Eco-friendly cooling

RMan spent the entire time at the farm last weekend preparing for the hot weather of summer.  I have previously mentioned that we took some recycled balustrades to the farm - for our front porch.  This is what we still have at our town house...

Recycled balustrades

... and I have other plans for that LOL


So, whilst I painted the balustrades which we had installed on the porch a dark green colour to match our green power room door :)...


... RMan got busy with organising some  shade...

Butterfly clips

He spied these at Builders Warehouse - Butterfly Clips.  I didn't have a clue what he wanted to do with them, but we both have our ideas on how we are making our farm comfortable for everyone, so I patiently waited for the plan to be unveiled :)


RMan attached an eye bolt to the walls of the house...

Wall mounting method

... and another eye bolt with threaded rod and a nut to the poles he had installed on the patio

Pole mounting method

Then he strung some stainless steel cable (recycled from the balustrades) between the eye bolts and spent many long, laborious hours installing each butterfly clip, one at a time, onto some Alnet Cooltone shade fabric we had purchased from their factory shop, and to the cable until we had this...

Butterfly clips on recycled stainless steel cable

Taa Da!  We have shade for the upcoming hot summer months.  And RMan has made it retractable - a very basic method, but it works!  Clever RMan! That means we'll still be able to enjoy sunshine on the patio in the cooler winter months :)

Finished product looking in (and please note
the beautiful newly painted balustrade - painted
in 35oC - hectic!  Best thing about that
was that the paint dried in 1/2 hour LOL)

But, we still have to install two wires in the centre, running parallel to the top poles, to prevent the shadecloth from sagging or ballooning in the wind.


And, finally, RMan fixed the shadecloth to the walls.  This he did, in the pouring rain, howling wind (and that wasn't easy!) and 35oC sunshine, by catching the fabric with some wooden battens and screwing the batten securely to the wall - no more flying of the shadecloth - at least on one side!  On the outer edge, by these two poles below, we'll have to make another plan.

Finished product looking out

Finally, RMan installed a mister system on the horizontal poles.  This system is very eco-friendly, as it uses less than a litre of water  / hour and it's cooling effect has to be experienced to be believed!  

Eco-friendly cooling

Reckon we're all set for summer now - so can someone please tell the weather.  Unlike the farm, cool, windy, rainy days persist in Cape Town, which is great for the dams, but not so good for producing fruit on my veggies.  My lettuces love it, but my tomatoes have yet to produce flowers, never mind fruit!