The saga continues...

I know this subject has been covered a couple of times before on my blog.  But, my problem continues.  And, having watched one of our previous dogs (a wonderful, sweet-tempered [seriously] Great Dane) kill RMan's cat, Muts, in the kitchen right in front of my eyes, I need to be really, really sure that it won't happen again...

Our dog, Scallywag, is not a cat-friendly dog.  Plus, with RMan's new found relationship with Coo, the tame Cape Turtle Dove, RMan is very hesitant regarding the acquisition of a kitten / cat.

But I seriously think that a feline - of any age - is a must.  A definite.  Non-avoidable.

I was never mad about cats.  I also don't recall our family having a cat when I was a child - puppies and dogs, yes - kittens and cats - no memory.  When I met RMan - yonks ago - he had a cat called Muts.  This thing was vicious - RMan liked a bit of spirit ;)  It would sit on the floor in front of me - nervously perched on RMan's couch when I was visiting - and growl at me - warning me off.  I kid you not.  When I gave birth to Natasha, our daughter, it would lie in the dark - in wait.  As I walked down the passage from the bedroom to the kitchen to get her 2 a.m. bottle, it would attack my legs - frightening the life out of me and drawing blood with it's claws.  It never forgave me for entering RMan's life.  Perhaps the fact that RMan's long-time girlfriend gave it to him had something to do with its objection to me...?

As a result cats and I have a so-so relationship.

But, the time has come for the circle to close.

We-need-a-cat.

The field mouse problem is growing.

Let me explain.

Last week, RMan had to go to Cape Town for the day.  As he tends to return at +/- 9.30 - 10.15p.m. (it's a 550 - 600km round trip of +/- 5 - 6 hours before he attends any meetings / does any work)

I stay behind on our smallholding for the animals.

When I swept the kitchen floor that morning I found some dog food on the floor next to the Rosie.  A fleeting thought occurred, but I swept it away - and I put it own to Scallywag "dropping" some food from his jowls after eating his dinner the evening before.

Then, later that evening, I was sitting on my chair watching TV when I noticed, in my peripheral vision, the curtains moving next to the TV.

But, there was no wind.

Re-focusing my eyes from the TV to the curtain I saw a field mouse peeking out from behind it. 

Whhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaat???

It nimbly hopped off the curtain and onto the floor and made it's way to the kitchen area.

Ho-boy! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

Okey-dokey - well - it'll just have to have a feast.  I'm not doing anything about a mouse in the house at 9.30p.m. (I don't tend to do more than climb on top of the dining room table normally anyway.)  So I stayed firmly put in my chair.

When RMan got home a half-an-hour or so later I told him what I had seen.  Being tired and half believing me, he had a cursory look around, poked under a couple of cupboards / sideboards with the end of a broom handle, but couldn't find anything.  We left the mouse to it, and went to bed.  Naturally, the bedroom door was firmly closed on it too ;)

Aha! A clue!!
The temporary fly screen is definitely
 at odds with it's usual position on the
 window

But, the next morning, I noticed that one of the temporary fly screens I had put up at the window where the mouse had hopped off the curtain the night before was hanging open.  Again, there had been no wind during the night...

Mice can climb walls, and I reckon
this is the route it uses / used

Being fairly accomplished in the art of detecting, I advised RMan that, in my expert opinion, the mouse had entered the house through the window.

Yeah, yeah.  Condescendingly, he patted my shoulder.  And carried on with his day.

But I kept an eye out.

And firmly closed and locked the window through which I believed it had entered the house.

Not a single mouse did I find, but we did notice that behind the Rosie, which I had vacuumed only the day before, there were further dog food pellets.  In a spot completely inaccessible to Scallywag.

The next morning they were gone!  And a half chewed baby potato was there in their place.

That definitely wasn't Scallywags handiwork!

So, now RMan had hard proof that a mouse had been (was still?) in the house.  But, we still couldn't find it.

Talking about laying a water bucket trap the next day, we settled down to watch TV for the evening.  At 9.15p.m. RMan suddenly sat up, and looked towards the fly screen doors.  Being closer to the noise, he'd heard something that I hadn't.  Grabbing the torch which he keeps handy in order to help Scallywag (who is 14 years old) go outside to relieve himself (he's an old dog who doesn't see very well anymore), he shone it at the screen door which was screening the open patio doors in order to keep the night insects out.

