Yay, Rain!

At last... just when we thought the drought was coming back.

Now I'd best get on with Winter plantings of Garlic, Onions and Cabbage...

Water Tank Disaster

Well, we'd had a lovely bit of rain - over 35mm in the course of a day-and-a-half - and I just said to my wife, "That rain is good enough for Jehovah!" when, stone the crows, but I discover that the water tank that provides a supplementary backup feed to the bathroom is empty. Empty!

When last I checked the water levels of all the tanks - no more than 10 days or so ago - it was full. So clearly we have a leak somewhere. With a little luck it's just the pipeline between the water-tank and the bathroom that's been nicked by the lawnmower or something. (My guess. My fault for never burying the pipe properly.) Without luck it could be the tank itself or the pipework that supports the stopcock. Still, it couldn't come at a worse time. Spring. What looks like being another dry Summer - the third in a row. Just starting to transplant Tomatoes and Chiles, Beans and Squashes just emerging from the ground. Mind you, I did think the dam looked unjustifiably full, this morning, too full even for all this lovely, wonderful rain.

It's a funny thing... went into town for a bit of a change of scenery today, and all the locals are soooo cheerful and happy and friendly... and all because we've had a bit of decent rain. The first in 3 months, and more than we had in August and September put together.

Oh well... I guess the 5000litres is not totally lost; we'll use it in the veggie garden. And besides, all our other water tanks are full, fuller, fullest.

Catch Up

There's a pretty good reason for the very slow rate at which I've been blogging here lately: It gets dull and tedious repeating the same litany of woe. I mean, what more can I say?

"Still no rain." 

"It's not raining."

"Things are still very dry."

No. It's boring! And demotivating. It means that there's absolutely no point in busting my butt out in the garden trying to prepare the desert-condition beds for plantings that cannot possibly survive.

Actually, truth to tell, we have had a little rain over the past 10 days or so - enough that I might start to believe that the drought may actually be coming to a (slow) end. Enough to convince me to get off my duff and start clearing the jungle of weeds from pathways, and to stick a few peas and beans into the ground in the optimistic hope that more rain will eventuate.

The Summer past has been a total write-off. Not a single Tomato. Perhaps a grand-total of 6 chiles. If the Bushbuck will leave the plants alone for a bit. The Perennial Rye I was growing -- through the kind offices of Patrick -- eventually died. The dam I use for irrigating seed-trays is (still) so dry that the pump will have to be primed once again before I can use it. When, one day, there's sufficient water in the dam to bother. (Soon! says the optimist in me.) The F2 generation Tomato experiment will have to wait for a second attempt next year.

Even more difficult to deal with is that, by now, I should already have all my Winter crops in the ground, but, with insufficient water for seed-bed care, it looks like we're going to largely miss the Winter season, too. Some things I have plenty of seed -- Cabbage, Onions, Snow Peas, Broad Beans -- that I can take the chance with them and don't mind too much if I plant them and they fail. But there are some -- Kabuli Black Chickpeas, for example -- that I just cannot afford to take chances with. And that means that they have to wait another year before I can bulk up the seed supplies.

Which reminds me... I must plant some Lettuce. It's been very tedious having to buy such basics as Lettuce and Swiss Chard, especially since I've been on a (weight loss) diet where leafy veg features largely. (Lost about 8kg so far! and feeling much improved.)

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Last weekend we joined a small neighbourhood gathering at the historic Bibbey's Hoek Hotel. No longer a hotel, it is the home of our new neighbour, Sue. She has recently completed a Permaculture Design course, and is determined to remodel the old hotel in a permaculture mould. Perhaps to even start some sort of permaculture centre.This is great news!

Despite the fact that quite a number of us in the Bibbey's Hoek neighbourhood are practising some form of permaculture design, up to now we seem to proceeded in blissful isolation. I do believe that Sue might serve as a catalyst for us working in closer cooperation. Certainly the gathering at her home last Saturday was characterised by an easy neighbourliness and friendliness. Nobody on a ego trip or an agenda. Yay! Maybe we stand some tiny chance of developing a more integrated and sustainable community?

An Offer of Marriage

New neighbourhood story up on the farm website: An Offer of Marriage. Hope you enjoy it! (This one is almost 100% a True Story - or as true as memory will allow after an interval of about a decade.)

Sunset

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Murder in Hobbiton

This place, this Braamekraal, often feels to me like Tolkien's Hobbiton.  Yesterday we had the illusion well and truly shattered.  A neighbour, John, living in a cottage some 2km up the road from us was murdered in his own home, sometime between 10 and 11 in the morning.

We bumped into one of the investigating policemen around 4:30 in the afternoon just as we set out for a walk with the dogs; he was just waiting for the forensics team to get finished before he could go in with his tracker dog.  They suspect that the killer came from Keurhoek village, about 5km away.

Update 8 Aug 17:50:  We had a visit from the police Inspector this afternoon to let us know that the murderer has been caught.  He returned to the scene of his gruesome crime in the middle of last night and burned the house down, presumably to destroy evidence, and the police tracked him to his own house and arrested him at 2:30 this morning.  Much relief all round, here, I can tell you!

New Webside Story

Finally finished the first in a series (well, that's what I'm aiming for...) on the website: The Great Fly Swatting of '05.  The title keeps meandering all over the map...  Hope you enjoy!

Stuff going on at Braamekraal:

• Embarked on a soil-remineralisation program, after reading loads of stuff about William Albrecht's methods of soil analysis.  Must write about this soon.
• Beds dug for Peas, Broadbeans interplanted with Lentils so that the Lentils can climb up the Broadbean "poles".
• Compost bins rearranged to accomodate the ever-increasing girth of the Banana clump.  Dead Banana trunks chopped out.  More work than you might think!
• Good progress on the seed-saving website software; probably about 50% of the way "there".  I'll write more in a few weeks/months when its closer to being unleashed.
• Still no money. Still laughing about it.
• Still haven't brewed :-(  Lazy bugger!
• Still enjoying the Peace And Quiet of Just The Two Of Us.  Son#1 and fiancee expected back at the end of the month.

What a beautiful day today.  Far to magical to spend time with the PC...

Snakes in a Tin Can

Just had a close encounter with a Puffadder (snake).  (Unfortunately no picture – everything happened too quickly.)  The Puffy was nesting in a rusty old tin can next to my Garden Tool "cupboard" and the garden tap – a place I am in and out of all day long, moving things about, shifting hoses, plant stakes, tools and seed trays.

OB the PHD (Pointy-Headed Dog) alerted me to the snake; she is always very puzzled by snakes, and wears a very different expression to her Rat-catching face.  I guess they are interesting to her, since they move about, but probably smell strange, or perhaps lack a distinctive odour. It must be incredible to have a sense of smell like a dog's.

Being terrified of snakes, I was lucky that the snake was feeling very sleepy and mellow.  It stayed in its tin can while I fetched a bucket and lid, and flipped the snake, tin and all, into the bucket with a long stick.

Brett, my snake-catching neighbour, kindly came and took the snake away to release it in the wild.

Now I wonder where the Boy snake is... :-O