would be very dusty, and they needed space to perform in. Then they both stood looking at the wall for about half an hour, and I just wanted to help them get going, as I was to pay for every minute they spent on the job. On the other side of the wall was the bathroom, with the shower on the one side, and the hand basin on the other side of that wall. I told them to do their measuring well, as the door would be between the shower and the basin, with little space for error, as I was not up for moving either the shower walls, or the basin, but, I said, rather the basin than the shower.
I was assured that they had done all the neccesary calculations and measurings, and they knew exactly where the opening should be!
At last they were ready to get going, and the builder got his helper to start chipping away the plastering while he stood looking on with great interest, and I just looked on in dismay, as I was not too sure about their calculations.
Baby Emil was highly entertained by all this, and he lay watching all this from the front room with much interest, but I knew that he had to stay with his dad once the real work began.

Baby Emil was becoming a delightful wee thing, very friendly, and smiled a lot. But oh my, I dared not show him his bottle before it was absolutely ready, as when he had a glimpse of it, and I decided it was maybe a little warm, he would scream himself blue in the face, and I could see that he was born with a bit of a temper!
It was the first winter I have spent in my house, and it was hellishly cold, as the doors and windows all had gaps as the house was very old, and maybe the walls have sunk a bitty through the years, and now everything was a bitty scew. As I had to go out and run the length of the house to go for a shower or use the toilet, it soon became apparent that I would need to have a door put in between the old part and the newer built.
But to try and somebody who had the nerve to tackle this job was a bit of a problem, as the stone walls were about half a meter thick, and as the house was so old, they were all scared that the wall would cave in, seeing that the stones was enormous.
During this time Jan got a builder called Johnny, who was going to built up half of his stoep (veranda). In due time Johnny and his helper, one of the Kampang youngsters arrived, and it seemed that they were both good builders. I think Johnny's helper knew quite a bit more than himself, but as he was not an over intelligent young man, he took Johnny's orders in his stride, and did all the hardest and most mundane jobs, while Johnny waved the septer.
It soon became clear that up to lunchtime the building went well, and the walls were perfectly straight, but after lunch everything went haywire, and Jan was aghast when he took a smokebreak and had a look at the new wall, to find it leaning dangerously to one side. Johnny and helper were both two different beings from the pre-lunch guys, talking and laughing a lot. I knew they were smoking pot, as they sat under the old oak tree across the road, and the aroma that blew to my house was pungent and very recognizable! He told them to take down the wall to where it started going scew, and they were both very indignant, walking up and down the stairs to see what Jan meant.
By the time they had that done, it was tjaila time (stop), and they went home looking quite upset, not laughing so much anymore.
The next morning they were both quiet again, and just got on with the job. The bit that they did before lunch again was perfectly straight, but after lunch the same thing happened, and the wall resembled the tower of Pisa, and the two builders were as happy as larks again.
So Jan got tired after the third day, as he had to pay them for the full day, and it took them half a day to break down their mess, and he told them that from now on, they will work only till lunch time, and come back in the morning, and the two mornings would count as one full day!
I asked Johnny whether he could see his way open to do my door, and he had a good look, looked at his helper for support, and the helper shook his head up and down, and it was decided that after Jan's walls were done, they would tackle my problem!

Goodbye to Kevin Bacon

It was sheer bliss not to worry about Kevin Bacon anymore, but I must say, I felt a pinch of sadness when two days later the woman came back, delivering the poor Kevin in neatly cut and bagged portions. 1 remembered the beautiful little piglet, who so enjoyed his bottle, and gorged himself to death's door on overripe apricots. But life is life, and he was raised to be slaughtered. I must say, when Jan asked me over to dine, and I got a pork chop on my plate, I was feeling a bitty strange, and realised that Jan, Rene and Andreas was also a bitty slow to start on the beautifully fried meat. But I am not a very queezy kind of person, and after I had put the first mouthful into my mouth, and it tasted so good, I ate away quite heartily.
Jan went to Johannesburg after a few days, and I was left with the kids, who, Rene excluded, was no problem at all. Rene was in a very difficult place, and would not get himself out of his room, where he played computer games from morning till night. 1 left him to it, as it is no small thing to loose your mother, and as he was now seventeen years old, it was really hard on him.
But after a few days I decided that he could help a little bit with the dog, as I had to leave the other two when one of the villagers came to tell me that he was reeking havock somewhere, and I had to go and see what was up. Jan had spent another full day on trying to make the fence Mobi proof, but it took the dog only half a day to find a way out.
The villagers were by now very fed up with the dog, who was just not the type of dog to be let loose between them, and I had to explain over and over again that the dog was leaving when Jan came back.
It was quite challenging to the nerves, as Mobi would come home at about five, have his dinner, and I would try and mend his escape hole, but he would quickly find another weak spot, and took to the road, his nose to the ground. Then at about two in the morning he would come back, and as he never managed to find his escape hole again from the outside, he would sit at my gate and howl.
When Jan came back he started phoning around to try and find a new home that was suitable for Mobi, as he was just not born to be a pet, and he never bonded with one of us, only coming home to eat, but never lying quietly close to somebody. Jan had read up on the internet about Bloodhounds, and apparently they are working dogs, and do not make good pets.
After some time he did find somebody, and we all shed a few tears, I don't know whether from sadness or relieve, but I think it was both!

