The snow that had fallen on Monday, was all gone by Tuesday. Tuesday was a day of rain! I think that most of KZN experienced a deluge of rain on Tuesday and much needed rain it was too, but we really couldn't believe how much had fallen. Over 100mm!

​Once the clouds finally lifted we were able to see the top of Mount Lebanon again! It looked spectacular with a little snow and ice remaining.

With the end of the snow, Bryan and I headed out to check out the dams. We wanted to see if the two repaired dam walls were doing what they were supposed to do, which is only flow over once the dam was full, rather than leaking round the monks and eroding away the banks! We had received enough rain for the dams to be full, so we were excited to see the result.

We had received so much rainfall over the past four days that it was incredible how much water was flowing. Thank goodness we managed to fix the leaking dam wall from the small pond on Thursday and Friday last week otherwise it's likely the entire wall would have collapsed through the water undercutting it.

We were also really excited to see the waterfall that Bryan had discovered shortly after we moved to Kamberg Valley Hideaway. It was looking stunning!

With the snow and rain finally finishing on Tuesday evening, our builders started back on Wednesday. They started putting the roof on the staff accommodation and continued with the plastering. By Friday, the building was looking great. Now they just need the plaster and bricks to dry out, scree the floors and then the painting will begin! So excited!

On Friday Rowen (one of our neighbours) called to ask if he could come by and do some more burning on our property. It was a god time to burn as the roots of the grasses and plants were all still damp from the rain and snow.

We asked Rowen if he would be happy to burn the entire field. This meant that we could see exactly the lay out of the dam and its size, which will help hugely when we start doing the maintenance work on it soon. Everything is so overgrown, it would take days to cut it all down, so burning it would make life a lot easier! On top of that, it also means that come the Spring, we will have gorgeous lush green grass!

​It was quite incredible how quickly the burn took. In half an hour, everything was charred black! I obviously went out with my camera to take some shots!

The newly charred ground attracted loads of birds. At one point there were 5 black-headed heron pecking away at the ground. i took a couple of shots. We also had a spoon-bill visit. Which I love. Their beaks are so amazing!

Even though we really only had a three-day week this week. It seems that we still crammed in a full weeks work! Next week is going to be even busier!

I don't normally write a new blog so quickly after the last one, however, I wanted to share some of the photographs of the snow we had @Kamberg Valley Hideaway overnight!

We couldn't believe it when we opened the curtains this morning. A beautiful, pristine layer of white greeted us! The rain from yesterday obviously turned to snow overnight as the temperatures dropped and the sight was absolutely stunning!

We had no cell phone reception, nor any power, but Bryan got the generator fired up and lit the log fire and we were sorted!

All we needed to do was wrap up in our ski gear and go for a little walk!

​Here are some photos for you all to enjoy! 

Monday kicked off with our builders starting to put on the roof timbers of our new staff accommodation that is currently being built, as well as continuing with the demolition and clear up of the cottage that is going to be our next guest accommodation spot.

As always, Ezweni Construction arrived early (about 7.30am) and were cracking on with their work within minutes! By Tuesday, the main structure of the roof beams were on, the plumbers finished chasing in their pipes and the electrician had most of the plug sockets and wiring also chased in. All was looking great!

The old cottage, was not looking great, but it was in so far as everything was now out that wasn't staying and we could properly see the size and the structure we had left to work with. Bryan and I set to drawing the plans for the new interior! Very exciting indeed!

By Wednesday the whole talk of the Kamberg Valley and Nottingham Road area was about the severe cold front that was forecast. We were warned to check the generator worked in case of power outage, told to make sure we had buckets of water by the toilets as the pipes were bound to freeze and asked if we had enough fire wood and food to last a week in case we were cut off! All sounded a bit serious, but it was hard to believe as the days were beautiful! Blue skies, no clouds and gorgeous sunsets!

The builders continued with finishing the roof beams and started plastering the inside and outside of the staff accommodation.

I was going to take some pictures, but then we got side-tracked with also working on the dam wall from the small dam.

​The forecast was showing almost 100mls rain expected over the weekend and we were concerned that the erosion from the small dam to the larger dam would get worse, so with the help of a couple of the builders, Bryan hired a compactor and started work on that.

​We then received a last minute booking for Saturday night. So we had to step to it and get the guest wing ready for their arrival. The couple wanted to come up and stay in the hopes of seeing the snow! So, was this snow really coming?

We were so excited to see the snow and were also very pleased that our guests got to see it too. They headed out and enjoyed a short walk to the dam and took some snow pics! Sadly, we didn't get much more snow after that on Sunday, but there was lots of rain, so we moved the cars out of the garage so that they could get a wash and spend the day chilling by our cozy log fire! How lazy are we?!

Later in the afternoon the clouds lifted long enough for us to capture a shot of the our mountain (Mount Lebanon) with its snow fall. It looked absolutely spectacular!

Let's see if there is any more snow over night!

After the challenging week we had last week, I'm happy to say that this week has been great! Very busy and highly productive.

