God Sent Rain

Yesterday evening I transplanted 33 sweetcorn seedlings into my garden that I had grown from seed.

Sweetcorn greeting the world

After raising the bed a bit, I made little ‘bowls’ in the earth and planted a little sweetcorn seedling in each one. 

I sowed 2 rows of peas and 1 row of beans directly next to each sweetcorn seedling.

This morning I awoke to the musical sound of falling rain!  My mom reckons that God waited for me to plant my sweetcorn before He sent the rain!

Blessings,

Kelly-Anne

P.S.  We haven’t had a good downpour for quite some time now, so we welcome this weather with open arms.  This area has been in drought for about 2 years, but we pray all the time for God to send the rain, and He did!

Making Lemon Cordial

This afternoon Beth (age 6) and I made lemon cordial.

I have made it before, but this time I let Beth help me and it was a good bonding time between us both.

Beth squeezed the lemons while I took the photographs below.  She had so much fun!

Here is the recipe for our most loved lemon cordial.  It is a wonderful, refreshing colddrink to have on a hot summer’s day whilst working outside in the garden!

Lemon Cordial

 

1 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup of sugar

 

Put both ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over a medium heat on the stove until sugar has dissolved.

Pour the syrup into a jug and leave to cool for about 5 minutes.  Then pour into a glass bottle.  Cut a slice of lemon in half and press it into the juice bottle.  Put on the cap and tie a piece of raffia around the top.

And there you are – delicious lemon cordial!  Put a little bit in a glass and top up with ice cold water, stir and pop in an ice block!  Enjoy!

My dad absolutely LOVES this lemon cordial.  He will often ask me:  “Is there any cordial left?”  The look on his face when I tell him we have drunk it all!  I have to make sure his favourite drink is always in stock! 

Blessings to all,

Kelly-Anne

I'm Gonna Help My Papa!

Oh, look at that chubby little hand trying to help papa fix the bicycles.  My dad was raising the seats and tightening the brakes so dear little Rebekah got stuck in!  She is only one years old!

Popcorn Babes

From left to right: Nancy age 10, Rebekah age 1, Gabrielle age 3, Beth age 6 and me (Kelly-Anne) 13.

Five sisters eating popcorn!!

Have a blessed week further!

Blessings,

Kelly-Anne

On The Web Again!

Hello all!  We are finally connected!  My dad got the little 3g modem in town the other day and so now I can blog again!

I earn points by helping with housework and doing extra things for my mom.  I earned 20 minutes for sorting out the school room this afternoon!  If I do something wrong or have a bad attitude, I lose points!  But hopefully I will earn more than I lose!

So now I will post lots of blogs - yippee!

I Am Still Here!

Hello everyone!!  I am still here!  I really miss posting but know that I will as soon as we get internet on the farm which should be very soon!  This is just a little post that I am doing from an internet cafe to say we are all fine!


We are busy building a fence around our vegetable garden out of wattle droppers and it looks wonderful!  We are also busy planting and having a lot of fun!

I have finally gotten the saddle on the horse I ride down the road, called Hazelnut and we are doing lots of flatwork in our friend's arena.  I will share photographs of her soon!

The girls are growing nicely and they are really enjoying themselves!  School is coming on and at the moment I am busy with a gradening diary!

I hope all is well for you and I will be doing regular postings soon!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,
Kelly-Anne

Happy Girls!

Since moving to the farm, the girls have all been so happy!  On the first day Gabrielle ran up and down the long drive shouting "Yahoo"!  Beth has been riding her bicycle unceasingly!!  She even started riding Nancy's bicycle!  Nancy is enjoying playing with our neighbours and Rebekah just LOVES being outside!!!  I am loving riding horses, cycling, looking after guinea pigs and building! 

All of us are happy and NEVER want to move to the town again!  When we have to go shop in town us girls usually stay at home - we really hate to go out!

Here are some photographs of my sisters!!  Hope you enjoy!

Rebekah reading! (1)

Gabrielle reading! (3)

Beth posing! (6) 

Aren't the little ones sooooooooooo cute?

Blessings,

Kelly-Anne

Time In Cape Town And A Special Gift

This week I spent in Cape Town visiting my best friend.  We had a lovely time together making cards, blogging, talking and encouraging one another in our role as the eldest girls in our families!  Heidi is the second eldest of eight children and all our homeschooled, like my sisters and I.  Heidi and I love working together - making salad, helping around their house and looking after little ones.

We now live in the Knysna area, but my dad has been working in Cape Town for a few weeks.  I came back with him for a week.  After four days at Heidi, my dad came to pick me up and we went to my grandparents for supper...it was really nice!

