Two Crutches and One Eye

One was a freak accident the other old age or natural wear and tear. 

On the last day of 2025 one of our workers ran me over with one of our bakkies. It was sore and a day later I went for x-rays. Broken hip bone.

And operation and ICU and hospital food and rehab and walking with crutches. At about the time of the unfortunate incident, Sue was diagnosed with macular degeneration in her left eye. She is still recovering from a similar op in her right eye. To give you an idea; it is quite a bit more than a cataract removal. Luckily, we could postpone this op until I could drive and cook and stack the dishwasher. It will take a few months. I am hobbling along on one crutch now. Things are looking up. In Sue’s case with one eye.

“Poephol and portret” is a golfer’s term. Two balls hit by different players end up within, say, a half a meter from each other. In the sand, or in the rough or on the fairway. I guess we were in the semi rough. A chance to recover.

Twenty twenty-five has been our driest ever; 267 millimeters. Ten years ago, we had 285. And the wind made it worse. We have not had winds like this since we bought the farm in 2007. And the temperatures are definitely up from previous years. Global warming is real and with us.

Four small boreholes have kept us going. Every day we watch the waterflow anxiously. Hope that they will last. We still have the last of the grapes and the all the olives to take off the land. No water for the lawns. Just the flowerbeds and then not too often either.

Enough of the bad news.

The grapes so far look great. Rather early. Healthier than ever and definitely more. Must be the wind. The olives look better than last year. Must be the doepa. And the cattle look good for this time of the year. Romance is in the air for the goats. They are showing the first signs. Wiggly tails and jumping and frivolous headbutting. Even the old aunties take part. The boys have luckily not started scenting themselves.

We have cleared most of the top half of invasive plants. It should help maintain the groundwater levels. For those little boreholes.

Our biggest investment is to go Solar. There is still some tweaking but this week we were pushing 93 kilowatts per day into our system. Enough for any normal day’s consumption. We may need some help from Eskom when we press the olives with longer working hours and shorter sun hours.

Lately the wind just wants to turn more westerly. Our rainwind. Another month or so and we will have our first twenty or thirty mills. Usually in the form of a thunderstorm which signals the end of summer. But first we must get out of the semi rough and get on to the green, and put for par. We hope. Otherwise, we will just fok voort.

Johan and Sue