A FARM CALLED GLEE
I have been taking isolation verrrrry seriously!
On 3 March 2020, my horses were on the road and so was I… with a bakkie load of chickens! Finally, I was moving towards the realisation of a dream. I was moving to my prettiest of pretty farms, Glee.
The plan was to relocate to the farm back in November of 2019. After a very disturbing meeting with my neighbour, who I shall name, ‘Meanie Man’, I lost courage and decided to postpone my move indefinitely.
Doesn’t that sometimes happen with a grand dream? When we are just about to attain it, we take steps back for various reasons: self-doubt, perfectionism, low self-esteem. My reason for putting the brakes on a twelve-year dream was fear.
Miraculously, my cowardice turned around in my favour, for in November I reconnected with my right-hand man, ‘M’. He had worked for me in Langebaan and the ease of his easy-going presence re-entered my life. I began telling him about my farm, and in December he accompanied the dogs and I to Glee for Christmas. We had no power, no hot water, just a little solar charged lamp and a gas cooker. We couldn’t have been happier. After that Christmas, M agreed to move with me to Glee. My dream was once more set in motion and this time, I had back up! Curiously, Meanie Man didn’t bother us over Christmas time. I think my three boisterous dogs, Rosie, Faye and Zac might have been a deterrent. Good!
In late February 2020, we left for Glee. M stayed at the farm with Rosie, Faye and Zac, while I went back to Cape Town to load the horses and chickens before making my forever return. After being unceremoniously dumped by what I was assured was choice horse transport, I was still looking for another plan. It is the longest I have ever been away from my dogs and I was terribly worried about M. I had only left enough food and drinking water for about 6 days! On the 10th day, my knight in shining armour appeared in the form of Ryno Verster and Queen and Finn were loaded up. I was on my way to Rosie, Faye, Zac and M with 26 stunned into silence hens and roosters!
I stopped to fill up with petrol and in the telling of what transpires next, I hope I don’t get anyone into trouble.
The petrol attendant and I had a laugh over my strange cargo while he was filling up the tank. I put my debit card into the machine only to have it spat out….’Insufficient Funds’. I don’t know if you have ever experienced this before, but it was just like an encounter with Meanie Man. Sick tummy, jelly-legged, I burst into the manager’s office and loudly proclaimed, “I have insufficient funds! I have a tank full of your petrol and insufficient funds!” A willowy man looked at me in dignified surprise and a large mamma shook her head and clicked her tongue.
“You can have my cell phone. You can have my whole handbag.” And, then with a bright spark idea:
“I can pay you in chickens! Well, sort of pay you? I have 26 chickens in the back of my bakkie.”
I think that’s when this kind man took pity on me. With a sigh, he calmly asked for my ID and a cell number where he could pass on the banking details. Mamma clicked and said, “This is not allowed.” I nearly cried. Kind man came out with me to inspect that I did indeed have the load I proclaimed to have. Now, my fowls truly are a sorry looking bunch. Big daddy George is a kaalnek (naked neck) and really, they are not the prettiest of birds by design. I think that kind man was happy not to have agreed to trade fuel for fowl.
I drove off with a feeling of shame. Yet with each passing kilometre this was replaced with such appreciation for the kindness of the generous manager who stuck his neck out to help me. How good people really are!
Buoyed for the rest of my journey by kindness, I turned into my new home.
Journal entry March 2020
Have you ever had a dream? A dream so vast and relentless, you don’t know who you are in it? Where you haven’t quite caught up to it in your present life? The puzzle pieces you hold just don’t seem to form the whole picture. Oh, you have dreamed the whole, but the pieces you have are not yet enough courage to grab it by the tail and hang on for dear life. For you know this dream will change you. There might and probably will be many wrong turns along the journey. You’ll even lose people along the way. Still, it’s a journey only you can take. For better or for worse. Even now, I don’t hold all the pieces of the puzzle. But I’ve come so far down this road that it would be impossible to give it up. I wouldn’t be me anymore.
It’s been a wild twelve-year ride.
I am here.
Breathing in my very own farm. Glee.
It is dreamy living in my dream which I can see, taste, smell, hear and feel.
APPRECIATIONS
Belinda and Mari, my agents at Figjam. For the bed, the meals, wine, chats and your never-ending support of my madcap ideas. I love you very much.
Robert, Susan and Caitlyn. Thank you for your comfy couch! For feeding me, plying me with wine and even doing my laundry. For dreaming dreams with me.
Jacqueline, for the scrummy meals and doggie company.
Heather at Tack and Tuck for being willing to truck my horses.
Ryno Verster for trucking my horses with ease and professionalism.
My sister, Kim for financial aid and ensuring the bill was paid at the petrol station!
