This week has seen the builders continuing with the new cottage and Bryan and I trying to beat the weather in draining the main dam!

As most people in South Africa know there was a cold front that came up from the Cape this weekend and we had been forecast over 35mms of rain and possibly snow! Now, i know we need the rain desperately, but couldn't it hold off for a couple more weeks!?

Fortunately (please, don't shout at me for saying that), we only had about 9mms of rain over the weekend, so our dam is continuing to slowly drop, which is what we seriously need as the machines are due to come this week to start cleaning out the dam.

​Here are a couple of shots showing how the water level is today.

Let's hope the water keeps draining out so that we can get the dam sorted, re-filled and then stocked with some Rainbow Trout!

The cottage has been progressing well and in the coming week, I think the builders are going to be putting the windows in and starting some painting. They have already started to put the roof paint on and it already looks better!

Perhaps as a result of the rain we have had over the past couple of weeks, Bryan and I have decided that we would like to put a roof on part of the veranda, so that in the summer (our rainy season), our guests will still be able to enjoy a braai if it rains. The pillars are the supports for the roof, which will go up this week.

So, we have another fun packed week ahead of us, with the dam work hopefully starting and some more progress on the cottage, plus of course, our weekly trip to Pietermaritzburg! Have a good week and I'll be back next weekend :-)

So, it's time for an update on our progress over the past couple of weeks at Kamberg Valley Hideaway!

Some very exciting news is that, finally, our JoJo Water tanks are all connected to each other, the water is pumping from the borehole to the tanks and the pressure pump is supplying the Staff accommodation, our Guest Wing and our Main House with beautifully clear, clean water! Yippee! It has been a while coming, but we have got there and are so pleased with the result. Once the cottage is finished, the pressure pump will also be supplying the cottage with the same, clean water! It has felt like a mountain sometimes, but we have reached the summit on this project!

With regard to the new 3-bedroom cottage, the plastering has pretty much been completed, and it is looking a lot more like a home now. This week our amazing builders should finish the plastering and the roof and next week we should see some paint going on the walls! Cannot wait for that!

That's the main updates on the work that is going on at the moment, except that we have also started to drain the large dam so that we can rid it of Bass and soon stock it with Rainbow Trout.

The only frustration with this is that Bryan has set up half a dozen siphons to drain the dam and they were working fantastically until the heavens opened at the weekend. Now we seem to have  had more rainfall in the past five days than in the past five months! Quite frustrating, but the plants, trees and the grass are loving the refreshing rain so I guess we shouldn't grumble. It just means it will take longer to drain the dam, because as the water drains out, more comes in from the recent rainfall! We will be patient though!

So that's all for now. Apparently snow is forecast at the weekend, so we are stocking up on wood and fuel for our generator! I'll let you know if we do get any snow again come Monday!