My stove, painting and the verandah

We left Cape Town at 10.45 am on Friday 6th August.  We were only going to leave on Saturday morning, but Negosiegat, in Barrydale, wasn't going to be open on Saturday, as it was the first day of the long weekend (Woman's Day was on Monday 9th).  And we had to get to Negosiegat in order to purchase the Dover stove.  RMan had promised me that the Dover would be in situ by my birthday on Tuesday, and working!

As we were driving we heard the weather report - rain was expected over the weekend, and they were predicting snow on Sunday!  Perfect :-)  If you're not living in, and confined to a caravan, anything is bearable.

After a leisurely drive we arrived in Barrydale at 2.15pm and made straight for Negosiegat.  After choosing our stove, and waiting whilst the storekeeper had it loaded onto the back of his bakkie (double cab) we led the way to our farm.  I was so excited - I had saved for this stove 3 times over the past two years - twice before I had had to use the money for other more essentials, but now, finally, I had it.  (I make salad dressing for a few restaurants locally, and had saved up the 'profit' from that.)

This first photo was taken with my phone camera just after it had been placed in it's position in the kitchen - the quality of the photo isn't so good, but I was too excited to care.

Things were looking positive - now all we had to do was install the chimney!  A piece of cake, I thought.  Easier said than done.  The height of the outlet had been placed as high as possible on the internal wall in order to utilize the heat from the chimney as well - only trouble was the hole was made using scaffolding and now all we had was a 3.2mtr aluminium ladder or a homemade 4.5mtr ladder - the latter being very dubious.  It was made out of builders planks which had been left on site - it definitely works, but the steps are +/- .75mtr apart - not easy to scale and work from.  And the chimney outlet was 4mtrs high.  So homemade ladder it had to be.  It is so heavy that it takes 4 grown men to move into place...

   

But the chimney got installed!  RMan discovered that the bend which had been plastered into the wall a couple of months ago wasn't at exactly the correct angle, but he persevered and managed to get it to fit the straight sections.

Just a bit of advice regarding new Dover Stoves - because of the black paint that its' coated with, when you first light it the paint visibly smokes and gives off a very unpleasant smell - if possible I would recommend lighting it outside before it is installed.  We managed to get rid of the fumes through opening all the windows - it took about an hour to an hour-an-a-half to sort out.  Do so wish we'd been forwarned though.

Hey! Hey! Hey! We have a working Dover stove - on my birthday and just in time!  It was freezing!  That morning we had woken to ice cold thick mist - I took a wander down our driveway and snapped this shot:

Yes, that is the caravan and house in the background.  When the mist lifted and the clouds cleared off the mountain we saw that they were full of snow - it literally covered the top 1/4 of them!  Brilliant!  I l-o-v-e snow - must be my British roots.  And now we had the wherewithall to keep warm!

Admittedly, the outside chimney was a little more difficult to adjust, but a plan was made so that we could use it during this visit.

I was absolutely no help - and felt helpless.  It was very dangerous as the wind was howling and I wasn't happy about RMan being up the wonky ladder at the best of times.  But he persevered and when the first puff of smoke came out of the chimney you would've thought that a new pope had just been elected!

It was a really nice feeling when our kettle started boiling(whistling) on the Dover stove for the first time.  I managed to get the oven temperature (together with the baking stone) up to 180oC - only need 20oC more and I can bake my no knead Artisan bread...

Friends of ours in Rietkuil, Neels and Petro, came round in the evening with a bottle of bubbly, some home grown arum lillies (to go with the beautiful yellow roses which RMan bought me) some dry wood (for the Dover stove) and a bottle of homemade preserves. What a lovely evening. Couldn't have asked for a nicer birthday.

Whilst our time had been taken up with installing the Dover stove and the chimney, we had also arranged for our builder and his team to be there - RMan Saturday and on Monday (at double time wages, being a public holiday) they proceeded to start building the wall.  3 days, 1200 bricks and 10 bags of cement later we have the skeleton - it still has to be filled, compacted and the slab thrown - but the vision of sitting on it on a hot summers' evening, with the protection of the house behind us, and out of the wind, is becoming a reality.

