Thought for Thursday - 5

Here are some more wise words from TUT:

We're given a priceless gift everytime we have an
amazing sunrise or sunset.
The pic above was the sunset on a crisp
winter's evening this last July

"A Public Service Announcement from the Universe:

Be on guard against those who help others in the name of sacrifice, selflessness, or altruism, instead of in the name of joy. Because usually, they don't really help all that much. 

Sad is the life, that gives without realizing how much, in turn, it receives."

Welcome

I know, I know - I've been MIA again.  Between helping the Alpaca's settle in and trying to satisfy our SARS (local IRS) requirements, things have been a tad hectic here lately.

But, I have gained another three followers - lost 2 and gained 3 LOL

So, a big welcome to Fracas Farm - from NE Ohio.

This is how they (he / she?) describe themselves on their blog, www.fracasfarm.blogspot.com:

"We are Fracas Farm. We have a little 2acres in NE Ohio, where we raise chickens for meat and eggs, turkeys, a pig or two, and bee hives. We try to grow most of our food, organically as possible although we are not certified. We love to eat real, good food. I stress the good part."

Secondy, wecome to Ange from the midlands of Kwazulu-Natal - I think...?

"Our life, family and homestead... All under South African skies"

The link I found for Ange's blog was http://theallanpitoutabode.wordpress.com/ but if I cick on it now, the blog is not found.  Perhaps Ange deleted it???  The facebook link works though... https://www.facebook.com/OurHillsideHomestead

Ange describes herself as follows:

"My whole being is my family, a brilliant man I adore he is my beginning my end and everything in between he is the one... the one i draw strength from and 3 beautiful boys who make every minute every second worthwhile!"

And, lastly, wecome to Nina - from somewhere...

Nina does not appear to have a blog, and her profile doesn't state where she is, but I have a feeling it is from somewhere in southern USA :)

Welcome and thank you all for hitting the "followers" button.  I always reply to comments, but sometimes it takes a little longer than other times.

The paddock inhabitants...

Remember I told you that way back in March / April Ronnie saw information on an auction in the local Farmers Weekly.

As you know we deliberated, hesitated, decided, and then fell in love, and have been busy preparing to receive the latest additions to our family.

So, with no further ado I'd like to introduce you all to the two (and a half) newest members of our family...

Can you see them - lying in the far corner of the
paddock by the gate?

Miranda and Kris.

They are alpacas :)

Mianda and Kris - our alpacas.
Aren't they beautiful :)

Miranda, the brown one on the right, is a 6½ year old pregnant female, and Kris, the white one the left, is a 2½ year old male.  The cria (baby Alpaca) is due at the end of February / beginning of March next year.

We are now one of only approximately 400 alpaca breeders in South Africa.

They are incredible animals.  Elegant, inquisitive, gentle and agile.  They are also very eco-friendly - they don't rip the grass out by the roots when they graze, and their padded feet don't dig into the soil. Plus, they wont cause us to run out of water - at roughly 5trs of water each per day they don't drink as much as cows and sheep - and we are supplying them from our rain water tanks too :)  Finally, mucking out their paddock is a breeze - they use a communal midden - and always use the same spot :)

RMan in action - 1/2 a wheelbarrow load after
ony 5½ days.  The empty midden can be seen on
the lower right corner

 Lots of goodies for my compost heap...!!!

Yummy compost in the making... :)

Miranda is the gentle one, and Kris is the tough, hasty male - he is so forceful when he eats from his tub that he almost knocks it out of my hands.  Miranda will happily take grated carrot from my outstretched hand - her mouth is warm, soft and, oh!, so very gentle.  Kris isn't interested in human contact yet, so his carrot gets added to his tub.

C'mon Kris, let me see your eyes...

They have both come from large-ish herds, so this is their first time "on their own". Alpaca males and females are generally kept apart, except when they are breeding. Normally, a pregnant female wouldn't allow a male in the same paddock as her - she will "spit" at him.  But, because they are "out of their comfort zone", and also as Kris is still too young to mate, we have been advised by the breeder to allow them to remain in the same paddock until January next year.

Even crouching down and trying to take a
pic wasn't successful LOL
But, it's not all bad - his Beatle fringe
helps to keep the flies out of his eyes...

The spent the first few days gazing mournfully and humming continuously at the gate through which their breeder and her vehicle had exited.  The "hum" noise that they make sounds like they are asking a question - "Hmmmmm"?

