Annual Potjie...

It had been over a year since I last made potjiekos, a traditional South African dish consisting of layered meat, potatoes, veggies and spices all slowly cooked in a pot (the potjie) over a fire. I used stewing lamb as my meat in this potjie. My coals may have been a touch too hot and so the stew cooked faster than recommended, but it was still a delicious meal! :) 

The potjie on the coals.

A yummy stew!

Inquisitive Praying Mantus...

We spotted this camouflaged creature in our garden recently. He was very inquisitive and turned his head to check us out. It has been a while since we last saw a praying mantus on our property. I sincerely hope he is eating some of the nasty pests on our veggies and flowers!

School Photo...

We are homeschooling our children and Riaan started 1st Grade this month. Candace does a great job with our kiddos and to keep up a new family tradition, we took their school photo in front of our front door, as we did last year. They are growing up so quickly! :)

2022 School Photo. :)

Monarch Transformation...

Candace saw a monarch laying eggs on our common milkweed plant recently. She went and brought one leaf inside - which had a tiny egg on it - and we tracked its progress from egg to butterfly. A full 23 days from egg to beautiful butterfly! 

I tried to get regular photos as the caterpillar grew and changed into a chrysalis and then a butterfly. It was a real-life biology lesson when the monarch butterfly emerged this past Saturday! :)

The head of the caterpillar is just visible as it emerges out of its tiny egg.

The newly-hatched caterpillar.

Slowly getting bigger...

... And bigger!

Almost the right size...

And now ready to turn into a chrysalis.

It went to the top of the butterfly container and transformed into a chrysalis...

Shedding its caterpillar skin!

The chrysalis turned darker - with the orange tinge of the butterfly's wings - prior to the butterfly emerging.

The newly-hatched butterfly has tiny wings and a fat abdomen.

The butterfly pumps blood from its abdomen to the wings to make them much larger.

Slowly getting bigger...

Until she's a beautiful butterfly - ready to fly away!

It was fantastic sharing this special moment with the kiddos!

Mercy Ships Reunion at Eagle Creek...

We met up with some Mercy Ships friends, Noel and Justin and their children, at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis last Saturday. They live on the outskirts of Cincinnati and so we met in the middle - both driving two hours from home. We hadn't seen them for almost a decade and so it was a lovely reunion! 

We had a picnic and enjoyed a lovely hike from the Ornithology Centre around the birding and wildlife preserve - which included walking on the top of a forested bluff before we headed down and walked across a causeway between two lakes. The highlight was a majestic bald eagle flying close over our heads as we walked along. We saw lots of butterflies and beautiful flowers and had a fantastic time.

After the hike, we took the kiddos to a playground nearby and they had lots of fun playing together, while us adults enjoyed reminiscing about Mercy Ships and our days on the M/V Africa Mercy all those years ago. Mercy Ships reunions are the best! :)

The eagle statue near the entrance to Eagle Creek Park.

Riaan's wingspan is that of a red-tailed hawk...

While Eliza is the same as a red-shouldered hawk.

The Ornithology Centre at Eagle Creek.

Display inside the Ornithology Centre.

View from the bluff as we hike along.

Looking out over the lovely bird and fish sanctuary.

Majestic bald eagle...

And a majestic plane flying through the air!

Monarch butterfly on swamp milkweed.

Possibly an eastern black swallowtail.

Tiger swallowtail enjoying the milkweed too.

Honeybee working on the milkweed.

Lots of little islands on this lake.

Beautiful swans on the water.

Cormorant perched on a log.

The children loved this little beach.

Family self-timer photo as we wrapped up the day. What a great day!

Shell-Backed Spider...

I came across this strange creature on its web attached to our fence in the back garden. It seems as if this type of spider is called the spined micrathena. It's so bizarre that it must certainly point to our Creator God! :)

Side profile of this interesting spider.

Sunset Walk...

Rusty and I went for a walk just after sunset earlier this month. It's a good time to go for a walk since the roads are quiet at this time of night - and the humidity has been sucked out of the atmosphere at this time, too. The skies were beautiful on this walk!

Flooding Issues...

Just over three years since our last major flood on Father's Day, 2019, we had another even bigger flood. :( The drainage in this part of town has always struggled and the thunderstorms - certainly in terms of rainfall amounts - are getting more intense. This one came with severe thunderstorm late on Sunday, July 24th, and the rains kept coming down. The crawlspace filled up again and the two sump pumps couldn't keep up. The water level tripped the breakers. 

Candace and I (with three sleeping kiddos and an anxious dog) evacuated our home in rising waters at 23h45 (11:45 pm) at night, but struggled to get anywhere since the roads were flooded. It was really stressful. We eventually made it to a friend's house on high ground, where we hunkered down for the night. The photo here shows a manhole spewing water several feet in the air.

Upon returning the next morning, we discovered that the water level had peaked at the third layer of siding and had come within an inch of flooding our floor boards. Our garden was a mess and pots and watering cans had floated across the road and into neighbours' properties. The sump pumps were quickly put back into service and had the crawlspace empty again within five hours - although far from dry.

The next several weeks have been spent drying out the crawl space with multiple fans and dehumidifiers, and running dehumidifiers in the house to keep the moisture level down. Our HVAC ductwork was completely trashed (the weight of the water tore them down and filled them up) and we do now have some mould concerns, but we are thankful that our floor and the interior of the house was spared. None of the damage we incurred is covered by insurance, unfortunately.

There are many families in town who had it far worse and it seems that there is not much support here. Candace and I are doing what we can to help in the community, but this event has certainly made us reevaluate our future in this part of the USA. The water level on the house can be seen in this photo.

Water level can be seen on the fence - just about a third of the way up.

The water covered both the front and back porches and broke Candace's large pot.

Mess in the garden. Water level is clearly seen on the shed.

Thankfully, we were able to get our lawnmower - stored in the shed - working again.

Our neatly-stacked woodpile was no longer neatly-stacked.