Cape Town Eco Film Festival

Hmmm, wish I was in Cape Town at the moment - I received an e-mail from Sustainable's PR company, and I wouldn't mind attending this :)

It’s Time for the Cape Town Eco Film Festival – Win a Sustainable.co.za Green Hamper Worth Over R1000

Sustainable.co.za have announced their sponsorship of the Cape Town Eco Film Festival this month. In anticipation of the festival, Sustainable.co.za is running a competition for the month of March to get people talking about the issues at hand.

The Cape Town Eco Film Festival will be the first of its kind in the city. The festival will take place at the Labia Theatre on Orange Street in Cape Town, and will run for five days from the 27^th to the 31^st March. It will bring together the best local and international documentary films focusing on environmental issues. Altogether, the festival will feature 25 eco-films and 10 local premieres. They will also host guest speakers and Q&A sessions to discuss important issues around environmentalism, from

climate change and pollution to plummeting biodiversity and diminishing natural resources.

For each ticket purchased at R45, R5 will be donated to Greenpop, who will use the money to help finance their re-forestation efforts in South Africa and Zambia. You can reserve tickets for the Cape Town Eco-Festival by calling the Labia box office on 021 424 5927 or you can buy tickets at Webtickets.co.za

Zeke Murphy,  of Sustainable.co.za, comments: “I believe that a film festival such as the Cape Town Eco film festival is critical in the continued effort to protect our planet for our children. Sustainable.co.za is committed to raising awareness regarding issues with our environment, climate change and protecting our wild life, and we feel that our involvement in the film festival is a wonderful means to raising these issues within the South African community.”

Green Competition

To promote the event and get start the eco conversation, Sustainable.co.za is hosting a Facebook competition this month. The competition will run from 10th March right up until the start of the festival. The competition quiz will ask questions regarding environmental issues. Participants will be in with a chance of winning a green home hamper worth over R1000, which includes a-water saving showerhead, solar jar, energy monitor and eco cooker from Sustainable.co.za. More information about the prizes can be found on the Sustainable.co.za blog. To enter, all you have to do is visit Sustainable.co.za’s Facebook competition page and test your knowledge by completing the quiz, after all, the first step towards action is awareness.

Sustainable.co.za helps people live a more environmentally sustainable life by providing the necessary information and eco-friendly products all in one location.  They supply a wide range of eco-friendly goods to create sustainable lifestyles, provide practical guidance on measures to live more sustainably, give information on organisations linked to sustainable living and alerts people to the local and global environmental situation. For more information visit: http://www.sustainable.co.za/

For all of you who are, hope you can make it there.  The very thought provoking movies include the following:  (click on the link below each pic for a preview of the movie) 

http://capetownecofilmfestival.com/films/amazon-gold/

http://capetownecofilmfestival.com/films/blackfish/

http://capetownecofilmfestival.com/films/damocracy/

http://capetownecofilmfestival.com/films/gasland-part-ii/

http://capetownecofilmfestival.com/films/more-than-honey/

By the way, there is a very nice prize on offer too :)

It consists of a hamper with:

1  a Niagara Conservation - Earth Showerhead;
2  an Efergy Energy Monitoring socket;
3  a Sun Jar 7 - in colour;
4  a Hotbox eco-cooker - all valued at over R1000.00

Unfortunately, the competition is only open to South African's, but why not take the quiz anyway, and find out how much you know ;)

Disclaimer: I receive no benefit whatsoever for this posting.  I merely aim to spread the very worthy word.

Tomato preserves

It would appear that the tomato blossom end rot only affected a couple of my tomato plants.

So I was been busy harvesting tomatoes frantically over the last weekend.  I had sowed both red heirloom, red and yellow cocktail and large yellow tomatoes - can't remember where I got them but I think that they were Franchi Sementi seeds.

Not having the power to run a freezer in order to preserve my harvest, I have had to think laterally.

So, here is a preview of what I have done with the first batch of tomatoes that I picked :)

A collage of my first tomato preserves for 2014

I made 6 jars of whole peeled tomatoes, 3 jars of tomato sauce (ketchup) and...

Bottled tomatoes and tomato
sauce (ketchup)
The tall re-used bottle of tomato sauce
from the red wine vinegar will have to go
in my fridge to be used first

... two ice trays filled with tomato purée concentrate.