And RMan saw a mouse.

Trying to chew it's way through the aluminium fly screen.

Mice teeth marks on the aluminium flyscreen
material.  I swear, given enough time, it would've 
eaten it's way through to it's "larder"

RMan was blown away.

He kept saying "I shone the torch on it and it just stood there - looking straight at me.

It just stood there!  And we're here, in the lounge, with the lights and TV on."

He couldn't believe how brazen it was.

And Scallywag didn't budge / hear it / see it.  (So much for protecting me.)  Actually, earlier this year I saw a mouse almost walk over Scallywags legs and he did nothing but calmly watch it on it's way.

I think I can safely say that no help is ever going to come from that quarter.

Mouse catching bucket
deployed

Needless to say, the trap, liberally baited with peanut butter, was put out first thing next morning.

But, I am of the opinion that only a cat is going to help us to resolve this problem.  The bucket trap in my shadecloth veggie patch is catching 4 - 6 field mice a day.  We definitely have a field mouse overload here this year - even with all the food / seeds in the farmers fields around us!  And, if one incy-wincy mouse has laid down a "trail" into the house, more are likely to follow...

So, now to convince RMan that his precious Coo isn't going to be nabbed by the Cat, and that Scallywag probably won't take any notice of it either...

Closure on this saga would be a really good way to start the new year.

Isn't life in the countryside fun :)

As this will be my last posting for 2014, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  I hope your year is filled with all, and more, than you hope for.

In the heat of the moment

I know from Sky News that those in the UK were spared a White Christmas. Personally, I'd love to be subjected to a White Christmas, but that is my British roots shouting at me...

I mean, seriously, how many people would like to cook their Christmas dinner in temperatures like this:

Clicking on the
image will reveal
a temperature of
31oC at 2.20p.m.
on Christmas Eve
- in the shade

I definitely cannot light up the Rosie in that kind of heat - the additional heat it would produce indoors would be suicidal!  So, we use our outside barbeque as an oven - and leave the heat outside where it belongs.  This works well and normally, within 2 - 3 hours, our turkey is perfectly cooked.  However, Christmas pudding is 100% out of the question.  Far to "starchy" for our temperature.  If we could celebrate Christmas in winter, when one needs the additional starch intake in order to create warmth within the body, then it would definitely be on the menu.  I have wonderful childhood memories of helping to boil 6d's (and even a tickey in the early years immediately after immigrating to this country) and hiding them within the pud, prior to cooking it.  I wonder if that still happens overseas?

But, strangely enough, Mike, our grandson who spent the weekend prior to Christmas with us, commented that "Christmas isn't Christmas without snow".  Seems as though the concept of a cold, white, snow-bedecked Christmas, either originating from the traditional Christmas images reproduced on Christmas cards, or his grandmother's roots, are rearing their head within him, and leaving him feeling a yearning for a White Christmas - just like his Nana :)

Christmas greetings

To all whole read this post, I'd like to wish you a Happy Christmas.  May it be filled with that special wonder of the season, excitement, happiness, contentment and compassion.

As always, in honour of RMan's German Christmas tradition, we have our Christmas meal on Christmas Eve night.  So today is my day in the kitchen... :)

Happy Christmas

First attempts at weaving...

... with alpaca wool are on my other blog :

http://sustainablefibressa.blogspot.com/2014/12/first-attempts-at-weaving.html

"Oh me, oh my...

... do I have a pot big enough to cook this monster in?" was the question that popped into my head when I saw this.

RMan's size 9 shoe for size comparison

This "beetroot" was grown in a bed in my shadecloth veggie patch - in soil that had had a healthy dose of alpaca poo added 2 months ago.  And nothing but alpaca poo.

Trimmed of it's leaves, my hand is in the lower
left hand corner

It was "hiding" behind some red veined swiss chard leaves.  In fact, I started harvesting some leaves of what I thought was swiss chard to make my creamed spinach recipe when I happened to glance down and saw the beetroot "globe" peeking out of the soil beneath the leaves.

The giant beetroot inside a 10lt pot

There is no sign of the beetroot bolting, so once it is cooked the flesh inside should be good and tender.  And plentiful.

