Hi everyone,

I’ve been silent I know, I’ve been working very hard on marketing and securing new camps for the retreat. It’s been a very busy time as we also bought milking goats and are on our way to getting piggies too! We want to make the farm self sustainable, whilst still having really nice accommodation etc.

For the past 3 months, I have been working on a company portfolio to win bids for the FIFA world cup which is June11-Uuly 11 2010. Nadine and I did it though, we secured a 4 million camp that will last 20 days. That is just for the accommodation, we have a bar and restaurant here that will make lots of monies too! It’s pretty cool because since I have taken over the “people” side of this farm, we have had camps every single weekend, and it’s been nice because the boss keeps building more fun stuff for people to do and creating venues. The website is a bit outdated, but if you’d like to see it’s www.magaliesretreat.co.za

I hope you all are well—it’s getting colder here now, which is kind of a shocker because when it’s 30c outside then drops to 12 the next day it can be quite traumatic!

Love ya’s,
Ro~

Hey T,

This is the day before our really nutso time, I’ve got 400 people coming in tomorrow til the 7th, then another 200 or so in til the 21st, with other very large groups overlapping. We are pretty nuts until the 21st, then I have done about 20 quotes for over the holidays, no one has confirmed totally as of yet. But then I have a heap coming in on the 31st, then we have our huge Music Fest on the 2nd. Whew.

Anyways, a fete, not pronounced like the French, but pronounced “fate” is kinda like a carnival I think—organic market, games, things to buy and sell etc. etc. I tried to tell these damn Africans what it meant in french, but they don’t give two shits about the french either

I’m sweating so much right now, I just walked around picking up rubbish and clearing drains—all the boys are busy with the lapas and grass and whatever else I’ve sent them to do—but it’s friggin’ hot here. I believe it’s like 35 or something today. It’s hotter in the bushveld. I called Sandy the other day, and she’s gushing over that little puppy, it’s too cute—kramer this and kramer that…pretty sure she loves him more than she loves me. I’m a little jealous. I had to chase after Mischka today who had caught a bird and ran with it clenched in his mouth. He’s got these huge mouth flaps and I could barely see what he was hiding. Luckily LooLoo bites him on the nose so he’s afraid of her, she SCREAMS for him…she yells MISCHKAKA then she makes the sound like kissing…that’s how we call him!!! It’s hilarious, I love this bird.

Okay, I must go drink a gallon of water now.
love you lots,
ro~

Hello Everyone,

It’s been awhile since I’ve written in the blog or done anything else that wasn’t work related. I finally got a day off, my first off the farm for a long while. My job description is narrowing down now that most renovations and constructions have been done. For instance, I’m in charge of setting up the venues so that they look pretty ( I know, this is so NOT my style, but I’m pretty good at it–I just pretend I’m playing the SIMS). I also organize all of the facilitation for groups, create quotes for people, and do all the communication with clients.

BUT the most fun I have is designing new things for the farm. I’ve designed an obstacle course through the marsh (with pictures and team challenges). and I’ve designed a mini putt putt course. I’m putting the putt putt on conveyer belt because we don’t want to pay for astro-turf. It’ll be a fast, bouncy type of game . The cool thing is, I must oversee the construction and layout, but we have tractors, front end loaders and TLB to help. So once the guys are done building the 3 new swimming pools, I can get them started on my pet projects. The boss told me that I have a positive attitude and I’m doing a great job–may be because of the 500 pax I have confirmed for Dec. 4-7–money always makes bosses happy.

On a scary note, we had a fire on the game farm. We all rushed up there and were fighting like crazy, it started to meet itself in the center of this large area, and fighters from both sides met up in the middle and we put it out. At night time, it came back to life because of smouldering embers, so we brought up the bakkies with pails of water and we put out the individual fires.

You would think that you would have the fire dept come out with a truck and hoses etc. but this is Africa. We have these sticks with rubber flappies on the end. (They look like overgrown fly swatters made out of rubber) You must beat the line of fire, and continue beating all along the line so that it doesn’t progress forward or jump.

It’s hard, and you become engulfed sometimes if the wind changes, or something flames up really big in front of you. Game poop burns the longest—lots of the smouldering patches were poop. Go figure.

