A Day in the life!

So - we recently did a very quick round trip round our peninsula snapping pics for a book Gudrun is working on. We ran short of time and had to get Iris to a party, but heres a snippit of our morning. For every reason to despair, heres a reason to smile.

A flock of flying rats

Not from the same day, but I HAD to add this one of FIREMAN Iris.

Glencairn vlei

Fish Hoek beach

Der dum, Der dum

Glencairn tidal pool

Ostrich Farm

playing chicken

Misty cliffs

Over the boardwalk

Kommetjie

More Kommetjie

Yet more

Cheese (y)

OH NO YOU DON'T

Timmy took this...

...and this

Veg Garden Stages 2-5

Well, Finally an update on my alleged veg "garden".

So, apparently I didn't get around to documenting this quite as well as I wanted (not that anyone is actually looking :) ).

I have however been quite busy in my "free" time tinkering away and making changes.

SO FAR:
	First there was the enclosure and bare ground as you saw in the earlier post.
	Then I built the first raised bed and planted seedlings.
THE SNAILS:
At some point in this process, the kids were horrified to hear that I intended on killing as many snails as I possibly could, and that snail bait was in fact snail poison. They had also at various stages in their lives gone through phases where they were enamoured with the "lovely" little creatures, and had collected them "to keep them safe" in various tupperwares (with holes punched through the lids) and random jars. Inevitably these snails would be forgotten until some poor sod (me) decides to clean out the plastics cupboard, or Garden tools draw, or any other random place you least expect it, only to find decomposing snails. We arrived at this compromise. They could save all the snails they caught - if they kept them in this old fishtank we converted into a terrarium type thing. Thye have subsequently had babies by the bazillion and are enjoying all of our stale lettuce and assorted scraps. At this rate they might end up having to fight the compost worms!!!
ELECTRIC FENCE:
	Well, as mentioned earlier I realised that if a baboon really wanted in, they could simply rip the door off, or bounce on the roof until it broke. I wanted to chase them off so that they knew not to come near it. Proper electrical fences are not an option, cost wise. Then came a bunch of DIY "off the net" options, which could end up being dangerous to the baboons (I want them away - not hurt). A while back I saw a silly circuit kit which zaps you through a car coil, and decided to try it out. It works well!! (Available at about R90 from yebo electronics or electronics123.co.za) I decided to house the circuit and coil in a tupperware (coz it was there) and run it with a battery (power backup) and a trickle charger. All in all the whole thing cost (with wire and odds and ends) about R300. Here is the finished product (not as neat as I am used to - but Ive been rushing things to get them finished in the short breaks I have.). It works by charging the car coil about once a second. I then took a lead from the coil to the wire which I ran through PVC Ducting. I know I will have hassles with tension later down the line, but I will add springs then. For the wire I just used run of the mill cheap bailing wire. Tips! You need to earth your circuit (not mentioned in the instructions) to get the most out (I just took a wire from the transistor to the chickenwire) Make sure your wires run at least 2cm from any earthed point as in the wet, even a wet PVC pipe provides enough conductivity for a very irritating zap-zap-zap, and once its zapped through the night - it becomes carbonised, and will carry on arcing even when it dries out.
BACK GATE, IRRIGATION & PAINT:
	Years of neglect have seen the garden gate at the back become a visual deterrant only. It had no structural integrity left. I used an off-cut from some boxes I built the kids as a replacement gate (18mm Ply). I then varnished it about 8 times, and painted it. Ply doesn't like rain, and I dont like replacing rotten wood. It weighs a ton, looks as imposing as a Joburg bouncer, and generally does the job. Well, I went a bit OTT (a lot actually) with the irrigation. I have 3 pipes which will feed the various parts of the veg "room". Because its so windy I didnt really want the "misters" to waste water in the wind, so I put millions in so a low pressure drip would keep the ground wet, without making mist in the wind. I have one pipe on each side, and one along the roof, which I will use for mist in summer, and take pipes off for the hanging plants and tomatoes. The vibracrete fence was painted green, a very effective way of making your garden look bigger and nicer for very little if you have this fencing. However, with winter well and truly here I realised my garden would need ANY light it could get. I have painted the house and vibracrete white to reflect as much light as possible in the little green house, and I must say it makes a massive difference. Luckily I dont have to paint everywhere this colour as it looks awful!
GETTING THERE:
	I Used a lot of straw in the beds, but I had far more left than I needed, so I decided to lay some on the floor as a better option than mud, and I must say - this is yet another low cost option that really works. I've put a bunch of seedlings in place and a few "trellis" like things for the climbers. I've finished the second bed on the other side, leaving a possible third for another time. I have also started my second batch of potatoes (about 3 months after my first) and so far Ive added a bit of soil and a second tyre to the first batch. The nets full of examples of how this works, but heres 1 quick ref http://www.kiddiegardens.com/growing_potatoes_in_tires.html . You can really grow them in anything - Dog food bags, sacks, you name it. Just do a bit of Googling and youre there. My plan is to have 4 sets growing in 3 month rotations, So I can harvest all year round. So far though they seem to be growing a lot slower than the first time I tried (and lost to the baboons). This could be because I used different (organic) potatoes, or because its damn cold!!!