Jan informed me that he had to go to Johannesburg again for his work shortly, and would be away for three days, and I point blankely refused to look after his animals again, as the ten days just spent racing after the errant dog, the villagers's threats and entreaties, and the bally pig that wanted to chew me up, I just did not see my way open!
So Jan very hastily started phoning around for somebody to slaughter the pig, and the next day a small truck arrived, loaded with another pig and two sheep, all to be slaughtered. The woman who came, a big busted, big armed, and heavy legged kind of an Amazon, was very business like, and on me telling her that Kevin Bacon was one devilishly rude and nasty pig, she looked at me as if she found me extremely silly, and with a stride that would put any army sargeant major to shame, she made her way to Kevin's sty with a very thin looking rope.
Of course Kevin started squealing immediately she tried to put the rope around his neck, telling Jan that pigs are quite docile once she had done her magic! Not so our dear Kevin, who must have realized that his last hours had come poor thing, and he just sat down on his haunches, and started squealing like he was put into a bally torture chamber, or a bath of boiling water before he was killed.
The Amazon neatly threw her knotted rope around Kevin's head, then pulled and squealed almost as loudly as the pig, and when she could not even move the pig, she put her fingers to her lips, and gave one hellish whistle that brought the man standing at the truck to help load the pig running like an Olympic sprinter, and she told him to get into the sty and help her pull. The poor man, who was quite lightly built, was not amused, and he stood trembling outside the gate watching the long yellow teeth that stuck out from Kevin's screaming mouth. But our man was more afraid of the Amazon, as when she let rip with some pretty harsh words, he went to her side, where the two of them made no headway with the pig, and after a while, with sweat dripping from her forehead, she gave up and looked at Jan for suggestions.
He looked quite blank, so I suggested some food, but, I said, I didn't know if it was a good idea, and told her about Kevin biting me to get to the bowl. The lady was all fired up again, and Jan fetched a blue plastic bucket with food, and the Woman then told the man to take the rope, and she would walk ahead with the food! Of course I knew what a bally gluttonous monster Kevin was, and the three did not get far when Kevin decided that he wanted the food NOW, and started running, making his leader jump about six feet before letting go of the rope and taking to his heels!
The woman was staunch, and held the bucket just high enough for Kevin to smell the food inside, but of course, although she proclaimed herself well known with pigs and their ways, she never met the likes of Kevin, who opened his mouth wide and bit her on the thigh, same as he did me, and she dropped the bucket, and Kevin had a feast while she stood howling like a lone wolf!
After the pig cleaned out the bucket, he gave a satisfied grunt, and walked calmly up to a very bemused Jan, who stood like a statue, I think for the first time realizing what I went through. Jan got out of his trance, and told the by now heavily traumatized woman that maybe he should lead his pig to the truck, and try to get him to walk up the ramp, and none of us was unmoved when the pig followed Jan up to the truck, and then up the ramp. I was immensely glad to see the last of the now nicely boxed in Kevin Bacon!

