Welcome 2012! :)

Jo, Ken, Bren, Roxy, Robs, JohnD, Boris, Ella, Micaela, Susie, Al - Family Christmas. :)

The Zartmann family, the night before they left. :(

Mom, Derek, Dad, Al, Ken, Boris, Jen, Bren, Robs & Susie...

Swimming in the Tzaneen Dam with Wighardt & Saartjie :)

Boating!!! :) Rachel & Micaela out camping! :0

First chance JD had with a fishing rod in some time... but not much time. He made the most of it!

Micaela milking our Foster mommy - boy is the taste so different!

JohnD and his Lady Lulu!

Christmas day - Me above, and Derek & Ken below...

It's a very lazy, sunny, Sunday afternoon - the old has gone and the new has come! It appears that far fewer folks are sending text, email, snailmail, whatsapp, bbm, or any other kind of festive greetings. ??? Or is it only me??? Maybe the year snuck up on all of us too quickly? Whatever the reason, we know that we have a Faithful and Loving Father, who holds yesterday, today & tomorrow in Hands, and we hope that your today & tomorrow are full of His love, His light, His presence, and His passion.

We have a New Year function at the lodge now... the kids have taken themselves off with their friends, and are swimming at Mucha. Oh the joys of their independence, and motivation! They grow so fast. It seems like just yesterday, we were camping the new year in... and as much as we tried to keep that tradition, the summer rains always thwarted our efforts!

This year we celebrated New Year - a family dinner down the road, and reflected on the wonderful highlights of 2011. Yes, God is faithful, and present with HIS presence in all we have and do.
We have yet another year of good health for all of us.
We have two wonderful children, who are growing up so quickly, and who bring us much delight.
We are surrounded by special friends and family, who add so much value to our lives.
We have an international family too, that continually surprise us with heart smiles and true connections that add eternal value.

We have had a good year with our business, the game & ranch continues to meet our needs.

We have a growing and beautiful Nguni Herd, that brings us much delight - and we are all learning so much.

We have enjoyed the protection of our Father, and are aware of His Goodness and Faithfulness daily.

We are excited about 2012, and look forward to walking each day in the knowledge that we can enjoy each and every gift... celebrating LIFE.

Hope you enjoyed the pics xxx very fond love to you all, and make the most of it! You only have one life to live... enjoy it all. Blessings! The Ball Family

Closing 2011 - HAPPY CHRISTMAS

A very warm and sunny greeting all of the way from Bandolierkop. I don’t know where you are when you read this, but it is our heartfelt prayer that you are happy, surrounded by those you love, and those who love you. We pray that Christmas this year will be special for you and unlike all of the others in a very good way. May you know and experience the inner peace - that passes all understanding – that is our gift from Jesus… fresh and new every day. JohnD has a friend visiting, and the table tennis table has yet again become the source of much hilarity and challenges. He also had the opportunity to play in his very first official SATA tennis tournament, in Pieterburg… it was a two day round robin, and in his age group he came 16th . It was very good experience for him, and while he was thoroughly whipped by many good players, he will go in more confident next time. They played “sudden death” after duce, and the best of 7 games - so the games and matches were over very quickly. (Not sure if this makes sense to any of you, but never mind!)

Most of the cattle have calved – just a few more babies expected for this year, so we have loads of very adorable little ones running around and enjoying the fresh green growth of summer. We have built a small crush and milking pen at Silverbank, and have started milking two of the new first time calvers. One of them is Vanilla, the foster mommy – and the other is a very sweet cow Micaela has named Dolly. We are all enjoying the lovely fresh full cream farm milk!!!

Micaela and JohnD are enjoying the summer break from school. At the beginning of December, Micaela went off to a camp in Pretoria for 13/14 year olds, (all heading off to high school next year). She had a lot of fun, and learnt a lot! She has her school clothes washed and ready, her hostel bedding also ready, and most of her supplies that she needs. She is very much looking forward to the adventure of it all next year! They start mid January. Kobie made this beautiful quilt for her, for her hostel bed.
Our beloved Champ took a tumble off Shrek last week Wednesday and the back wheel went over him. Talk about heart stopping. He has had no less than three trips to the vet, two lots of xrays, and several injections. He is healing up nicely and much to our relief – there is nothing broken or fractured. He has been LOVING all of the TLC, and the pampering, and is recovering very well.