Well that does it for now! Feel free to get in touch if you want any tips.

I have made many mistakes along the way, that I am happy for others to learn from.

Veg Garden Stage 1 Pics

Well - here is the basic structure. Not very pretty, but hopefully functional enough.

And here is the Proposed site for the beds - getting its daily 3 hours of sun.

Progress at last The "raised beds" have been started. Who would have thought that it would be cheaper to build out of brick than it would to build out of wood? Yet another strange discovery during this process.

My "bricklaying" isn't great at all, but it does the trick. There's not going to be a lot of walking space left once I'm done - but that's the point. Plated a few seeds with the kids and will load pics of the seedlings in a week or two.

Veg Garden 1.2

"Plant this mate"

Well, even though I carefully chose only vegetables that the baboons wouldn't eat (veg. garden 1.1), it didn't stop them from uprooting all my plants and leaving them to die - why? go ask Monkeynuts ... lol. Well - this was it - frustrated with the fact that it is so easy to augment your groceries with a few simple plants, yet the presence of baboons in the area means I  cant plant veg in the open (even veg they hate) I decided to devise a way of growing at very least a handful of veg..

I initially looked into the idea of using grow lights and using a section of the garage but it rapidly became apparent that this would not be the most cost effective solution. Instead I have decided to use a small section of the garden I can easily close off between the house and wall. This patch is not ideal as it does not receive a large amount of direct light, but its the only section I can easily close off. This was also the section of the garden my daughter had earmarked for her aviary, chicken coop, farm, etc. (Little girl with BIG plans) but I decided this stood a far greater chance of actually happening, and so my garden plans won.

The plants I had already growing there were doing pretty well until the root inspector came calling, and it is right off the kitchen, so it got some points there.

I wanted to get as much light and rain as possible, while keeping it strong enough to keep our hairy friends out. Cost was also an issue in the design of the structure, so plans were kept as cheap as possible. I have subsequently found out I could have saved a bit by using clear corrugated roofing and collecting the runoff, but no crying over wasted money :( who would have thought proper roofing would be cheaper than chicken wire?

So - I have now built the structure out of 38x38 structural treated timber and chicken wire (looks shocking :( but will have to do) [[ Click here for pics ]]  and got a lick of varnish on for good measure. Now to get going on the raised beds. I need to maximise my use of the area, so will be using raised beds, hanging pots, and vertical growing to get the most out of the area (in theory), although I will really have to wait and see how it all goes with the light issue and winter on the way.

Once the beds are in, and I have seedlings and possibly even some veg growing I have to install an electric fence. After installing the gate and admiring my handiwork I realised that a determined baboon with all its strength could simply break the door off if it was so inclined, especially since we now keep our dog indoors for its safety. A store bought solution is not an option, and so I am planning on using an electronics kit system which runs a car coil to produce the charge. Again - I will let you know how that works and where you can purchase the parts (yebo electronics or electronics123.co.za). Thats that for now, will edit when I have pics and progress.

Baboon vs Baboon - 1:0 Ouch!

I came across these pics (not very good quality Im sorry) I took about a month ago, of a baboon (Bafana I think his name is).

He was quite badly injured in a fight with another male baboon. The event itself was quite traumatic with me trying to keep my dog out of it (poor lab was trying to protect her house - and almost getting killed in the process), keep my kids safe, and still deal with the injured baboon in my garden. 

It started with the two baboons throwing each other off the top of my neighbours roof, through his greenhouse roof. There was then a tussle and the injured baboon jumped over into my garden, leaving the other to deal with the dog next door (chuckle - boerbull [spelling?]). The poor bugger was then trapped in my garden unable to get out as his leg was so badly injured.

At first he was bleeding so much I thought he was going to die soon. At one point he even seemed to "faint" as he tried to stand up. The inherant intelligence of this animal really shon through as he quickly established I was no longer a threat, and almost seemed to be coming for help, moving slowly towards me. I know people often incorrectly humanise animals, but these guys are really clearly quite closely related to us; On the criminal side of the family, but related nonetheless. 

We contacted the agency responsible for looking after the baboons in the area and told them about what had happened. To my amazement (after having about 8 baboon monitors traipse through our garden with a collective -"umm - OK - what now") they decided that since it was a baboon on baboon attack, they would not intervene, and left the baboon in our garden, unable to get out. We were horrified at the prospect of having to explain to our already traumatised children why we hadn't done more (we didn't think he was going to survive the night). 

I was requested to leave the baboon and not help or intervene in any way. Eek. My poor dog was locked in the garage, and I watched the poor guy amble around our garden. I was then phoned to take a few pics to document this event (you see the results here) but the light was almost completely gone - hence the quality - and I didn't want to get to close and agitate him at all [excuses for crappy pics].

Amazingly this guy, after drinking a bit of pool water and gathering his thoughts, was able to move a camping chair and a log against the wall, and by climbing onto the chair was able to use the log to get over the wall, where he spent the night across the road. 

To our relief however, he survived the night. Two days later a vet gave him some antibiotics for the wound, and about a week ago I saw him hobbling along the road. He is still quite badly injured, but seems to be well enough considering.


End of that particularly odd chapter.