After tha, we went to friends of ours to say hello and for my dad to pick up a new 8gb flash drive for himself.  I will have his old one so I can type my blog entries at home, put them on my flash drive, and take it to the library - so hopefully I will be able to blog more often!

Today I am at the school that my dad is teaching at - working on the computer and reading my new book...I will tell you more about it.

Here are the cards we made:

Isn't this a beautiful card Heidi made?

Here is mine - it is for Nancy who is turning eleven in October!

For Heidi's thirteenth birthday I gave her this beautiful book by Debi Pearl called 'Preparing To Be A Helpmeet' - you will love it!  It is for all young girls and single ladies on how to prepare to be a wife and a mother!  Whilst I visited at Heidi, we took turns reading a chapter when in bed.  I read last and just couldn't stop.  Yesterday as I was leaving  Heidi, they surprised me with my own book!!  I was so excited!  Here at my dad's school I am reading and already some of the christian girls want to get it - praise God!!  It is a wonderful book!

Heidi really spoilt me while staying there!  She and her mom took me to the scrapbook shop and bought me the most amazing papers, cardstocks and paper flowers - I cannot wait to make a card with them!

I have had a lovely stay in Cape Town, but I feel very ready to go home and live a farm life again - running bare feet, riding horses bareback and living a life some may call wild - but I wouldn't change it for the world - I never ever want to live in a town or city again!  I am so thankful that the Lord opened this door for our family!

Blessings to all,
Kelly-Anne

Guinea Pig Mad!

Everyone who knows me, also knows that I am 100% mad about them! 

I have one guinea pig of my own and the rest are owned by my sisters.  But as I am in charge and older, I take care of them all - you could call them 'mine'.

I have two breeding pairs:  Toffee (male) and Candy (female) Cupcake.  And Fudge (male) and Cocoa (female) Chanel.

Candy is mine and is the best breeder ever!!  She has now had three litters in the 6/7 months I have had her!  When I first got her, I thought her so ugly - but as she has gotten older and has become more tame, she is more beautiful.  Her current litter totals six - yes six!!!  Her last two litters were both three! 

Just before I left for Cape Town to visit my friend I went outside to the runs in which the guinea piggies graze all day and I heard this very tiny squeak - the babies!!  At that time there were four and I was happy!  They had JUST been born and were wet and bloody.  I picked them up and popped them in their hutch.  All was well - God had answered my prayer for her to give birth before I left!

The next morning I got an sms from my mom saying Candy had had two more during the night - impossible!  The books say four/five is the maximum - record said eight!  I couldn't believe Candy had six!  I was over the moon!

Unfortunately I don't have photographs at the moment, but as soon as I can I will post! 

Cocoa is a smaller, gentler mommy.  Her first litter she only had two, which was slightly disappointing.  She gave birth to her second litter shortly after we moved to Knysna - Tammy, Peanut and Butter (P and Butter are twins - identical!)  Cocoa is a very good, gentle, loving momma to her babies!  Hopefully, once she gets a little bigger, she will have more!

Poor Candy was huge while pregnant - no wonder!  Six is a lot of babies for one small guinea pig!!

Toffee and Fudgy are the males - Toffee is not a very good dad - he is more like a baby himself!  Toffee though is brilliant at coping with little children holding him!  He is Gabrielle's so he has to put up with a lot!

Fudge is THE dad!  He takes no nonsense from his guinea pig babies.  He is not the nicest guinea pig to cuddle, but he has character - which I like!  Beth owns him and Cocoa.

So now, I have thirteen guinea pigs to take care of - wow!!  The babies stay with their mothers until about five/six `weeks of age.  The last litter, Honey and Biscuit stayed with us until they were 9 weeks old  because of the move, it was very sad to say goodbye to them!!

Breeding guinea pigs is my hobby.  I also enjoy card making, but prefer to be outside with nature - with animals.  I really dislike dogs though because I was attacked by one.  My nose is still tender, because he broke it and I have sore scars on my face. 

When the babies reach the age to sell, I put out adverts.  In Cape Town I sold three to a lady with two children.  She came to our house.  My parents like to leave me to sell the babies, which I like:  I show the buyer the choice of what I have, then they choose and I give them a little info about them and then take the money, which I use to buy things I need for the other guinea pigs.  Hay, food, etc.

So in a month or two I will have lots of selling to do!!  I enjoy having the babies to take care of, but I am ever so grateful when they are gone!!!  Now, with thirteen all I am going to do is feed their ever hungry little tummies - but it is my hobby, so I don't mind!  To comfort myself after they have gone, I focus on the good side...there will be more in about....well, pregnancy period of the females is 63 days (females, if kept with their male will become pregnant usually immediently after birth, so they will forever be pregnant or lactating unless the male is taken away)!

Blessings to all,
Kelly-Anne

Happy Birthday Beth!