Anyways, we put it out before there was real danger, it’s actually good that it burned just before the rains, because now the grass will grow really green and that area is safe now at least. My house is full now, I live with Nadine (owner) Amanda (assistant to owner and to me, she makes good coffee and looks after feeding and watering game) Mischka (weimeraner) LooLoo (citron cockatoo who says whatsit LooLoo, Mischka, and she’s very acrobatic, i hand reared her so technically I’m her mom) and of course the infamous Kaizer—who incidentally jumped a 2 meter fence the other day…crazy half breeds.

SO yeah, I always look forward to hearing from everyone, even if it’s just a funny story from your day—always makes me smile. Oh yeah, and did you know that Africans don’t do Halloween??? It’s very disappointing, but I guess when everyone lives behind an electric fence, a masked intruder begging for treats will only get a bullet response to their query.

Take care,

Love & Rockets,

Rosie

Hello everyone,

I hope that your Thanksgiving was fabulous and that you gorged properly on turkey and other stuffs. It’s getting very hot here, the dry hot that you don’t realize is burning your skin. Most of the construction is now done, so now I’m pretty much focussing on creating a new obstacle course over water, creating quotes for people, handling the main phone line and facilitating some of the groups that come through. The boss is very happy because I just landed a group of 500 for Dec. 4-7, and a group of 200 for the 8-21. Which translates to big money! If only I worked on commission….

Also, Nadine bought me a Nissan Xtrail, it’s a used one—16,000k on the clock, but it’s automatic 4*4 with triptronic, so at least I can take people on site visits and game drives when they come to look at the place, I’ve been getting into their cars til now and it’s been semi-uncomfortable. Plus, they don’t fit on my quad since I’ve got a basket on the back! We are also building 3 new swimming pools with small chalets around them that will act as a lounge bar and change rooms—it looks super cool so far right next to the vineyard.

Please tell mom and dad that I’m happy and okay and healthy etc. The phone that I normally can call long distance on is Nadine’s mom’s phone—and she isn’t on the farm til next week because she has to work at the other company for awhile. South Africans are very weird about phones—I mean every single person has a cell phone, and their whole system is crazy compared to Canadian cell phone holders and companies. And because the blacks steal telephone wire like it’s going out of style, we have no land line on the farm. It is however, very safe here—we have big gates, security guards, and of course loo loo the cockatoo who screams and raises her feathers whenever strangers lurk about .

So yeah, that’s it for this update, my love to everyone–
Rosie

South Africans LOVE their CHICKEN (this was in response to my question if South Africans celebrated Thanksgiving and eating turkey). We have to yell at them because the workers kill chickens and the feathers and entrails are everywhere. They also love runaways, which are chicken feet, and still look like feet with nails included. Kaizer was choking on one once and I had to wrestle it from inside his throat- absolutely revolting.

It is spring here and it’s meant to be the start of rainy season, but it’s just hot. Fortunately, the heat is dry so I never feel hot like the Africans do – they’re all sweating and I’m still asking where summer is. I think the humidity has trained me well-I’m not sweating from every orifice here like I do at home. Apparently it does get very very hot here (still waiting)

I helped fight a bush fire last week, I forgot to mention- the veld catches on fire and the fire just rolls along the the land killing everything in site – we brought all of our boys out and they were heroes.

Luckily, it was about 8km away from us, but it travels so fast that we had to help put it out so that it wouldn’t burn us down. At one point, 100′s of grasshoppers/locusts were jumping out of the bush- one went in my ear, it was the worst feeling…ha ha.

After all was said and done, I was sunburnt, hacking and coughing and pulling black stuff outta my nose and ears (lovely vision huh?). Now we wait for rain-

Hope this finds you well–love you

Hey T,

The only problem about living on a farm is that it’s so busy you forget civilization IS still out there. For example, it’s 6 am now and I’ve got 3 labourers coming in at 7 am to do work for me. Better shine up my funnygalo and zulu speak…lol.

I have a new puppy named Mischka he is a weimer ranna? (I think she means Weimaraner) I can’t spell, but they call them ghost dogs here, and I have a citron cockatoo named LooLoo. The bird is in love with me, and if I pet Mischka she attacks my face (bitch). We also have like 500 visitors coming through in the next week, so it’ll be nuts here sorting out all of the maids etc.