Tomato paste

When I peeled the tomatoes I kept the skins to one side.  I shoved them onto an oven tray in the solar oven to dry out - with the lid open so that I didn't burn them.  Unfortunately, before they were fully dry it started to cloud over and drizzle.  That put paid to solar drying my tomato skins.

My solar dehydrator is still not ready.  Will I be able to use it before the end of this season?  Time will tell...

The next sunny day was predicted for 2 days later - I couldn't wait that long to pop them back into the solar oven - I was in the swing of it LOL

Drying the tomato skins

On Sunday night, as the weather was a bit iffy, we lit the Rosie for the first time this year and I put the skins in the oven to finish drying.  (Lighting the Rosie was a definite teaser for the winter ahead - I can hardly wait LOL)

Using RMan's coffee grinder to grind the
dried tomato skins

When they were good and crispy, they got shoved into RMan's (cleaned) coffee grinder and blitzed for a couple of minutes, until they looked like this:

A close-up of the ground tomato skins

The crushed skins smell amazing, and I'm looking forward to adding them to pizza's, bread and cheese scones :)  Those I'm storing in a jar with a sachet of moisture absorber (I can't remember the proper name, but you know what I mean?) that arrived in my bottle of magnesium tablets.

Even the pips didn't go to waste.  After I had made the tomato sauce (ketchup) and the tomato concentrate, I was left with a whole bunch of seeds and some remnants of tomato flesh in the sieve.  That went into a container in the fridge and got added to a bolognaise sauce I made for RMan's dinner a couple of nights later.  Very tasty it was too :)

It is the first time that I have ever used the entire tomato and I can't imagine why it took me so long to do so.

There is triple the amount of tomatoes reading for picking this weekend, so come on sun - I need to make some sundried tomatoes in my solar oven, and a batch of my salad dressing which uses whole peeled tomatoes, and there are also lots more to bottle...

Plant identification required

Please - Diana or anyone out there - can you tell me what this plant is called?

This is a photo of what the plant looks like - minus a couple of leaves which were eaten by a calf.

And this is a close-up of the flower.:

Stunning, isn't it!

I found it growing near our gate, and have never seen it before.

Eco-friendly pest control

I have long waxed irritatingly with regard to the field mouse problem here at Foothills Farm.  I realise that we are invading territory which they have inhabited for centuries, but, I have to ensure that they stay within their natural environment and don't invade ours.

So, this last week we took steps to ensure that no more of those incontinent field mice gain access to our home, and those pesky flies stay outside - permanently.

Firstly, I have an aversion to rodents.  Not only for their incontinent disease spreading capabilities, but also because each and every time they have entered our home, it has resulted in my having to wash anything that I think they may have traversed.  Spring cleaning a kitchen 10 - 12 times a year is not fun!

And, having to clamber up onto a chair whenever I saw a mouse inside was disruptive to say the least.  Hey, just because I live on a farm - no one said I had to be or was brave ;)

Way back in 2008, when we initially built phase 1 of our farmhouse, it was only planned that it would be a weekend / holiday situation, so open plan kitchen shelves were part of the "farm" look we were willing to embrace.

Before - open plan kitchen shelves

But, the open plan decor made it easy-peasy for the mice to climb into everything that was at floor level, and, through a gap in the shelves, up onto the shelves and into their contents.  That included pots and pans, casserole dishes, and the basic kitchen appliances which were stored in open boxes under all the shelves.

After - kitchen cupboards LOL

I guess I wore RMan down with my field mouse nagging, because, when we were in the local Co-Op and I saw an advertisement for work posted by a local carpenter, and I suggested that we "just" get a quote from him, and RMan finally succumbed.

Receiving his quote, and checking the references he gave, we gave him the go ahead to make cupboard doors for the open shelves.

As I only had the one drawer my kitchen utensils
were stored in "trays" on the shelves.  What a
waste of shelf space!

 The difference was immediately noticeable.

After - kitchen utensils are in their proper
place.  Can you tell where they are...?

Because the beautiful clay floor tiles are hand made, the floor is not completely level.  Some of the tiles are concave, and others convex.  That creates a problem when you are trying to create an opening which is less than a pencil width.  Why a pencil width?  Well, apparently a mouse can squeeze through any opening wider than a pencil.

A mouse proof strip across the entrance at floor
level takes care of the gap below the doors.
Note the big drawer above the cupboard...

