Tag Archives: baby

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom: Rainy Nights Where the Wild Things Are

“The owls were there before lockdown, and they are still eating insects on the lawn all these years later.”

PHOTO BY PIXABAY

 

November 15, 2022

It’s been a rough week. The boys aren’t sleeping through and the baby is up every two hours still. Loadshedding isn’t helping me find my groove, especially when the geyser switch keeps tripping. Rain is keeping us inside but helping our tiny macadamia trees grow.

Last night, I went to bed at 6pm with the children and fell fast asleep. At 7pm, the lights came back on and two spotted eagle owls started making a racket on the lawn. They make a sort of screeching growling sound right outside my window. Why? They’re chasing crickets!

One sits on the top of the garage playing lookout and the other one screeches and screeches while hopping awkwardly on the grass. They are hilarious to watch, running as though they had brand new shoes that were too big to go fast and waddling like they have a full nappy. They hop and bow and watch me watching them through the window. It’s too dark to video but the spotlight lets us see them in full view.

These huge birds are very impressive. And, them waking me up was a grand piece of luck. I forgot it was Wednesday and almost didn’t send in our grocery order for the weekly Thursday delivery. It’s a remnant of COVID lockdown that’s still going, and it is a lifeline to us fresh milk and bread lovers.

The owls were there before lockdown, and they are still eating insects on the lawn all these years later. I hope some things don’t change too quickly. Our little one is almost four months old already and changes every day. He’s started to giggle, and his two-year-old brother has started playschool.

Time is marching on. But hopefully the owls and all the other beautiful creatures at the farm will be unchanged when we look back on our lives here one day. They make me smile on the bad days. The farmhouse wouldn’t be the same without their summer shenanigans. And, at least they’re controlling the thriving cricket population making holes all over our lawn.

Published here.

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom: Febu-Weary Heat and the March of the Ants

“It was war for a while but the farmhouse has mostly been reclaimed.”

The hard-working ant’s diligence ultimately pays off.

 

March 2, 2022

Summer has been an interesting one, but what could we have expected in our currently upside-down world. I know that Proverbs tells us to take note of the hard-working ants and be more like them in our approach to life’s pursuits. But today I was not a happy or passive observer of those little intruders. I think every ant on the farm decided that this was an excellent day to move into the farmhouse.

The lounge, the kitchen, the guest bathroom and anywhere else they could hide their eggs became overrun. It looked like the walls and floors were moving. Millions and millions of red and black ants, marching into every crevice they could access.

It’s a War: Ants vs. Human Farm Dwellers

It was war for a while but the farmhouse has mostly been reclaimed. The spiders are still very much at home, even the sneaky rain spider that has somehow found the only gap under the cupboard. One of the bigger arachnids in the passage ceiling caught a bee today; very impressive.

The swallows in the laundry are also currently raising their second batch for the season, so it will be time to say goodbye soon.

How did it get to February? Febu-weary is what the scorching heat has felt like on a few days but it won’t be long until autumn blows that away.

We are expecting a third addition to our brood. Will it be a second lockdown baby? I would never have imagined that to be a possibility if you had asked me two years ago, when things were different. It’s just as exciting now, though. Like the ants, we will soon be preparing a place for the little one and life marches on.

Febu-Weary For Sure But It’s Just a Season

There was only one word to describe those ants: relentless. Absolutely determined, they were not deterred by vacuums, brooms, or anything else; only singular focus on the purpose at hand. Perhaps, there is a valuable lesson in that after all.

May we be so determined, so enthusiastic to carry out our purpose in life. If it’s raising a family, may we remember to let our lights shine just as brightly as we show our brood how to illuminate theirs in a dark, confusing world.

 

It might also be helpful to remember the ants, no matter our pursuits or the season we find ourselves navigating.

Published here.

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom: Must Love Snakes (Yuck!)

I have two small children, and two fluffy white bunnies hopping about the garden. And snakes.

February 4, 2021

 Western Natal green snake. Photo: Heather Lind.

The other day I walked into the nursery to change a nappy and there was another green snake slithering over the baby’s sock drawer.

I had a good look, heart pumping, and phone out to capture a fuzzy photograph for posterity (and Facebook).

Then I closed the door quickly so that it didn’t find its way around the rest of the house.

When we came back with a bucket and tongs, it had disappeared.

The western Natal green snake, exploring the things in the baby’s room.

It was just a Western Natal Green snake, probably the one that lives in the spiky tree right off the porch. What if it wasn’t, though? Snakes are daily features in Oribi Gorge.

A scorching day brings gorgeous cobalt skies and blows away the rolling mist, but it also beckons to the creatures that keep this ecosystem thriving.

We have all sorts on the doorstep, venomous and harmless, which is why my children wear gumboots in the yard.

The deadliest are the black mambas, boomslang, vine snakes, puff adders, and Mozambique spitting cobras, but there’s a long list for herpers to tick off.

Natal black snakes are common but rarely seen, and night adders seem to find my house the most attractive place on earth – I have been bitten once, and my poor builder twice!

There are also perilous green mambas, though not endemic to Oribi Gorge.

I’ve no idea why someone would put us in that danger, but these ones are dropped here from all your coastal ‘rescues’ to upset the balance of nature (and give this Oribi Mom slithery nightmares).

We live at peace with the vast number of harmless or mildly venomous snakes that keep our rat and frog population in check.

There are feisty and fearless Heralds, lightning-fast grass snakes, and the super green climbers, like the dainty spotted bush snakes with their orange eyes and pretty black spots.

I wasn’t even going to mention the python population as those are ‘safe,’ right? (not in Francistown, Botswana, apparently). I’d rather have the egg-eater that visited our chicken coop – no teeth or venom!

A Wild and Beautiful Life With Snakes on the Farm

I have two small children, and two fluffy white bunnies hopping about the garden.

Many people are horrified by our close encounters, like the huge baboon spider in the bathroom, harmless but hairy.

For two days, it kept watch over the toilet paper, which lay unused until he moved off.

Scorpions abound, but most are harmless to humans, though the sting is like fire.

This is Africa, but not always that wildness we associate with Jock of the Bushveld characters. It’s also home.

Perhaps, this is how we are meant to live – a bit of healthy awareness never hurt anyone who walked closely with the living things of the earth.

So far, it’s working for us, even when lines are crossed by cheeky green snakes in my baby’s room.

Published here.