We also got the builder to finish building and plastering the walls of the kitchen porch - one more item to cross off the list.

And finally, we also managed to give the internal walls a coat of Harlequin low VOC plaster primer.  Low VOC is definitely the way forward - we couldn't smell a thing - and we slept in the room - and if we can't smell anything then there are minimal fumes leeching into the atmosphere!

It took a day a wall to paint - therefore to give the walls two coats of low VOC paint will take us roughly 10 days - allowing two days for the bathroom and small passage as well.

All in all a very constructive "long" weekend's work.  We extended the weekend by three days, only arriving back in Cape Town on Thursday afternoon - now why does that always make me feel guilty... we are allowed to take time off.

Our "footprint" comparison

Our friend, Roy, sent me a text yesterday to tell us that Google Earth has updated the map of our area, so naturally I had to go and have a look.

I'm thrilled, and horrified at the same moment.

Thrilled to see that we're finally on the map, and it's not just a piece of land anymore, but horrified at the chaos we're created.

Admittedly, it will all settle down and the "scar" won't be visible (in a year or so), but if anyone ever wanted to see what their "footprint" can do to the earth's surface, I think this is a perfect example.

For comparison I am showing the image from 2008 that is on my web page together with the latest image from September 2009.  Google Earth literally took the 2009 satellite image the day my husband and son competed the Resin Roof Tile installation.

The new "Voltruis Dam" (Ostrich dam) was entered on our plans as "existing", at the time of drawing them up - apparently it is now illegal to create a dam on your land without planning permission.

To give you an idea of where what is on our plot:

We still don't have any water in our dam - we reckon that we need to possibly dig it deeper.  However, we are going to wait until the rains are finished this season - normally in October / November there is a major downpour - let's see if it will finally remain in the dam...

It is also a pity that none of our trees are visible - guess they're still too small.  Will be interesting to see how they change the image in years to come.

And our grape vines - we need to change the angle at which they're lying - to drain the water away from them and towards the dam.  Grapes don't like permanently wet (clay) feet!

One lives and learns - with many thanks to those more knowledgeable souls who take the time to advise and guide.

And to give you an idea of the distance to our neighbours:

Our neighbour, Roy, is exactly 1.2kms from our gate to his gate along the sand road.  And Tom is approximately 160mtrs.

The "Ghost House", so named by the locals, is +/- 100 years old.  Because it has stood empty, and unloved, for too many years, it is falling to pieces.  The walls are made of cob / earth bricks, and the most recent roof is IBR sheeting, which is rusty and full of holes.  A lovely project - but I reckon one that could empty the purse pretty quickly!  Last year a young couple bought it, and renovated a smaller outbuilding, with a view to staying there whilst they worked on the main house.  However, they have just fallen pregnant with their first baby, and need the money, so they have placed it on the market again.

We are planning on going to the plot for a few days this coming weekend - the hubby wants to get the front porch area in, complete with designated braai (barbecue) area - he's tired of roughing it when he has a braai.  And it's my birthday next week, so I'm going to spoil myself and finally buy myself the Dover Stove from Negosiegat in Barrydale.

Our planet

I was blown away by this site which was sent to me by my daughter.  It puts the beauty, uniqueness and size of this planet into complete perspective.

For an updated shot of the map click on this link:

http://www.opentopia.com/sunlightmaprect.html, or for a more traditional view, http://www.opentopia.com/sunlightmaphemi.html

When one looks at these images, and we see how we are all connected on this planet, how can we not care about the effects our modern lifestyle is having on our world?  How can we fail to consider the long-lasting effect of our eco footprint? 

And how can we not care about each other?

Enjoy :-)

My first attempt at baking bread

On 31 May 2010 I received my precious solar oven.  It was the wrong model and it arrived damaged and I am (still) trying to get that sorted out - but that I'll leave for another post.

But I am too impatient to wait for summer to try baking bread in my solar oven.  And I don't have the Dover stove yet.  So, after much research on the Internet and reading a snippet on another blog I follow ( http://thefieldlab.blogspot.com/ )  I came across this site:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx?page=2

Brilliant - I had found a bread recipe which didn't entail the strength, energy and time required to knead bread dough.  Time - not a problem - neither is energy - but strength.  I had tennis elbow a few years ago, and, due to the dreaded cortisone injections which were required to assist the healing of that elbow, I have been left with a right arm which is a mere shadow of it's former self, strength-wise.