Here at Shi-awela we have a house full for Christmas again this year, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! We have family coming from Zimbabwe (my sister Jenny and her family), the UK, Cape Town and Johannesburg (my Aunt, cousins and their family). We can’t wait!

In closing ... may our precious Heavenly Father, bless and keep you! We look forward to all that 2012 has in store, and we pray for HIS continued blessing over you all.

Very fondly,

Ken, Jo, Micaela, JohnD, Dennis & Carol xxx

Happy Thanksgiving.

For those of you who are not familiar with the bare necked chickens that JohnD is breeding... here is a picture of him with one of his little chicks. They are quite cute... and pretty smart too (as chickens go!) He has quite a flock of them now. His hens have figured out that if they lay their eggs in the chicken run... their eggs get nicked! ;) So - they have taken to laying their eggs in the bush where we can't find them!!!

We had the delightful joy of Kim Rieman's hunt this month! She got three lovely trophies in just four hunting days... and Champ quickly figured out that she was his buddy! It was pretty hot, and many a lunch time was spent inside away from the sun and heat. Kim, we just LOVED having you - thank you so much! Thanks for setting it all up Birgit! ;)

Just to make all of you who are not here in Africa, a little jealous....

One of our Nguni cows gave birth to twins!!! :) This little one we named Krieghoff. His "mom" abandoned him in favor of the the older and bigger twin (Rigby!). We have successfully adopted him to one of the new heifers who sadly lost her calf the same night that Krieghoff was born.

Micaela and her friend Bianca celebrated her "birthday" a little early this year with camping out with Ivan and JohnD. The four of them have done this three years in a row now... I guess with all of the changes ahead next year, we don't know if they will be able to do it again!

They went off in "Shrek" for a picnic and a swim.

We are finally getting some much needed rain - gentle, soaking, consistent and wonderfully refreshing. Thank you LORD! The veld is looking amazing, and you can just hear the grass growing!

Happy Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for. We have much to celebrate. We have our Father God, who is faithful. We are thinking of you all, and pray you will have a blessed holiday.

Hello hello hello!!!

I'm not even going to try and apologise for the long time since my last post! Ha ha - It just does not seem to make any difference anyway! :) For those who still read this - it's worth waiting for - I PROMISE!

Yes, the long awaited trip back to Dr de Jager gave us yet another ALL CLEAR! His x-rays and his blood work all could not have been more positive, so we truly thank and praise our Heavenly Father for his faithful hand over us all. The photo above was taken just before we left.

Young Cruiser had his little "snip" operation a few weeks ago - poor chap! He was amazing, and a star patient!!! His recovery has been fantastic, but it was quite funny to watch him under the effects of the drugs... he went down like a little dog!

My Dad and Mom came to visit from Australia - and I actually had the privilege and pleasure of their company - ALL TO MYSELF. "Mommy" was with us for a week, and then headed to Cape Town to see her family there, and after "Daddy" finished in the Sudan and Zimbabwe, he came to us for ten days. It really was the first time in I can't even remember how long, that we had good quality time together, without the pressure of any thing else on the go. It was very lovely!

We had great excitement tonight, Micaela's cow has calved, and produced a beautiful little heifer. She is very pretty - and of course Micaela is in her element... Long may her farming passion continue!

She had a really great time at the All Africa Students Convention in Bloemfontein at the beginning of the month. We had enrolled her for table tennis, 200m dash, checkers and she also exhibited a painting. She came 3rd with her sprint, and actually got a nomination for the International Students Convention in the USA for next year. :) We were all delighted, but none more surprised than Micaela herself. I don't think she knows how fast she really is! Of course I've known for years, as it's me that has to try and catch her whenever she runs off!!!

I also managed to snap her on Rocky - she knows how to get him to rear on demand.... golly doesn't this make a pretty picture? !

JohnD has a very successful little crop of bare necked chickens - which he is enjoying and diligently looking after!

He has done so very well with his tennis this year, and he won the last 'round robbin' for under 12's. He was so proud of himself, and exhibited tremendous maturity under pressure. He is at the bottom left in this picture.

We have had 34mls of rain so far, and the veldt is already greening up and looking magical. Summer is finally here! :D

Big hugs to you all from Bandolierkop.

Sizzling September :D

I think I'm still too skeptical to actually pack away all of the winter woolies, but if this lovely warm weather continues, I just might be tempted!

We were blessed with a successful buffalo hunt with the return of David Jackson and his hunting buddie Joe Trapanese - much laughter and lots of fun... and LOTS of hunting too. It was very special to have Nicol, Karia and Jean back with us for this hunt too! Just like old times.

