Taylored Non-Trips – Corona Lockdown

We’re on day 40-something of the Covid-19 Coronavirus lockdown in sunny South Africa. The impact of this virus is devastating, as far as human lives and world economy goes but here at home on Oakdale Farm, nothing much has changed. I must say we do miss visiting our local restaurants in and around Wellington and going on our usual trips but other than that we have been carrying on quite normally on our little farm. We’ve got 11 hectares to play around on and as long as we stay within those confines, we are ok.

Happy Kombi Sad Kombi

We live over there in that house tucked away under the big tree in the picture below. This house has always been called Jacob se huis ever since we bought the farm in 1993. Jacob was a short bushman who lived in one section of the house for many, many years. He has since passed on.

Jacob se huis

When I stopped working some years ago, Verine rebuilt Jacob se huis and turned a historic clay house into the quaint cottage we now call home. So now we rent out our main house, where we stayed for 21 years and we live in a dream getaway cottage.

It was Jakob's but now it's mine Before the renovations

Living here is like being on holiday every day. Lots of people go and stay in a rustic cottage on a farm for a weekend breakaway – we do it every day, on a peaceful farm, away from the city buzz, with a river front all along the one side of the property and amazing mountains as a backdrop. There are fish eagles, herons, hadedas and a multitude of other bird species chirping and calling to their partners all day long. What more could a man want?

We also have otter, meerkat, mongoose and the other day our tenants saw two buck in a field next to our house. We have only ever seen one at a time.

Our property is on the Berg River which is the second largest river in the Western Cape, so we have fish too.

We recently had some woodcutters on the farm, cutting down Bluegum trees that they sell off as firewood. They take the juicy bits and as can be expected, the rest is left strewn around all over the place.

All the juicy bits gone

We love to braai, so I gather all the scraps for my braais and some for decoration. It’s hard work because there’s still a lot of chopping, cutting and carrying to do but it beats painting.

Wood, glorious wood Some Oakdale art

Now days everyone’s talking about hand-cut chips, well we now have hand-cut wood. Not because anything’s wrong with the chainsaw but this wood is dry and a chainsaw does not like dry wood, so I cut these by hand. Hand-cut wood, see, I’m now in with the trenders and crafters.

Traditional hand-cut wood, ready for chopping

We keep busy with maintenance and the usual up-keep of our place and it is much of an ongoing thing here because it’s like a mini municipality. As everyone knows, looking after a house is much the same, this is just a little bigger.

Work, work, work

And then we braai.

Braai, braai, braai

And then we bake.

Bake rusks, bake other rusks bake lasagne

And we eat too.

Gourmet Panini sandwiches on the deck Breakfast on the terrace

When you enter our gate now, you have a signboard directing you where to go, just in case you get lost.

Gate Signboard

Oak 1 is where we live, Oak 2 is where we used to live, Oak 3 is where Charles lives, Oak 4 is the warehouse and Oak 5 is the top house.

Oak 1 Oak 2 Oak 3 Oak 4Oak 5

We have our fair share of entertainment here too.

And our very own strain of coronavirus with a strong antidote.

Even though we can’t go out, we have lots of visitors that pop in regularly.

Some jobs have been finished but the “To Do” list hasn’t got any shorter.

We had rain on Easter Saturday and if it rains on Easter you know everything is still OK. A cool 20mm on Easter and another 5mm on 2nd May. Suddenly everything is all green again. What a blessing.

Rain, glorious rain – 20mm

My wood delivery arrived yesterday while I was mowing the paddock, so I’m smiling again.

A good supply of vines that will keep me going for a while Giving the paddock a trim – where’s that donkey?

We are starting to get early morning mist and that Wellington “Man in the Mountain” is back again, so that means it’s that time of the year and winter is fast approaching.

Morning mist Man in the Mountain

We don’t know how much longer we’ll have to sit this out but let’s all stay safe and healthy.

Until next time, “Keep on Tripping!”