And I had a "baking stone" - I had brought a spare unglazed clay floor tile back from the farm which I scrubbed really clean.

So, on Wednesday I proceeded to whip up a batch of dough.  I added the yeast to the warm water (I measured the temperature of the water with a normal (sterilised) medical thermometer :-) which is all I had available, to ensure it was the required 40oC) and let that stand for approximately 30 minutes whilst it "frothed" up.  After mixing in the flour and salt I let the dough stand on my kitchen counter for the next 3 - 4 hours before putting it in my fridge overnight.  Then yesterday afternoon, as I planned a rare oven-roasted chicken for supper (the oven would be put to multi-use - our electricity cost has just been increased by 25.8% so I am very conscious of saving power whenever and wherever possible) I placed the baking stone inside and turned on my oven to the required 230oC, and, removing a portion of the dough from the refrigerated batch, let it rest on the counter until the oven was hot enough.

I put the dough on the baking stone, and placed the cup of water underneath and closed the door - and waited with baited breath (and a torch so that I could monitor the progress through the glass as my oven light doesn't work).

Seriously, it turned out perfectly.  And was so easy!!!!

The verdict of my family - brilliant!  The entire loaf got wiped by my husband, son and a couple of slices for me, naturally.

Now I want to try it in our gas grill - and details on that can be found at:  http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

There is absolutely no reason why anyone has to buy bread - it couldn't be easier to make your own loaf.   

A place of healing and a celebration

Sadly, last month RMan's dad passed away.  But, thankfully, RMan got to Johannesburg in time to see him.  However, due to the emotional stress RMan has experienced in the past weeks I thought it would be good to get him to the farm - to give him some lebensraum.  He has had to be so strong for other people and his emotional needs have come second.

Also, it was RMan's birthday this weekend and, with no phone call from his dad on the day, it would be even harder.  It is never easy to lose someone near to one.

We managed to leave on Thursday lunchtime with our RSon joining us on Saturday.  After the recent rains the countryside now is green, with all the farmers crops well on their way.  Lambs abound - even our neighbour, Tom, has two new additions to his flock.

As you can see the lambs in the above photo are so new born that their tails haven't been docked yet

It constantly amazes me how the lambs are born in mid-winter - how on earth do they keep warm?  There is still snow on the mountains and we experienced temperatures of 3oC in the early morning - and we're wrapped up in warm jackets and boots - the lambs don't even have their fleece yet!  Can cuddling up to their mother's be sufficient?  I gained a new respect for farm animals this weekend.

On Friday we managed to get the builders back for the day, to finish plastering around the last four window frames, and in the corners where the roof meets the walls - we discovered that that was the spot where the birds were gaining access to the house - there were two more dead birds in the house - and bird droppigns all over the floor - take it from me, it is NOT easy to clean up dried bird droppings - it sticks and sticks...even with the assistance of a pot scraper!  But I don't like the fact that birds are dying in our house.  They obviously don't have the wherewithall to find their way out once they are inside.  Pervention is better than cure - so to block off their access was the only solution.

The photo above is from June last year - he's not looking that good at the moment.

Max, (we've named him that) the cat that adopted us last year, actually came running when he saw us arrive.  He managed to wipe out all the cat food I had bought him - shame, he's pretty thin.  He was so hungry that he was even eating the bread crusts I threw outside for the birds, and a slice of avocado I acidentally dropped on the floor!  There wasn't even enough food to leave him a bowl full when we leave as I always do. (I'll have to get a bigger bag for him next time.)

I have been asking RMan for ages if we can get a supply of wood in - the locals cut the alien trees and sell the wood - part of the Working for Water campaign in this country( http://www.dwaf.gov.za/wfw/Control .  They sell 1000 pieces for R200.00 - we pay R29.00 for 10 - 12 pieces in town!