Blair & Lisa closed our season, and my what a special way to close... he brought with him a very unique and antique H&H Double: 35 WCF. We seldom see such pieces actually working, so it was a rare moment for us all.

Champ has continued true to his name, and is consistantly the hero at the end of each day.

On the home front, we are preparing to enroll Micaela into a local high school from next year, so there has been much energy spent in researching schools, and the different options open to us. We have selected Merensky High School, which was where Ken spent four very happy years. Needless to say, much will be changing for us next year.

Warming up :) "SPRING"

So what happened in August? We had the tail end of the Parker's visit, the Kwast family, Jim & Terry Beach, and the arrival of David Jackson, & Joe Trapenese... shew. That's a lot of hunting! David and Joe are with us now, and we are so enjoying all of the laughter! David hunted with us last year with his son Jeremy, and has come back this year to bag a Cape Buffalo. They had a successful hunt, and are now after all of the critters who eluded him last year! They had the unbelievable fortune of having a Cheetah make a kill right inside their camp down in Hoedspruit, during their buffalo hunt... WOW!
Michael, Quincy, Jacob and Julia from Michigan were such a pleasure to have, and the kids just HAD A BALL! Jacob enjoyed HUNTING with his folks - every waking moment and many 'sleepy' moments too! ;^) Both of the kids made excellent shots, and were a pleasure to hunt with!
Jim & Terry had a full bag hunt, and have fallen in love with Africa too - what a privilege to introduce hunters to Africa. Terry bagged her very first animal ever, making a perfect shot on an impala. Jim shot really well too, making one shot kills on all nine of his trophies!
:D Champ has been unbelievable - and has arisen as the real Champion. There is just nothing to say, other than he LOVES to hunt / LIVES to hunt. What a pleasure. He has now started getting more actively involved in the hunt... and when he feels that there is not too much success on the part of the hunters, he has on several occassions gone off and rounded up the desired quarry, and brought them into shooting range!!!!!!!
On the home front, it's warmed up a lot, and despite our experience of many years, we are all hanging back on the temptation to pack up the winter woolies, and unpack the summer cozzies.... what a pleasure to charge up on our vitamin D again, and enjoy the warmth and heat of the sun... The veld is really dry now, and dusty in many places... by about 11am - it's pretty warm out!
We are nearing the last quarter of Micaela's grade 7 year, and she would dearly like to attend a regular high school for her high school career. We are in the process of researching / looking / visiting & deciding on the various options available to us, and looking to many changes ahead in 2012. There are many factors to weigh up and consider.
I have finally managed to transfer all of my pictures on to a 2Terabite external hard drive, so my computer is a little less 'loaded', and hopefully many of my functions will be restored!!!!!
Big hugs to you all from this dry, warm and very happy place in the bush!

Fun and Games!

Well Sir, (to use the Southern term) I don't know how much more challenging of my PH we could all take! Yes, my Professional Hunter / Personal Hero / Perfect Husband was severly challenged by Will Parker. I know he and his Dad came here to hunt, but during some of the quieter moments - the table tennis table on the verhandah here in front of the office, was the scene of some serious battles. Needless to say, Ken naturally (because he has always been so accommodating) allowed our young guest to taste the joy of victory "occasionally", just to keep him coming back for more. ;)
We all had a lot of fun, both hunting and with all of the games. JohnD & Micaela's table tennis improved in leaps and bounds.
The Parkers were followed by the Kwast family from Michigan - and the fun and games just continued. With Jacob and Julia closer in age to Micaela and JohnD, there was much hilarity and giggles around every meal time. The Kwast children both bagged lovely trophies, as did Mike and Quincy. Some of the hunting challenges were faced head on, and despite many hours put in... the score remained Caracal:6 - Hunting party:0! At least there will always be another reason to return as long as the elusive smaller critters keep winning!!
With Jim and Terry's arrival - some cold / wet / windy weather moved in for a few days, but it has not dampened the successes or the fun.
C'mon Summer c'mon!!!
We have had another three lovely little calves - and another is due any day now. Our "Champion" has been tremendous this season, and seems to get better and more amazing with each safari. He's earned himself some serious hunting credits, and for a "rescue dog" - we couldn't be more chuffed with him! Well done CHAMP!
Big hugs to you all, from this dry and dusty part of chilly South Africa xxx