Incredible cloud activity

Suddenly there has been a change in the weather.

This afternoon this storm thundered in from the south west with clouds of dust in the vanguard. Suddenly there it was. Low, ominous and cold. Cold clouds are hail clouds and the anguish of a crop threatened surface.

The beauty of the swirling, low vapour was just incredible. It rained hard for a while and has been drizzling since. The view is towards "Letterkop"

Christmas in the southern hemisphere

The Christmas Festival is a Northern Hemisphere designed thing. It is mid winter. The days are short and the nights long. The harvests are in and the life cycle of summer growth is over. It is time to close the book on last summer and open the book for the coming summer. It makes sense to choose the "winter solstice" for a festival event and for the end of the year and the beginning of the next.

This decision was taken without consulting us poor southern hemisphere-ers.

It is mid summer here and blisteringly hot!! Last week the daytime temperatures were over +40C daytime and cooling to a night time minimum of +28C.

We have a crop this summer, but for which year??? It is cut in two.

I think we should have these events and festivals in July. Mid winter.

My Grandmother (English father and German mother) made a fuss of doing the house and verandah with Christmas decorations. The flower of the Mexican Aloe (picture) when dry was cut and put into a drum with stones to hold it upright. This went onto the verandah.

A branch of a Mimosa tree with the distinctive yellow pom-poms and white thorns decorated inside.

Cotton wool is then placed on it for the snow effect!!

The festival meal is also a must. And it MUST be in the traditional way. Hot dishes and meats of every description. Hot puddings with brandy sauce. A treat so large and special we continue picking off the remains for days!!

All in mid-summer!!!!!!!

So you northern hemispher-ers - think of us at the change of the year and our umbilical attachment to the festivals you invented!!

HAVE FUN + ALL THE VERY BEST GREETINGS AND WISHES FROM THE ROUX FAMILY. (Roux is French of course. We left Orange in Provence in 1688)

We will be swimming in the sea on New Years day. Sun-bathing, golfing, and a few cold beers or a glass of sauvignon blanc.

Sounds good to me!!

Mowed grass in orchard December 2006

In December each year we mow down the orchard rows.

The reason for this is to lower the grass affecting the spray patern of the sprinker that it positioned between each tree. The area around the sprinkler to the mowed strip is cut with a "weed-eater"

What does "organic" mean? / Why certification is important

Both these concepts are dealt with during August 2006. See the Archives.

It is something that needs to be understood and debated.
All too often the word is used for commercial gain alone without regard for the land, the agricultural practitioner (farmer) or the consumer.
This is particularly so for industrial sized retail outlets.

It is vital that the word "Organic" as a label on products is qualified by a standard KNOWN to the customer, and that the point of production (or the name of the person or group that paid for the certification) is clearly marked on the label.

As a consumer, you must know who paid for the certification, and that persons address should be included on the label.

Farming "mushroom clouds"

It is the unfortunate standard practice for cash croppers of wheat and maize to burn the residue straight after harvesting.

In December each year the farmers with centre-pivot irrigation along the Orange River harvest the wheat. There is a limited window to plant a second summer crop of maize, and to save time, the wheat straw is burned.

The result is these massive mushroom clouds of smoke.

They appear each morning and evening and rise thousands of meters into the atmosphere polluting the air and stratosphere.

This smoke (from South Africa) has been detected in the jet streams across the Atlantic in South America.

Is it not possible to put pressure on South African farmers to cease this practice?

A large percentage of the cloud is water vapour, and for a desert environment like ours to burn irrigated water seems to be a squandering of a scarse resource. These circles of burning straw are between 70 and 150 hectares large, and there are hundreds (if not thousands) of circles along the river. In the background sky you can see the dissapated smoke from other fires.

I wish that I could be around when this practice is finally banned - as it should be.

Hard to like baboons

In 1997 I planted this tree. It is a Choctaw. The harvest of 2006 was the first time it had a few nuts on it. This season, for the crop of 2007 it has quite a few nuts on it, and it is expected to reach the prime of its' life ion 4 years.
We have waited TEN years, paid interest, watered and looked forward to getting a return from it at last . Yesterday a baboon stripped the bark off the stem of the tree to ground level. The teeth marks can clearly be seen on the stem. This tree is effectively dead.
It means that we start again by planting a new tree in August 2007. This spot in the orchard will take almost 20 years to yield a return.
This is half my productive life as a farmer. It kind of dents the enthusiasm.
It is very hard to be philosophical about it, and certainly does not endear Chacma baboon to
Homo Sapien Farmer!!!
Businesses are protected against thieves by courts and prison sentences. Who would tolerate willfull damage to their business like this in a city?
And, when the farmer gets to town with his produce, it is poked, turned over, tossed back with the thought "......... too expensive".

Sable antelope at moonrise

On Sunday we returned from "Vogelvlei", the farm of Sandy's family in the Dordrecht area of the Eastern Cape. Between Colesberg and Petrusville we came across three Sable bulls. This one in the moonrise at sunset captures the moment. It is quite a special thing to spend time in the company of these rare antelope.