Hello Friends
What a week this has been!!!!!
Firstly, Hurricane Sandy!! To each and every victim, you are in our prayers!!! And after 9/11 !!!, we know how strong the American people are, you can and will survive anything!! I can only speak for myself, my friends and family, but we are so proud of your ability to get up and dust yourselves off with your heads held high, and immediately look forward and carry on with your lives, PROUDLY. We commend you all, America!!!!
This last week my Mom & Dad came to visit. Oh, how wonderful that was!! We haven't seen them since early March this year so I really had an aching need to see them again. We had a wonderful time but all too soon we had to say goodbye again! I really miss them sooooo much already! It also scares me to see how quickly the two of them are ageing!!!
This week was also the birthday of little Miss J!! She turned 20 on Nov 5th. Oh, they do grow up far too quickly!! But hey, I'm a really lucky girl!! I still have both my daughters living with us!! Don't know what I'll do when they leave one day. I think hubby and I will be two very lonely old people! Still I count my blessing everyday for this wonderful family I love so much!
Other than that, I am still a happy "hooker"! I crocheted a couple of headbands and a hat and now I am busy crocheting more hats for a outstanding order that I still have to make up. When that is all done I think I want to crochet a couple of festive buntings ( saw them on Attic 24, thank you Lucy!!) for home and also for my sisters. Got the most amazing cupcake bunting crochet pattern from my mom and I think it would be a perfect Xmas gift for someone.
Don't you find that the weather has changed dramatically. With America, Venice, Hawaii, India and even the east coast of South-Africa having so much rain that is causes flooding! and here we are, praying for rain!! Already last summer we had very little rain and now we are already into November and still we have not had a drop of rain. Usually by now, everything is green and lush and there is a lot of grass for the game to eat. Now all there is is sand, sand and more sand! Even our borehole sucked up sand the other day and had to be replaced. The water table is so low now that we can only pump water for a few hours a day and use it very sparingly. All the waterholes on our farm have also dried up but luckily we have a small mud dam near our house and we pump water into it everyday for the animals. They learnt very quickly where the new waterhole was. But I have to believe that the rains are just a little late this summer.
Just look at the pictures below. This was a sand storm at lunchtime yesterday!!!
Anyway my lovelies, I had a wonderful visit with you. Keep safe and go well 'till next time!!!!
Love
Amarie
Hey There
With 22 September being World Rhino day, I want to share with you our experience with these majestic animals. We started with a bull and a cow about 12 years ago, Big Daddy and Cupcake (her horn looked like an upside down cupcake, hence Cupcake!) and during this time they successfully grew the herd to 7.
They are incredibly clever animals. We have very dry and cold winters here and towards the end of winter we have to put extra food out for the game, needless to say, we put the food out close to our home so we can sit on our veranda and watch the game as they come to eat. So every afternoon at about the same time, the rhinos will waddle up to the house and wait for us to throw out the lucern. If we take a little too long, they come right up to the house and blow and shuffle and demand their food. It's so darn cute!!!!!
I really hope you can appreciate the uniqueness of this photograph, I don't think many people have seen rhinos mating.
Unfortunately, Cupcake, she's the one being mated, was "poached" for her horn about 4 months after this photo was taken. I will save you all the horrible details. but needless to say it was BARBARIC!!!
Her absence left a huge void on this farm and is felt every single day. We miss her terribly!!! and it's something we cannot forget or get over.
Life would never be the same again. Fence patrol took on a new meaning just trying to keep them safe and suddenly we were walking around with guns! Our game farm paradise had turned into a nightmare and we were always fearing for our lives as well as theirs and so due to the security risks, they were all sold and hopefully they will stay safe in this unknown location.
The future for rhinos in this country looks really bleak, with 381 rhinos poached this year alone!! If you want to know more about the plight of the rhino, please go to the following links and help save the rhino.
http://www.savetherhino.org
http://www.jacarandafm.com/kagiso/content/en/jacaranda/jacaranda-blogs-rhino-files
Here are more photographs of some of the other game.
Buffalo....
Impala
Sable
As soon as I have nice pics of the other game, I will post it! Hope you enjoyed this page and thank you for caring about the rhinos!!!!!
Well, it's supper time and I will see you soon.
Thank you for visiting with me!
Love
Amarie
