LAMBS & SNOW
I`ve just realised that I haven’t written to you since the end of winter - and now we`re just about into summer. Spring was lovely apart from the relentless wind during August and September. Our last snow was in September and coincided with us looking after the farm for the weekend so I finally got my chance to play `mum` to a poorly baby lamb. I did the whole farmer`s wife bit, reviving it in front of the AGA stove, but by the time it was 1am and I was having to leave my cosy bed to trudge out in the snow the novelty was wearing off big time. Fortunately `Fluffy` had recovered enough to be reunited with his mum the next day - I don’t think I would want to climb back into bed smelling of sheep sh*t night after night. Phil`s relieved that next year I WON`T be nagging him for an orphan lamb to mother! On the subject of sheep, Phil`s been helping one of the local farmers with their shearing. Did you know that you can tell from looking at a single strand of wool when the sheep was sick, when it lambed etc? Just like looking at the rings of a tree, the fleece tells the whole story!

DROUGHT & FIRE
We`ve just suffered the worst drought in this area for over 50 years and given that this is a farming community, there has been a general air of depression amongst our friends. Coming from the UK I take rain for granted - in fact it`s still a shock to wake up and find the sun out every day. I never thought I would see the day when I would be praying for rain, but we really did get to a very critical stage. The timing was lousy, coming just after lambing and in the middle of calving so the animals in the area have been really suffering (and township animals dying) through lack of food & water. It`s no exaggeration to see that I`ve seem some very tough and burly farmers in tears over the last few weeks. Fortunately we`ve now had some good rain, although we need a lot more yet. The mountains are at last starting to turn from brown to green and hopefully it won`t be long before the rivers start filling up again. Just our luck to be launching a river rafting operation when there`s no water to float on….. Spring is also the time of year when farmers burn back some of the old grass/bush to make room for new shoots - they typically do this on a 4 year cycle. The theory is that it is a `controlled` burn, with fire breaks and in the majority of cases this worked fine, but the very dry conditions and strong winds did mean that we had some spectacular and dangerous runaway fires. At this time of the year all the men-folk are on standby and Phil`s had to rush out and help fight fires a few times.


WILD MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES
Our most exciting venture is the creation of an adventure holiday business and we`ve come up with an awesome 4 day trail that gives people the chance to travel these beautiful mountains via foot, horseback, mountain bike and river raft - or as my friend Kirstie succinctly put it `Foot, Pedal, Hoof, Paddle`. Thanks for that wonderful catchphrase chuck! This business means a great deal to us - unlike the Guest Farms we`re not reliant on anyone else and the business is ours to promote, sell, or move as we want to. Enjoying the mountain wilderness with guests is what we came for here for in the first place. I`m busy building our own new website whilst Phil is marking the trails up. We`ve bought mountain bikes and river rafts ahead of the Christmas holiday season, so fingers crossed we get some good bookings then. Of course part of the fun will be doing the pioneering trails ourselves and working out the complex logistics of how we get all the food & equipment in the right place at the right time. Speaking of pioneering,  I`ve just designed my first ever website - www.wildmountainadventures.co.za. Have a look and let me know what you think. (Also, please please let me know if you spot any strange errors that I may not have picked up on.

AVOCA
We`ve also been given the opportunity to take on a third property. This one is a lot smaller - a cosy 2 bedroomed self-catering cottage, but its location and size means that it`s very marketable and will also be useful for us to use as a stopover point for the multi-day trails. Running the 3 guest farms, a bar/restaurant and an adventure trails business over the holiday season is going to be a very interesting challenge - particularly as we only have the one vehicle! Luckily we have some local students who want to earn some money through the summer holiday, but even then I can see that Phil and I will be sprouting a few more grey hairs by the time January comes around.

THE BARN
Work is still ongoing converting the barn into a restaurant - Phil is under a lot of pressure as time is running out fast before the Christmas season. The milking implements have come out, so the main hall is now more or less an empty shell, ready for rebuilding. Tinker is doing her utmost to scare the pigeons away. The toilets are nearly finished and the kitchen is about halfway done….with just 3 weeks to go! It`s going to look stunning though; to save money and to keep the feel authentic Phil is building as much as possible from the natural material that he can find lying around on the farm. A lot of the construction is with rough cut sandstone and we`re trying to come up with a suitable name for the restaurant - ideas include Hillbillies, Stonehenge, Flintstones and Moo! (or something else cow-related). Let me know which you like best and if you have any better thoughts then let me know!

CHRISTMAS HAS COME EARLY!
Meanwhile, we are running a small restaurant adjoining the main house and last night hosted our first Christmas function for a local club. It felt realy weird to be putting up Christmas decorations this early and I honestly can`t remember the last time I ever bothered. Phil had never even decorated a tree before (shame!), so he went traipsing around the mountain to find the perfect tree, carted it back and decorated it himself. Suddenly Rosstrevor is looking very festive (but I still can’t get used to it being so hot at Christmastime! On the night the house looked stunning and the party seemed to go off really well, so hopefully that`s a few more people to spread the word. We haven`t really marketed the the restaurant and won`t until the launch of the barn, but it`s a small community and people are starting to hear about us. What is nice is that everyone who has been to us has come again and even brought more people back with them - a good sign that we`re doing something right. Phil`s cooking is amazing. And I`m really good at peeling potatoes and washing up! But I do the hostess bit and waitressing, so it works out pretty well.

OUR DAY OFF!
So our weeks consist of building barns and websites and the weekends are full of cooking and waitressing for the restaurant. Until last week we hadn`t had a proper day off until August! It`s not as bad as it sounds - we do get quite a bit of chill time, but invariably when we are here then the conversation turns to work. So we packed our camping gear and spent a lovely night camping in the huge cave down by the river. Phil made a `Kiwi braai` which was awesome. Basically you pack potatoes, onions & whatever other veggies you want in foil with some butter & seasoning and then bury it in the ground. Light the fire on top of your parcels and in a couple of hours they are perfectly done. We woke up at sunrise and hiked back to the vehicle - check out the photos to see Tippy`s amazing 4x4 golf cart! It goes in places that you would never dare take a 4x4.

I suspect that this is the last chance I`ll have to write before being run off our feet with guests in December, so have a wonderful and Christmas and New Year (think of us working our butts off!!). If we haven`t collapsed with exhaustion by January then I`ll tell you all about how we managed to juggle everything in January. Wish us luck!!

Lots of love and hugs to you all.


Kate xx