Donkeys are really strange and weird and wonderful animals. We have a troupe of three, always together. This three, all of them quite old by the looks of them, and just a bitty stiff legged from age,  are however still very active on the love scene.
This morning at about six, with the world around me still peacefully at sleep, I was watering my garden, when I heard this uneartly 'hee-haw', and this was drawn out so long and at such a high pitch, that I thought one of the troupe was dying. However, I then heard them galloping down the road, and within seconds they passed me, the mare at full running speed, ears flat and nostrils flaring, with the two roans on her heels, their nostrils flaring even wider! But the old mare was not born yesterday, and she made a sharp u-turn, leaving the two roans galloping on, their necks thrusted forward as far as it would go, I suppose blinded by the dust.
When at last the lusty duo realized that they were chasing wind, they quickly turned, and passed me again, with their stiff little legs now dragging a wee bit! I saw them get to the mare, who I suppose was a bit younger, and much faster, and thought that at last they will get lucky, both sidling up to her cautiously while watching each other with wary eyes! And then I started laughing, as the one old roan, thinking that he would perhaps be the lucky one, stood on his back legs, and let rip with another  few blood curdling 'hee-haws'! The mare rolled her eyes once, then took off again, and I did not blame her, as her two prospective lovers did not look too wholesome, even to my unbiased eye, while the two old roans stood forlornly, rolling their eyes at each other! Never a dull moment at Haarlem!
In the meantime, I heard that Jacques, the guy from Germany, was adamant to buy Jan's place, and was working long hours to get the money for the deposit. He had already made an offer, but now had to find the money, which he did not tell Jan. Jan agreed to give him some time to get the money together, so I hope he can manage, as I really like them.

Had a bit of a set to with Sheila again! Across from me there is an empty plot belonging to Jaque and Mitzi, who live in Germany, but come to Haarlem every year for three months. As on this plot there is nothing but an old Oak tree and grass, Sheila was grazing her cows there every day, and this cows leave a nice little present in the form of some really good heaps of manure. As the time went on, this heap grew and grew, and as nobody took it away, I thought it a good plan to collect some for my ever hungry plants.
I had Nickey, a really pathetic human being, who is always on a high from drink and cannibis, but at least he is quite trustworthy, for the day, so I instructed him to take a few bags and collect us some manure. Nickey you have to watch all the time, otherwise he would just loiter around, srubbing here, and poking there, without a trace of any work having been done, So With one eye on what I was doing, and the other on Nickey, who was listlessly scooping the manure into the bags, I could shout at him the moment he sat down, or start a conversation with a friend passing by. And he can be very, very cheeky, asking me why he can't even have a wee talk to a friend. His talks mean leaning casually on his spade or hoe, or against the fence, and if I do not remind him to work, he would easily wile away half an hour at a time. As gardeners get paid by the hour, I feel it only fair to keep him working, as he gets ten minutes to drink a coffee on arriving, then fifteen minutes for tea at ten, and an hour for lunch, which I have to pay him for.
So, with me shouting reminders to stand upright, and stop talking, he eventually had three big bags filled, and with great effort and a lots of moans and groans, the manure was pulled into my gate. Then I went inside, after telling him what he had to do for the day, and telling him to take out the weeds, and not my flowers again, which he constantly does. He just gave me a kind of a jaundiced eye, and grumbled that I don't have to tell him again, as he knew what to take out, and what to leave!
About an hour later poor Nickey appeared in the kitchen door, his face a greyish white colour, and told me that Sheila's Grietjie, the maid, had come to tell him that Sheila was getting the police because he stole her manure! It took a cup of strong sweet tea to calm him down, but it took a long time to convince him that Sheila can not get the police, as the manure was on somebody else's plot!
I called Grietjie and asked her to inform Sheila that she she owed me much more than three bags of poop for all the damage her cows, goats, peacocks and chickens had done to my stuff in the past. So now we are at war again, and it was a bitty sad, as after the cow fell into my sewerage, we did not gave one another the time of day for a long time, and was just starting to nod stiffly at each other in the passing!

