Adventure is out there.

October started with school holidays and a full house. The kids were here from the 2nd to the 6th, and although we did not do anything particularly wild or adventurous since it was such a short holiday, the farm felt alive in the best way. Schotia and I spent the weekend at a horsemanship clinic, Just the two of us, dusty, sunburnt, and I was so very proud of her. She took to it so naturally, and when we got home, she was desperate to show Bellatjie everything she had learned. Watching her work with Bellatjie groundwork cues athome, with that same mix of patience and determination was very special.

Orion tried his hand at welding (under very close supervision) and helped Ellery to weld up a new pole mount for one of our security cameras. And Cole, was a teenager and played games on his phone most of the holiday though he did make us the most delicious dinner – a Mediterranean sun dried tomato mac and cheese! We also finally started to get our veggie garden up and running planting lots of seeds. I cannot wait to be able to start harvesting again.

The rest of October… well, let’s just say my patience got tested in a whole new way. The feed and tack room construction turned into a full-blown waiting game. Madds construction managed to stretch a “three to four day” job into over a month of excuses, vanishing acts, and general chaos. But at long last, the building is finished. Mostly. I so far have sealed and painted the tack room and Elvis, one of our farm hands, painted the exterior for me. So next I need to paint the tack room and then I can start building shelving, saddle racks and all the fixings.

The horses were their usual mix of chaos and charm. Akira continues to grow into her legs, Moose thinks he is my personal assistant (whether I asked for help or not), and Bellatjie is doing great, especially with all the extra attention from Schotia. Moose was particular “helpful” and entertaining in his new role as construction supervisor leading to the horses being kicked out of the top field during most of the construction period. He loves to be where the action is, sticking his nose into quite literally everything! I absolutely adore him in every way.

October also brought a few feathered houseguests. As a registered wildlife rehab volunteer with MTPA, I took in a few rescues which lead to more rescues and now a house full of screaming baby birds. At least nothing makes you feel more wanted then a flock of starving baby birds yelling at you the second you walk into the room. So far we have raised an African green pigeon (named Sneaky G), a white-bellied sunbird, a couple of swifts, a Burchell’s coucal, an amethyst sunbird, a red-winged starling, a black-capped bulbul, another random pigeon/dove (still waiting on his adult feathers to know species) and had an injured African goshawk for a night before she went to the vets and then off to Dullstroom Raptor Centre. It has been busy. Each little baby needs to be fed every 2-3 hours throughout the day, but it is very rewarding (and a little sad) when it comes time for release and they head back off into the wild where they belong.

I have learned that apparently, I am a crazy pigeon lady at heart. Who knew pigeons were so affectionate and cuddly? They get very excited when they see you, start flapping their wings and making adorable little cooing noises and then will cuddle up into your hand. The other birds just yell at you until you feed them then want nothing more to do with you.

Work ticked along in the background. We are currently prepping for the GKEPF-JMF U19 Cup coming up very quickly at the beginning of December, which brings together local community youth soccer and netball teams from communities around the Greater Kruger. It has been a mix of planning, branding and graphic work, and herding cats (the human kind), but seeing how much excitement it creates every year makes the long hours worth it. The tournament is important because it gives young people from communities around the Greater Kruger a chance to be a part of a team, to compete, gain confidence, and feel genuinely supported in a space where positive opportunities are often limited. By creating safe, structured activities and strong role models, it also helps steer vulnerable youth away from crime and other high-risk paths.

The days have blurred between animal feeds, endless cups of coffee, and the hum of the farm slowly finding its rhythm again after winter and turning brilliantly green. Oh and rain. Lots and lots of rain! It is miraculous how the brown dry bush magically turns lumo green seemingly overnight after the rains first arrive. And now somehow the year is nearly over, December is upon us and Christmas is quickly approaching! Next week marks a full year of living in our new home ❤

Ah wait! I forgot completely to tell you about our trip to Zim!