Thus a strip was installed across the opening of the cupboard at floor level.  It will also help in preventing dust and dirt from accidentally "brushed" into the lowest section of the cupboard.

But, not only did he make doors, he also made me a wonderful, wide and deep drawer.

...Ha! This is where all my utensils are now
stored :)  For the drawer runner we have used
a sliding mechanism usually reserved for a
drawer / sliding shelf in a TV cabinet - so we
 know it is strong enough to handle the weight
of all those utensils without collapsing in future 

It is the perfect size to accommodate all those carving knives and forks, hand whisks, potato mashers, egg lifters, scissors, garlic press, wooden spoons, etc. that one accumulates after 31-odd years together.

It is too wonderful - everything is now in one place- no more searching through individual "trays" in a shelf :) 

We kept the old drawer from the caravan drawer
- why not, it was perfectly usable.  We
merely changed the face of it to match the
new drawer and cupboards.

And the old caravan drawer is now allocated only for our daily knives, forks, spoons and teaspoons, as well as the tin opener, cup measures, peelers and spoon measures.  Which gets the old cutlery caddy off my work surface, and gives me that little bit more room to work.

Sigh - I love it :)

Then - the fly problem.

Flies are part and parcel of farm life.  But there are just so many fly strips we can hang in a day, and just so many flies that I can, and will, handle crawling over me in the evenings when we are relaxing in front of the TV.

That's where the carpenter came in useful again.

A very solid fly screen covers
our kitchen door entrance

 He made us very sturdy fly screens - for both the back kitchen stable door...

A double fly screen was installed at
the Happy Doors :)

 ... and for the front "Happy Doors" which lead onto the patio.

Fly screens are commonplace in the US of A - I know because I have seen plenty of them in sitcoms and movies - both on TV and on the big screen the few times RMan and I have gone to the movies.

But, here, in fly country / continent, they are uncommon.

Why?????

Who cares - I finally have some, and they work! It is the strangest sensation to stand at what looks like a closed door, and feel the breeze wafting through. Quite peculiar LOL

Yeeeeeha!  No more complaints about field mice or flies on this blog ever - I promise.

For all homesteaders in the making

If anyone would like a chance to win a book on homesteading, please won't you head over to Leigh's blog, 5 Acres & A Dream.

Reading the reviews on Amazon it appears to be a must-have book, giving Leigh and Dan's nuts and bolts account of their path towards self-sufficiency on their 5 Acre homestead - along with hints and tips and alternatives, and recipes.

I have been following Leigh's blog for a number of years, and her stamina and knowledge is amazing.  She also spins and weaves - one of those hobbies I hope to attempt and master in the not too distant future so that I can process all the alpaca's fleece we gain at shearing time - especially as we will be gaining 50% more since the birth of Miranda's cria last Monday LOL

Amazon has the following summary of her book:

"What does it take to become a successful homesteader?

Based on her popular homesteading blog, 5 Acres & A Dream, Leigh Tate shares how she and her husband Dan are facing the challenges of trying to establish a self-sufficient homestead; from defining their dream, finding property, and setting priorities, to obstacles and difficult times, to learning how to work smarter, not harder. She shares what they've learned about energy self-sufficiency, water self-sufficiency, and food self-sufficiency for themselves and their goats and chickens too. Included are copies of their homestead master plan plus revisions, homegrown vitamins and minerals for goats, and several of Leigh's favorite homestead recipes."

Please - support a fellow blogger and pop over and take a peek at her blog :)

Thought for Thursday 6

"And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children." And he said: 

      Your children are not your children. 
      They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. 
      They come through you, but not from you, 
      And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. 
      You may give them your love, but not your thoughts. 
      For they have their own thoughts. 
      You may house their bodies, but not their souls, 
      For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. 
      You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. 
      For life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday. 
      You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. 
      The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. 
      Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness; 
      For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable."

from "The Prophet" - the chapter on "Children" by Kahlil Gibran.  Kahlil Gibran was born in 1883 into a Maronite Catholic family in northern Mount Lebabnon.  He emigrated to America with his mother and siblings in 1895 - the same year that he started school at the age of 12.  He died in New York City in 1931.

Personal note: I can highly recommend reading "The Prophet" - a moving, thought provoking and inspiring collection of poems.  The book is available to read online - just click on the book title above for the link.

At long last...

... Miranda gave birth to her cria at 11.00a.m. (what a civilized hour) this morning.