But, we had borrowed the work van to transport some stuff to the farm and we could only load 500 pieces - 1000 pieces would've been too heavy - and most of the 500 pieces are still too green to burn.  But, I'm not grumbling - at last we have some wood now.  The balance of the wood will have to be collected next time we're up there.  Negosiegat, the shop in Barrydale which sells Dover Stoves, is out of stock at the moment - new stock should arrive in 2 - 3 weeks.  But at least I now have wood for the dover stove when it's finally installed.  We used a bit of the dry wood for our braai (barbecue) on RMan's birthday - we had our neighbours, Neels and Petro, round for dinner.  A really lovely evening was had by all!  And our first social gathering on the farm.

Even our son enjoyed his break away from Cape Town - he took this beautiful photo of one of our aloes in flower.  And what a pleasure, and a priviledge, to share the farm experience with him - his only visit was last year when he was so incredibly helpful in erecting and installing our roof.  Now at least he has shared the benefit of all his hard work, and he has experienced the comfort of our little farm house.  He loved it :-)

When we left on Monday, we went via another farmer, in Bonnievale, who had recently had an article in the Farmers Weekly.  He has 14ha of his farm planted with pomegranates!  What a lovely helpful, pleasant person Willem Van Der Merwe is.  We must have spent a good hour-and-a-half with him and the advice he gave us was brilliant - I hate to thinking what bumbling idiots we must have appeared to Willem, but, there again, I guess everyone has to start somewhere!

All in all a brilliant long weekend - and just what the doctor ordered.

Rest in peace, Peter.

Winter scene

Winter hit the Cape early this year...

Neighbours of ours were up at their farm this past weekend when the two large cold fronts hit.  They live about 3 kms from us and are also in the process of building their future.  The one cold front dropped 30mm of rain on Saturday night and Sunday brought the snow...

They took photo's for us of the snow that fell on the Langeberg / Tradouw Pass mountains.  Apparently it was so cold that they had to go to Swellendam to buy a coat for their dog - the only coat they could get was a kiddie's jersey which was adapted to fit Star.

Wish we could've been there, but we do need to get the air vent we placed on the one gable modified so as to not let in so much air - can get quite drafty at night as we haven't got the ceiling in yet.

Think I would also like to have my Dover stove in, and working, too - insurance against such cold weather.

Burglar and weather proofing

We managed to slip away to the farm again last weekend - heavenly!  Perfect weather, little wind and enough time to get some all important jobs done.

Firstly, due to the increase in petty break-ins we installed some burglar proofing on the windows.  Very simple system - and I was so busy assisting the main worker that I forgot to take photo's.  Perhaps it was also the fact that I'd forgotten to charge my camera batteries and they ran dry... or that I was so busy cleaning up the dust from the drilling.  I did use the vacuum cleaner hose, strategically positioned, to catch the bulk of the dust whilst RMan was drilling, but some always manages to escape and settle everywhere.

But, the empty batteries forced me to try something that I had been contemplating, and that was to try and charge my camera batteries in my solar light - they both take the same size.  It worked!  So perhaps I don't need to purchase a special solar battery charger for our AA size batteries after all!

But, we also noticed that the kitchen door, which faces south and subsequently never gets the sun, was sticking at the bottom due to damp, so that prompted us to install the back porch roof.  Again I say we, but the main worker did 99% of the work.  And what a good job he did too.  We had extra Resin roof tiles left over from the main roof, and, together with a couple of wooden supports, the job got done.

We still have to get the side walls where the roof meets the walls built up to enclose it totally, but I reckon it's brilliant.  It completely changes the appearance of the back of the house. 

RMan constantly surprises me, even after almost 30 years of marriage, I never knew that he was capable of such handyman feats.

We also made some progress on the raised veggie patch - installing the main support beams.

And we have discovered that apparently a local resident, who is squatting on the land he occupies, has no water connection, so he is helping himself to everyone else's!  Share and share alike - but 13 Kl in a month?!  That is going a little too far - we never used that even whilst we were building.  So we'll have to make a plan.

