Our pool is finally finished!!! It took about four days to completely fill it up, but it is done, it does not leak and it looks amazing! Now we just need to get the grass to grow back around it. Of course we had our first dip to test it out! It is going to be so nice having a pool that we can just jump into on a hot day to cool off.
This week has been a busy office week catching up on everything. Ellery has been absolutely slammed with work on his side as well. We did still make sure we had time for some walks around the farm with the dogs. The girls are finally starting to tolerate Sig and Kheta even did so nice on one of our walks where Sig decided he wanted to grab her leash and walk her himself.
I have to fly to America this weekend. My drivers license is about to expire and I need to renew it. I thought I could do it online and went through that whole process and paid my renewal fee. When the letter came in the mail I decided to ask Danny if he could check it to make sure my new license was in there only to find a letter saying I must go to the nearest photo centre to get my picture taken for my new license… I contacted the DMV and the embassy to see if there was any way I could do it from here and send my photo in, but unfortunately it is just not an option (the whole states being different than federal thing). So, I have booked my flights for the most expensive drivers license renewal ever. Things are absolutely chaos here right now and I really do not have the time to travel across halfway across the world. Which means this is going to be a super, super quick admin only trip since I just cannot afford the time right now for a proper visit to see everyone that side. I will only actually be in the states for a total of 3 ½ days. It is a bit sad though, because I was really hoping to plan a big trip at the end of this year to see Erin and meet my new niece and now I am not sure I can afford to do that trip after this one. But I am looking forward to seeing my dad and a couple people in the Poolesville area (as well as get to order things from Amazon)!
On Friday, Ellery and I drove up to Joburg and stayed at Jo and Barry’s. I had a wedding dress fitting on Friday and my hair and makeup trial Saturday morning. It is definitely getting into the count down time and I am very excited!! I went straight to the airport directly from my hair and makeup trial to start my 28 hour journey to America with my fancy hair and face.
…..annnnnnnd I am late again. Luckily, I can backdate posts so future me doesn’t think I was slacking off.
With my office finished, I actually was able to get back into some solid work and have a nice comfortable place to do it. I have been going through all of the data that the teams in Karingani collect on the ground – I gather it from multiple sources, clean it up, plop it into the correct excel sheets that Zoe created and start analysis on it. Sounds simple, but there is a lot more to it than just that. For one thing cleaning it up can be a verrryyyyy interesting (and tedious) process. You want to see how much ammunition was used for training, management purposes, etc so you think you can just search the word “shots” or something similar and find all the messages about what was shot and how much… however, then you realise there is a common typo of turning “shots” into “shits” so now you have to search through all of the messages for shits as well… it is a process.
Many people do not realise that data is the backbone of these operations and projects. How many animals are collared? How far did X, Y and Z travel for the month of February? How many kilometres did the security team vehicles travel? How much fuel did they use? How much fuel do we have stock left on? How much rain did each section get for the month? Karingani collects loads of data on as many different aspects of reserve operations, security and conservation as possible. But why is that so important? Well, for one, when you need to request funding for something, the investors and donors giving that money want to know where their money is going. Everyone knows that having a helicopter is a “game changer” for reserve security. But what does game changer mean, how do we know that is actually making a difference? Because we quantify it. We have the numbers, stats and graphs to prove it. Deployment time substantially decreases with a helicopter, and I can show you the numbers for exactly how much that time decreases. Decreased deployment time means higher rates that our scouts coming into contact with potential poachers. Higher arrest percentages. Game changer with the numbers to prove it. I am now the one behind the scenes vetting, organising and making that data available to present to the necessary management, donors and investors.
Please note the unused dog blanket in my office…
On Friday, our good friends Jo and Barry came to spend the weekend with us! We had a ton of fun staying up way too late, drinking way too much wine and playing lots and lots of TAC. IT is so special to be able to have a home that we can share with our friends for visits!
Saturday, Jo, Barry and I went to Pondarosa for the Boots and Bridles Fun Day event. I cannot tell you enough how proud I am of Akira – she was simply amazing!! You have to remember that she is still a baby at only 17 months old… I brought her down to the arena and this was the first time she had seen a bunch of other horses in the arena, some of whom she has never met before. Also, even potentially scarier still there were people SITTING on those horses making them have a very odd shape to them. When we first got down to the arena, she was a bit nervous at first, not sure what to make of it all, but very quickly got over that and decided to trust me that I would not bring her into a bad situation. We walked around and checked out all of the obstacles that were set up. Some of them, like the water crossing and the loud clanging metal pole in a bucket, took a few extra moments of checking out before she realised they were not going to eat her. After that, she was an absolute professional! We did the whole obstacle course many times and she was so brave and so willing to try everything.
