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| A pretty female kudu face. |
Now that the bulk of the tourists have left after the long weekend, we were thrilled to welcome many visitors back to our garden after a sparse weekend. Yes, we had visits from bushbucks, warthogs, mongoose and even an appearance by Wildebeest Willie over the weekend but hours would pass before we’d see a “soul.”
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| We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw this tiny baby bushbuck in the garden. |
On Monday morning the live-action began once again. They literally came to call in droves, and we could hardly sit still for a few minutes when we’d jump up to welcome them proffering pellets, apples, carrots, and other vegetable scraps they seem to like such as lettuce tops and celery scraps.
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| It was the tiniest bushbuck we’ve seen in almost seven months. |
I must have spent two hours in the kitchen chopping up the vegetables in small enough bite-sized pieces suitable for the tiny tots who love to munch along with the adults.
Once, we saw a baby bushbuck struggle with a piece of carrot and we panicked it was going to choke. Somehow it managed to spit it out and try for a smaller piece. Since that incident, we’ve been cutting the piece small enough for even the tiniest of wildlife.
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| We’d gone indoors to do a few things and I heard loud squawking by these two hornbills that just wouldn’t stop. Upon further inspection, we discovered monkeys had eaten all the seeds in the feeder while we weren’t watching. The hornbills were letting us know they wanted the seeder filled with seeds. Tom took it down and re-filled it. As soon as he set it back up, within seconds they were back, happily eating the new stock of seeds. |
Sure, it takes more effort to cut the pieces so small, but now, it’s the only way we do it. Louise had brought us a new food processor for this purpose but unfortunately, it doesn’t cut the items into the right sized pieces, and hand cutting them is the only way.
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| Yesterday in the late afternoon, we had so many visitors, we lost count. |
Instead, we’ve used the food processor for prepping our meals, and it’s been quite a time saver. Yesterday, I made Tom his favorite meal, low carb, grain-free pizza. After reading horrible things about pre-grated cheeses, I made a commitment, I’ll never purchase that type of cheese again.
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| Although not as many as last week’s 25 kudus, we counted 18 in this group. |
Instead, we buy the big chunks of imported cheeses to use in making his pizza and other cheesy recipes. Before we had the food processor, we were grating the cheese using one of those tricky metal graters which required a lot of time and effort.
Now, we grate the quality cheeses in the processor which we’d done in our old lives. But, over these past several years of world travel, I resigned myself to using the disgusting pre-shredded cheese instead of hand grating.
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| We couldn’t keep the pellets coming fast enough with such a wide array of visitors in the garden. |
A few months ago, I read an article about how that pre-grated cheese is processed and I decided, no more! Hand grating, here we come. But, when Louise and Danie had gone to Nelspruit they found this food processor for us. We couldn’t have been more appreciative and grateful. It’s come to great use.
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| The kudus and the warthogs seem to get along well when feeding. |
It’s often the simple things that we appreciate the most. Recently, I washed my white tennis shoes and water shoes in the washing machine. They came out perfectly after drying in the hot sun and now they both appear new.
I’ve washed my makeup brushes in the washer in a cloth bag and they come out clean and new. In my old life, I’d have replaced these items instead of resorting to simple yet efficient processes to extend the life of products not easily found here in South Africa.
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| As often is the case, there were many who’d stopped by. |
Yes, today, I’m wearing a pair of jeans with a few holes. Instead of tossing them, I wear them anyway. Torn and ratty jeans seem to be a trend in some parts of the world.
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| For some odd reason, they like to hang out near the little car. |
The white tee shirt I’m wearing has a stain near the neckline that I couldn’t get out with bleach. My hair hides the stain. I still wear the shirt although not necessarily when we going out to dinner or to socialize.
Somehow we make do with what we have although a few times a year we need to replenish some of our supplies that we cannot replace locally. On May 28th we had a shipment sent from our mailing service in Nevada. The tracking information showed it was received in customs on June 6th and processed without issue. Now, three months later, it’s yet to arrive. More on this in tomorrow’s post.
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| After we decided to hold back on the pellets, since we were going through them so quickly, they wandered off to the bush. As soon as they heard my voice, welcoming other visitors, they quickly returned to ensure they were in on the action. So clever. |
Tomorrow, we’re leaving the house around 9:00 am to drive to Nelspruit for our 11:00 am appointment at the immigration office. Subsequently, we’ll schedule the new post to upload automatically while we’re away for the day. We won’t miss a beat.
We won’t know anything after tomorrow’s meeting but will review the experience in Thursday’s post.
Have a spectacular day!
Photo from one year ago today, September 4, 2017:
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| In Costa Rica, this iguana posed nicely for us, seemingly unperturbed by our close proximity. For more photos, please click here. |