Of 'Summer', visitors, geyser and bathroom...

Good morning !  After rain comes shine.. and it did.. all of a sudden, after the heavy rains the sun came out.. and although in Cape Town the temperatures reached into the 25's, it was slightly more modest in the Valley, where the max. temperatures were in the lower twenties, but, for winter it was quite an amazing period ! And this lasted all of 2 weeks ! Totally different and absolutely lovely, winter in the Western Cape is nothing like winter in Holland at all, its not an everlasting grey period with chill, cold and nasty weather, but interspersed with 'summery' conditions.. And.. while the beautiful weather persisted, 'up north' the Dutch were experiencing extremely wet, cold weather, hmm.. ;-) 

So working outside was all of a sudden a pleasure and even painting was possible again, which we did.. We finalized the painting of the walls of the guest cottage, and the plumbers came (I really really tried, but could not figure it out) and installed the solar geyser on the roof, this time WITH electrical back up.. Found out that going 'only' eco and off grid is a great goal, but not entirely comfy when cloud cover persists and results in having to bathe with cold water all the time.. (!) The electricians will come to morrow and connect it to the grid, a special control will be installed inside which will easily facilitate hot water either from the sun, or from the grid, and most of the time  from the sun only !!

 Painted and fresh, geyser on the roof, water system in place, and now on to the next step, the septic tank. A long  30 meters ditch had to be dug towards the meadow, where the tank was sunk into. Bacteria will 'digest' the solids, and the overflow into a 'french drain' will put the remaining, 'grey' water, back into the land.. 

Washing machine- and bath water wil flow back into the garden. Water from the sink will join the water in the septic tank. Not a drop of water will be wasted the way it's all installed in this cottage.. At a later stage a nice rain water tank will be  installed between the kitchen door and bathroom, so for cooking and drinking, fresh water 'from the sky' is available.. no chemical additions, but very pure, as nature intended.. and the TASTE !!! Delicious !

The entire farm, by the way, is not connected to the municipal water, but all water is piped down from 'my' river and well, situated halfway towards the top of the property, and gravity fed to where the cottages are ! Not quite 'white' but drinkable and very usable, and not polluted !.. No energy whatsoever is being 'wasted' to provide any of the cottages or the land with clean, potable water at all.. the word ECO on this farm is not just a word, but being put into action as much as possible, and as much as budget allows... Some examples.. the 'main' part of the cottage is left in tact, and consists of mud brick, built many years ago. The beams supporting the roof come from the property itself. The addition was built from cement blocks, made and pressed just down the road, the geyser sourced locally and 'proudly South African' and  the pebbles for the terrace, delivered by truck (sorry) come from a quarry only 15 km away..

2 x 10 m3 of pebbles, from the local quarry, being delivered for the parking lot, and the terrace.. No "Italian marble" in the house anywhere ;-) We're back to basics here..

The bathroom is also taking shape and has the necessities to make a stay comfortable and perfect.. Bath/shower, toilet and basin, what else does one need.. and all water will be re used ! LED lights will see to it that you're not left 'in the dark'... and consume as little electricity as possible.. not yet solar, but its a future wish ! On the left.. where once there was storage for bales of Lucerne for the horses, there is now a bathroom. Only when you built it yourself, do you find this an amazing feat !

And then.. some time for R&R of course.. Great weather and great friends on the one day last week.. Linda, Katinka and Theresa visited for a day and we went for a ride, discovering one of the trails together, which proved to be very adventurous.. off we went, onto the property of the neighbor (800ha !)  let's go girlzzz..!!! What a great day this was.. still remember it fondly..

From left to right.. Theresa on WhyNot, Linda on GaLaXy and Katinka on Buddy.

Gorgeous girls sharing a gorgeous day !  After the ride a great lunch out on the terrace..

A day just as I imagined it should be on the farm when I started it all.. not just work, but also fun. And fun was had by all.. amazing out ride, lovely company, good food and lovely wine ;-)

Last weekend the rains came back with a huge bangg.. and the wind !!! The property was being pelted by almost horizontal rains and we're back into winter all of a sudden.. What a shame.. Gini came all the way from Holland, and with some 10 riding lessons under her belt, we planned to ride out together, her very first out ride in her life ! The weather decided otherwise, so we had to stay inside unfortunately, but made it nice and cozy, sitting round the roaring fire..with a good glass of wine , of course, from the local winery !!!  Thanks for visiting Gini, better luck next time hey !!!! And.. just now, the 26th of July at 07.15 am, for the very first time since my arrival in the Western Cape, 15 years ago, had to remove ICE from the windows of my car.. it has been freezing last night !!! Totally Amazing @!!

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xRick

Of Rain, Land slides, New Streams and new Camps .....

