The day had finally arrived when Jan and kids were moving to cape Town, and I am silently crying, and crying. I would miss them so much, but he promised to come and visit regularly. But the morning when he pulled out of the gate with the trailer loaded to capacity, I felt my heart just breaking as I sat feeding Emil for the last time. I know it was impossible to stay in such a remote place, as it was always a struggle when I was away, and he had to go to Johannesburg or cape Town for his job, as there was now nobody to look after the kids. Andreas was okay, he had little friends whose mums could help by having him stay, but people are not so keen on looking after a very busy toddler. On this foto he took off down the dirt road, following a herd of cows, so he was not easy to watch.
Growing onions was a bally disaster! The growing was okay, but the many elements of distruction roaming around the Haarlem streets were just too much, and now I sit only with the onions that I had planted inside my enclosure that protect the home garden from said elements.
Of course the first disaster was when Mad Larry's pig forced his way in by enlarging a small hole in the fence, originally I think to eat the acorns, but maybe the fellow got bored, and tackled the onion field. I think, as there are millions of earth worms in the soil, that said pig was snuffling them out, with total disregard for my poor onions. Then, luckily after replanting a lot of the onions inside my home fence, Sheila's chickens with their enormous claws got inside my place, and also had a go at feasting on the earthworms, destroying another big portion of onions. After putting the fear of all hells into them by shooting wildly at them with my catapult, and the naughty things scattering over the field cackling and running for dear life, I thought that peace had at last come to me and my onions, the few that was left!
Then, one evening, Kevin, the man working for Sheila, knocked on my door, and asked whether I could open the gate to my onion field for him so that he could chase the cows out! I got quite hysterical, grabbed the keys, and shouting down the wrath of all gods on Sheila and her cows, I ran out to inspect the damage, and yes, the silly cows were inside, trudging all over my few remaining onions!

They had come in by flattening the fence adjoining the the river, but now they can't seem to jump the fence from inside my place. So that was the end of any hope of rescuing some of that lot, but the ones that I replanted inside, are doing fine!