She had been humming strangely all morning, rolling on the ground, then getting up, then cushing, then getting up again, over and over again.  After 3 trips to the midden in quick succession we knew something was about to happen.  At 10.37 she started straining, as though she was at her midden. Initially, she was in her stable, but suddenly she walked out and went to her favourite spot between her and Kris' paddock.

Back legs straddled, neck pointing straight out horizontally, Foothills Michael started appearing, a hoof at a time.  Miranda tried to cush,  and that's when RMan stepped in...

Then we heard Michael's gasps - he's breathing... :)

A bit of assistance in helping Michael fully emerge, and it was all over within 20 minutes.

 

So - with no further ado, may I introduce to you all, Foothills Michael, a healthy 8.0kg bouncing, brown baby cria.

Foothills Michael in all
his cuteness

We have named him Foothills Michael in honour of our grandson, who sent me a text out of the blue this morning asking if the cria was born yet.  We have decided to keep the M-prefix so that we can identify the lineage in the future, in order to keep the bloodline clean.

I'm not going to say much now, just enjoy the pics :)

Just as he was born

 

Miranda checking that everything's OK with her
new son

"Hello there, my little one.  Glad to finally meet
you after all these months" :)

It's warmer for him in the stable

Michael's first steps

"Oh, wow - it's big out here.  Mum, look, oh look..."

So much to see...

Within 65 minutes of being born, Michael had
already found the midden and proceeded to
empty his bladder.

How adorable is this picture :)

 Michael coming to meet and greet his midwife

while Miranda keeps a careful eye on him.
If he wanders near Kris, Miranda immediately
runs up and steers Michael away / spits at Kris

"Mum, do you mind if I have a little rest?"

"Ah, yes - food!"
(colostrum actually, but it is vitally important
for the cria in the first 36 hours of life)

With all the heat we've had recently, Miranda chose to give birth to her son on an drizzly, overcast day when the temperature was 17oC.  Not the warmest. Shame, the little cria was shivering madly, so we boiled the kettle and wrapped towels round it, to use them to warm him up.

Within 5 minutes of being born, the cria was already attempting to stand, succeeding at that when he was 15 minutes old.

He battled to find the teats - even with RMan's "guidance" - only having his first drink at 2 hours old.  But, now he's an old pro at that already.

It is amazing.  Within 65 minutes of being born, the cria was emptying his bladder at the midden (how's that for instinct?!) and an hour and a half after being born he was already romping round the paddock.  Miranda passed her afterbirth (which must be burnt or well buried so as not to attract predators) and she's toddling round like nothing has happened.

A treat consisting of a helping of freshly grated carrot mixed with a portion of maintenance meal was scoffed down in an instant :)

You would not believe how utterly soft
and cuddly his fur is.  As long as we
crouch down both Miranda and Michael
are happy to walk up to us.

Miranda was amazing.

Me, I was a complete waste of space.  Utterly useless.

RMan, bless him, was the midwife and paediatrition.

I have discovered that when it comes to humans in distress I have no problem, and RMan falls apart. But, animals - nada! I'm a shaking bundle of panic...

A right pair of Mutt and Jeff we are LOL  And very, very happy and excited Mutt and Jeff :)

If I knew how to upload to Youtube, I'd be able to show you Foothills Michael's first foray in the paddock.  No promises, I will try...

Missing...

... and we fear the worst.

You recall my telling you back in September 2013 that we woke one morning to find that three ducks had appeared on our property out of the blue.  Well, they stayed. And stayed. And stayed.

They obviously liked it here.  And they liked us :)

Quack, Quacker and Quaker in action hunting
out insects in my capsicum patch

But, on Saturday 22nd February, we woke to find that only two ducks remained.  What happened to the third one we have no idea, but the three always stuck together like the Musketeers, so it couldn't have been a case of the one having wondered off.  There was no mass of feathers anywhere indicating that a fight with a predator had taken place, and the two weren't sticking to one spot - looking for the other one.

It was just gone.

The new duck enclosure with a pepper tree
in the centre which will provide them with
a modicum of safety and plenty of shade
as it grows.

In the past 6 months we have grown incredibly fond of them.  Their cheerful quack-quacking greeting us in the morning when we opened either the front patio or the back kitchen door, their hysterical waddling (with speed at meal times) and the general feeling of joie de vivre that they brought to us.

