Welcome

Welcome to Mohave Rat - I'm guessing you're from Arizona, Mohave?

Mohave Rat's profile says:

"I was so tired and sad and then one day I discarded the crushing burden of my expectations and the pain of my regrets."

A thought provoking statement, Mohave.  Just like the topics you blog about :)

Secondly, welcome to Warlock Sundance

Warlock Sundance is from South Carolina and his profile lists his interests as:

"Harley Davidson motocycles, camping, raising his kids and his grandkids."  Aren't grandkids the best?

Guys, I always answer comments, though sometimes it may take longer than a day - it all depends on the sun's ability to provide the power for our batteries.

Welcome, and thank you for hitting the followers button :)

Dam fun - part 1 :)

Our dam was dug when we first purchased our smallholding - along with the original incorrect foundations for our future house.  They say that a dam takes 3 years before it will hold water.  We purchased in 2008 - and it's now 2013.  The maths doesn't work LOL as it's held water, but not continuously.

So, in February we had to get the digger loader in to sort our the building rubble left over from the build.  While it was here RMan decided to make our dam deeper.  Oh, dear, does that mean another 3 - 5 year wait?

Building rubble - unsightly and, due to it's chaotic
pile, a potential snake hiding place

The building rubble was sorted in the wink of an eye...

The digger loader made light work of the pile of
rubble

... nice and tidy again :) (I think I'm in love with digger loaders...)

Then, the digger collected all the dry renoster bush we have so far removed from the land and piled it up next to the "rubble" pile.

The renosterbush we removed is now all
in one spot, instead of scattered round
the land

A few b-i-g scoops of clay from the dam were placed on top of the dry renoster bush - hopefully, the renoster bush will break down and create a sort of hugelkulture mound [hint: there are two separate links giving information on hugelkulture - on both the hugelkulture and mound words :) ]

Objective achieved

On the mound created by the building rubble we have thrown a slab, and have sited two 5 000lt rainwater tanks on top of it (with space for another two should we decide to add them).  This is the highest point of our relatively flat property, and, when our lower rainwater tanks are full, the water will be pumped up to the higher tanks, as it is the ideal spot to gravity feed rainwater down to the lemon trees and veggie patches next summer.

The digger loader at the start of the dam
excavation

With that sorted, the digger loader proceeded to dig the dam deeper - at least double the depth to 3.0 - 3.5 mtrs deep.

Dam deepening in progress

You can see from the photo below how deep the dam is - I can barely see the digger loader in the dam from the front verandah.

Can you see the digger loader?

MKids dog, Mandy, thought this was brilliant.  Once the digger loader left, she went to investigate.  She is absolutely moggy about piles of sand - of any size -and a newly dug dam - well, that's just one big sand pit :)  She ran, and ran, and ran - up and down, round the side, up and down - as though she had a skateboard beneath her feet LOL

Mandy - in doggy heaven

In the event of the future global warming drought scenario, we want to be as water secure as much as possible, so together with the 35 000 ltrs of rain water, and a 25 X 10 X 3.0 mtr dam (750mtr3 or 750 000 ltrs of dam water), we should be OK through dry seasons.  I think of it as bulk storage with a difference LOL

A few days later, whilst sitting and contemplating the dam from our verandah, RMan had an idea.

Briefly sketching it out to me when I was busy with something else, and wasn't listening properly, he proceeded with his plan...

Rugby posts?

Rugby posts in a dam.  What?!?!?  I can't remember the conversation...

To give you perspective, those gum poles
are 4.6 mtrs high (less 600 in the ground)

Leaving the cement  to dry round the base of the poles, he visited a Bentonite mine in Heidelberg - just down the N2.  Bentonite is an eco-friendly natural substance with a multitude of uses.

Zeolite inifo

Not only do they produce Bentonite, but they also mine Zeolite. Zeolite is the substance nearer the surface of the ground - Bentonite is further down, below the Zeolite.  (Clicking on the two pages of the phamplett which I scanned, you can see how useful they both are.)

Bentonite info

Having collected a mtr3 of bentonite noodles in our trailer...

Our trailer can hold 1.5 mtrs3 

...which got distributed via a wheel barrow...

One gets different grades of Bentonite -
the finer the more expensive.  We opted for the
cheaper Bentonite "noodles" - hopefully it will
perform as we anticipate

... RMan proceeded to "line" the newly deepend dam with the bentonite...

... more rugby posts...?

He was told to spread it out to 6cms thick and then to mix it with the surface clay - this was achieved with a rake - on a cool day - and even then he worked up a sweat :)

Bentonite mixed with red clay

Obviously, some of the principles from the General Science classes I attended as a primary school child stuck.  I had to try an experiment.

