Jacobsbaai Junkers!

Do you ever have one of those days where you begin one task and then get side tracked to do four or five different things that you hadn't bargained on doing but were glad you did in the end? And never completed what you were doing in the first place? And if you are still with me after that ramble, well done!

We had one of those days on Friday.

Backtracking a tad, my sense of direction has never been a strong point. In fact, when I drove to Knysna, Rob fixed little strips of paper to the Garmin with 'left          straight      right' and arrows to show me what was where! So, when the lady said 'In. Five. Hundred. Metres. Turn. Left.' in that stilting way she has, I knew exactly which way to go. This stems from my years of teaching Grade 1 and Grade 2 children and standing in front of them saying 'Start at the left side of the page' and holding out my right arm!

So, back to Friday. I decided to clear a piece of garden that has been bugging me for a while. The moles have had a party there and half the plants were dying through lack of soil round the roots. I got stuck in. Let the side tracking begin!

Rob does a Marine Weather Broadcast every lunchtime on the radio, giving the temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, cloud cover, sea state, rain, and wind strength and direction. Now, when he goes away, it is my job to take down the information and relay it to the man in Napier, so I have to know what is what. Rob has a fancy instrument for the temperature, pressure and humidity and for the rest it's stare out and have a look!!

Rob's fancy weather station!

Then there is the wind. We stand with our faces pointed into the wind and work out the direction and he is pretty good with speed. I am not good with either! I can never remember whether direction is from where it's come from or to where it's going. In fact, I have been whittering on for ages about a wind vane. So, Rob made one!

Ages ago we were given a little wooden plane, in bits really, that was heading to the firewood pile! Rob, being an avid aviator, rescued it, put it back together, painted it and then it hung about in the garage gathering dust, as these things do.

Rob wrestling with the Jacobsbaai Junkers! In the howling wind!

Until Friday!! Out with the ladder and in the strongest wind that we have had for a while (a South Wester at least 25 knots), he wrestled with pole, string and plane while I tried to work out what I would do first if he fell off, and held various bits of equipment like screwdriver, tie straps and plasters. My gardening was abandoned while I stood around being useful.

The propellers are a blur!! (Pic thanks to Rob)

Finally it was up and the little propellers whirled happily as the plane swung to face the howling wind. We Christened it 'Jacobsbaai Junkers', but didn't have any champagne to pour over it!

I went back to my gardening.

Hacksaw to hand!

Then Rob decided that seeing as we had the ladder out already, he would change the light bulb at the back of the house. It blew ages ago, but the screws had rusted tight into the fitting and they had no intention of undoing. Everything rusts here and I am always amazed that builders don't think about this, they just use ordinary screws and leave us to face the consequences.

We were watched by a learner-singer Bokmakerie.

So, gardening was abandoned, again, while I held hacksaw, tape, bulb and the ladder!! Finally it was changed, the fitting was taped together as the screws were still in the holes, and we put the ladder away.

We can see the plane from the office window! In the corner, look carefully!

We felt good that we had achieved a couple of DIY things!

Now I know all about wind direction......................

And I went back to my gardening!