Ha!!  Two for the price of one :)  We enjoyed creamed spinach (a.k.a. swiss chard / beetroot) with our dinner on Friay night, and today (Saturday) I am cooking the beetroot.

Update prior to posting:

Tender all the way through - eventually :)

It took a full hour to cook that baby but I started early enough and RMan and I enjoyed a helping with our dinner that night.

2.5 kgs of beetroot relish - enough for us
and to give as a gift

I still have plain beetroot slices in the fridge, and, yesterday, I made 2.5 kgs of beetroot relish.  RMan will enjoy that with his braai-ed boerewors (barbecue sausage) and ostrich sausage, and, we'll enjoy it with a roast chicken dinner too.  Not to mention putting a dollop on top of a cheese filled cracker...

Yum.

Minky's tail

Please - pop over to my other blog to read more about Minky's tail...

Advent days

I was horrified last night to hear on Sky News that certain church ministers in England are sending out Christmas cards with no reference to the actual "reason of the season". À la a non-descriptive "Festive Greetings" or some such.  This is supposedly to avoid "offending" people of other religious inclinations.  Whaaaat?  Ermmm, am I missing something?  The very word and celebration of Christmas is derived from the birth and name of Christ.  If they are not Christians, why should they be offended?

To me this is another indication how crazy this world is becoming.  Those ministers should be relieved of their duties...

But, on to the subject of this posting.

I made a very simple Advents Kranz this year.

Our simple Advents Kranz this year

I have a set of four brass candlesticks - collected over the years - as well as a pair from my late mother-in-law.  But I felt like a change.  So, the candle sticks I'm using in the kranz this year are recycled spice bottles which have been filled with white coloured sand and the top lid screw section I covered with a strip of pewter.  The bed of golden tipped greenery comes from a Leyland Cypress - we have three growing in our garden.

Repurposing empty spice bottles into candle
sticks worked - I love the simplicity of the
arrangement this year

I have loads of empty glass jars which I refuse to add to landfill / send for recycling.  Why, when I can used them to preserve this year's harvest, or put them to another use around the house.

Reindeer à la South Africa :)

Reindeer are not available in this country - the best we can do is springbok. The pic above is of a baby springbok on a neighbours smallholding and which was born a couple of weeks ago.

"Let the sun shine,

... let the sun shine in..."

South Africa has finally switched on it's solar power.

Jasper solar farm - near Kimberley
http://thegreentimes.co.za/africas-largest-solar-farm
-now-fully-operational/

With a rated capacity of 96 megawatts, Jasper will produce about 180,000 megawatt-hours of clean energy annually for South African residents, enough to power up to 80,000 homes.

And, they have already started construction of another solar farm called Redstone which is located near Jasper - and this one will provide 100-megawatts of CSP.

Sigh - I'm so frigging happy :)

Now, if they could only just plan another couple of dozen solar and wind farms around the country immediately then perhaps we wouldn't have the load shedding that that the rest of the country is currently experiencing...  They are both quicker to erect, and can provide power faster than it takes to construct a coal powered or nuclear powered power station.

Going to Swellendam yesterday for our weekly shop, most of the businesses had their doors closed and locked as they had no generators to power their lights / tills whilst Escom enforced a load shedding to "build up reserves".  How can those businesses survive if they have to close their doors on a (busy) Saturday morning - especially one 2 weeks before Christmas?

Petrol stations in Cape Town are apparently running out of diesel.  Why?  Because Escom is using the diesel to run power plants.  This lack of diesel has far reaching consequences for businesses and transport.  For the country's GDP.

Perhaps those in senior positions at Escom should find themselves trapped in a (stationary) lift for 2 - 3 hours, or visit a public loo in the dark - all because they (and their predecessors) were too short-sighted and didn't plan adequately years ago for the country's future electricity requirements.  "Use less / save power / switch off unnecessary equipment" Escom says.  But, if everyone does as they request then their sales will drop, their income will thus be affected and that means they will have another bloody excuse to hike up the electricity prices to meet their ludicrous financial commitments / loans.  All because they didn't do their research / fulfil their job specifications adequately / plan properly.