At last I had managed to secure the fence so that the bally pig was trapped inside his pen, and when I woke up and could hardly move because I was stiff all over, and my poor muscles ached like the devil, I took that in my stride, as at least one of my charges were taken care of.
When Jan came home later that Friday morning he was hugged like I do not believe he was hugged even as a baby, as I was sure glad to see him! Both he and Rene looked a lot more at one with the world, and he even laughed out loud when I described my woes in looking after his wayward animals to him.
But when he told me later that both in Denmark, Holland and Germany there were cases where pig owners went missing, and on further inspection, was found killed and eaten by their pigs, I told him that I had all along said that Kevin Bacon was a man-eater, and although he laughed, I was still sure that if that pig had half a chance, he would have snacked on me!
Later Peter, his friend who knew a lot about pigs, said that if a certain breed of pig draws blood, they go crazy, and would definitely kill. However, I told him that I would not look after the pig, or go into his yard again to feed the other animals when he went to Johannesburg, as it was a ghastly ten days, caring for the kids and the wayward animals!
It was bitterly cold, and my house that is a blessing in the summer because the walls are about half a meter thick, and with the thatched roof, it was cool inside when the rest of the country fried, is a bally freezer in the winter. I walk around most of the time with a top, two jerseys and a jacket, and still freezing, even with my sheepskin moccassins that reached up to my knees, and woolen socks underneath that.The thing is, in South Africa we do not have central heating, or any kind of heating, and as our new government had not made provision for the growth of the nation, power bills had rocketed as they needed extra money to improvise,

and that at great cost to us.
I kept a hot water bag in the baby's cot, and a hat on his head, and I think he was reasonably comfortable. I also had a fire going most of the time, and sat in front of the fireplace when feeding him, but the stretch between his six o'clock and ten o'clock feed seemed endless, and all I yearned for was to get into my bed with my own hot water bag, that being the only time I defrosted, but I didn't want to fall asleep, as it is difficult for me to drop off again after being woken!
It became unbearably cold as the winter drew on, and the baby was not sleeping well, so after some consideration I decided to put the heater on at night, and be darned with saving power. he immediately started sleeping better, and so did I, as his cot was in my bedroom. During the day it became quite pleasant if it wasn't raining, but this year the heavens had decided to give back the rain that was withheld during the dry summer months, and it sometimes rained for days on end.

That night when the kids were asleep and I went for a well deserved shower, I found that my thigh where Kevin Bacon had bitten me, was pimpel en pers (black and blue), and I vowed that the bally pig could do what ever it wanted to, and I would even open the gate into the road for him, but try and lure him back if he got out again was a no-no!
Luckily Jan was coming back the next day, and I thought it not one day too soon, or I will be tottering around like a hundred year old from pure exhaustion! My body did take a knock with carrying all that heavy stuff to try and secure the fence around Kevin's pen, and on top of that I was a nervous wreck. With all the stress and heart ache of the previous month, I was surprised that I was still on both my legs, as sometimes things would get a bitty too much, and the tears would flow, and this woman would feel very sorry for herself.
I was nicely trapped, as I knew that I would definitely not be able to go back to Scotland, and with Jan having to go to Johannesburg a lot for his work, I was in the middle, and would just have to help. Not that I minded, but as I was not feeling all that strong at the moment, it did make for a bit of a black outlook!
But first I had to go to Capetown to the heart devision of the Tygerberg hospital. I was scared, as the most horrible stories about our state hospitals were told, and I knew that it was not the best place to go, but I was told that the Western Cape's hospitals were well run.
I had the funniest experience, well in retrospect of course, as it was definitely not funny at the moment, when I had to go on the treadmill. The thing started off slowly, and was put faster and faster, and I was becoming more and more like a limp doll, clinging to the side bars to stay upright, while waves of black mistyness came and went, making me a bitty apprehensive for my life, but I tried valiantly to stay upright and conscious!

The woman in charge of the machine told me in stern tones to leave the bars alone, as that was only for balance, so I tried, but immediately felt myself going down in a black nothingness, so I grabbed the rails again, and faintly heard the woman say: 'Please mrs du Preez, stop hanging onto the bars, I can't get the right reading', but I just slid deeper and deeper into the blackness. At that stage I think she might have realized that something was terribly wrong, and stopped the machine to take my blood pressure.
I faintly heard her say: Oh my God', then she dragged me to the bed, and yelled for a doctor, but at this stage I couldn't care,  feeling very bad indeed, but started to feel a bit better after a few minutes. Apparently my blood pressure, instead of going up with the running, had dropped completely!
I was medicated, what with I didn't know, and sent back to the ward!
They found that my heart was okay, but very irregular, that my arteries were not too bad, but said that I had to go on medication to make my heart beat slower, and also on wafarin, as I was at high risk for a stroke!
So I went home where Jan was struggling terribly, as the temperature was about nil every morning, and he had to take the baby with when he took Andreas to the busstop.

