Abundance

Living with restricted electricity and water makes you appreciate these things more. I was pondering this as i washed my hands somewhere in town the other day, just watching the water run through my fingers, wastefully.

But as Buckminster Fuller would tell us, we live in abundance. We have infinite sunshine supplies. Add to that the local specificity and we have an abundance of:

• Pallette wood – we just have to pick it up
• Cabling – so much now useless hig quality electrical cabling lying around
• Bamboo – we sure have a lot of that
• Water – it comes when it rains (or we can find it in the canals or the groundwater)
• Blackberries – the jam-amking season is begun!

Water update

Seems appropriate to do an update on the water situation when it is chucking it down outside. It’s the first rain for two weeks, since i worked on the gutter actually and i’ve been waiting for a chance to test the new gutter, which is now feeding into a second IBC.

It seems to be working out … I did bolt the two new gutter parts together, but that will still need to be plugged to stop water coming through, but then three points of leakage (one into the IBC) is better than many drips!

The pond itself is still looking quite sick, going yellow before the rains made it look healthier again. I spoke to the neighbour and he suggested running a hose from the sloot. I’m already running a siphon but it seems to stop working frequently, probably becuase the water is quite silty. I dug down into the bank to have a look and i found some very large holes dug by animals going through the clay layer, so i suppose over time rats and whatnot have pierced the waterproofing of the lake… not sure qhat can be done about that, unless i leave it to groundwater levels which are currently low since it’s been generally so dry (with occasional mad rain).

Gutted

Well after a week of rain i must say i’ve realised that i’m spending too much time moving water around and getting soaked in the process. Whilst it is fun and does make me feel like I’ve showered when i haven’t, it’s not really sustainable or practical…

The gutter on one side of the house has fallen off, so i’ve been collecting water in an assortment of buckets and basins and then pouring it down pipes into the pond to try to keep it from drying up. This has been depressingly ineffective until this week when it has rained a shitload (the IBC went from zero to 1000 litres in two days!!). I’ve also worked out how to siphon water from the sloot and i’ve been emptying the IBC periodically, so now finally the pond is filling up again and the lilies look happier.

Fuck knows why it got so low, i thought it was on ground water but seemingly it’s not. Until this week, july has been very very dry, so maybe it’s just that. But you can see from where i painted the bridge that now the water is 20cm lower than it was three months ago..

Anyhoo, now things are improving, since we skipped some huge bits of metal which have formed an imporvised gutter which makes the roof leak only in three places now. Once i buy some bolts, it should reduce to two places. The plan is to install the second IBC under one of these places. Then we’re in business. And i don’t have to run around getting drenched any more!!

Weather grumbles

The weather has been annoying lately, sunny days turning to rain and vice versa. No mater what weather app I use, it seems impossible to predict when it’s going to be wet. This has been frustrating since the gutter broke just next to the IBC and so water was dripping down next to the IBC but not going into it. Thus I needed a dry day to fix it (and a million years to scratch my head and ponder how to get the gutters to drain better, even though it should be simple). I was finally able to get to that yesterday, I hope the bodge I did involving gaffer tape and superglue (the old favourites) will be enough to make it work.

Lack of rain has also been a problem regarding the pond, which seems to be steadily drying up. I’m not sure the reason for this, I thought it was at ground water level, now im not sure since the sloot seems to be at the same level as before. Maybe the pond does this every year? Nevertheless it is now getting lower and lower, many of the lilies are now in mud not water. I’ve been siphoning water down from the IBC and trying unsuccessfully to get water from the sloot.

To end on a happy note, today I saw the first dragonfly on the terrain!!

Garden update

So after a week away at this crucial period of the year, how is the garden shaping up?

Well, the potatoes are doing very well, the rucola needs to get its arse in gear, the cabbages under the cloche have done well, some of the radish have arrived (we ate the first one today actually!) and the beans and peas are a disaster.

In terms of seeding, well not much is growing so i planted a new batch of squash and courgette today.

Also we moved the cloche and put in spinach, peas, boerkole and rucola. Let’s see what grows, if anything!!

Still waiting on the marijuana….

The hops and mint in the front seem to be lapping up the sunshine. In fact, the hops need more bamboo to be trained along, reminds me of the vine in Brighton I had, as long as you provide the sun and the training, those vines just go for it.

Was supposed to rain today but didn’t, did a bit yesterday. In the week we were gone, the IBC filled up about halfway so luckily there was some rain.

I did manage to fall off a ladder today, that was fun!
[I can say that because i walked away unharmed]