Escom is making this country a laughing stock.  Who wants to invest in a country which can't supply electricity to the people or to their businesses?  A country which is also running out of diesel because the only power producer in the country is apparently using it all to run their open cycle gas turbines?  Oh, and never mind the diesel required to fuel the 200-odd fleet of trucks running 24 hours a day delivering coal to Majuba because yet another tender company took a shortcut. (the silo's weren't constructed properly and are either cracked or have collapsed).

Try installing solar power at your home - even
if it is only enough to power the most urgent
of our appliances (lights, fridge, chargers).
  Living with only the power produced by the sun
encourages you to be aware of each switch you
turn on, for how long and when.
Personally, we're loving the freedom it provides as
opposed to the perceived restriction on the number
of appliances we can run.
Back to "basics" is a pleasure :)

Forget coal, forget nuclear - solar and wind power will, and can, provide for our needs, Escom.  Wake up, for goodness sake!!!  Before this country loses all credibility.

Winter fun in the Northern hemisphere

This is from an e-mail I received this week (with no acknowledgement of origins of the photo's).

I loved it :)

And, I loved the sense of humour displayed in obviously otherwise weather. Humour is the only way to overcome discomfort - but, one is not always in the right frame of mind to see the fun side.

I hope these lighten the load for those in the midst of, or soon to be facing, extreme weather.

Favourite pic?  Mine is #9 - the car windscreens.

You can always tell when people up North get bored

Eco-friendly weeding - part 2

So, armed now with our new (important) knowledge of our soil health, we can plan for next year's fodder.

But, before we can even consider adding anything (lime) to the soil, we need to get rid of the forest of weeds that has sprung up on the 1hA area.  Weeds are always a good indicator of soil health - they will flourish in poor soil - big time!

A carpet of weeds swathes the land...

It is not a small task.  Quite monumental in fact...

And, RMan almost wavered.  But, as always, he had me chirping in his ear - keeping him on the straight and narrow LOL  How did he almost waver?  Because of the size of the task he wanted to take the easy way out and use Roundup.

Not whilst I am here.  Roundup is not an option.

I don't like being a naysayer - and, whenever possible, I will try and figure out an alternative on my own, or, failing that, I will throw idea's around with RMan until the two of us hit upon a solution.  Which we invariably do ;)

This time the solution came to me in a lightbulb moment.

We should segregate the land, dividing the fodder growing section from our veggie / fruit section with a fence.

And, I can hear you thinking - "Exactly how is that going to benefit us?"

The land around us is severly overgrazed by all the neighbours animals - cows, sheep and goats. Ours has had 5 years with no animals.  But, if we "invite" the sheep over for a temporary munch, we can't sit and watch them 24 /7 until the deed is done.  With a fence in place, they can happily gobble down all the weeds without fear that they will access their "forbidden area" and eat what they aren't supposed to.

RMan is the type of person who works best with visual evidence, so once again Google Earth came to the rescue.

The Google Earth image I used
to convince RMan my idea was
workable

He loved the idea.  And, he loved it even more early the next morning as we sipped our morning cup of tea / coffee and discussed it whilst wandering the land.

So - give RMan an idea that he likes, and he'll run with it.

RMan and John - working in overcast, hot weather.
 Add to that a howling sou'easter for two days -
not condusive to flimsy marker lines remaining
straight, but they did good :)

This past week has been a frenzy of buying gum poles and getting them into the ground.  In between the gumpoles we're going to continue the wooden horizontal plank theme - similar to what we did with the paddocks - thus visually tying the two area's together.

As soon as the fence is complete the sheep will be invited over.  They can munch away to their heart's delight, whilst simultaneously leaving their droppings behind.  RMan will mix that in together with the remnants of the weeds (hopefully, with only a few seeds), and the 2 tons of lime that he's going to add in a couple of weeks time.

Win-win for everyone :)

Eco-friendly weeding - part 1

Our land, like all the land here, is heavily (over)grazed by the local livestock. With that in mind, we finally had our soil tested this past October.  The results were surprising - at least to us.

Wherever the results are green - they are adequate  /good.
Wherever they're yellow - bad!!

