What we found: A rundown farm

In the last post we described how it came to be that we made the crazy move from Observatory to this farm in the Swartland.

Today’s post deals with what we found when we arrived, and some of the immediate challenges that awaited us.

Settling into the house

First off we had to arrange ourselves in the dismal huge house with a few sticks of furniture from our Observatory home.  We did laugh – by the time we had distributed our meagre possessions, some rooms had no furniture at all.

Farmhouse

Farmhouse

Farmhouse Bathroom

Farmhouse Lounge Then

Farmhouse Lounge Today

But it was not just in the house that was run down – everywhere was broken down.

Old Cellar

Owl Cottage

Pavilion

De Perdestal

Endless Rubbish

Apart from dilapidated buildings, the farm was literally overflowing with decades of rubbish – including old washing machines in the mountain ravines. Even now we dig a hole somewhere and come upon rusted tins and old tyres.

So the first months were spent picking up and digging up rubbish and driving it to the dump. We took an incredible 200 tonnes of the stuff to the Malmesbury site in the first three months.  That’s a lot of rubbish.

Rubbish on Farm

Endless Rubbish

200 tonnes of the stuff