In between, we waited on the edge of the arena in the shade for the other horses to have their turns and she waited so calmly and patiently. I am absolutely so in love with this girl!! I have had some pretty amazing horses throughout my life, but there is something unique and special about the bond I have with Akira. She is so loving and cuddly and also so incredibly smart and willing. She just wants to please. After the event was finished, I asked one of the other participants that drove their horses over to Pondarosa if we could try loading in the horse box since Akira had not been in a box since she arrived in December, and she loaded up perfectly, no problem! She was like “Yeah, mom, and now what?” I love her. Jo also got to join in and took Fantasma around playing and trying out all the obstacles with him. It was such a great day!
Sig got his first bath on Sunday and was really not impressed with the ordeal at all. I do not think he is going to be much of a water dog… but the good news is that Ryno is starting to at least tolerate him and doesn’t go running to hide in the closet every time Sig comes in the room. Baby steps. But also, you cannot blame Ryno one bit – those super sharp need teeth hurt!
Monday morning I picked up our girls! Yes, that is right Kheta and Tivara have finally made it to South Africa and my heart could not be more happy! I was worried that after nearly 2 years apart, Kheta would not recognise me, but she absolutely remembers me and has been completely glued to my side since I picked them up. Poor Tivara girl is definitely showing her 12 years of age, but at least now she is home with us for the reminder of her years ❤ Ryno and Kheta were over the moon excited to be reunited again, those two are the best of friends. The second Kheta jumped out of the car her and Ryno had such a ball jumping on each other and catching up on all that has happened to them while they were apart. The only down part is that the girls not only want nothing to do with the snappy little velociraptor, but they too try and snap back. Hopefully with time they will learn to accept him and he will learn to have better manners with the older dogs.
Akira being the clever girl she is learned a new trick – “halter.” When I hold out her halter she excitedly runs over and shoves her nose right in it. This will be very useful when she’s much bigger. One if my challenges with Phoebe the shire mare has been when I try to put on her bridle, she lifts her head straight up to the heavens and 5’3” of me has no chance of reaching her 18.1 hh head when its all the way to the clouds. I wanted to make sure this would never be an issue with Akira, so this was high on my list to teach her, and I just am so amazed with how quickly she caught on. She really is insanely clever!
We got two ears up now!
Ellery left on Wednesday to drive up to Tzaneen to hang out with Cole for his birthday. I cannot believe he is already 14! Holy cow that’s just crazy to think about. He is becoming such an awesome young man. Him and his dad had a great time hanging out and I was lucky to receive a video call from Cole so we could chat and catch up on how his first few weeks of high school have been going. He said the food is absolutely terrible and bland and made me promise to make it up to him with cooking all his favourites on the next school holiday. But overall, he is enjoying it – Merensky Agricultural Academy has some pretty cool traditions like at the beginning of the year the kids have to all hike out to the farm and get dunked in a pool of mud and cow poo. They also had a school sokkie (dance) where the 8th graders had to bring mops and brooms dressed up as their dates. Cole said the prefects decorated faces on the dates for them. Being the younger guys on the block, the 8th graders are “bought” with 2-minute noodles by older kids and then have to spend the year as personal assistants for the older boys making them coffee in the mornings, warming up toilet seats, etc… Boarding school is a very new concept for me as I went to public school in the states. I am sure there are a lot of aspects of it that are tough, but also a lot that sound really fun and great character building.
Being left to hold down the fort, the rest of my week was rotating dogs through different sections of the house. Kheta still wants to be glued to my side, but Sig, being a baby also wants to be close to a human and right now the combo just is not working. So I have the deck, our bedroom and the passage open to the big dogs while Sig and I hang out in the house and garden then every few hours we flip flop who goes where. I am not going to lie, it is extremely exhausting and I cannot wait for Ellery to come home on Friday. When he is here Sig can stay with him and Kheta with me then all is good in dog world. While Ryno just continues to do his own thing – he is pretty much dog Switzerland. Neutral in all the dog drama wars.
The Pollards came by to drop off somethings that they will come and pick up at a later date and we had to heartbreakingly say our goodbyes for now. I am really, really going to miss them!
Saturday morning, with Ellery back, we went and picked up the flooring for my office!! We put down the 4mm rubber mat then had the task of laying out, linking up and cutting the laminate flooring into place. Ellery might not agree, but I was actually quite impressed with how generally easy the whole process was. It went quickly too – the whole thing only took about 4 hours from start to finish. And the finished product is gorgeous!! I am super excited to have my own space and office area to work in! Plus moving my desk out of the dining room gives space to position the dining room table nicely and really opens the whole house up even more.
The pool should be finished next week too! Very excited to see how it turns out and to be able to cool down with a dip. It is coming along so nicely!
….. and more doggo photos because my heart is so happy to have everyone together ❤
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