Apologies for the lack of blog update in the past couple of weeks. Some people might think that there has been no news because not much has happened, but in fact it is the complete opposite. We have been so busy, I just haven't found the time for an update, so here is the news from the past 3 weeks.

One very exciting development is our borehole. The drilling machine and operators arrived on the 10th August around 3pm and started drilling. The equipment and process was really quite amazing to watch. Apparently the drilling vehicle itself costs R8,000,000 (no wonder it costs quite a lot for the bore hole to be dug)!

We were very excited but also quite nervous about the drilling of the borehole. We had heard many stories about dry holes being dug and at the end of the day, you have to pay per metre, whether the drillers find water or not. We had located our drilling site and one of the drilling operators got his divining rods out and checked the location for us. The point where the guys started drilling, was the point where the divining rods were swinging around like crazy. It was very cool to see.

After only about half an hour of drilling we started to see water. This was at 16m! We couldn't believe our luck! The Drilling manager, however, explained that they recommended drilling deeper because often when water is found so shallow, it is either only a small amount sitting just off the surface, or it can dry up very quickly. They guys drilled a little deeper and then decided to put the steel casing in and continue drilling the following day. They put 18m of casing down and covered the hole and left to stay the night in their caravan.

The next morning, I had to leave to go to St Lucia for the weekend. I was photographing Wedding that I had agreed to do before we moved, but there was so much going on, I didn't really want to leave!

Anyway, the drillers continued to 66m, at which point there appeared to be a vast amount of water coming out of our borehole, so we asked them to stop and check the refill speed! Apparently our borehole fills at 20,500 litres/hour! A huge amount of water and therefore a huge success. So the drillers packed up their machine, left the 18m of steel casing and covered the hole and Bryan and I were both relieved and ecstatic that we had found so much water so quickly and on the first attempt. Our progress to clean and plentiful water was past step one!

The following week the Drilling Company returned to Kamberg Valley Hideaway and installed our borehole pump, 60m below ground. Step two, was now complete!

We then had our electrician and our plumbers connect the piping and the cables to the DB board, the Jojo Water Tank and the borehole and Step three was complete. We now have borehole water filling our Jojo tank.

Next week, the remaining Jojo tanks will be connected, the pump house moved and re-connected and we are hoping that by the end of next week, our entire water system for our Main House, the Guest Wing, the Staff Accommodation and our 3-bedroom Cottage that is being renovated, will all be connected and running smoothly! I'll let you know how we get on next weekend! 

Our second big piece of big news is that we now have Zinny and Henry living in their new homes in our Staff Accommodation. The laundry room still needs a sink and the washing machine to be plumbed in and the worktops to be put up, but other than that our Staff Accommodation is basically complete and Zinny and Henry have made their homes look great!

I brought Zinny back with me from St Lucia, so she has been with us for two weeks and since we have had 3 sets of guests since then, I can't say enough how great it is to have her here with us. Henry moved in yesterday and this morning he was out chopping down some of the fallen trees that we haven't managed to get to yet! I think Zinny and Henry will make a fabulous team and we are so pleased they have both moved here to help us out.

In order to get the Staff Accommodation inside completed, I did something that I don't think I have ever done before, except maybe when I was a child. For those who know me, you will understand the shocked reaction I received from my Mum when I sent her this photo!

We had a number of curtains that we replaced when we renovated the Guest Wing of the Main House. The curtains are very good material and so I thought they would be great for Zinny and Henry's rooms. The curtains, however were the wrong size, so I got the sewing machine out that we inherited with the house, found the manual (which proved useless, since it was all written in German) and using the photos in the manual, worked out how to use the sewing machine. I have to say, I was really quite chuffed with myself. The sewing is probably not going to win me any awards, but at least Zinny and Henry have some nice curtains at their windows! Watch this space, maybe next week I'll be sewing Bryan some more clothes!!!

So, that's the news on our staff accommodation, all that really leaves is the update on the Old Tin Cottage that we had torn down and our fabulous builders (Ezweni Construction) were rebuilding.

As always the builders are working at record speed and most of the walls are now up, both inside and outside. Beaven (our builder) is hoping to start plastering the walls later this coming week, so as you can see, huge progress has been made on this renovation. We were hoping to have the Cottage ready for December, but it looks like we are well ahead of schedule and it should be up and running for guests in mid-October! 

Well, that's it from me for now. I hope you enjoy reading what we have been up to and I promise not to leave such a long gap again.

Enjoy your Sunday and catch up with you all next weekend!

This week has seen the staff accommodation really coming along.

The roof is finished, the ceilings are in, the undercoat is on, the showers are tiled, so now we move on to the finishing touches, installation of the bathroom suite and kitchen sink, lights and the stove. The accommodation is really looking great and we are excited to see how it will look when finished!

It's going to be a fun-filled week next week!

Now that the staff accommodation is nearly finished, Beaven and his team have started to begin work on the foundation slab of the old cottage. There was a lot of earth that needed to be moved into the steel base of the old cottage so that they can compact it and lay the concrete slab next week.

​Whilst Beaven and a few of his team were sanding, undercoating and getting the ceilings done in the staff accommodation, a couple of other guys were moving the mass of earth. We couldn't believe how much there was to move, but they managed to get it all done in two days!

​Now with that and all the materials being delivered for the concrete slab, we look forward to seeing the start of the cottage renovations! So very exciting and ahead of schedule, which is even better!

On top of this work, we had an epic paint shopping trip to Pietermaritzburg, ordered the windows and doors for the cottage and ordered and collected the glass for the staff accommodation windows.

We also had guests book in for the long weekend, so all-in-all, another busy week!

One frustration we have had this week, however, is with regard to our borehole.

​We have been waiting for the drilling company to come and start the drilling of our borehole and we were expecting them this week, however, it seems that they are having problems finding water at the job site on the list before us, therefore no drilling yet.

The frustration is that we can't continue with the work we need to do on the dams until we have water coming from a borehole instead of the dam, so the lack of drilling thus far is holding up our dam clearing and maintenance.

One of the things we were going to do once the small dam was drained was to chop the invasive wattle trees down on the island. These trees are an alien plant and extremely problematic, so they need to be chopped down and removed. This week, however, we noticed a few weaver birds returning to start looking at building their nests. Since we don't want to be chopping down these trees with new nests in them, Bryan decided to head to the island on the inflatable airbed and chop down the trees!

It was quite a mission getting through the reeds on the airbed, but Bryan succeeded and the trees have all been chopped down now. Once the dam has been drained, we can then remove the chopped trees and plant a new, indigenous tree that the weavers can again build their nests in!

So, that's it for this week. Let's hope the drilling guys turn up next week and we will update you on the progress of the staff accommodation and the cottage. Hope everyone has a happy and successful week!

​Bye for now!