Oh good heavens, nearly killed my friend Louise's little dog called Muffu. This littlt dog is just the best ever, and louise can take her anywhere, and most restaurants who came to know Louise and her little shadow, allowed Muffu to sit with Louise. And she did just that. She will lie at Louise's feet without making a noise untill it is time to go.
So, I almost killed her! I heard a noise in my kitchen a week before, and found another giant of a rat nibbling away on my Margerine holder, I got really mad, as with all the other wildlife taking their toll at my poor plants and nervous system, I had become quite murderous! I went to the co-op the next day, and got rat poisoning pellets, although I have sworn never to use them again. But I have tried every gadget to catch this critters, and nothing works, mr Rat being way to clever to be caught in any trap!
Then Louise came to pick me up, and I clean forgot about the pellets that I had coated so nicely with margerine, and which mr Rat had decided he would not touch. I went into the kitchen to make us a coffee, and saw only Muffu's backside sticking out from behind the coalpan where I had put the poison, her tail wiggling madly, as though in seventh heaven! And it hit me between the eyes! The bally Poison! I pulled the dog out, and found the plate quite empty, and Muffu licking her lips in delight! felt the old ticker give a few nasty jolts, then pumping away like mad, and self felt very dizzy, but shouted at Louise that her dog had just devoured every bally rat poison pellet I had put out!
After some quite interesting steps around the room, and some wailing, Louise pulled herself together, and phoned her vet, but this vet was 140 km away, and she was hosting a going away lunch for all her friends, as she is moving closer to Cape Town. She had come to fetch me, as my car was being spray painted, because one stupid thieve had tried to get into it, and damaged the door badly!
The vet told her to make a ball from washing powder and a little water, and stick that down Muffu's throat, and that should make her vomit everything out.
We did that, and within minutes Muffu started wretching, and then out came everything in her tummy, and I almost cried from relieve when I saw the green pellets! It had just started to dissolve in her tummy, so the vet sent up some vitamin K to combat any bleeding!
I have picked two monster pumpkins this morning, and can't decide whether to boil them and freeze it after, or whether to attempt drying them. I have at the moment a fewslices out in the sun, and it seems that the Haarlem women talked sense when they discussed the drying of veggies!
I just love the donkeys who make a turn at my gate every day to graze. They are quite gentle, and do not, like the cows and horses, try and push open the gate to get to my garden!

I am busy with a new experiment, and that is to work out the best way to sun dry cherry tomatoes! I have done three batches so far, and found that the best way is to just halve them, sprinkle a wee bit of salt over, and put out in the sun.
But beware! There are a thousand eyes watching, and no sooner did I turn my back, or a very inquisitive little bird swooped down, and grabbed one! I stormed the culprit, waving my arms and shouting fit enough to put the fear of all hells into anything watching! Birdie then flew onto the fence, from where it sat watching me intently from bright black eyes. I spoke very seriously to this bird, but it just cocked its head from side to side, as if to say, "okay, I'm listening", but I knew that it would come back as soon as I turned my back.
I looked for something to put over the tomatoes, and found the right thing in a piece of chicken wire! Cheeky bird then flew away, I think a little bit disgusted! However, it wasn't long before I heard one heck of a lot of chirping, and ran out, to find a whole flock of Finches pecking away through the chicken wire! Again I put up one scary show of flailing arms and bad, bad noises, and they scattered and flew into the Chinese Willow tree, from where they watched my antics with great interest! Again I went away looking for something suitable, that would let the sun through, but keep the many food seekers out!
But the finches, after having had a good old discussion, had decided that the taste of the drying tomatoes were not to their liking, and left abruptly with a big noise!
I am also freezing a lot of tomatoes again. I just put them in a holder in the freezer as I pick them, and it works so well, as I had just finished the ones from the previous year! I just take a handfull out for a stew or a pasta when needed!
I am also trying out drying pumpkin. As I have this amazing crop, and not knowing whether it can be frozen, I think if I can get it right, I will have enough for the winter. Waiting to see the doctor at the clinic, a few women were discussing the different methods of drying the pumpkins, and I listened with big ears, and stored that welcome knowledge for future use. I think I have maybe killed off a whole lot of the moles, as there was very little activity during the last two days! Haleluja! If they are gone, my life would be just perfect, as the pigs, chickens, cows, and peacocks have never been able to frustrate me like this unseen horrors, who have destroyed a lot of shrubs, fruit trees, and of course my grape vine!
Had the most gorgeous sunset tonight!

