Christians Diggers Festival 2014

We are still In the town of Christiana.
We survived the week at the festival whilst the surrounding towns and native settlements where in uproar. We really did not feel safe at this time. I spoke to the officer in command at the local Police station and to the show officials about our safety and they confirmed that there's real concerns for our safety but that they're doing everything in their power to keep us save. The towns of Christians and Bloemhof are the ones that's affected the most at this time.

The native people live in townships outside of the towns that is run and serviced by the town council, the town council is run by the ruling political party and that is the ANC GOVERNMENT. The counselors that is suppose to work for the PEOPLE are so corrupt that there's no real services in the towns  and townships. And that is way the people are burning the offices down and blocking the roads with burning tires and rocks. I must say that I don't condone the burning of buildings and closing of roads at all but what else is their YOU can do while your counselors are building beautiful houses and driving Mercedes Benz cars with stolen government money that was suppose to be spent on services in the towns and townships and the  ANC GOVERNMENT DOES NOTHING TO STOP THEM? Our State President Mr Zooma used R250,000000 to rebuild his own private home with stolen government money.
What else is their that we the PEOPLE can do ?

"Jallin the Drom" Taking the Road.

After our December, January stay at the ATKV Beach Resort we left Hartenbos on our way to Randfontein Gauteng. Our first stop-over was at Steenbokkie Caravan Park outside the Karroo town of Beaufort West. It was a nice drive except for the Outenikwa mountain pass that we  had to drive over  from George to the Klein Karroo. As we started to clime the mountain I realise the bus does not have the power to get over the pass and I could feel the stress mounting as the bus lost momentum and we almost came to crawling speed. The bus lost so much speed that I thought that there was something wrong with the engine I kept my ease on the heat and oil pressure gauges.We all most  came to a standstill before out of desperation I lifted my foot from the gas pedal and slammed it down on the pedal,  the gearbox kicked back to second gear and the big 8.9 litter engine roared like  the big beast it is. The bus  picked up speed and we went over the mountain pass without any  trouble at all, at some point I had to take my foot of the gas peddle to slow her down on the corners and bends in the pass.Yes I learned a valuable lesson this time and that is to make certain that the bus is in the rite gear when starting to clime mountain passes in the future, thankfully South Africa is reasonably flat with not to many mountains to trek over.
We arrived at the Karroo town of Beaufort West at midday and after refuelling the bus at the diesel deppo we set off to the Steenbokkie game farm and caravan park, after checking in and paying the R150.00 for the night we set up camp day. This time of the year is the hottest in the Karroo and the thermometer in the bus showed the temperature to be near 40c in the bus, it was so nice to switch the air con on and with in a few minutes the bus started to cool down a few degrease and Anita and I could relax on the bed for a hour or two. After a nap we went to sit outside and the owner of the farm came to ask if all is well with us and to inform us that they started to fill the cement dam not far from our bus out of the borehole and that the water is nice and cold. The girls did not waist any time and with the water barley six inches deep in the dam they went in for a cool down. It was not long after that that I sat down in the cold water and to our astonishment Anita went in to cool down the heat in the Karroo is just too much for us during this time of the year.
                          Relaxing after a long days drive.

 From Beaufort West we left the next day to drive through the Great Karo.The best time of day to travel through this area is very early in the morning. We left the caravan park at 4.30 AM and reached the N1 at 5AM . With the day breaking  I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the landscape around me and the smell of the veld that came to me through the open window reminded me of "Katbos and Kambro" as in the song by Connie De Viliers. This very special moments while travelling is what I will remember for years to come and is food for my wondering soul with out it I can not live.

We arrived at Kimberley at noon and stop for a wile at the Spar for supplies .We then left for our free camp that we always stay at when travelling this way. Usually we don't have electricity here but after refueling the bus and wile paying I asked the owner of the place if I could pluck in somewhere and she told me that I can plug in at the light tower witch made our stay even more enjoyable.

I love driving our bus.

Solar

We at last made a start with the solar power for the bus.

We bought a 80 v solar panel and a 105 ah battery for the bus,I hope we can ad to this later on. The plan is to get 400 v on the roof of the bus and 3 or 4 batteries to hold the charge.