Well.. there we are again.. happy to say,, after the rains.. The most amazing thing happened at the farm a few weeks ago.. we were hit with a deluge of water for a few days running, and in about 3 days 10 centimeters of the stuff came down, lashing the farm, the house and actually everything unabatedly.  Up to a point it even became a bit scary.. and one night, in between showers, decided the dogs should now really go for a quick walk, so, after dark, put on warm clothes and the wellies (what a great buy !) and out I went... to hear strange sounds at the back of my cottage, and in front of the new guest cottage.. SPLASH.... SPLASH, continuously and had no clue what caused this disturbance, although, maybe a little clue in the back of my mind, but surely, not ?....  Got one of my lanterns from the house and shone it towards the noise, to find that, where the digger loader removed soil to make parking and future entertainment area, rocks  & soil were being washed away, and came a tumbling down onto the parking lot.. Its quite steep back there at places, and planned to build a retaining wall there at some stage, but it seemed 'too late' for that now.. The rains drenched the soil, was running down the slope and washing it away.. which caused the top soil to just fall down. In the end, it was not too severe but while its happening and you don't know when it will stop, its quite scary I can tell you..

Splash, Fledr, Crash.. strange sounds from the dark ! !

hmmm.. what now ?

So.. that next morning (Saturday) I immediately got some extra help from the village, and with the 5 of us started building the retaining wall.. in between the showers, and under cover of building plastic, so the cement, concrete and stones would not immediately wash away again.. That went very well, we had 2 guys rolling down small boulders from the upper slopes, and with the three of us we would stack them, make cement, throw gravel and what have you in between the soil and the nothingness, until our backs gave up, which was about 6 hours later..  We worked and slaved and managed to at least secure the lower parts of the wall, and continued that Monday ! It's not finished just yet, and looks like this right now......

retaining wall, not a moment too soon..

 So we managed to save the guest cottage from sliding onto the parking lot.. which made me happy ! You may also note that some paint was thrown at the cottage in the meantime and the doors and windows are all 'in' and so is the glass.. no easy feat if you consider that the glass sizes were all cut 1 cm too big, and had to be returned to the supplier, and fetched again at a later stage (each time 45 minutes drive)

Anyway.. the picture above gives you an impression of the first guest cottage.. sliding door to future terrace, that will be surrounded by fruit trees, so should guest be 'in season' they can pick their own fruit right outside their door.. how's that for service ?.. nice braai area will be included and of course the seating arrangements.. so left the 'lounge/bedroom area, and on the right the kitchen/dining with behind that the bathroom. Meadow with horses right in front ! 

And next an 'interior' shot, of how its looking at this very moment.. the boxes on the left are the solar geyser, to be installed next week (this time WITH electrical backup).. electricians have been and all switches and powerpoints are in place, to be connected in due course..The roof insulation has also arrived and will be put into place once all the painting has been done.. 5 cm polystyrene which works like a dream to keep the warmth in winter in, and the heat in summer OUT ! And looks nice too.. The beams have been oiled and will remain in full view, to give the interior that cottage feel ;-) The door in back is original and we'll try to preserve that, with the pre historic lock and all.. and crooked as is.. 

Then.. some fruit trees were planted a few days ago, since it was the right moon phase, and once they start 'going' a bit, I'll upload some pictures of my babies.. they are peaches, nectarines and apples,  the Mango's and Granadillas or Passiflora ligularis (my absolute favorites) will be added later, and are on order .

And all of a sudden the weather changed for the better end of last week and we proceeded to make another meadow for the horses, the one right in front here needs a rest, and a switch must  be made.. so the fencing is now in place and we moved the horses there yesterday ! We dug a deep hole and 'presto, there is a well on that slope," so drink in abundance, as well as grazing.. I 'miss' my horses now, cause they can't be seen anymore from my dining table, have to walk to the windows  to take a peek at them.. Happy horsies here on slightly over another hectare (2,5 acres)

This grass in combo with clover and other green stuff.. horsie heaven..Just look at the grass ;-)

Yesterday had a nice and surprise visitor, a lady who will become a friend, and was recommended by some other friends of mine in Cape Town, "she should definitely  come take a look at what I'm all up to", which she did, and we had a fabulous hack (out ride on horses for those not in the know). She also happens to be a journalist and wants to write about the project, what she already shared about her experience here with her friends on face book I would really like to quote  and it sounds promising ! 

"Had a fabuloutastic day and outride in Caledon at what is soon to be the hottest equestrian holiday spot within 2 hours of cape town :D"

Thanks Linda.. you really made my day with this sentence.. was great to meet you and will be looking forward to you bringing your friends, and us exploring the 'other' paths in the area.. what a lovely hack we had indeed,.. and the views .. the views.. too lovely.. the peace, the quiet,  the proteas, the birds,  well, let me stop here... It should be experienced, not described ;-)

And now the sun is out, after battling with the mist this morning.. all was yet again very humid and wet,

The sun, busy burning of the fog early this morning, as seen from my 'desk' ..

and am waiting for the warmth to dry the wood and some walls, and will proceed with some painting to day.. Work was very much delayed due to the enormous amounts of rain, and the cold so  hope to catch up some of the work on the dwellings in the next 10 days, since those should be dry and warm.. to day even 22 degrees, which will be a little later no doubt !

Spoke to my neighbor yesterday and he recommended I should hike to my waterfall, since its flowing like never before.. that, dear reader, I'll do sometime next week.. with one of my guys, since its a bit of a mission, and without cell phone reception in that particular area not a thing I would want to do alone.. I promise I'll take some pictures, so you can share it with me on my next blog.. Some new streams have formed on the land as well.. and  500 mtrs down the slope, on the land of the neighbor, one can nowadays hear a river run ! Amazing.

Enjoy the weekend !!!!!!!!

Rick

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