When we returned to Cape Town I immediately went to check my special lemon tree cuttings - mother hen syndrome I guess.  I had, after all, been away from them for 4 days.  They were doing well - I can even see some tiny leaf shoots growing!  But I thought perhaps I should share my mini-greenhouse system - a perfect way to recycle empty plastic bottles and propagate cuttings simultaneously!

I love it when a plan works.

Kitchen progress

It is amazing how basic a kitchen one can actually work in.
 This last weekend we managed to get up to the farm for 4 days.  We schlepped along the security gates and kitchen counters that I got through Freecycle in Cape Town.  Naturally, being female I wanted the kitchen counters in before my other half got to grips with installing the security gates, so with a bit of reasoning and a fresh cup of coffee (for himself) we got down to it on Saturday afternoon after we had unpacked the car - actually my other half got down to it although he did taken some female assistance from me - and design advice.  I reckon that my kitchen area is now 90% finished. All that is left to furnish it with is a 12volt solar freezer and a Dover stove.  And paint the walls....

To walk you round the photo's below - firstly there is a photo of the one kitchen counter prior to being installed. 

The 2nd and 3rd photo's show the view of the kitchen and dining area - and lo, and behold! my old solar cooker fits perfectly where the Dover stove has to go.  Thank goodness I talked RMan out of the underfloor heating he wanted to install prior to the floor tiles being laid - they would be totally unnecessary!  The house is so warm and toasty inside - is it beause of the double glazed windows or because of the lime plaster making the walls more damp proof...?  We haven't got a clue.  And don't care.  Just love it!  In fact it is so warm inside (22oC - even when outside is 6oC) that we are in no rush to buy the Dover stove for the warmth it will provide.

My groceries are stored in basket drawers below the central builders workbench (on wheels), and my plates under the counter on the right hand side of the old caravan gas cooker – we still need to put in another shelf below the one holding the plates for casserole dishes and suchlike, and two shelves on the nook on the left hand side of the gas cooker, to house my pots and baking trays.

But apart from that there is nothing left to do in the kitchen.

The beauty of this kitchen is that it has cost all of ZAR5500.00 – the main expense being the kitchen sink (R2000.00 and the central island on wheels (R1200.00, wheels +/- R400.00 and baskets R1080.00). As I mentioned in a previous post the kitchen counters I got from Freecycle in Cape Town – my husband amazed me with his previously unknown woodworking skills. He dismantled the lot and then mixed and matched the straight and curved bits until he got them to fit perfectly!  The basic solar oven is sitting on the shelf which is reserved for my future Dover (wood burning) stove. Even the two shelves above the oven / basin area were made by RMan from left over laminated wood which we’re using for our upstairs landing - the chain supports were my idea and they work well!

As a newlywed I believed that I had to have the latest gadgets in order to produce the meals and baking that was required of me. Now I know that the simlper one keeps one’s life, the easier it all is. Admittedly I won’t be baking many cakes, so I don’t need my Kenwood Chef anymore, and my slow cooker has been replaced with my Hot Box and Solar Oven. And filter coffee machines – I don’t drink coffee anymore (don’t need, nor want the caffeine - prefer my rooibos or honeybush tea) and, thankfully, my husband prefers instant coffee on a day-to-day basis, retaining the filter coffee consumption for those special outings - be they a weekend lunch sitting in a restaurants' garden in the sunshine or a candlelit dinner with yours truly :-)

Then, first thing Sunday morning it was the time to install the security gates - they were almost made to fit, and with just a small amount of shimming on either side they work perfectly.  Not easy to hang doors / gates - one definitely needs two pairs of hands - one to do the work and the other to act as supports - guess where I came in :-)  And we were very grateful for the generator and power tools.

Finally, on Monday, with the grateful arrival, and assistance, of a young male relative of our neighbour's we were able to install the support posts for our grape vines and we made a start on the raised veggie patch construction.  The first veggie patch will be 4 mtrs long X 1 mtr wide - just perfect for our initial needs - and with plenty of space to expand when necessary.

 

All in all, a very constructive weekend and one in which we managed to complete enough tasks to make us very chuffed with ourselves - there's nothing nicer than that feeling of accomplishment - it lifts one's spirits and gives one added impetus to complete  the remaining ones. 

Each task completed is one less on the list...