Lumps of Bentonite clay

So - 20gms of bentonite were placed in a bowl, and to that I added...

Bentonite and water

... 42 grams of water.

Bentonite and water slurry

After a bit of a stir with my (unscientific) finger the zeolite became a white muddy mess - well, it is a form of clay - just finer in structure - and white coloured :)  I added more water, and double the amount of red to white clay.

Settling of the clay / bentonite

Separation of the water from the two clays took no time at all...

The Bentonite / clay mix is much lighter
coloured than plain red clay

... roughly about 3/4 hour.  Far quicker than when one mixes plain red clay and water.  Bear in mind that our dam stayed muddy the entire time it held water, and the longest that lasted has been 4 months.

The mix is almost moonscapish in appearance

Not that easy to see, so I placed it into a glass and added more water.  Can you see the surface of the bentonite / clay mix underneath the water.  It looks amazing.  Sort of moon landscapish...

We very happy with this result -
one can clearly see the adhersion of
the red and white Bentonite clay :)

How hectic is that?!  The bentonite and clay soil has "binded" together, and the water is basically as clear as when it came out of the tap.  And this settlement took just a short while - seriously just 35 - 40 minutes.  It bodes well for our first heavy rain when the flood of water into the dam will cause a swirling, mixing effect...

We both can't wait... :)

Judging from the experiment, when, and if, we have water in the dam, and we need to pump the water out in the future, providing that we "scoop" out the upper layer of water, our pump should suffer no ill effects from the clay content.

G'day and Welcome :)

Firstly, welcome to Liz from Eight Acres in Queensland.  She describes herself as follows:

"I live on eight acres in south east Queensland with my husband. We're having a go at small-scale farming, with chickens, steers and a big vegetable garden. I wanted to start this blog to both inspire and help others who are interested in self-sufficiency and sustainability, and maybe get some advice myself."

Liz, you're a lady after my own heart :)  Thanks for hitting the Followers button - you're very welcome :)

Secondly, welcome to The Gardening Shoe from Norfolk, in the UK.

"I am a garden designer who has headed east in search of a new life in an old house on the edge of a farm. I am blessed with diverse redundant piggeries, hulking lumps of chalk, bucket loads of flint and ever-increasing heaps of clay and rubble. From this chaos, I want to create a home for my family and a haven for wildlife."


You have the most amazing 300 year old barn - I love it :)  As, too, I love the pics of the structured stately gardens in my land of birth... :)

Thank you both for hitting the followers button.  I reply to comments within 24 hours providing the sun plays ball and charges our batteries which store our power :)

Be still my heart :)

I have discovered that I can be extremely patient.  8 - 9 months worth of patience to be precise.

I lived in fear of this chimney separting
enough that it fell down in a messy
heap

You recall last year we had a smoke problem with our incorrectly installed Dover stove.  The aluminium chimney should not have been a stand alone chimney, it should've been enclosed inside a brick chimney.  This is because the aluminium chimney cannot take the contrast in heat and cold and as a result the "sections" expand and contract thereby pulling apart, leaking smoke and causing resin to collect and drip out and down the wall next to it, never mind inside the chimney.

An external chimney which should've been
insulated - and should be much higher
than the roof apex.  The chimney in the
pic above is 150mm galvanised steel -
un-isulated - WRONG!

Also, RMan installed the bend to the outside prior to the stove being in situ, which meant that it was at the wrong (external) height, and the angle of the bend was also incorrect.  We tried to install a (specially ordered and manufactured) bend at a 62.5° angle - WRONG!  Reckon that the standard 45° is standard for a reason.  And I also reckon that that probably did not help with the "draw" - thus smoking us out every time it was lit.

Before - the kitchen with the Dover stove

Well, now that the house is complete internally, there is no way that I was going to allow all that fresh paint / skimmed ceiling / furniture / curtains to accumulate any soot / smoke smell at all.  Which means that we have not lit the Dover since the middle of last winter.

And - we've already had a bit of lovely cold weather recently - which means that winter's on it's way LOL  Memories of the cold I experienced in our building site of a house last winter are still pretty fresh in my mind - and, normally, I don't feel the cold.   Admittedly, we don't have any temporary thin board nailed to large drafty openings anymore, our double glazed windows are all installed, and, with the ceiling in place, the draft from the roof area is no longer a feature in the equation.  Plus, with the furniture, the room feels somehow warmer.  But we still recorded an internal temperature in the house of 13°C recently.

"C'mon, Dani - let's light the Dover - it's freezing," RMan pleaded.

"Nope, it's not happening, RMan.  Either the chimney is redone (call back the builders to knock huge hole through the wall and build / tie in a new (brick) chimney), or everything must be replaced," I replied.

I stood firm.  I don't do that often, but when I do...