The veggie hut and veggie patch - I knew they'd be good because over the past 3 - 4 years I have added at least two trailer loads of compost (that we had to purchase because, at that time we weren't making enough, quick enough) together with Talborne Organics and Starke Ayres organic fertilizers. Plus, in the last year they have also had a dose of alpaca poo - or two, or three...

I thought I had been feeding the lemon trees adequately - but the results certainly indicated that it wasn't anywhere near enough...

And, as for the oat field - RMan had added lime when he was planting the oat seed - and he thought he'd been generous.  He added +/-300kgs to a hA.

Ha!!  The results indicate that he (still) needs to add at least two tons!!

So, it wasn't just the lack of water that caused our oat harvest to be a failure. It was also that the soil imbalance was too great.

Potatoes growing in pots full of alpaca
poo.  On the bottom right are butternut
seedlings in a pot - and they're almost
ready to transfer to their designated
growing bed.

Then, whilst we were at it, we had the alpaca poo tested.  I have been getting amazing results from whatever I am growing in it (I have potatoes growing in neat alpaca beans at the moment, and they are doing briliiantly), but I was interested to see the actual figures.

The results of our ground alpaca poo

The gentleman from the laboratory was so impressed with the alpaca poo results!  He made us an offer we can't refuse...

What a little bit of rain can do...

Before November is done, I wanted to show you what 35mm of rain can accomplish.

An unseasonally dry winter resulted in a dam
level well below it's normal winter level.
But, peeking under the jetty in the top right
corner you can see there was still enough for
the ducks to splash about in :)

The above pic of the dam was taken in October.  As you can see there is at least 3 - 4 feet of waterproofed gum pole showing above the water line.

A dry and crumbling entrance gully...

The entrance gully was all dried and cracked.

Welcome water gushing down the gully into
the dam

And then on the 3rd and 4th of November 49mm of manna fell from the heavens in 24 hours.

The water deepened the gully, but wasn't
ferocious enough to widen it.RMan is planning to strengthen the entrance
gully to prevent it from getting out of control.

The gully into the dam is dramatically deeper...

That's better.  What's the point of a dam if
it isn't holding much water?

... and the water level in the dam has risen by at least 2 - 2.5 feet :)  

So, not only did the rain fill the rain tanks, but it also rejuvenated the water in the dam too :)

The predicted rainfall for next week

The weather forecast that I follow shows that we can, hopefully, expect, a further 20mm of welcome water falling from the heavens over three days next week.  I hope that they don't adjust that down as is their wont... 

In the bag

I have started another blog which will deal only with all things alpaca related.

What's in the bag

If you'd like to see what it's all about, please click on this link.

Introductions all round?

I often wonder about the origins of names that other people use as their Blogger name.  The name I use, is an abbreviation of my given name, Danielle (pronounced Dan-ee-elle).  I shortened it to Dani because I was tired of being called "Daniel" - a common way of saying the female version it in South Africa.

But - there are many fascinating names of followers of my blog out there e.g. Chickpea (is that because you're a chick, and pea is part of your surname?  Or because you like peas?  Or chickpeas?  Or is it a favourite family name from when you were a child?)

Similarly, (and in no particular order) : The Shroom, shrimptonandperfect, (from the 60's a.k.a. Jean Shrimpton?), dreamer, Fracas Farm, Wriggly Tin Farm, Bear Soap, DFW, Hilltop Homestead, Redloon, Thistlechick, Treasure Hunter Girl, 1st Man, johnnybgood, Riverhauler...?

Won't you share what inspired you to choose your Blogger names - without exposing your privacy?  Just for a bit of fun :)

RMan and Dani in 2007 - cartoon style :)
(And you can't see the wrinkles nor the grey hair
- bwahahaha)

I'll leave you with the link to a site that my brother sent me http://cartoon.pho.to/

It's brilliant, and it instantly transforms any photo into a cartoom image.

Minky - before and after...

...shearing.

This is to remind you of what Minky looked like on the 18th October this year...

Typical little boy - scruffy, dirty and filling
his face

 ... just 4 days before Chris from Helderstroom Alpacas kindly arrived to shear our three alpacas.

Miranda - showing Minky what to expect and
what lies in store for him :)

Minky wasn't mad about the blower which was used to try and get 1) as much of the dust and 2) whatever vegetable matter out of his fur as possible prior to shearing.