This is where Miranda spends all her time -
in the corner where she first entered the
paddock.

It has taken a week, but they are slowly coming round to us.  Now, when we enter their paddock with their tubs of the lucerne pellets and maintenance meal  mixture, they rush up to us - they recognise that the tubs contain goodies :)

Where are all my buddies...?

Also, the trough that RMan devised is being used :)

Both Miranda and Kris chomped at the contents
of the feeding trough as soon as we filled it

But, we have been told that Miranda will continue to "miss" her herd of females - she will remain at the gate looking for them - rain, wind and shine - until her cria is born next year.  Then she will settle down :)

A hastily errected pergola at her favourite spot - to
provide some shade when it is required

As we are already experiencing some pretty warm days, we decided that we would make her a basic pergola out of the balance of the wood we got from the sawmill - at her preferred spot -so that she has access to shade - she is not venturing to the shade of the trees in her paddock.  Apparently, the farm from which they originated, in Noordhoek in Cape Town, is so shady that they have to be given Vit A, B, D and E supplements.  Vit D won't be a problem here...

This is Miranda's paddock - the first paddock we made
- unti we found out that male and female apaca's
need to be kept separate.

In summer we have temperatures in excess of 35°C (95°F) and do not that much shade unti our trees grow, so lack of sun (Vit D) is not going to be a problem.

This is the view of the second paddock -
Kris' future home.  The first paddock is in
the background behind the stables

As for the "stable" which RMan made - we managed to halter Miranda the first night, and, as we led her to the stable, Kris happily followed.  Since then Miranda doesn't want to know about a halter - so we are giving her some time before we "insist".  Let the poor things acclimatize properly.  It's only fair. But, there is nothing sadder looking than a thoroughly drenched alpaca! 45mm of rain over the weekend left them looking like they needed hanging on the line to dry out...

RMan and I are very chuffed - and very thrilled with the new members of our family.  They bring a smile to our faces every time we look at them :)

Now all I have to do is find a spinning wheel, so that I can spin their wool when they are sheared in November...

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To give you more info on alpaca's I am quoting from http://www.alpacas.co.nz/Alpaca%20Information.htm hereunder:

Easily farmed on a small block, with stocking rates of about 5 to the acre.

Low impact stock. With soft, padded feet, the alpaca has an extremely low impact on fragile landforms.

Low level carriers of internal parasites.

Stimulated ovulators, thus they can be mated at any time of the year.

Accustomed to using a communal dung site.

Parasite infestation is therefore low.

Alpaca dung is a rich fertilizer perfect for growing fruits and vegetables. Alpaca droppings are almost odourless, and are low in nitrogen.

Grazers and chew their cud. They have a split upper lip which prevents them from damaging the vegetation's roots

Consistently trouble free when birthing. The birth of a new cria usually occurs during daylight hours, on a fine day.

Long-lived -- approximately 20 years.

Naturally docile and are typically "mustered" by calling them. Dogs are not required.

Modified ruminant with a three-compartment stomach. They convert grass and hay to energy very efficiently, eating less than other farm animals.

Small and easy to handle.

Intelligent, which makes them pleasant to be around and easy to train.

Adaptable to varied habitat, successfully being raised around the world from 15,000 feet to sea level.

Not slaughtered outside of their native South America, thus allowing us to profit from them without killing them.

Not susceptible to footrot.

Not subject to lice infestations

Not prone to blowfly strike.

Not in need of tail docking.

A paddock in the making - part 3

RMan outdid himself.  Not only did he create two wonderful paddocks - basically out of unwanted scraps of wood, but he also conceived, and constructed the following three very necessary items...

The first gate in the making

... three excellent gates...

A feeding trough - or shoud that be called a manger?

A feeding trough... or should that be a (1.2mtr high) manger...?  (Trough 2 is still in production).

RMan made two excellent stables - one in each
paddock.  Why two...?

And two stables with stable doors :)

He's been hiding himself under a bushel these past 33 years - I never knew about his exceent woodworking side...

Our daughter, Natasha, S-i-L Wayne and Mike, our grandson, were also impressed.  So much so that they had to try it out - to see if their three canine famiy members could gain access.  So, one evening they schepped their pregnant mama goat, and two 5-week-old male kids round to try it out for sze.

The extended family en route

Allow me to introduce them all...

