Interruptions

We must be heading for a record rainfall season because the reserve is really waterlogged. The hacking crew got clever and decided to rather work on Tuesday and, even though it didn’t rain, they got rather wet just from the vegetation and the puddles anyway.

We went on Wednesday as usual and when we arrived there was a meeting in progress with all the staff and Joram. The little feedback we got did not sound very positive, the staff is still none the wiser about their future.

There were also some other chaps from the municipality roaming around, ostensibly looking at what building maintenance needs to be done but they asked rather pointed questions about the nursery, what water we were using and generally being nosy. I did not get a good feeling.

The concrete mixer “bribery” had worked though and all the old irrigation pipes have been removed, it looks so much neater now and easier to get to the greenhouse.

I had prefabricated some rafters for the shade house modification and it was a fair bit of work to get the angles and levels right, especially because the support poles had to be moved and the tires dug out but we managed to get the outer two up and aligned so the other three should be quicker.

Not easy to dig because the water level is just below the grass.

We had plenty of distractions, Neil joined us for coffee (amazing the attraction Ellie’s chocolates have), some visitors came and looked for plants to buy at the sale, other visitors, all the way from Belgium, asked directions so they were sent on the Nymph trail which they thoroughly enjoyed and lastly Goodman also still came around for some discussion. The communication is definitely improving and we are fast becoming part of the furniture,

The flyers at our notice board had all gone again, they seem to fill a need because we keep on having to print more.

While I was doing my construction work Ellie busied herself in the nursery sorting, planting, collecting, still lots to do before the 3rd of October especially because various visiting groups such as Wessa, Swartkops Garden Club, Geocaching etc. will be taking up some of her valuable time as well.

We had good intentions to still make some progress with the chainsawing but could only manage to put the refurbished Forest Walk signs back.

By comparison the Exit sign looks bad now so we should really have done that one too, perhaps with the next batch of signs. We would also like to replace the sign by the N2 turnoff as people from the Humansdorp direction have got lost a few times and ended up at Fitches corner instead.