Minky getting the blower treatment -NOT a
happy chappy

I don't think the noise of our generator (which powered the blower and shears), nor the noise from the blower helped Minky's state of mind either.  But, the shearing is necessary for his own good during the heat of summer ahead.

And, as for being strapped by his feet and pinned to the floor for the 3/4 hour it took to remove his fibre...

Minky after shearing - he's less than half the size LOL

...he didn't "speak" to RMan until the next day.  But all is forgiven now :) (a bowl of freshly grated carrots helped too.)

Minky's fibre - and this pile is just from his legs!

He doesn't look quite so cute and cuddly anymore, and has instantly "lost" a lot of visible weight, but I do have his fibre as a reminder.  And his fibre will grow back again next year when we will have to start the whole process over again.

Minky, being the scruffy lad he is, has
fleece which is taking me hours (and
days) to pick clean.  Each scrap of
vegetable matter has to be picked by hand

I'm sure he is much more comfortable now and will be better able to handle the summer heat.

I'm using the 1st (unsquare) solar dehydrator frame that I had made as a picking table - a bit
of chicken wire slung over the top allows the
vegetable matter and very short fibre to pass
through and collect at the bottom.

Sitting in the remote room (now know as my craft room) behind the garage, I have started the process of picking each scrap of vegetable matter from the aplaca fibre - MP3 earphones firmly plugged in my ears, a mixture of Josh Groban, Moody Blues, Eric Clapton, Luther van Dross, Nickleback, etc thump out of the earphones and help keep the boredom at bay.  Given my isolation in my craft room, RMan's ears are also spared the tuneless noises eminating from my lips.  (I'm hoping in my next life I come back with a voice that can hold a tune - what a gift that would be!)

I have found an inexpensive second-hand table top weaving loom in Cape Town which my son-in-law will bring back with him next weekend.

Then the fun bit starts... :)  I'm feeling inspired.  And I can't wait.

The scars recede

I have always felt guilty about the scars we have caused on our land.  Scars from earth moving, creating our dam, planting our trees and, most of all, the scars caused during our building process.

Google Earth has finally updated the images they capture in our part of this planet.  Being out in the sticks (and therefore unimportant) they only do so every three years, but - it was worth waiting for :)

This is what our piece of land looked like when we purchased it back in March 2008:

Our plot of land in March 2008 when
we purchased it.
The path that crosses it is the footpath
caused by our one neighbour - a shortcut
across the field to shorten the trip to the
main road 4.5 kms away.
Also interesting is the plough line
which transgresses both our plot
and the neighbouring one.  I can tell
you that the fence that divides the two
plots is old and rusty - so the
scars of that plough have lingered...

It was completely overgrazed by the locals cows and sheep.  And full of renosterbos - all those little individual dots are visible on the Google Earth screen print. Signs of ploughing from yonks ago - and who knows when that last happened. Certainly long before 1996 when the smallholdings first started being sold off and inhabited by "newcomers" because the oldest resident has no memory of that fence not being in place.

Our plot of land with phase 1
of our build - one large room
(consisting of the lounge / dining /
kitchen) and the white shiny IBR roofed
bathroom to the right side - Aug 2010

Then, we got involved and scarred the land with our personal requirements. The driveway round the (dryer side of the) perimeter,  The dam.  The grape vine area.  The vegetable patch and the underground cellar which we never completed / built.  And the house build.

Ugly, nasty scars.

Our plot - October 2013

But, this is what our smallholding looks like from "space" in October 2013.

Our plot with markers.
You can even see the solar
panels n the garage roof :)
(Still enough space to
triple up on that if we had to
/ wanted to)

To give you some idea of what lies where, I have labelled the various area's I mention in this blog.

Our home November 2014 :)

I am strangely comforted by the latest Google Earth images (even if they are over a year old), because I finally realise that no matter how we bend our smallholding to our requirements, if we were to leave it, permanently, and no one was to occupy it ever again, all the buildings would collapse, the rubble would become overgrown, and it would revert back to what it was originally.  It would no longer be scarred by the mark of man.

In the meantime though, we are trying to treat it gently.  We are trying to be good custodians.  And we are aware of our impact - even if it is only on 2.2hA of land.