A Dog’s Grave of a Garden

Greenham house 1939

Water from the Que Que River about a mile away was carted by ox drawn water tanker to  Greenham Farm to supply the house hot water system.

A Dog’s Grave of a Garden

Greenham Farm didn’t have a normal sign post to direct people.  ‘The Big Tree,’ a massive Mukamba (pod mahogany) grew at the house turnoff, partly on the line of the Tiger Reef Mine Road. Gervas persuaded the road builders to spare his ‘sign post’, causing a kink half way along an otherwise perfectly straight five mile section of road.

The house stood on the kopje with lovely views.  Built of flat iron stone gathered from natural heaps and a galvanised roof, its mortared walls were three foot thick, the floor green- stained polished cement.  Barbara made it a lovely home.

A Dog’s Grave of a Garden

Oxen drew a tanker cart from the river about  a mile away to supply the house hot water system.  To run hot water for the tin bath was not simple. The ‘boy’ filled a forty four gallon drum over a furnace with buckets from the tanker.   The hot water flowed  through a pipe in the wall to the bath. Providing it had boiled, there was no chance of contracting bilharzia.  Cold bath water and drinking water were carried by bucket from rain water tanks at the back of the house.

This allowed only the dregs for the garden–just a rockery that Barbara excused as  ‘a dog’s grave of a garden’, which made her sad.  Besides the dogs and cats, there was a pet duiker, (small antelope) caught very young. Barbara fed it toast at breakfast. If any stray dogs appeared it would chase them, and they would run off with their tails between their legs.

Plenty of visitors came on weekends. “Do come and stay the weekend. Could you also bring some vital things when you come, bacon or flour or something?” (Barbara was a great wheedler).   She often rode on her horse to town on weekdays to lunch with friends, and on Saturdays she rode in to  play tennis.

Before long, she was expecting.   Her parents were coming to stay and take her on a holiday to the Victoria Falls.