As it was Saturday, so we decided to try and spend some time today relaxing and doing something with the kids. We were all getting a bit of cabin fever as the weather had been pretty miserable, and too many of us were sick.
I prescribed myself antibiotics this morning after five or six days of the worst gastro imaginable. So I have been pretty useless. Standing up makes me want to rush off to the loo and a simple 5 minute chore requires me to sit down at least 3 or 4 times to allow the waves of gastro to pass. Very unpleasant. It has also made me pretty useless in helping Sonja. But you can’t do anything about it. You either sit down, or you mess your pants. Simple.
Then the night before last Caleb suddenly got really bad gastro and was running a fever on about 40 degrees Celsius. We called though to the nearest district hospital, which is about an hour and a half away over pretty bad roads. The game plan was to keep him below 40 degrees, and keep him hydrated. If he went over 40, or started vomiting together with the gastro we were to bring him through.
So we spent an anxious night doing all we could to get his temperature down. We had a bowl of water we kept wiping him with and wetting his neck and hair. We had two ice packs in the deep-freeze that we wrapped in dish clothes and put against the front and back of his chest, and we had some of those home made ice lollies in the freezer that you make by freezing juice, which we kept getting him to eat. This worked well as he saw it as a treat, it helped get his core temperature down, and it helped re-hydrate him. It was a long night let me tell you. He was feverish all through yesterday, and then yesterday evening, just at sunset, his fever finally broke.
On top of this Sonja has been battling two deadlines, so she has really been under pressure.
So the miserable weather and two days of strong wind making everything unpleasant were the capping on a tough week.
Today was going to be chill out day (or at least semi chill out)
Things started badly with a quick spring clean turning into a two hour ordeal of crying, whining kids, and short tempered parents.
When we finally got to the forest area, with our packed snacks and drinks, (and lets not forget the ant collecting jar to get ants to house the new ant farm) Caleb was crying and in need of the loo, the Skye had rubbed up against poison ivy, and was very vocally unhappy, and Mila was getting upset because we still hadn’t found her any ants for her ant colony. Bloody hell.
Me needing to squat urgently behind a tree was the last straw, for both Sonja and I.
We managed to wrestle three log seats back to the bakkie and then headed back to the cottage.
As quickly as we could.
When we got back to the cottage, Mila and Caleb seemed happy, and we thought Caleb should get some rest, so I walked down with Skye to have a swim and do some exploring.
She had a really educational and fun time. We helped extract some freshly harvested honey, she spent about an hour with a woman at the lodge sewing garments on an old hand turned sewing machine, we had a great swim and an explore, and then in the late afternoon we made our first batch of bread.
The idea is to try and relax a bit more tomorrow, Sunday, and then get stuck in again Monday morning.
I prescribed myself antibiotics this morning after five or six days of the worst gastro imaginable. So I have been pretty useless. Standing up makes me want to rush off to the loo and a simple 5 minute chore requires me to sit down at least 3 or 4 times to allow the waves of gastro to pass. Very unpleasant. It has also made me pretty useless in helping Sonja. But you can’t do anything about it. You either sit down, or you mess your pants. Simple.
Then the night before last Caleb suddenly got really bad gastro and was running a fever on about 40 degrees Celsius. We called though to the nearest district hospital, which is about an hour and a half away over pretty bad roads. The game plan was to keep him below 40 degrees, and keep him hydrated. If he went over 40, or started vomiting together with the gastro we were to bring him through.
So we spent an anxious night doing all we could to get his temperature down. We had a bowl of water we kept wiping him with and wetting his neck and hair. We had two ice packs in the deep-freeze that we wrapped in dish clothes and put against the front and back of his chest, and we had some of those home made ice lollies in the freezer that you make by freezing juice, which we kept getting him to eat. This worked well as he saw it as a treat, it helped get his core temperature down, and it helped re-hydrate him. It was a long night let me tell you. He was feverish all through yesterday, and then yesterday evening, just at sunset, his fever finally broke.
On top of this Sonja has been battling two deadlines, so she has really been under pressure.
So the miserable weather and two days of strong wind making everything unpleasant were the capping on a tough week.
Today was going to be chill out day (or at least semi chill out)
Things started badly with a quick spring clean turning into a two hour ordeal of crying, whining kids, and short tempered parents.
When we finally got to the forest area, with our packed snacks and drinks, (and lets not forget the ant collecting jar to get ants to house the new ant farm) Caleb was crying and in need of the loo, the Skye had rubbed up against poison ivy, and was very vocally unhappy, and Mila was getting upset because we still hadn’t found her any ants for her ant colony. Bloody hell.
Me needing to squat urgently behind a tree was the last straw, for both Sonja and I.
We managed to wrestle three log seats back to the bakkie and then headed back to the cottage.
As quickly as we could.
When we got back to the cottage, Mila and Caleb seemed happy, and we thought Caleb should get some rest, so I walked down with Skye to have a swim and do some exploring.
She had a really educational and fun time. We helped extract some freshly harvested honey, she spent about an hour with a woman at the lodge sewing garments on an old hand turned sewing machine, we had a great swim and an explore, and then in the late afternoon we made our first batch of bread.
The idea is to try and relax a bit more tomorrow, Sunday, and then get stuck in again Monday morning.
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