Where were all the easter bunnies then...?

Sorry about the delay in posting, but RMan and I contracted a head / chest cold from our (caravan) guest at the end of the weekend and we've been completely under the weather this week.

But, Ah! - the 4½ day weekend was a brilliant break.  If only we'd known that this last Wednesday and next Monday were also holidays, we probably would stayed for longer...  Shows how badly we needed a break.  I have never forgotten a public holiday before LOL

But, it was just as well that we went up to the farm this past weekend.  My lemon trees needed our help - big time!

From a distance all looked well, but as I got closer I noticed that the new growth at the tops had been munched, and on closer inspection, I discovered by whom, or should that be, by what...

One of the penalties of farming part-time!
It may be the most gorgeous colour,
but it's not welcome in my lemon tree grove

One had even munched enough
and had gone to hide in its' pupa

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for handing over a tithe of what I grow, but judging from the visible damage done, several tithes had been taken.

So I whipped out the balance of an eco-friendly solution which had been given to me by Diane of Starke Ayres Garden Centre in Rondebosch for the treatment of Wooly Fruit Fly.  (I have googled whether methylated spirits is eco-friendly and have found various sites where it is stated that it is - this is one of them).  The recipe for the solution is:

methylated spirits   {we mixed up roughly 1.5 ltrs methylated
water                    {spirits / 4.0 - 4.5lts water
5ml (1 teaspoon) Kombat® (which contains natural pyrethroid 20gm/lt)
Fruitfly / 5 lts water
5ml (1 teaspoon) dish washing liquid / 2 lts of mixture (this helps the above solution stick to plant leaves)

RMan did the deed - spraying them with gusto.  How many did he find - oh, approximately 40!

Plump and juicy - he should be - my small
lemon trees provided the sustenance...

But - it worked.  The next morning they were all spread out on the Weedguard - in fact the ants were carting them off to their underground nests!  They (the ants) didn't seem bothered by the mixture.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of that as my camera batteries were flat (I forgot to charge them before we left - idiot me!).

And, before the weather changed, we managed to get another row of lemon trees planted...

You can see in the above photo how the first lemon trees, (furthest from the camera, next to the shade cloth windbreak) which were planted during the 1st week of January this year, have thrived.  They have grown 4 or 5 times bigger in the intervening 3½ months and are beginning to peep above the shade cloth windbreak.  Obviously, lemon trees with ambition!

The area was desperately in need of some rain, so, as if on cue, the next morning we woke to the following scene...

(Taken via my cell phone camera)
Clouds forming in the north west - a sure sign of rain

By early evening the signs were confirmed...

(Taken via my cell phone camera)
Over the Langeberg Mountains the skies were
still clear, but over the farm drizzle had
just started falling

RMan quickly managed to get the foundation laid for his outside power room - we currently have the charge controller / inverter / batteries in the roof of the house - not a good idea! The batteries do give off sulphuric acid fumes, but we had no-where else to put them at the time. Hopefully, next time we go to the farm we will be able to build the walls, take the measurements, and have a solid / intruder proof door made for future isolated, but easy access to the equipment.

The welcome rain which fell for the next two days put paid to working outside, which was fine, because we had plenty to keep us busy inside.  I varnished and then RMan installed some extra kitchen shelves (above and below the counter) and he re-did the solar panel / charge controller and inverter connections (I'll be writing more detail on that in my next posting), finished the electrical wiring inside the house and installed the plugs / light fittings...

(Taken via my cell phone camera)

So now we have 220v available from any plug / light fitting in the house!  To celebrate we switched on a pure copper lamp I had purchased off Bid or Buy for ZAR70.00 (+/- US$ 10.00)

(Taken via my cell phone camera)

It was very scruffy and after a good polish (with sifted wood ash applied via a damp cloth and a dry buff with a clean soft cloth) the true beauty of this little lamp became visible.  It is a brilliant little light which gives of the most amazing mood lighting, with pinpricks of rainbow colours (why rainbow, I have no idea) illuminating the wall.  The inner light globe holder and the on / off switch are made of Bakelite - a sure sign of the age of this lamp.  I'm very happy with this purchase - or should that be theft??  I'm sure, if the lady who sold it to me knew how perfectly it would clean up, and if she'd seen how it worked, she would've charged more.  And naturally, being copper, we won't leave it lying about at the farm when we're not there!  It's going to be schlepped with us and will therefore become a very well travelled little lamp LOL - just like our car radio hi-fi - some things are just not worth taking a chance on...


Seem to recall a Sting CD was playing when
I snapped this pic on my cellphone

We have discovered that we will need to purchase at least 2  - 3 more 105 / 130Ah deep cycle batteries in order to run the freezer on freeze setting 24 hours a day.  However, we do have enough power during the daylight hours to run it on "chiller" setting (it is a multi-function chest fridge / freezer).  In fact "chiller" setting got so cold that 5lt bottles of water, placed on the floor of the freezer, froze solid.  That provided more than enough chilling to get the contents of the freezer through the night - switched off.  And chilled RMans beers to perfection too :-)

Our "absent" neighbour was actually home briefly this past weekend, and another neighbour, Frans, made a special trip to see him in order to give him "what for" regarding his cattle / animals which had wandered up and down the sand road looking for grazing / water.  I have a feeling the SPCA may be making a trip down the sand road to our "absent" neighbours farm in the not too distant future...  But we did manage to give his dog Ou Nooi (Old Lady) and his cat (which MKid named Maxie, but who is actually called Rusty) good hearty meals whilst we were there, and I left a huge pile of food for each.  I hope they eat it before the field mice find it...  I have also asked Frans and Roy to please put a bowl of something out if they see either of them. 

It was just as well we contacted the Easter Bunny (via text message LOL) to find out if he could make a very special early visit in Cape Town before MKid went back up country at the end of March - because we didn't see a sign of him this past weekend...  And I guess he would also have got wet.