Can't say that the courage was at all high enough to pull me through the next episode in this horror story, but after telling Andreas to phone Gary if I screamed too much, not telling him the real reason of me being scared of becoming Kevin's dinner, but said that I might then need help with some heavy stuff.
Once through Jan's gate to the yard, it wasn't far to Kevin's gate, so I thought that I would just wave the bowl in front of his nose, do a bit of sprightly sprinting, shuff the bowl into the sty, all this before Kevin could catch up with me. But I underestimated Kevin's speed, and I wasn't even halfway when he was at my heels, grunting and wheezing, and then he made a grab for the bowl. But I was not giving it to him, so I tried to increase my speed, and I just saw this ugly thing again bare his yellow teeth, and this time he bit me on my thigh, and when I just kept on running, he came up to me and tried again to grab the bowl from my hands.
I had only one thing on my mind, and that was to get the man eater into his sty, but he bit me again on my thigh, and I took a giant bally leap, and landed at the gate, almost throwing the bowl through the gate! Luckily the pig had only the food on his mind, and he passed the heavily panting me with great speed, and into the pen! I was very quick in slamming the gate shut, and just sat for a while, being very glad that the pig's teeth didn't penetrate my sturdy jeans, but it was painful nevertheless!
I had decided that if the pig got out again, I was going to open the gate into the road, and hope that the villagers would slaughter him!I just couldn't believe that the beautiful pink little piglet could grow into such a gluttonous monster, although I didn't really think that he was going to eat me, but one never knew.
Andreas was almost hysterical when I got back to the house, but I was so stressed out that I was quite short with him, regretting it almost immediately, and gave him a big hug, and made us a cuppa. He just loved his tea, and although I knew I should probably have given him some Rooibos, a herbal tea that grew only in some places in South Africa, the time was not ripe yet to go back to being completely normal.
Mobi came home for his dinner, and the bally dog did not even looked as if he was sorry for having eaten up Andreas's school shoes earlier, and took off again the moment his food was finished, Bloodhounds are really not pets, as Mobi never really bonded with anybody so far, and I think it was the absolute wrong dog for the family.

I spent the next couple of hours gathering rocks, heavy pieces of wood, and iron, and everything I could find to pack right around the pig's pen. I was amazed to see Kevin Bacon lift the iron safety door so easily, and knew I had to just keep that pig in for two more days, when Jan would be back.
I was starting to wonder if he could maybe miss his people, as he had only once before came out, and that was only because Mobi had made a nice big hole in the fence. But this time he was adamant to come out, and went to great trouble to lift and push away all the barriers I had gathered to fortify the fence with.
My hands joints were aching from carrying all that heavy rocks that I fouund lying along the road where the scraper had pushed them, and my hands were rough and full of cuts when at last I had managed to pack huge stones all along the fence. Inbetween this I had to tend to the baby, as Andreas kept on waking him with his screaming, pacify the child who was so scared that I would also go away and leave him, and above this I had to cope with the irate villagers who kept on bringing Mobi back. My nerves were worn very thin indeed, so I looked for Mobi's leash and tied him to a pole in front of my house, where I could keep an eye on him, and hoped that the rope would keep him in for a little while.
So after dashing up to my house to see that baby Emil was ok, and to hug Andreas and tell him to keep an eye on Mobi, just to take his mind of being alone while I finished my mammoth job, and at last satisfied that a bally elephant would not get out of the sty, I went home to have a rest before tackling the task of getting the pig back in.
There was no sign of Mobi, the rope lying chewed off on the concrete, and poor Andreas was crying his heart out because he couldn't stop him! So I had to first sit with him for a while until he had calmed down, then I had a strong cuppa before I mixed some veggies and rice that I had cooked the day before, and I tried very hard to get up the courage to get the pig, who was still reeking devastation in Jan's veggie garden back in.
I had decided not to try and lure Kevin into his sty by holding the bowl of food under his nose, as I would be in Jan's yard where I had no hope of running if the pig tried to bite me again,there being too many trees and plants. So I went around the sty to the bottom, and stood on the outside, calling for Kevin to come and have his lovely dinner in the nicest voice I could conjure up at that stage. As I was out of Andreas's eyesight, he had started yelling and crying again, and I just started crying myself as well, and couldn't stop.
I think all the misery of the past four weeks just erupted!
The bally pig had decided to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to my callings, as he was having the time of his life destroying Jan's garden, and I wanted him back in before nothing was left, and on top of that, I had to feed the other animals.After I had made myself just about voiceless with calling for the 'dear piggy' to come see what lovely fare I had, it dawned on me that I would have to after all go into the yard, and lure him with the bowl of food again!So after having given the baby his bottle,  I had another cuppa while building up courage!!