From left to right:
Mama Goat (Dolly), Natasha, the two male kids,
Wayne and Mike
On the dam wall:
Muffin and Gambi
and hurting towards me, Mandy :)

Did the dogs manage to get in to the goats in the paddock?

Nope :)

Thank you for your patience - but I had to capture all the effort that went into preparing for the future inhabitants.

All will be revealed in my next posting.  The final teaser I can give you is that they are very eco-friendly animals...

A paddock in the making - part 2

Given the length of time that has elapsed since I last posted (we've been busy - very, very busy from sun-up to sundown, 7 days a week for over 2 weeks), I'll refresh your memories as to where I left off the previous post...

"But, our local unofficial sawmill has ran out of suitable scraps of wood, so, on our way to purchase "chicken" wire from the nearby co-op I had a brainwave..."

There is an enormous "official" sawmill, "Sutherland Sawmills" in Swellendam, our closest town.  I asked RMan to take a drive passed it prior to entering the wide open doors of Co-Op once again.

All we were looking for was the off-cuts - the "unwanted" scraps of wood that were unsuitable for sale to wood merchants.  Wood that the sawmill would happily "give away".

We were in luck - they weren't prepared to "give it away" but they were prepared to sell it to us at a ridiculous price.

Sutherland Sawmills - a local sawmill which
processes the wood from invasive pine trees

It was wonderful to visit the sawmill - they use every scrap of wood that they can get out of a tree - be that for beams, planks, poles, wood shavings and even sawdust. 

Bags for sawdust in the foreground, piles of wooden
planks ready to ship to the wood merchants in
Cape Town behind that, and our "planks" in
the far background.

Some of the scrappy pieces (similar to those which we purchased) get used in the making of trugs.

Large trugs with 3 "feet"...

The smaller off-cuts are repurposed into
attractive trugs

...and smaller trugs with two "feet".

The smaller trugs which are manufactured
by Sutherland Sawmills and then
transported to garden centres in
Cape Town

The "larney" wood is cleaned, holes are cored, and it instantly becomes spiffy fencing poles.

Pukker "larney" fencing

But, we weren't iterested in the "larney" stuff - we wanted to repurpose their off-cuts - their junk wood.

And, they had piles of it - far to much for trug orders :)

One of four trailer loads we relieved the sawmill of :)

Four trailer loads later...

A close-up.  As you can see, there is nothing
wrong with the wood - it was just waiting for
someone - anyone - to put it to the use for which
it was grown :)

... we had what we needed.  And at a fraction of the cost of conventional wire fencing - be that barbed wire strands or chicken wire type fencing.

Our fencing stretches for approximately 120 linear metres (excluding the two "stables" we have erected), and each metre had roughly 5 - 6 (sometimes 7) "planks" - thus 720 linear mtrs of fencing alone.

The white dog in the foreground is the cause of
our using "sometimes 7" planks on the fence :)

"Sometimes 7" was because we had to prevent Natasha's Pekinese, Griffin (I call him Muffin), from gaining access to the paddocks at ground level.

But, taking an average of 6 planks / metre of fence at a total cost for the installed fence of ZAR4000.00 = ZAR33.36 (ZAR5.56 X 6) / metre (at today's exchange rate) that equates to €2.43 or US$3.29 per metre - wood, whole and split gumpoles, screws and petrol for the genny.  We couldn't have found a cheaper way of fencing off the paddocks if we tried.  And that is without amortising in the cost of all the wood used for the 3 X 2 mtr and 2 X 2 mtr stables either!

And, as RMan said, "We're re-using wood that wasn't wanted"!  I'm proud of him :)

A paddock in the making - part 1

I missed my blogging yesterday, but it was all for a good cause...

RMan and I have discovered that we can be impulsive - even at our "advanced" age LOL

We purchase the Farmers Weekly whenever an article on the cover attracts our attention. Our smallholding isn't exactly a farm, but, as they don't publish the 'Smallholders Weekly', we have no other choice. Way back in April this year, RMan read an article, a link to which I will give you in part 2 or part 3 - giving it now would spoil the surprise... :)

He mulled over it for a while and then decided to share it with his other half. We talked about it, let it lie, talked about it, and finally decided, "yup, we're going for it".  It's quite an investment, so trust me - that is impulsive...:)

Once we make a decision it's all engines full steam ahead!

So, this week has been a very busy one.