I have monsters in my garden!They are green, and kind of prickley, wandering all over the place, and bearing pumpkins and gem squashes! I have never seen anything grow so prolific, or bear such an abundence of fruit! I knew about the gems, as I have been eating them for the last three weeks, and giving away to my neigbours, as I can't  keep ahead, the gems just kind of appearing and growing almost overnight.
Then I stated looking between the huge pumpkin leaves, and had the shock of my life, as there were bally pumpkins everywhere, and some of them are HUGE!!! And there was me wondering if the plants would bear any fruit at all!
Now that Jan is gone, the thieves of Haarlem have re-awakened, and during my morning inspection of the empty house, I found the bathroom window broken and open. As there are still some boxes and a few pieces of furnituere that Jan wanted to sell, I sprinted back to my house for the keys. All the boxes were broke open, and the stuff lay scattered across the floor. Again they have burned newspapers to see, as of course it is like pitch black where we are, there being no street lights! I found some of jan's hand tools outside, possibly dropped when they climbed back out of the window.
Jacque, the guy who have bought a house up the road across from Jan, had put in an offer for the house, and it was accepted by Jan. He and Mitzi, a German born girl, are two very nice people who come to South Africa only from December to March, then go back to Germany, where Jacque works.They will not stay in the house, but he bought it for some friends who have horses, and who are struggling at the moment, their place not having water. They can't get it sold, so I don't know what they intend to do.
I am busy getting some beds ready for planting a few butternut seeds. I am so impressed with my pumpkins, as we like something sweet with our food, and we either have pumpkin stewed to a kind of stickey delight with butter, sugar and cinnamon, and also sweet potatoes done like that! It is YUMMY!! Butternuts also grow well here, but Danny's chickens had eaten all the seeds that I had put in, making me feel very murderous indeed. If any person ever tell me that chickens have no sense, I will laugh in their faces, as I have found otherwise. This little critters scatter east and west when I appear with my catapult, flapping their wings, and cackling fit to rise their dead families, and just like humans after a sporting event, josstle each other ruthlessly to get out first!

It's a new year, and the sun is shining, with a vengeance I must say, but it is good to be alive, I am smiling and sending up praises, as for the first time during all this years of my war with the bally creeper moles, I had killed one, and actually saw what the little critters look like! After trying all the lotions and potions on the market, and even Ronalee's killer bubblegum, I was at my wit's end, as it is heartbreaking to come out in the morning and a whole bed of newly planted seedlings are destroyed. The bubblegum did not work for me, but Ronalee had two dead moles after inserting a quarter of a chappie into their tunnels! And, she stressed, her informant said that only chappies worked! I think my moles had a party with all that yummy stuff, chewing and giggling with pleasure, for the day after I stuck it into their holes, there was much activity, but not one dead mole! So much for that!
I had a lot of insects eating away at my veggie leaves, so the Co-op  gave me a holder with insecticide granules, and that stuff was potent enough to hit you with great force, taking your breathe completely out of your chest! So, yesterday morning when I found my Capsicum seedlings that I had planted out lying all limp and sad, I really lost it! As it is with me, I challenge every god there is in my quest as to why they allow such a lot of destruction! Been waiting for years for an answer, or some help with a pest to wipe out the little horrors! So I thought about this granules, and with glee and joy, I threw spoonfulls of that down the mole tunnels, then washed it further in with the hose! felt very murderous, but really Good, good, good!
And lo and behold, I got up and found a dead mole floating in my pond! So of course, it is no sure case of the granules killing it, but I think the vapours forced out in the open, and not being used to be out and about, it fell into the pond!! And I noticed a lot less activity around my veggie beds.
I was in deep mourning after Jan and the kids left, and for days I just moped around, unable to settle down. But slowly I came to terms with them gone, and started doing things again. It is so wonderful to grow your own veggies, and at the moment I live on my own crops. Potatoes are really good to grow. You need only a small space, and I am still amazed when taking out six to eight potatoes where I have planted only one. Of course it is a struggle, as every morning the planted potatoes would lie above the ground, but with perseverence and patience, and doing the mole dance every morning, the critters gave up, and move to another spot, from where to test my patience, and drive me crazy. The mole dance of course goes like this: Follow the tunnel, first flattening it with your heel, then stamp it lekker vas

 with your toes, like heel toe, step, heel toe, step!!!!! T least my roses are beautiful, and my garden is green.