The constant fight against the creeper moles was now getting quite serious, as my strawberries that had nothing underneath to stop them tunneling were taking the punch, and it was heartbreaking to see the healthy plants lying limp in the morning when the moles had made new tunnels to get to the earthworms.
However, with my plan of tying up bunches of strawberries in calico, The snails and the peacocks were dumbfounded I thought, but it was again not long before the peacocks remembered that the fruit was also covered up the previous year.
They were a lot more careful now, as I was by now an excellent shot with my catapult, and it felt very good when I hit one of the pests, and they cry out more in surprise than pain, as I never used too big stones.
I have now started making myself a smoothy every morning, as that is a good breakfast, specially when one is in a hurry, and I can't do any work without something in my tummy.
I use Yogart, and either banana, strawberries,grapes and mango if I can get some, and then I add some of my canned fruit if my fresh fruit was a bitty low. At this time of the year fruit is both scarce and expensive, so the canned fruit comes in very handy. I also add a handful of oats, and with that concoction in my tum, I have almost enough energy to conquer the world.
The peaches and apricots were coming on beautifully, and so was my plums. But Sheila's bally goats had gotten wind again that the fruit was ripening, and for the next few weeks I was very busy with my catapult, but I also got a fair amount of excercise as about ten times a day I could be seen sprinting over shrubs and stones, shouting like a lunatic, promising the errant goats everything that was bad and horrible!
The problem with the goats were that they are never satisfied with the fruit they could reach, but were so gluttonous that they simply tear off all the branches, leaving a very desolate and naked tree behind.
Christmas was nearing, and we were all coming together at Haarlem again. It will again be a working holiday for us women, as the apricots would be ripe then, and we usually made lots of jams and chutneys.
But it was not all work, as we took time to play, and the best of all our outings to me was going to Under-Kouga, where we do a lot of kajaking and also swimming in the slow flowing House River.
Our river never had deep enough pools to kajak, as the water was controlled, therefor only enough water was let out at the dam to keep the ecology of the river and surrounds going. Because South Africa, and specially where I live, is a dry country, water have to be constantly monitored, specially after the last drought when we had almost no water, and water had to be driven to some of the villages.