Last week Thursday, Beth turned six years old. She really enjoyed her little birthday party. Us girls (my mom, Nancy and myself) had an absolute ball making her presents!! Gabrielle and Rebekah gave her stickers. (Beth is mad about stickers and loves to collect them!)

I gave Beth a card making kit, full of papers, stamps, water colour pencils, stickers, templates, papers, card kits and so on! She was ecstatic to receive it!! Nancy knitted her a handbag and put a couple of coins in it. My mom gave her a beautiful scarf and a felt flower brooch. My dad unfortunately was still in Cape Town, working, but he came home the next night.

The little party was lovely! We had our neighbours round to enjoy a beautifully decorated chocolate cake, hotdogs and sweeties...it was lots of fun!

We put the table under the huge tree near our house, but far away enough that Rebekah could not hear the noise, as she was taking a nap!

We had to light the candles in the boot of our friend's car because the wind was blowing so the flames kept going out!  The walk to the house was a bit far to just light the candles!!

In the evening, we had pizza..it was very yummy! Our family is mad about pizza! We make very good ones! Our neighbour, Aunty Michelle, gave us some tomatoes that were a little soft and squishy, so we made our own tomato sauce for the bases!

Beth is so happy to be six and to have her own card making kit to play with! She made the first card made for me as a 'bye for now' gift when I left to spend time with my best friend! The next one she made for Danika, her best friend who is the younger sister of Heidi-Mari!

Beth is a real blessing to our family - without her, life would just not be the same...she is very loving and often you will find her looking straight into your eyes with so much love and affectation that you feel a bit 'scared'! She will often tell how much she loves you with a face full of love....I must say the things she tells us about ourselves is quite touching! Beth will also come and give you a cuddle, then pat you or wipe her hand gently across your face...she is so sweet!

We praise the Lord for allowing Beth to live in our family!!

Blessings to all,
Kelly-Anne  

Happy Birthday Card For Nancy

Hello everyone!!  Yeah!  I am posting a card again!  This one I made at my friend, Heidi-Mari's house.  I came down to Cape Town with my dad, who is working here for a while to stay with her - we have really had a good time card making, blogging and fellowshipping!!

Nancy, my ten year old sister is turning eleven years old in October, on the 14th.  She loves all things ballet, so I decided to make her a card with ballerina paper which Heidi so kindly let me use! 

This time I decided to try something new - I made my first easel card - it was so much fun!!  As I have said before, I like to do something new on each card I make.  I just know she is going to love it! 

I took part in the following challenges with this card:

Sweet Stampin - Vintage
Stamp Something - Something Flowery
Creatalicious Challenges - Something 3D
Your Next Stamp - An Easel Card
The Creative Cottage - Touchy Feely
Digi Doodle Shops Best - Anything Goes
Stampin For The Weekend - Recipe
The Crazy Challenge - All About Birthdays
Ooh, La, La - Birthdays
Craftalicious Challenges - Birthdays
Simon Says Challenge - Going Dotty
Create 4 Fun - Flowers
Heidi-Mari is a designer for Stamping for the Weekend.  I am very excited to be taking part in their challenge which is a recipe: 3 Designer Papers, 2 Flowers, 1 Ribbon and an added extra of gems or charms (I used pearls).

So here is my card:

This little stamp looks just like Nancy!

These are such pretty flowers and suite this card so well!  The pearls in the middle also fit perfectly with this card!

I love this pink ribbon with all the dots and spots!  Most of my cards have spots somewhere on them - I am a dotty girl!  I think the ribbon really brightens up this card.

I love to distress my cards a lot, as you can see!  With so much distress, the card looks 'vintage'  and 'old' which I really like!

Here is the inside of the card:

So that is my card for this week!  I really enjoyed making an easel card and shall definitely do another one again very soon!  If you haven't ever made an easel card, then I suggest you try one!  Here are the basic instructions.

I hope you are all enjoying your week so far!!

Blessings,
Kelly-Anne

Wordless Wednesday

Snow On The Mountains

A week or two ago, there was a huge rain storm.. It poured down and the tanks overflowed! It was very unusual for so much rain to fall! There has been a draught for two years!

Our friend, Aunty Nichola sms'd my mom to say that she must go outside and look at the snow on the mountains which my mom did, followed by the rest of our family...the site was heavenly! The snow was so near we could walk to it! – praise God!

Just look at these pictures...we are living in a little piece of heaven right here on Earth!

 

My dad took this photograph...beautiful, isn’t it? And this is basically in our backyard!

That fence is the main house in which the owners of the farm stay once a week. You can see that the snow was very close to the house!

It was very cold, but it was so amazing to see snow so close!

Blessings,
Kelly-Anne