On Monday our builders started to remove the windows from the old tin cottage so that they could put them into the new staff accommodation that is currently being built. As always, the builders were so fast, these windows were all in by the end of Tuesday.

​Whilst some of the guys were removing the windows, others were digging the septic tank and soak-away. Here's how the staff accommodation looked...

... and here's how the tin cottage looked...

On Tuesday the plumbers and the electrician were also on site so that we could go through the plans of where the plumbing pipe work needs to be and where all the lights, plug sockets and switches need to go. All very exciting, but lots of think about!

On Wednesday, Bryan and I had a Pietermaritzburg mission. We had geysers to buy, a washing machine, piping and all the electrical materials, so we headed off and left everyone busy on site.

Since we were waiting for all the timbers and roof sheeting to be delivered and the plumbers and electrician were busy in the staff accommodation, the builders couldn't continue working there, so they continued with the demolition of the old tin cottage!

What we returned home to was quite something!

The rest of the week continued with the plumbers and electrician doing their cutting of the brick work to lay all the pipe work and cables in the staff accommodation, the guys digging the septic tank finished digging and started to the brick inside walls, a couple of guys were digging the trench for the electricity cables and water pipes to run between the staff accommodation, the water tanks and the cottage (once renovated) and the rest of the guys continued taking down the old tin cottage and revealing its shell.

Bryan and I were running between all of them answering questions of where everything needed to go, chasing up building materials and working on the design of the new cottage renovation that will be starting in the next few weeks! It was all happening!

By the end of Friday the only thing remaining of the cottage was the roof (which will remain), the main steel structure (to support the roof) and some of the flooring.

​We can now see how large this cottage really is and start the fun part of planning it's new design!

Oh and in between all of this, I received a call from the Real Estate Agent that we bought Kamberg Valley Hideaway through, asking if I could spare the time to do a photo shoot for him.

His company wanted photos of each agent for their new marketing campaign the following day and since he knew I was a photographer, he wanted me to take the shots for him. So we dashed off to Nottingham Road on Thursday to do the shoot.

​Here is the photo that the marketing team chose!

It's now Sunday and we are chilling at home. About to pop out to the dam and do a spot of fishing, but otherwise a lazy day, ready for the thrills and spills of the coming week!

Have a great Sunday and check back next weekend for the coming week's exploits at Kamberg Valley Hideaway!

Thank goodness it is the weekend. We have had quote a few challenges to deal with this week! I guess we have had pretty plain sailing so far, but did everything have to happen in one week! Are you ready for the story...!

Wake up Saturday morning to warm, but not hot showers and water coming through the ceiling and light fitting again. This time, the hot water pipe, yesterday was the cold water pipe. So, plumber comes back! Finds leak, fixes leak and then checks electric switch for geyser that they switched on, on Thursday. It seems that there is no power going from the switch to the geyser, hence lack of hot water! We think when the geyser was tripping on Wednesday, it must have burnt out the switch.

Now we are at the end of Saturday, please tell me that is it for the week. Really hope we don't have any more water issues tomorrow morning! Fingers crossed!

So, as you can see, it has been a challenging week, but we have learnt a lot about how the water system works, how to re-wire sockets and how, through a process of elimination we can work out where a problem might be located! Plus we now have warm pipes!

Plus this week, one of the local farmers (whose bulls occasionally graze on our property) called to check it was fine for him and his crew to come and do some fire breaks at Kamberg Valley Hideaway for us! This was great news. Runaway fires can be a big problem in the Drakensberg over the winer months, when the Berg winds visit, so we were very grateful and relieved to hear that they were going to come and burn for us! Can you imagine Bryan and I trying to do it, we wouldn't have a clue!

It was actually amazing to watch them and incredible how quickly the grass burns. Though I felt like a bit of a plum doing it, I did go out and take some photos of them at work!

So, there you have it. A fun-packed week??? Let's hope the hot water is fine tomorrow morning and there are no leaks and that next week is less challenging!

My next blog was going to be about our day that we spent at the beautifully scenic Kamberg Nature Reserve, however, we woke up this morning to a heavy frost and bright blue skies, so I thought I would share some photos of our walk to the river with you instead. Many people have been asking us if we have had snow yet, unfortunately not, but the frost from this morning was almost a stunning!

Bryan and I dressed up in our ski pants and jackets, threw on our beanies and grabbed our gloves and the camera and headed off for a walk down to the river at Kamberg Valley Hideaway. The sunlight was that beautiful and the blue skies and the first was so pretty!

The sun was sparkling on the frosty grass and made it look like a carpet of tiny jewels twinkling in the morning sun.

There were so many beautiful sights, we didn't know what to photograph first, so here is a slideshow of some of them...

We walked along the river and sat for a while listening to the water flowing along and just enjoying the peace and tranquility of being here!

Shortly after this we decided to head back home as our tummies were telling us it was time for a tasty warming brunch! But, what a beautiful morning we enjoyed and no doubt we will have a roaring log fire tonight! Life it good!