Once the pig had found that he could actually use his snout to lift the stuff that I had been carting up, he had a jolly old time, as he now made openings for him to escape out of the yard. I felt that I was running in circles, as between all my charges, I had no time for anything else.
I thought about Scotland, where I worked very hard, but when I was finished, I rested in peace, something that was not possible at this stage.
I didn't know what else to do, as I had collected just about everything that looked promising to block the pig from escaping. And in the meantime I had posse after posse of villagers bringing Mobi back, mostly with a rope that almost strangled him around his neck.
It had stopped raining, but as it was now mid winter,it was bitterly cold, with thick frost covering the area every morning. The fact that I didn't have a winter for the past eleven years did nothing to help me cope with the cold, and with all the running around outside I was half frozen most of the time.
Earlier I had boiled some rice and veggies for Kevin Bacon, and as I walked out to feed him that as a snack, I found him happilly rolling around in a nice muddy puddle, and when he saw me he gave an excited grunt, and stormed at me, almost knocking my legs from under me! I was terrified, as I was quite far from my gate, and if the food wasn't still very hot, I would have given it to him there and then, but it had to be mixed with some meal, and that would have cooled it.
But Kevin couldn't wait, and tried to knock the bowl from my hands, and then he bared his yellow teeth, and tried to bite my leg! That was when I just poured the hot food over his snout, and while he was putting up one heck of a racket, I legged it to my gate. I was now really scared, as I had to go out again to feed the chickens and the cats and dogs, and with that man-eater on the loose, I just didn't know how to manage.
But I knew I had to try and lure the pig back to his sty, and the moment I saw him go into Jan's yard, I closed the gate, and started seriously trying to find stuff to make the pig pen inescapable.It had to be very heavy as this pig just lifted the iron safety door with his snout as if it was a goose down feather!

After an unrestful and fitful slumber, the baby woke me up, screaming blue murder for his food, so up I dragged myself, and made his bottle. As Andreas was still sleeping peacefully after the night before, I made myself a cuppa, and climbed back into my bed for a little sleep before the kids woke up.
Sleep never came to me, as when all was quiet again, I thought I heard the gruntings of Kevin Bacon, and that was not too far off! I tried to listen, but in the end got my tired body out of bed, and found Kevin in Jan's yard, having found the hole that Mobi made, and after enlarging it nicely, he was glad to be able to have a go at Jan's veggie garden, where half of the stuff were already dying in the early sun. I was glad for one thing at least, and that was that I didn't have to run the roads after the pig as well, as he had not yet found the hole that Mobi had made, and which led to freedom.
I had to close up the gap, but was too scared to go into Jan's yard, as this pig looked to me like a bally man-eater, although Jan assured me many times that he is actually quite affectionate! So I started looking for material to put in front of the hole, but all I could find that would kind of serve the purpose, was an old safety door that was standing against the sty on the inside.
I eyed the stinking muddy lot inside the sty with distaste, not seeing my way open to walk through that, so I got some cardboard boxes which I flattened, and made myself a wee path. It was now drizzling again, and the boxes were soggy in minutes, and I sank into a foot deep pig poo and mud mix up to my calves! To make things worse, I had on my expensive Radermachers leather farm boots, and knew that it was the end of that comfy pair! But I managed to get the safety door, which I could hardly lift, and positioned it in front of the hole, securing it with a few poles stuck at an angle against it, pressing it to the chicken wire.
I decided that while my boots were ruined, and self covered in muck, I could just as well clean away the stinky mess, so with one eye on the still happily grunting Kevin, I ran for a spade.
I was doing quite well when Kevin suddenly appeared at the gate of the sty, I suppose thinking that he was being fed, and I was cross with myself for not closing the sty's gate, for this ugly thing ran straight at me! I shrieked like a banshee, and tried to get to the gate, but Kevin was in my way, so, gathering all the strength I had, I climbed over the rickity fence, where I left a very cross pig shouting down the wrath of his gods onto me for not feeding him.
I was scared that he would come out again, so I sprinted at about seventy miles an hour around the sty, up the hilly bit to Jan's yard gate, and was just in time to close the gate before Kevin could escape again.
Andreas had woken in the meantime, and stood bellowing for me to come as the baby was awake, and being so tired, and as I knew that he had wakened the baby with his yelling, I lost my temper completely, and shouted at him that if he didn't stop his bally caterwauling, I was going to wallop him!
Of course I was immediately sorry, as I didn't mean it, and knowing how vulnerable he was, I felt rotten, and told him again that I would never go away and leave them.
Inbetween all this, poor Laika was still disconsalate, sniffing everywhere, looking for Nina.