Firstly, holes were dug 350mm deep at 2.0mtr intervals.  It's a good time of the year to dig holes in our ground - it is still s-l-i-g-h-t-l-y damp, which means it is dig-able - forget it in summer.  That would be like trying to dig a hole in a concrete slab with a blunt pickaxe and a shovel.

The holes were dug and the small split poles are
waiting to be put into position

Then we paid a visit to the local unoffficial ex-sawmill, which closed it's doors about 3 months ago.

This is the load we scored from the unofficial sawmill
up the road.  Bluegum is incredibly hard,
especially when it's good and dry, so placing
them on the split poles was quite a mission
and involved starting up the genny, so that
RMan could have the assistance of the power drill.

They had a fair sized pile of different lengths of bluegum wood which they were unable to use - the outer curved part of the wood with the bark attached.  It is very hard wood, and very heavy - even though it's good and dry, having sat out in the sunshine and rain for the past 3 - 4 years. But the scraps which were roughly 2.0 mtrs long were perfect for our needs.

This lot cost us a couple of hours and a few litres
of petrol - and that is all!

Just what we needed.

After unpacking the wood - and which is just like shopping - you enter the shop, choose the items, place them in your basket / trolley, go to the cashier, unload the basket / trolley.  Then after the cashier has rung them up, you load the goods into shopping bags, back into the trolley, schlep them to the car in the trolley, offload the contents of the trolley into the boot, go home, remove the bags from the car boot, take them to the kitchen, place them on the counter, unpack the shopping bags, and finally put them in the grocery cupboard / fridge.

Exhausting stuff.

Who needs to pay money to frequent a gym?  Just clean your house and do your shopping and you'll get a the exercise you need :)  Especially if you only shop once every week or two... <giggle>

Anyway, having sorted, chosen, loaded and offloaded the wood, we now set about putting it to the use for which it was intended...

Action stations

... that of making an fence for an enclosure - a stunning paddock!

The end result - thus far...
It is to retain "something" within, whilst
also preventing any of the four dogs (our one,
and Natasha / Wayne / Mike's three) from gaining
entrance from the outside

We love it!  Even RMan commented that instead of leaving the wood to rot away whilst, in the meanwhile, attracting mice (and thus snakes looking for a juicy morsel to eat), we have managed to find a use for perfectly good lengths of wood.

"Recycling" was the exact word he used.

I think I'm having an effect on him...

Even in the light of the full moon the fence looks outstanding!

Our homemade wooden fence in the
light of the full moon :)

But, our local unofficial sawmill has ran out of suitable scraps of wood, so, on our way to purchase "chicken" wire from the nearby co-op I had a brainwave...

Ramblings on our solar power

Firstly, welcome to my newest followers, Amy Lou from northern New Mexico. Amy Lou is a fellow off-gridder :)

On her blog Solar Rain Bucket, Amy Lou describes herself, and her blog, as follows:

 "We live off-grid in Northern New Mexico. Solar power. Rain catchment. Composting toilets. All that. Solarrainbucket is where we share what we’ve learned. And post pictures of dogs. And sometimes clouds."

Welcome, Amy Lou - thanks for hitting the followers button.

-------------------------------------

Having just lived through our very first winter relying solely on our solar power setup, I thought I'd do a posting on the in's and out's of it.

We had a gradual slink into the winter weather - we got comfortable and thought "Ha! this is a breeze".  Then the overcast, and sometimes rainy days started.  Two or three days of overcast weather plays havoc with the state of the battery charge.

Our original 3 x 140watt
solar panels, secured to
a contraption on the front
patio whilst the building
work was in progress

2 of our original deep cycle
batteries.

Our system started 3-odd years ago, when we could least afford it.  So we opted then to go for 12 volt - panels, charge controller and inverter.  B-I-G mistake. In hindsight (it's always easier, isn't it :) ).

Our 6 X 1660Ah 2 volt battery bank

The most important part of living off grid - be that achieved through using only solar power, or that produced from a wind turbine, or both, is your storage capacity - your batteries.

Our first lot were 12 volt deep cycle batteries.  When we moved here, we changed them out for 6 X 2 volt batteries.  SIX!!!!???!?!?  Idiots, even though they were the major expense in our system, we should have gone for 12, strung the two sets of 6 in parallel (to increase their capacity but not their voltage) so that they retained their 12 volt capabilities, but were also usable in a (future) 24 volt system.  And, it's not as though we can buy another 6 now and add them. That would be a complete waste of time, as the newer ones would be affected by the older, more used ones - to the detriment of the new ones.  Also, buying 12 news ones is out of our budget at the moment...

