During the night, the reservoirs began to refill, then the pipes to the houses filled, and this morning we had water. It felt great to take a hot shower, although the water pressure was still a little low. By the end of the day, pressure should return to normal, and we’ll be good to go.
The dishwasher will be running most of the day with the accumulated dishes we had from the first day when we tried to cook without water. We gave up the next day and dined out for the duration except for today when we’re “back in business.”
According to Eskom, the electric company who made the repairs, we may experience some outages during the week when they fine-tune the repairs. Hopefully, that won’t result in a day-long outage. Being without water for four days wasn’t easy, but it was easier than being without electricity and WiFi.
Without power, we constantly have to keep the food in the fridge and freezer safe to consume until the power is restored. We can’t do our posts, stream shows, or entertain ourselves in the evenings without WiFi. The daylight hours are much easier when we can go to Kruger or sit outdoors with our animal visitors, But, at night, without lights and streaming, we’re subject to playing dumb games on our phones which gets boring quite fast.
Without power or water, cooking is a challenge. It feels unsanitary to prepare food without being able to clean up afterward. Although we have the gas braai for cooking meat, we have an electric range. Last night, without water at dinnertime, I ate a small piece of leftover meatloaf, heated in the microwave, and a salad. Tom ended up ordering takeaway from Bos restaurant, ordering chicken tenders and chips (fries).
Today, worried about ingredients spoiling after not cooking for days, I knew I had to make low-carb pizza for Tom. In contrast, I’ll have grilled chicken breast, skilpadjies (Skilpadjies is a traditional South African food, also known by other names such as Muise and verjuice. The dish is lamb’s liver wrapped in netvet (caul fat), the fatty membrane surrounding the kidneys) and salad. I know this doesn’t sound very good, but it’s pretty delicious.
There will be enough food to last us through Tuesday. I always enjoy making meals to last for days, allowing me to have some days where I don’t have to cook at all. We only heat up what I’ve prepared. As much as I enjoyed cooking in our old lives, I don’t want it so much anymore.
Cooking for three days is an easy solution to cook less often, even though it takes more time on the day we prepare the food. Tom helps a lot. Today, he grated cheese for the pizza and has done all the food prep and dirty dishes from the past five days.
We no longer purchase pre-grated cheese when unnecessary chemicals are used in the preparation of the product. Also, buying grated cheese prevents us from knowing the source of the cheese. We purchase high-quality aged cheese, which Tom always grates by hand and also does the messy clean-up.
Currently, free from kitchen tasks, Tom is watching the Minnesota Vikings pre-season game on his laptop, using the “NFL Gamepass,” which only allows viewing outside the US. He’s been using this app for almost nine years, and it has served him well. The price for this service is now ZAR 1515, US $99 a year, when it was much higher when he began using it.
It’s a quiet day in the bush. We haven’t had as many visitors today as we did yesterday. Mostly, we’ve seen the usual bushbucks and a few groups of warthogs. Frank has been by a few times without The Misses, and three of our four usual hornbills banged on the window for seeds. We complied, of course, as always.
Enjoy your Sunday wherever you may be!
Photo from one year ago today, August 22, 2020:
With our new site going live during this period last year, we could not post on this date. As a result, there were no photos on this day while in lockdown in Mumbai, India, on day #152. Please check back tomorrow for this feature.