I got nowhere - for 8 - 9 months.

Then a cold front hit in early April - and RMan remembered last year - he feels the cold more than I do ;)

When the time was right (i.e. when RMan was really, really cold) I sprang into action.  Persistently.  Adamantly.  And I successfully convinced RMan.

The end result is...

Tadaaaaa! 

The Rosa oven reached 300oC in 1/2 hour -
and the temperature in the room went from
17.9 to 23°C

Our Nordica Rosa was installed yesterday :)

The Nordica Sovrana wood burning stove

Nordica Sovrana

I was originally going to go for a Nordica Sovrana.

However, RMan didn't think it looked "farmy" enough - too clinical.  And, after numerous (seriously, at least 12 ) phone calls and likewise number of e-mails to the supplier, Fernando, in Somerset West, (a very patient man LOL) RMan decided that the Nordica Rosa would better suit our needs.  Me - I wasn't fussy - all I wanted was there wherewithall to keep us toasty warm this winter, and something effective to cook our meals on.  

Here she is in this morning's daylight...

After - the kitchen with the Nordica Rosa installed
she adds a 'je ne sais quois' to the room :)

Nordica Rosa Specifications

Don't you love it when a plan comes together :)

No worries this year about being cold :)

This stove is a completely different beast to the basic Dover stove.  The Rosa doors are:

1  heat resistent glass so that one can see the state of the fire, as well as the state of the food in the oven without having to open the doors constantly;

2  and they all have proper seals which the Dover doesn't.  The Dover is just cast iron against cast iron = plenty of smoke / heat emitting gaps, and very high consumption of wood.  Even the Rosa's chimney has a seal where it meets the stove top.  And the chimney sections have been riveted together, so no danger of their falling down :)

And the emissions are:
    dust - lower than 75mg / mtr3*
    CO2 - lower than 1500 mg / mtr3*
(* 13% O²)

The 250mm diameter insulated stainless steel
chimney

This state of the art wood burning kitchen stove and chimney have been professionally installed, with a (single skin) stainless steel chimney internally, and an insulated (double skin) stainless steel chimney externally - no contraction and expansion going to happen there :)  Also the chimney is now the correct height above the roof apex, which helps with the draw and the smoke dispersal.  The installers, Jaco and Michael, were  fantastic - not only did they have a slow 3.5 hour trip here, in the pouring rain, from Somerset West with the 180kg stove on the back of their bakkie (pickup truck) but their care (when breaking through the wall and eliminating as much debris / dust as they could), attention to detail, and the pride in their work was obvious through the constant measurements / spirit level checks.  Even down to carefully and thoroughly removing any fingerprint marks on the stainless steel chimney and cleaning up their mess (chips of bricks and cement and the dust) afterwards.  Bless them - they arrived at 10.30 a.m. and only left at 5.30 p.m. - still with a 2 hour trip home ahead of them.

They got a steaming bowl of homemade chicken soup to warm them just before they left - it was the least I could do :)

Our local saw mill has (free) scraps of dry bluegum which is the recommended and perfect hardwood to burn in the Rosa (together with the alien Australian Black Wattle we have to hand - until it's finished.  Then is 100% dry bluegum.)

Life is certainly going to be very "rosy" this winter :)  Without using any LP gas nor Escom's expensive, possibly erratic and coal produced electricity.  The Nordica's emissions are far superior to their coal fire generated power too :)

Yeeeeeeha!  All my future birthday's and Christmas pressies in one fell swoop - I'm beside myself with excitement.

Thanks RMan - for all our sakes.  Big points scored... :)

At this precise moment, outside is 11°C, inside is a comfortable 23°C, and I am sitting at the dining room table publishing this, with RMan watching his rugby.  The stove has been lit for an hour and my back is all lovely and warm, a crisp roast chicken and even crispier baked potatoes are cooking in the oven which will be served together with a broccoli and cauliflour cheese bake.

I'm We're going to be in heaven this winter :)

A little bit of Italy...?

WGuy and DD have approximately 60 olive trees on their smallholding.  Not big trees, but big enough to bear fruit.  As their relocation to their smallholding is delayed, I asked, and got permission to harvest their olives for them.

We go over to their place every so often to check out that everything is secure, and on one of those visits I noticed that they had olives on their trees.  I was amazed - I thought the trees were still too small - but, there again, I guess they were planted by the previous owner about 3 - 4 years ago.

This is a pic of some of the roughly
60 olives trees on WGuy and DD's
property

When we arrived at their smallholding on the 7th April I immediately noticed that their trees were carrying varying quantities of olives - strange, because they are not on irrigation, and they all depend on the same rainfall.  No matter, RMan and I would just pick the biggest, most mature looking fruit. 

