Farming lessons at Rickety Bridge

I'm dipping into the my old files of Rickety Bridge history and they include one or two interviews. One I particularly enjoyed was the McNaughts who were then at Stoney Brook farm and doing rather well after their Rickety Bridge experience. When they bought Rickety Bridge, they were living and working in Grahamstown; Nigel as a doctor and Joy teaching at St Andrew's school.

They were both from Cape Town and on a visit to the Cape, Nigel found that Sanddrift/Rickety Bridge was for sale at an attractive price.

When Joy asked if they could afford it, Nigel told her that if they sold everything they had, borrowed from all their friends and took a mortgage they could just manage.

At first, Nigel’s father and mother moved on to the farm, Nigel’s father harvesting the fruit and sending it off to market. Unbeknown to them, pear sizes were critical and the price of grade 3, the smallest, didn’t cover the cost of sorting and instead of the expected cheque the McNaughts got a bill.
Undeterred, they stuck to the plan and learned more lessons about farming.

www.stonybrook.co.za