April 17, 2025
The day started earlier than usual as we wanted to make it to the horse stables to join in on the 7:30am feeding. We joined Kathryn, the stable manager, and a few other families to first get the horses from the fields and move them to the stables for their feeding. One horse, Cheeky, eagerly pushed to the front and stepped on Lenny’s foot resulting in wails and crys from Len. On inspection of his toe back at the stables, there was thankfully no blood or bruising but Len continued to whimper. I had a handful of jelly beans in my bag that became “horse stomping pills” as we fed them to Len in hopes they would distract him from the pain. It worked and we were able to put his shoe back on so he could join in on the horse feeding and brushing. Ollie kept calling Cheeky “Lenny’s arch nemesis” for the remainder of the day.
There was a farm dog at the stables that reminded us of young Opie. Her name was Dutchess and she ran up to me and leaned in demanding to be pet– one of Opie’s favorite moves.
The boys then each rode a horse for a short loop by the stables. Lenny was sufficiently over his foot injury and loved riding the horses. Lucky for him we had booked a longer ride for later in the morning.
When we got back to our site, Ollie spotted a monkey on the top of our tent that scurried away when our car pulled into its spot. We noticed this same monkey stalking around our site while we prepared and then ate breakfast. It would hop from tree to tree and scurry along our roof making quite the ruckus. Kyle chased him to grab a photo but unsuccessfully. We thought that would be the extent of the monkey activity but we were wrong.
As the boys were doing math on their iPads and I was writing a blog post at the kitchen table, the monkey snuck right into the tent!! He ran right past me and up to the cabinets and began to open them. I started to scream but Kyle must have thought it was a “boy who cried wolf” situation as I’ve been easily spooked by spiders and noises. Len started to fret and nearly starting crying. Ollie sat on the couch looking a the monkey with a wide smile. I kept yelling to Kyle and rushed the kids outside the tent. Kyle eventually emerged from the bedroom with a broom and a blanket just as the monkey rushed past me and kids and perched up on the braai on the deck. I snapped a quick photo with Ollie’s iPad just before the monkey took off again. My Oura ring showed a high stress event and it took a bit for my heart rate to drop to normal. Lenny proclaimed, “Oh no he’s going to steal my iPad!!” Kyle was grateful the monkey didn’t steal his precious finger lime. The kids joyfully proclaimed, “We were monkey robbed again!!” and then proceeded to ask other guests if they too had been “monkey robbed”.
The monkey incident caused us to be slightly late for our mid-morning horse riding excursion. We made our way to the stables and rode horses with guides Kathryn and Daniel. Ollie rode Zizi, Lenny rode Cheeky (his nemesis), Kyle rode Ben and I rode Mick. The farm pup, Tiger also joined us on our excursion. From Kathryn we learned that she inherited the pup from a former farm worker and she said the dog “landed with him bum in butter” because his life is so good on the farm.
We got back to the tent after riding horses to find that the monkey had again thwarted our attempts to block the tent entrance. He made his way inside by opening a bottom zipper then finished off our breakfast leftovers of eggs and sausages and also found his way into our trash can. He dug out the empty corn cobs and left them sprinkled on our deck. He also managed to open the cabinets and move the cereal in glass bottles over to the trash can. Thankfully, before we left we had stored our English muffins and chips in the fridge which the monkeys apparently have trouble opening.
The early afternoon was filled with a home school session, playing at the park and a trampoline contest before our 3pm Dairy Farm tour. The farm owner, Jake, is a 6th generation dairy farmer and he took our group and one other family on a tour of the dairy operation.
Ollie must have asked at minimum of 20 questions during the tour and has taken to using his hands extravagantly when talking. We learned they have ~1,200 total cows on the property with ~700 being actively milked and the others as young calves, on birthing break or hybrid cows to be sold for meat. The cows are milked twice a day and yield ~2 gallons of milk daily. The tour concluded with chocolate milkshakes prepared with milk procured today. Ollie and Len happily had 2 milkshakes each.
Farmer Jake also shared that the 2 biggest nuisances to his farm were baboons and monkeys. Though the farm and campground typically have a pacifist and naturalist approach to wildlife, he admitted to hunting monkeys when he got the chance.
Next was a marshmallow braai at the campground. The boys both burned a finger each by dipping their marshmallow in the hot embers and then grabbing the marshmallow/ember mix. Kyle managed to also do this to his own finger but I made it out unscathed.
Then it was back to our tent to unwind with history videos for the boys and meal prep for us. Thankfully dinner was quick and easy with a nachos basket provided by the campground. The boys hardly touched their dinner as the milkshakes and marshmallows must have filled their bellies. The evening wrapped with a 4-way kiddo Facetime between the boys and 3 other families from Hoboken.