We have our two giraffes now, pot bellied pigs, peacocks, a mess of goats and nyala. Remember mama eland? She died of heartwater which is a fancy name for getting bit by too many of the bad ticks. It was so sad, but we donated her body to the Vulture sanctuary, and her baby is apparently very happy travelling with the giraffes.

2010 world cup soccer has it’s opening here in joburg in june 2010 I believe…and it runs for a month like june 11-july 11. Luckily, the opening match and the finals are being played in this area, so we’re going to have heaps of people here.

The only thing I know is that I work outside or near outside every day and I feel really good here, I don’t snore, there is no humidity so I rarely sweat. I am equipped with some awesome boots, a leatherman knife, and a huge quad that has no gears (yippee) with a big colourful basket on the back for my stuff.

I’m learning to drive stick shift, I’ve driven maybe 5 times on the dirt roads, it’s complicated and I’m struggling with using my feet and hands at the same time. Stupid gears. But I’m adjusting well and happy.

I’m glad to hear you’re okay and healthy—I hope you do come here because you would love it. You would adore LooLoo, she or he is the best. Kaizer is good too, he’s currently at Nadine’s parents place so that he can run and play with all the dogs–he was getting cagey and frustrated since we couldn’t let him run free since the wild horse had her foal, she kicked him and the others weren’t very happy with all his barking and running around.

He also goes nuts around the goats, which makes him very hard to catch as he runs through the bushveld where all the puff adders live. Soooo, while we make a fence, he humps all the girls.

Love you muchly,

Ro~

Front of the house

Impalas

Mick and Kaizer

Hellooooo,

Today Collen was working in our garden, Nadine advised him to remove the rock gardens as summer is coming. Yes, I know that rock gardens are lovely but the problem is now that it’s getting warmer, snakes love to come out of the rocks and bask in the sun.

We heard a cry from outside, and Collen called us to come see a snake. We have seen some bush snakes and some slender little ones that are completely harmless, but Collen found a PUFF ADDER. We checked it out and it was a baby, quite small and curled up around a rock. There are 3 snakes that are very scary here, the puffy, the black mamba and one called a wrinkles? I’m not sure of the spelling but they are all venomous and quite ready to attack innocent bystanders. Puff adders generally stay under rocks until they are hunting, but they are very dangerous because they don’t necessarily attack straight on, they’ll hit you from the side or back if you try to run away.

Anyways, back to the plot – Nadine fancies herself as the next Steve Irwin, she wanted to catch the puffy and house and feed it so that we can educate the children that come to the camp on the properties of this snake. I know, all of you educators are now smiling and thinking what a wonderful thing it is to have real life manipulatives…yes, we are practicing our differentiated instruction in the bush.

Nadine tells Collen to get her a forked stick, me to get her a towel, and Amanda to get the terrarium ready. We all run off in different directions and the snake master caught her little snake and put some rocks and twigs in the terrarium for it. I wanted to name it Snuggles, but no one agrees with me; however, I am naming the baby sheep we’re getting and one of them is definitely going to be FANG!

ELAND REPORT: She and baby are happy at the bottom part of the farm, they stroll and graze during the day then sleep in the dense Blue Gum trees by night. The wild horses are becoming more bold and we’re finding their poopies as close as our front door. I’ve tried to convince them to wear diapers, but they don’t seem to respond to any language I know.

Kaizer chased after them the other day and one of them snorted at him. Kaizer circled and barked and went a little nutso. Once the one snorted, Kaizer ran away then stopped and looked back. I think he believed that the horsies would play the chasing game with him like we often do. After Kaizer tired himself out, he sat amongst the horses and panted. He was in his froggy position and looked like he could tuck in to a nice nap in between the grazing horses. The lovely big white mare is pregnant we’ve discovered and she will most likely have her baby this week or next. She’s bulging and looks a bit more tired than the others. Hopefully, we can get to them soon.

Anyways, that’s it for now. Back to work for me–I’ve been setting up a weekend for a group of 140 kids and their leaders. I’m doing an Improv/Drama night and a murder mystery for the next. I think it’ll be fab.

Be sure to check out the blog too, I’ll send Theresa my pictures and hopefully she can upload for me.

Love and Rockets,
Ro~