Meet the new member our team

We decided to buy a small roundabout to replace our Honda that's  got km450,000 on it. We had to do more repairs on the car and it's  just not reliable anymore .So we got a Chana mini bus, it's got a little 1.3L engine and it's real economical on fuel. The loading space is surprisingly big for the size of the car.

Just cheking in.

Last time I wrote on the blog it was to tell  about my children and the busted engine of our bus conversion.In the mean time we have been living on board the bus and it is so comfortable. Every thing is working out except for the ceramic tiles we laid on the floor they are cracking under my weight and instead of going on a diet I decided to replace them with something els I have not decided with what yet.We found out that to repair the engine is going to cost us R40,000.00.So we have been working very hard to save the money to have the engine repaired.In the meantime we are parked up at famely with electricety and water hookups that we are very grade full for.
more profit from our sweets business we have decided to intodues different flavours of fudge that Anita is making in the kitchen using the gas stove we put in when we build the bus the granite tops in the kitchen is all so working wonderfully for  putting boiling hot fudge pots on with out damiching the counter tops. We worked at the Outdoor Expo at Kyalami last weekend and it went very well.

A NEW OR A REBUILD ENGINE FOR OUR BUS.

We finely came to a decision on the busted bus engine.

After taking our time to consider all the pros and cons about the rite way to get our bus engine fixed. We finely decided to let a engineering company in Randfontein the town that are parked up  the  sins the bus engine got busted, rebuild the entire engine. We first thought that we could swap the Mercedes Bens360 engine for a newer ADE 366 engine.But considering that the ADE366 engine is a 5.9liter engine and our bus engine is a 8.9liter engine there would be a significant drop in engine power with the smaller engine and that there will be no advantageous like better fuel consumption with the Ade366 engine we decided not to go that way.
After talking to a few Diesel Mechanics we were told that the OM360 engine is a heavy duty truck engine and that if rebuild the rite way, it would probably last for another thirty years or so.
We decided on a total rebuild, we also found out that a brand new om360 engine would set us back R120,000,00 or in other words $12000.00 without shipping it from Germany to South Africa.
A friend of mine who owns a Funfair recommended to us the engineering company that they use for all their repairs in  town. We contacted the company and the next day the owner came out to the bus to have a look at the bus engine and within a week we had a quotation on the rebuild of our engine. They also agreed to come take the engine out of the bus where we are parked and to after the rebuild come put the new engine back in without us moving the bus to town.
So next week they will  come and take the engine out and then it would  not be to long and the bus will be running again. The rebuild will cost us R 46000,00 or $4600,00.

                                                This is the photos of the om360 engine.

                         The starter motor got damaged when the con rod game thru the engine block.

Some times,Life just happens.

So much has happened since my last post.I tend to shy away from the personal stuff that happens to my family and concentrate more on the positive and fun stuff. But in our lives as in any body else's life's, life just happens and there is not much one can do about it except to pray and try to be positive.

My children is most important in my life and if one of them falls and hurt themselves I feel their pain and if one of them is sad I can feel the sadness deep in my soul.
Many is the times that one of them is dong something they should not or is in a difficult situation and I would get the feeling that something is not right and I would pray for them.While my son went to university for four years I did my fair share of praying, some times I would wake up at night and he was on my mind and I just new that he needs a prayer .Now that he is working and finished with his degree I pick up tit bits of his life while he was away studying and know why.Now he is working for a firm in Pretoria and he is doing very well and I am so proud of him.
Last week we realized that some thing was not all well with our middle daughter.Aluschka complained that the left side of her face was feeling numb.I looked on the Internet for what could be causing this and came to the conclusion that it mite be her wisdom teeth that are coming out that could be putting pressure on a facial nerve.We took her to a Doctor the next day.The Doctor diagnose Bells Palsy.This sickness is caused by a virus in the brain of the person.The virus causes the facial nerves that run to the face,to swell up in the brain and that is what is causing the paralysis on the left side of her face.The Doctor prescribe medicine that she took the whole of last week.
This week Monday Aluschka returned to the Doctor and he said that there is some improvement. She gained some of the feeling in her face and all the taste that she lost.
So there is still so much to be thankful for and I will still be praying for my kids.Some times I think that is all we as parents are their for, to pray for our children and of course to love them no mater what.