I woke up at about one in the morning, and Sheila's dogs, about ten of them, were going crazy, and I could hear Sheila yelling death threats at something or somebody. A horrible suspicion took hold of me, and I got up as quietly as I could not to wake Andreas, to have a look and see if Mobi was still safely in his yard.he wasn't!
Haarlem is a very rural village, and our homesteads were far away from the hub of said village, and as there were no streetlights, it was indeed scary to go out onto the road, looking for the errant dog! Praying that Andreas wouldn't wake up, I made my way down the dirt road, and sure as anything, there was Mobi, having crazy fun in front of Sheila's gate, barking and begging to be let in. If he ever got in there by mistake, his chances of survival was just about nil, with the six German Shephards that were not dogs to take chances with.
After I had a wonderful mouthful from Sheila about people who did not look after their dogs, and she was going to shoot this so and so of a bloody pest, and me standing with bent head, as I felt very bad for her inconvenience, I started cajoling Mobi, who was so excited that he was quite hysterical, into coming home, but when I went closer to him, he legged it down the road.
I could hear dogs barking as far as Mobi went, and decided that Jan just had to get rid of him, maybe give him to somebody on a big farm, where he can do his blood hounding as much as he liked!
As I made my way home in the dark, I could hear Andreas screaming hysterically, and when I tried to go faster, I stepped into a hole, and went over like a sack of potatoes, and then I just sat there and cried a bit. But Andreas was screaming so badly for me now, that I had to get up and went to pacify the terrified child.
I again told him that I would never leave him, but he was inconsolable, and told me that his mother left him. Oh, my heart just broke for the wee boy, and for the first time I started thinking of asking Jan to come back, but thinking of his drawn face, and the fact that the time on the farm with Peter would bring him a lot of solace, I refrained.
I didn't know where Mobi went, and at this stage I did not care, as I was a nervous, tired wreck!

I managed to get the very cross pig away from the gate, and while he was gorging himself on the food I took him, I hastily opened the gate, and Mobi gave one muddy leap to freedom!
As the hole was only leading to the pigsty, I decided not to close it immediately, as by this time Andreas had woken the Baby with his lamenting, and I hoped that Mobi would not soon forget about his fright and try to escape through there again.
I was soaked, and muddy, as Mobi had sprayed me with a layer of mud when he made his bid for safety, and I told Andreas to just watch the baby that I have now put on the rug in the sitting room. As soon as I disappeared through the door, Andreas started crying again, and I realized that he was a very traumatized little boy, although he was acting so bravely, so I sat down with him, and told him that I was in charge of both him and the baby, and would not go away. He didn't look overly convinced, but I told him that I would put the baby in the pram in front of the bathroom, and he could watch me go in, and then he can just see that Emil was okay. But as I had to leave the house, and go down to the new built room where the bathroom was, there being no door between the house and this, it was easier said than done. I covered the baby  up like a wee Eskimo, pulled a few plastic garbage bags over Andreas and his casts, and then carried first the baby, then Andreas down.
That worked, and at last I could wash off the stinking mud, and put on dry clothes. Then it was the same operation to carry both the kids up to the house. Tiring stuff!
I then fed the baby, and after I had put him to bed again, I sat back with another well earned cuppa, and as Andreas was lying on the carpet reading, I was relaxed and at peace with the world, until I remembered that with all this Mobi stuff, I had forgotten to let poor Laika out of the house. The chickens were milling around in front of the small store room where their food was kept, and I realized with dismay that I haven't fed any of the animals yet! So out in the drizzle again, and I could see that poor Laika must have been crossing her poor legs for the past two hours, as she made a beeline for the corner where she always do her bussiness.
The chickens in the round coops that I so hated, was fighting like prize fighting boxers, feathers flying in all directions, while the ones roaming free was not behaving any better.
By now I was away too long for Andreas, who got anxious the moment he lost sight of me, and who had started yelling and calling again, fear in his voice, so before I could mix the sludge for the screeching pig, who had realized that all was being fed except him, I had to leg it back to my house to pacify the hysterical child.
But all things always fall into their own space, and I finished the chores, feeling just a wee bit weak in the legs, and also a bitty short of breath. I was darned if I was going to brave Kevin Bacon, who Jan told me was a harmless bully, to clean out the sty.
This state of bliss did not last very long!