Green, speckled and purple olives on the same tree

It is an incredibly relaxing pastime - picking olives.  Out in the open, the wind gently moving the air, sun on your shoulders and hands working at waist / shoulder level - at this stage.  As the trees get bigger I'm going to have to find another way to harvest the olives...

RMan - before he got impatient... LOL

There were green olives, purple speckled olives, and purple olives.  We picked a total of 3.6 kgs of olives from those trees :)

3kgs was all that would fit in my bowl for this
weigh in

I instinctively decided to separate the colours - or is that the organised person (a.k.a. control freak) in me coming out (again)...?  I subsequently discovered that the green and black olives should be processed differently - ah well, next year...

The preparation method I used is as follows:

The olives were rinsed.

The olives after being sorted into their different colours

To remove the initial bitterness which is inherent to freshly picked olives, the flesh of the purple olives were slashed  - I left the green ones whole.  They were then placed in containers and covered with plain water - using a upturned plate, plastic bag filled with water, or whatever, to ensure that all the olives are underwater.  This water is changed daily for 14 days.  Rinse the olives again.

Then make a brine solution - basically you add salt to water until an egg floats.

The mixture of salt and water should be strong
enough to float an egg

 Put the olives in your warm sterile jars and fill with the brine solution...

The olives in their jars, totally covered with the
brine solution

... in order to ensure that there was a little air as possible in the jars I overfilled them.  Messy, but it was an easy way to ensure that the olives were going to be totally submerged.

The jars were filled to the brim with brine - can
you see the last tiny air bubble at 12 o'clock just
at the end of the one cut in the olive?

 Pop the lid on...

They will now sit in the brine solution for 6 - 9 weeks

... and then leave the olives in the brine solution for 6 - 9 weeks.  This helps to remove the last of the bitterness.  At 6 weeks taste an olive - if it is still bitter tasting, allow the olives to remain in the brine solution longer.  Taste weekly.  When they seem ready, rinse the olives and then add vinegar ( wine, red wine, apple cider - whatever is your preference) to water at a ratio of 1:3 (vinegar to water).

Being adventurous, I am going to leave 2 jars plain.  Another jar or two will get some rosemary sprigs added, another garlic, and another some chillies.  [I have just been given two pepperdews by one of our neighbours.  They are a mild sweet pepper which scores 1177 on the Scoville scale - it's just enough to leave a burning sensation on your lips if you decide to taste it raw like I did LOL, but definitely mild enough to add to food - even raw.  I added them to a corn and red capsicum relish that I made, and I reserved the seeds.  I'll plant those next spring and add them to next years' olives :)  ]

Pepperdews information one them can be found
here and here

Then the olives in the vinegar solution jars will be covered with enough olive oil to make the contents impervious to air.  This will prevent mould forming.

The olives will be allowed to stand in the vinegar solution for another 4 - 6 weeks before we taste them.

I'll let you know what they taste like after roughly 12 - 15 weeks from commencing with this - which will be between the 6th - 27th July  :)

Recycling for garden use

I schlepped some junk along when we moved to our smallholding last year.  But, I reckon it was useful junk.

For instance, I have never yet successfully grown garlic, nor oranges.  And, when I purchase them at the shop they come in plastic net bags.  Which I keep.

Why would I keep them?

Simple.

They're very useful :)

Here you can see the assortment that I've collected.

I can't throw these away - I'm not sure if they are
recyclable, and they would take ages to breakdown
if they landed up in landfill

Being of a tidy mind, I had to sort them by colour LOL  The I reserved one of each of the nets, and shoved the rest inside.  Tied off the open end, and there you have it - a perfectly usable scraper - be that for cleaning paint filled hands, dog bowls, or scraping clinging mud from garden tools or boots...

Recycled plastic net bags

... and stored next to my outside sink, I even use one to scrub the earth of freshly harvested vegetables - leaving all the mud and mess outside :)

I have always had an outside sink like this -
it's perfect for keeping the mess outside 
and / or for washing smelly dog blankets...

But, with my latest purchase of what I thought was local garlic, what did I spy at exactly the moment I was tossing the label into the recycling bin?

I didn't read the label properly - this has a potentially
ENORMOUS transport footprint.  Bloody cheek - the
ruddy packers are to shnoop to print separate local labels,
or at the very least, cross out that which doesn't apply
so that one knows exactly what one is buying from where.

Horrors - it says in bold print "PRODUCT OF SOUTH AFRICA", and then in smaller print below it continues... "and/or CHINA and/or SPAIN and/or ARGENTINA and/or EGYPT".

What????

Thank goodness my first (hopefully successful) garlic crop is in the ground, and I should be able to harvest it at the end of the year.  I certainly don't need to buy any food that has such enormous food miles attached to it!