When we were still at Karingani, we were fortunate enough to meet the most incredible couple – John and Diane. John and Diane sponsor conservation work across Africa placing tracking collars on numerous different wildlife species every year with helicopter pilot, Tristan. We had some incredible adventures together at Karingani during their yearly visits and were really sad when we left and those stopped. Last year, John and Diane invited us up to northern Mozambique to help out one of their collaring expeditions in Niassa and it was so lovely to spend the week catching up with them. This year they invited us out to Fothergill Island in Matusadona National Park in Zimbabwe. I have only been to Zim once before only on a day trip to see Victoria Falls so I was extra excited to go back and see more of the country. We stayed at the most incredible camp, which basically was like a minimoon for Ellery and myself. John, Diane and Tristan went out during the day to collar with African Parks and the Zim team while Ellery and I enjoyed the camp, bush walks and lots of birding!

In the evenings when everyone was back, we hopped on the boat for sundowners and to fish on Lake Kariba aiming for tiger fish and vundu (the largest freshwater fish in Africa). It wasn’t really tiger fish season, but after the first 15 kg vundu catch we completely switched gears and only fished for vundu. I ended up landing the biggest one of the trip a “small” by vundu standards, but still massive 16.7 kg one!

Evenings were spent around the fire laughing, joking and telling stories with John, Diane and Tristan. I cannot emphasize enough how incredible each one of them is. Truly salt of the earth type people and I am extremely honoured to call them my friends. Even though we only see each other once a year, it often feels like we were all together only the month prior. Tristan and Ellery are a particularly hilarious duo – I swear they are like a bunch of naughty school boys giggling away to the point of tears at some inappropriate joke. I could spend all day just watching the two of them together! It warms my heart so much!

On our last night there, Ellery and I decided to try and tick off some more birds off our list, so we went on a shoreline boat safari and boy did we get lucky! We had incredible sightings of African skimmers, collared pratincole, goliath and squacco herons and so much more!

Unexpectedly, while we were checking out birds, our awesome guide, Wayne, called out that he sees a lion on shore from the boat. I thought he was joking. But as we got closer, sure enough laying next to a hippo carcass was a young male lion, fat from his extra large meal. We hung out watching him from the water for some time.

As the sun was starting to set, Wayne surprised us again bringing the boat to land and an extraordinary sundowner setup with delicious treats and drinks! Instead of hopping back on the boat and heading back in the dark, we jumped on a game viewer to see if we could spot any nighttime animals. Ticking another off the box, we came across a super relaxed leopard!!

The leopard kept glimpsing up in a nearby tree and judging by her large belly, we assumed that she must have a kill stashed up there. Trolling spotted hyenas hanging out nearby pretty much confirmed that suspicion.

I cannot tell you enough how much my heart needed this bush break, more than I think even I realised until we were on the flight home. It was so amazing to spend the week with such incredible humans and in such an incredible place!

(That’s 10 months since we have moved into our forever home, not Jo’s inability to realise that September is the ninth month)

 Well, the weekly updates were going well for a while, until I stopped doing them. I think I ran out of things to say each week as most weeks are “worked from my home office” and that’s mostly it. Saying that, actually a lot has happened since my last update. Maybe I can convince myself do at the very least do monthly updates? No promises, but I will really try!

We welcomed two new arrivals to our family – Olympus Liberty Bell (Bellatjie) and Netherfield Dickens (Moose)! And we completed our stables, so all the horses are finally home!

Bellatjie is a six year old “farm horse,” we were told that she has some Clydesdale in her breeding and she is out of a beautiful, athletic thoroughbred mare. She is about 15.2 ½ hh and is sweet as anything. She was a very special surprise for Schotia, as Bellatjie is officially her first horse! When the twins came to us for their last school holiday, we told them that we had gotten a new horse, Moose and went to Pondarosa so they could meet him. While they were saying hi to Akira, I pointed out the new horse across the isle to Schotia telling her to go and say hi. Schotia thought the new horse was quite adorable and kept asking what her name was and who’s horse she was. Right on Bellatjie’s stall was a name sign saying “Bellatjie, Owned by Schotia Worth” so we pointed the sign out to her and told her to read it. She just kept reading only “Bellatjie” and skipping over the rest. After some convincing, she read the whole sign and immediately broke down in tears of joy realising that this was HER horse. It was a very sweet moment.