Also, we should've purchased a charge controller and inverter which allowed for either 12 or 24 volt. They are available, but are, naturally, more expensive.  Sigh - it's all about affordability.  But, with that said, don't do what we did, rather scrimp on other things, and buy for the future of your power requirements, not just for the moment.

Seven 140watt solar panels mounted on the
roof of our garage.  Excellent north facing
45° angle to the roof, but the accessibility is
horrendous...

Our 7 X 140 watt panels are connected in series (i.e. + to - in order to increase the volts) and mounted at the 'ideal' 45° angle facing north (in the southern hemisphere), but, being mounted on our garage roof, they are also awkwardly inaccessible.  We figured 7 X 12 volt = 84 volts = well within our charge controllers capabilities.  But, we didn't know that solar panels are as cold as their surrounding temperature in winter, and due to this cold, you can have a situation where their voltage spikes in the early morning ( 8 - 9 a.m.) - which causes, in our case, their combined output to hit over 145 volts - and our maximum is 150. This causes the charge controller to shut down because it is receiving too high a voltage.  Shutting down means we are not charging our batteries when they need it most - after a long, dark night LOL  We have found that if we physically trip the fuse from the panels to the charge controller and allow the charge controller to "reboot" then the power surges into the batteries with little or no problem.  This action is not ideal though.  If we left the charge controller to "fix" itself, it will, but, in the meantime we are losing precious charge from entering the batteries during those long winter days of dramatically reduced solar input.

Our Outback charge controller

What we have also determined (through speaking to a very helpful gentleman called Lloyd from a ADSolar in KwaZulu Natal ) is that we can wire half (4) of the panels in series, and the other 4 panels in parallel - that way we will get the best of both - volts and amps. This, hopefully, will prevent the voltage from spiking next winter.

In summer, this will not be a problem.

Installing the 5 panels was a mission when we had
7 helpers (two are taking the slack off the rope
behind the garage). RMan, RSon and Wayne -
that's going to be interesting...

So, RMan and RSon and Wayne - guess what you will need to do this summer? Take the existing 7 X 140 watt panels down, add the soon-to-be-purchased 8th panel, and then rewire the 8 panels in series and parallel respectively, and re-install them...

Not a task they, (nor I - it's fraught work watching our solar panels being manhandled off and on the roof), am looking forward to... :)

On the positive side, we didn't run out of power this past winter, but some days it has been decidedly dicey.  And, to reduce the demand, we had to be very careful about what we switch on, and when.

The 600watt battery charger -
even though we only used it a few times, it
certainly was worth it's cost

We also purchased a 600watt battery charger, which is operated through switching on our petrol generator.  A very occasional (as in 6-7 times during the entire winter period) hour or two of charge happily gets us (the fridge) through the night... :)

So, although we discovered the con's of our system, we managed.  It was, through the monitoring of our remote control SoC apparatus in the house, careful use / prioritizing appliance use, and the assistance of the battery charger, all do-able.

Life was very comfortable, with all the important appliances fuctioning when required and the Rosie creating a wonderful, warm and cosy home - even with snow on the mountains...

An eventful week...

Firstly, welcome to my newest follower Lawrie Weber.  Lawrie doesn't appear to have a blog, so I can't give you a link...

Lawrie, I always reply to comments, but am dependent on the sun charging our solar batteries.  I am, therefore, sometimes delayed...

Thanks for hitting the followers button :)

Update: Lawrie is a newbie blogger - please visit her blog and give her encouragement :)

Her blog can be found at:  http://fireflyfarmadventures.blogspot.com/.  She is recording her family's course towards a more sustainable future through living off their land, and embracing a simpler and greener lifestyle.

She also has a brilliant simple idea for keeping children amused on those stiflingly hot summer days which lie ahead...

Good on you, Lawrie :)

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Last Sunday was Mike, my grandchilds', 10th birthday.  His very first "proper" party was planned - which included inviting all the kids he likes from his class in his new school.  Natasha and Wayne found a wonderful venue - in the grounds of a nearby berry farm in Swellendam.  Brilliant, the kids would be out in the fresh air, playing as children should, instead of being stuck inside a movie house, or in a steakhouse, eating kiddies sized portions of high fat foods glued to the closest computer games...

