They’ve all found us again!…Little, Thick Neck, Benny, Henny and Lenny, multiple Franks, and more…Meet Barbara and Lori from Shark Tank…

One Tusk is becoming quite popular around here. Perhaps, a replacement for Tiny, who never returned after we visited the US in July 2021.

We didn’t assume they’d all return to our garden within 36 hours of our return. We thought after being gone for six days that it could take several days until they’d return, having looked for us for the entire time we were gone. But, beginning yesterday morning, our regulars started arriving, leaving nary a single “familiar face” behind.

Little was thrilled we’d returned when he stopped by at his usual 4:00 pm. Immediately, he positioned himself on the right side of the veranda, near where I sit, waiting for his treats and words of affection (from me only).

Yesterday, at the little local market, I purchased the last head of cabbage for the bushbucks and kudus, and it’s already gone. Tom has refilled the big bucket of pellets at least three times already. Soon, we’ll be heading to Komatipoort to buy groceries, and we’ll undoubtedly purchase several more, plus a 10 kg bag of carrots to round out the pellets.

It was fun to see Benny, Henny, and Lenny this morning. We’ve seen Penny on her own but no longer with these three. She could be pregnant and no longer interested in hanging around with them.

Need I say, we’re having a fantastic time. The weather is relatively cool but cloudy. And, although load shedding is currently occurring three times a day for 7.5 hours per day, we are managing fine. Fortunately, as mentioned, we aren’t losing the WiiFi signal during these most recent outages.

With WiFi, the outages don’t bother us at all. With 2.5 hour outages, our food in the refrigerator and freezer stay safe, and with the WiFi working, we can still stream our shows at night when we hunker down for the night. Sleep comes easily for us both, now that our minds are free from worry about where we’d have to go if we hadn’t been allowed to stay in South Africa.

Frank and The Misses, back eating their seeds and drinking from their little container of water. They were so happy. They chirped the entire time they were pecking at the seeds.

Our friends and readers have been writing to us with the warmest of wishes that we’re able to stay, and we look forward to lots more socialization over the following months in Marloth Park.

Our long-time readers, Carrie and Jim, have arrived in Marloth Park for six weeks, and they’re coming over on Saturday for sundowners to meet us in person for the first time. What a joy this always is for us when readers like a location we’ve visited and end up meeting face-to-face! They came to Marloth Park based on our posts.

For a while, Little hung out with Barbara and Lori and their mom. Now, he seems less interested in the two girls. Could he be the dad of mom’s future piglets? There could be several little Little’s on the horizon. We’ll keep you updated.

Sunday is our ninth travel anniversary, and our friends Alan and Fiona and Nick and Joan will join us for dinner to celebrate with us. What a great way to celebrate the special day! We’re making one of our favorite dishes, and hopefully, they’ll be able to enjoy it, along with us.

Last night we made bacon-wrapped fillet mignon on the braai, along with red wine infused sauteed portabella mushrooms, salad, and rice for Tom. We both enjoyed the satisfying meal and are making a repeat for tonight since we had plenty of uncooked tenderloin and mushroom left for a second round.

Are these two young girls Barbara and Lori? See the photo below.

Of course, as usual, as we sat on the veranda at sunset, Little appeared for the first time since we returned. He, like Broken Horn, let us know he was happy to see us. Whoever said animals aren’t emotional hasn’t lived in Marloth Park. Many of them appear animated and enthusiastic when they see us each day, let alone after we’ve been gone for a while.

The mom with the perfect curly tusks has kicked her two daughters to the curb now that she’s pregnant again. Now, the two girls with big white whiskers hang around here nearly all day. We’ve named them Barbara and Lori after the two female leads on Shark Tank, a show we often watch in the evenings. We’ve gone back and re-watched every episode from the beginning. We’re now on season 8 of 13 seasons. We only watch one episode per evening, so we have plenty more to go with as many as 25 episodes per season.

This is Barbara and Lori, now ‘kicked loose” from their mom, arriving on their own with their big white whiskers and bossy attitude, just like their mom. She arrived yesterday with a big pregnant belly without these two in tow.
The power just went out. In an hour, we’ll head to Komati, so hopefully, by the time we return, it will be back on, and we can put away our groceries without much worry over the door to the fridge being open as we load it up once again. Before we left for Zambia, we finished off most of our food, and now it’s time to restock.

Starting tomorrow, Friday, we have social plans for four nights in a row. We love being busy with human friends, as well!

Enjoy the day and weekend to come. Stay healthy and content!

Photo from one year ago today, October 28, 2020:

This photo was posted one year ago while in lockdown in a hotel in Mumbai, India, on day #219. Cows are always curious, and we laughed when this grazing cow picked up her head to check us out while we were in Fiji. For more, please click here.

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