We are aware there are predators in the area - large owls, rooikat, otters, free roaming dogs and foxes - we saw one run across the highway right in front of the car on the way to town a couple of weeks ago.

But, because the ducks weren't ours, we didn't lock them up at night.

Until the one went missing.

That changed everything.

Suddenly, the remaining two are ours - 6 months worth of possession, feeding and general care-taking makes them so.  And, obviously the owner wasn't missing them...

And we don't want anything to happen to these two.

Every evening they had been waddling themselves off to the unfinished shadecloth veggie patch structure at the top of the garden, and burrowing under the weed guard which lined the floor, they put themselves to bed every night. But, it wasn't secure.  And that is exactly where we think the one was snatched from.

They tend to hang around the alpacas every day, so we constructed them an enclosure right next to the fence of Kris' paddock.

A straw-filled sleeping area, a water bowl filled
with fresh water, a drainage channel to
prevent the whole area flooding when next
we have heavy rain, and four protective walls -
our duck enclosure LOL

They now have a (albeit a bit rough and ready) covered area where they can sleep, a repurposed stainless steel sink for fresh water, and 4 walls (fences) around the perimeter to keep them safer.  We debated making a shadecloth roof, but decided for now that we wouldn't.

A handful of duck food got them inside on the
first evening

The ducks weren't keen to suddenly enter a restricted area, so a handful of duck food was the bribe.

The next morning they exited the enclosure with very muted quacks.  Not happy.  Not happy at all.  "Whaaaaaaaaat happened to our freedom? Don't 'cha humans know we're free range and free spirited...?"

But they were safe, and that's all that matters.

The recycled kitchen sink I had scored through
Freecycle was the perfect size for their
fresh water requirements.  I even placed some
bricks in one area - so that they could toddle
"upstairs" to get to the water.

And, instead of using the recycled sink for fresh drinking water, the idiots both climbed into it together and started paddling - round and round in circles.  I almost wet myself when I saw them at it.  But it gave me an idea...

Even though we have our beautiful large rainwater dam 'just down the drag' they had, previously, spent their days paddling in a pond full of unmentionable water - an overflow from our septic tank which had never been completed. RMan kept chucking a spoonful of chlorine in it every so often at night, but I have HATED that "pond" for far too long, and, finally, I could take no more. 

I put my foot down!

Last Monday we called out the cleansing department at the town council to drain the tank of it's revolting contents, and that means the "overflow pond" will now dry up and allow us access in order to add some pipe to create a proper underground soak away.

The bath needed a good clean to get rid of all
the soil it contained

We had removed the bath from the bathroom in our old Hout Bay house when we modernised it, and, after getting it here with the movers, I had buried the bath and was unsuccessfully growing (or should that be drowning) herbs in it. It was time to repurpose that again too.

It would make an ideal "pond" for the ducks.

As I want to be able to drain the bath when the water gets seriously foul (fowl?) and needs changing, we have installed it above ground, and have clad the outside with left over wood from the paddock fences in order to camouflage, as much as possible, the apparition that it is.

Because of the height above ground (as opposed to above sea level LOL) I have also provided them with a ramp to waddle up in order to access the water in the bath.

I was getting disheartened that they didn't like their new pond, and would never find it, and was even contemplating catching them with some bird netting in order to introduce them to it.

Then, one of the ducks had flew onto the shadecloth "umbrella" yesterday morning - obviously checking out the new territory.

But, it didn't enter the water.

Is that a duck in the water...?

When I walked out last night to feed the ducks and the alpacas their evening meal I saw something white on top of the water.  Success!!!  It had taken the ducks all of 5 days to discover their new, cleaner pond.  

... it is.  It is.
In fact it's two ducks in the bath.

I found both of them happily ensconced within the bath.  The one was paddling in the open area, and the other one had it's head tucked under it's wing on the shadecloth side.  Contented ducks.

Waddle, waddle, waddle down the ramp.
Wait - I'm coming...
... don't forget to feed us too...
(in the foreground is the "pond" of
unmentionable water.  The ducks had spent
their days in the shade beneath the IBR sheeting.)

As I left the alpaca paddocks, the ducks proceeded to waddle down the ramp to get their evening meal too.

It just takes one to show the way, then
the other one followed ;)

Oh, it feels so bloody good!!

RMan reckons that they have the pool, and the (shadecloth) umbrella, now all they need is a cocktail or two - served "on the water" so to speak :)