After opening his gifts from his parents, and "finding" the trampoline which we had bought him, and with a couple of slices of toast and a mug of tea in our stomachs, we all headed off to collect his cake, which had been ordered from the local supermarket, as well as rolls for the kids hot dog lunch.

Great excitement all round...

We arrived at the venue, and entering the "lapa" - a very basic wooden structure with walls, windows and a roof - I immediately set about investigating what was available - a first aid kit, a 10lt urn, tables, chairs, cups, saucers, plates, cutlery, an indoor barbecue.  It seemed to have everything we would need.

A birthday table filled with goodies
to inspire all the children who were
invited to celebrate Mike's 10th birthday

As Natasha was busy greeting parents, I started plating out the sweets, crisps, etc.  In between arrivals, Natasha got busy with the "party" side of things - the tablecloths, paper cups and plates, clown hats, blowy thingamabobs (which have a feather on the end and make a farting noise when they are blown), balloons, etc. Even though the party was only due to start at 12.00 noon, some kids were arriving earlier.

And, kids, when they're somewhere new, also have to start investigating and exploring...

What did they find?  A swimming pool (bear in mind that although it was Spring Day, there had been snow falling on the mountain tops for the previous two days, so the water was still freezing), a maze (which is still in it's infant days to it's basically just a pattern of paths at the moment) rolling green lawns - perfect for the planned soccer and cricket - and...

The berry farms' foefie slide

...a foefie slide.(I think it is called a zip line in America.)

Oh boy.  Once they discovered that there was no holding them back.

I lost count of how many rides they had - and, as they had a wait between rides, they invariably ran back passed the lapa to grab a cooldrink and a handful of whatever - crisps, sweets, biscuits...

I took a wander down to the foefie slide to take some close-up pics.  Mike was about to have his umpteenth turn.  Cool - I'd get an action shot!

Just as I snapped a pic of him, he took off.  And slipped off.  Landing heavily on what I thought was his back.  It's terrible the thoughts that flash through your mind with the speed of light.

But he rolled over screaming and pointing to his lower arm. I rushed up to him and held his arm (at the elbow) firmly on the ground where it was lying - to prevent his moving it anymore.  Signalling frantically to RMan with my free hand, our young GP, who is a new friend of Natasha and Wayne's, and who had been invited to the party with his young family, ran up.

A broken wrist / arm was the immediate diagnosis.

Oh boy!  And the party hadn't even started yet.

I recalled the first aid kit I had seen in the lapa, as well as a pair of large wooden salad servers.  Hopefully the kit would contain bandages, and the servers would make an excellent splint.  I dashed off.

There were suitable bandages and the servers were a perfect length and size. Our GP made a rough splint and Mike was rushed to his surgery for a more secure support to be applied.

Unfortunately, the x-ray department in Swellendam is not open on a Sunday, but, it would've made no difference.  The doctor reckoned it was a serious break which would involve a operation, so Mike would have to go to the medi-clinic in Worcester anyway, which is approximately 130kms away.

After administering a pain-killing sedative, and strapping up his arm properly in the surgery, Mike and his parents took off.

In the meantime, RMan and I were left with the parents, Mike's teacher and the children. Thankfully, the teacher had the presence of mind to ask if she should call the parents to come and collect their kids again - she had all their phone numbers on her cell.  After all, what is a party without a birthday boy?

They all managed to eat a slice of birthday cake before they went home.

(I do not have permission to publish a pic of the
children, so I have blurred their faces)
A big birthday shout-out for Mike, and then
cake... :)

Natasha and Wayne called us later.  Mike's wrist bone had broken into the growth plate.  A very serious break.  He was scheduled for an operation at 7.00p.m. that evening.

All went well with the op, and, thankfully, the surgeon managed to pin his bone without the pin intruding into his growth plate.  That could've resulted in the growth in that arm being stunted.

Mike was discharge the following day.

But, he had not even had any birthday cake.  And he had all the gifts from his friends still to open.

So on Wednesday evening, Mike and his parents came round to our house with a left over milk tart (melktert).  The beautiful coloured candles which Natasha was clever enough to find were placed on top, the candles were lit, and the lights were dimmed...

Candles whose flames burn the same colour as
the actual candle - absolutely stunning!

...and it was stunning.  The flames were the same colour as the candles.

Whilst Mike munched on some milk tart, he finally got to open the gifts he had received from his friends.

Judging by the relaxed smile on his face when he went home later, the "bad" birthday was all forgotten - and his memories of this big double number birthday will be mainly good ones :)