We booked a couple of riding lessons with Rene at Pondarosa so Schotia could get to know her new partner under the guidance of an incredible coach, and the two bonded so well!

Bellatjie is a very sweet and very people oriented mare – she just loves all of the attention! She is an easy going riding horse, but still is young and is not particularly “schooled” which I think will be a great experience for Schotia learning with Bellatjie since most of Schotia’s riding experience has been on well-trained school ponies that already know all the right “buttons.” But Bellatjie is extremely safe, and if she is uncertain of anything simply just stops moving until she understands what you are asking for her. I think they are going to be the perfect partners! And bonus, now we have a horse I can ride until Moose and Akira are old enough.

Moose. He is a big moose, hehe, but such an absolute honey! Moose is Koda’s half-brother, with the same sire. After heartbreakingly losing Koda, I just knew I had to have another Fancy That baby. With the stud shutting down and the breeder retired, I was worried that it might not happen. Luckily for us, Carole had one last Fancy That baby, her last one and she was overjoyed that we wanted him! Moose is not as tall as Koda, but he is built like a brick house and being half shire may yet still surprise us in height as they can continue to grow up until they are eight years old. He is only turning three in November and is already standing at 16.3 hh! He also has extraordinary thoroughbred lines in him being out of an AP Arrow mare he boasts both Secretariat and Seattle Slew in his pedigree. But all those fancy names aside, he is just an absolute easy-going sweetheart in every way. He is so gentle and just wants to be loved. I have already fallen head over heels for him!

And of course an update on miss Akira, she too is doing great! Her and Bellatjie bonded instantly while they were both still at Pondarosa and our little herd is so perfect. She is absolutely growing like a weed too! Akira just turn two a few weeks ago is already standing at 15.3 ½ hh. Her breeder predicted she would mature to about 16.1 – 16.2 hh, but at this rate she looks like she might be tracking more for that 16.3, possibly even 17 hh size (our vet is convinced she is going to hit that size). Between her awkward giraffe growth spurts, she is really turning into such a stunning girl! She has hit a bit of a teenager wall lately though and has been testing everyone trying to find where she stands in the world leading to us needing some serious talks about how she is not allowed to swing her butt and try to kick at people the same way she can within her herd. She is also extremely clever! I love watching her progress and change nearly daily!

Sjoe, okay this has turned into a bit of a blog just about the horses. Sorry about that, but they’re kind of one of the main things of my day every day. Other than horse news, Ellery, Cole and I have been busy building a raptor release enclosure. We recently had MTPA (the provincial authority on tourism and wildlife) out to do a property inspection since we have wildlife here. During that process we started chatting about rehab permits and licences and both Ellery and I got placed on permits for assisting with rehabbed wildlife for Mpumalanga. After chatting with our friends at the Dullstroom Raptor Centre, we got the plans and have started building our own soft release enclosure. The plan is when there are small raptors such as owls, hawks and small eagles that we will bring them here and start a slow release back to the wild giving them time to adjust before opening up the hatch and letting them out into the world. We’re also hoping to receive in some other critters that are ready to be returned back to the wild, giving them the safe space to call Induli Khaya home. Also on our never-ending to-do list is we want to build and set up owl nest boxes, bat boxes and beehives around the property to encourage our local pest terminators and pollinators to take up and keep residency here.

I think that is all for now… Ellery is currently on his way back from Hoedspruit picking up the twins for a long weekend and I am really looking forward to having them all home. Their next big school holiday break is not until December over Christmas, so even though this one is only four days long its going to be wonderful! Schotia and I are planning to attend a horsemanship clinic this weekend, and I am sure Orion will be eager to get in on the building of the raptor enclosure!

I’ll try to aim for at least a monthly update going forward!