We all woke up early, and was again charmed and delighted by the birdsong, and the rays of sunshine that lit up the hills on the other side of the valley. Our valley is called the 'Langkloof', meaning long valley, as it stretches for about eighty miles between the mountains, with the sea on one side, and the Karoo on the other side. The Karoo here is very interesting, and it is called 'The Oervlakte', meaning  that it was millions of years old. It used to be under the sea, and many relics have been found to prove that millions of years ago fishes were swimming where today there are miles and miles of apple trees. Also peaches, apricots and plums, but not as plentifull as apples. There is a website 'The Oervlakte' that was produced by a very clever lady called Louise Hekl, that has absolutely gorgeous photography and lots of information about this wonderworld!
I had some serious building to do, as someone had broken into the house before I bought it, and ripped out the sink, complete with cupboard and all, and as I suppose he couldn't get it through the window, that he also ripped out half way, he sommer broke out a piece of the wall, as this small room was built with unbaked clay bricks. That all happened in the scullery, and luckily there was a strongish door to the kitchen that could be locked. So this morning I had to test my building skills, of which I had absolutely none, except for stuffing stones in holes and securing it with tile cement.
As I had no sand left, I had to go down to river where we had a few lovely beaches, and get sand from there. NOT easy, as it was quite a stiff bit of uphill back to the house, but I did not need too much. I did quite a nice job, well, a builder I suppose would have demolished it and then did some rebuilding, but as nothing in that whole house was straight anyway, it looked fine to me. At least it did not lean like the tower of Pissa!
I had decided to start a compost heap, so after I finished the building, I walked up and down the roads collecting cow dung, as I read somewhere that it is good for starting off with, mixed with whatever greens and other stuff, and a bit of sand! I had an old rusted drum for the purpose.
That night I was tired, and fell asleep without a long read, but woke up somewhere in the early hours of the morning, feeling that something was not quite right! The mists of sleep slowly drifted away, and I suddenly felt that what was wrong, was that my feet felt very cold! I hastily switched the light on, to find that it was raining, and the water was pouring through my turkish cloths that I had put up for the spiders!
Unfortunately it did not help to prevent water from coming through, and the whole bottom part of my bed was soaking wet! As there was a small dry spot in the middle, I fetched two plastic buckets, and after putting some plastic bags and dry towels over the bed, I rolled myself into a cocoon inside my eiderdown, and with the water dripping into the buckets that I had balanced on both sides of me, also on the bed, I tried to fall asleep, but gave up after an hour, and had two cups of tea in a row! By now the sky was almost light, and I sat in the sittingroom wondering what to do about the leaks, as it is mega expensive to fix a straw roof!
In the end I drove to the faithful co-op and bought a huge piece of builders plastic, black and thick, and balancing myself on the rafters, very scared sitting inbetween the spiders, I manouvred it to span the whole of the room above the rafters.On closer inspection I found some leaks in the sittingroom and also in the bathroom. My kitchen was the first room that gave me a small ray of hope, but the huge fireplace had first to be used as storing space, so I hung a curtain in front of it. The only problem was working space, as I had only the table, but I was working on that.