Three weeks at Kruistementvlei

We worked as volunteers on Kruistementvlei Farm on top of Piketberg Mountain (called Piket-Bo-Berg) for three weeks this March, and it was wonderful. We did all sorts of different jobs on the farm, from improving a hiking trail to picking almonds to website designing, and with our trusty project manager mom to keep it all together (and 'oom' Jeremy to shake up her plans now and then), our stay was satisfactory and fun. Thank you 'oom' Jeremy and 'tannie' Riette Bryant for your hospitality!

Our first task was to help with the Farmers Market held at Kruistementvlei Farm every month. With a live local band in the background, the setting is very relaxed and more about the 'kuier' than anything else. Mom had a stall for her books, I helped at tannie Riette's stall, and the boys very enthusiastically sold their own 'organic firelighters', made from 'slangbos' and kindling the previous day.

Happy girls are pretty girls.

The 'slangbos' contains a lot of oil, thus it makes a good fire starter. 

We improved a short hiking trail around their farm, designed a new map and made signposts for the different cottages and features around the farm.

Newly painted. 

Dad learned to rout (here he's making a sign for the 'Hog House', a quaint open plan cottage where we stayed most of the time).  

Varnishing the signboards. 

Some of the boards also had to be painted. 

I designed a new logo for the farm, which had to replace the current one on some boards. Here Maarten is putting the new logo up with the stapler gun.

We learned a lot from the Bryants, especially from oom Jeremy about soil and soil improvement. They not only walk their talk, but also involve visitors to the farm in the process. By using dry compost toilets, they make compost and return it to the soil instead of polluting their groundwater (which basically every other kind of toilet does, according to The Humanure Handbook, a very interesting read if you ever have time).

Words like 'permaculture', 'hugelkultur' and 'swales' feature here, and during our stay we even worked on artificial swales. We were made aware of movements like The Urban Farming Guys, and watched some very interesting documentaries such as The Man Who Stopped the Desert.

Oom Jeremy is also a big fan of mulching, and have multiple chippers (mulching machines) on the farm. The boys enjoyed it immensely.

Working on the swales. Swales are basically low tracts of land and are designed to manage water runoff, filter pollutants, and increase rainwater infiltration. We layered it with cardboard (to soak up water), and then filled it up with wood and organic material. 

First time mulching with the small chipper. 

The big chipper in action. It's literally chewing up the whole branch. 

Farewell to the Kammanassie and 2015!

It is not only the end of one of the most amazing and unexpected seasons ever in our lives, but also the end of 2015!! Tomorrow we are leaving St. Ancothesa farm and the stunning Kammanassie valley behind, with sadness but also peace of heart, knowing it is time to move on and that there is much still to come.

We love this place, and we love the people too - thanks and thoughts to all the neighbors; the Burgers, the Keysers, Hannes and his mom, the Esterhuizens, and the Minnies, de Jagers and Van Roon-Giffords in George as well as Apools and co.

Places in the valley...

Driving to Uniondale. 

Sunrise on our 'stoep'....

....and the view. 

The swimming spring dam. 

We took so many pictures when going on walks...

Uniondale's unique liquor store. 

Goodbye Kammanassie, and happy New Year!!

Farm Boys - A Trip Down Memory Lane

As our time on the farm runs out, we've been thinking and looking back to what we've done and learned. This post is dedicated to the gang of boys that has played and had fun here on the farm during our stay, who welcomed Theuns and Maarten (though shy at first), and made them temporary farm boys as well.

Every week (as far as needed/possible), Theuns and Maarten has looked after and played with Diesel on Thursdays and Fridays - we've all come to love him as a youngest brother. By all means the farthest thing from shy and quiet, Diesel, Theuns and Maarten has done everything from collecting straw for piglets, to reading, drawing, swimming, and building mudmen.

Winter floods and swimming - they were blue afterwards. 

Card-house smiles. 

Endless drawing (he makes them draw a picture then colors it in himself). 

'Working' getting straw for the piglets. 

Temporarily water drawing, with ice as a medium. 

Reading. 

We love you, Diesel. 

With plenty of hills and bikes available, racing downhill has been an adrenaline filled entertainment.

The boys are back in town...

Diesel brakes barefoot; not the others though. They aren't that tough. 

Sometimes, racing and swimming even got combined! Video - Diesel in action! 

Then there has been exploring and digging tunnels....

Friends, Mountains, and Stars

Recently we've had some friends come visit for a weekend - it was lovely seeing them again and we had a fun time showing them around the farm. In between the 'kuier', 'braai' (not barbecue) and eating, we went on some long walks, and because of the (wonderful) warm weather even had a surprise first-of-the-season swim!!

There was an incredible amount of flowers in the veld, but all different from what I documented in September. 

Smile! 

Break time. 

Proof for the first-of-the-season swim. 

I asked them to wave, but the result was better.  

Animals Farewell - Horses' New Home and Piglets Gone

Earlier in September, our 2 ponies Arend and Valk found a new home... Because we are only staying on the farm until the end of the year, we knew from the start we would have to sell them again. They taught us many lessons, and we have been blessed by the opportunity to have had horses and getting some valuable experience and life lessons.

What triggered the sale so soon though, was the planting of new orchards. Their camp (and grazing/food) next to our house is now a young fig orchard.

The new owners live on a farm in the Baviaans, and we are sure they will take good care of the ponies - so after having come to visit and see Arend and Valk once, the next step was to figure out the transporting business. 

After weighing Arend on the cattle scale, we determined that the 2 ponies together on a trailer would still be under the weight limit. Thus, the trailer it was! 

First, they tried coaxing Arend on, thinking that if they could get him on Valk would quickly follow. Unfortunately they had underestimated Arend's stubbornness. 

Tempting with treats...

He refused to budge. 

New Orchards

Since June, preparations has begun for the planting of new fig and almond orchards. It has been an interesting process to observe! The new fig orchard is directly next to our house, and we've spent a few annoying days trying to concentrate on school with the loud clankings of a bulldozer ripping the (rock-hard) 'Klein Karoo' soil next door....

First, Charles in the TLB cleared the area of 'veld', aka mostly 'renosterbossies' (a very tough but useless plant that abounds in the Karoo) and thorn trees. It is quite impressive watching him work as he knocks over trees and crushes shrubbery.

Mechanical advantages.

The heap of vegetation is left for a few days to dry and then burned.

Cleared enough for the next step. 

Once most flora is removed, it is time for the bulldozer to go to work. 'Oom' Jan rented the bulldozer per day, and the bulldozer rips the soil.

Of course pipes had to be removed before the bulldozer rips ("if that's our house's water....").

The thick, strong pens.

Nice neat rows of surprisingly deep 'trenches'.

 Symmetry.

While the bulldozer was still ripping, the little fig and almond saplings arrived (at first we thought it was just sticks haha). As their new home was not yet ready, trenches had to be dug real quick and the saplings kept moist.

'Tipis'.

 

Auction Time

A while ago, there was some commotion down the road and when we went to investigate, cattle were being loaded onto a transport truck. 'Oom' Jan was taking sheep and cattle to a nearby auction the next day, and we decided to go check it out. We've been to auctions before, but all auctions are different and we figured it would be a fun outing. 

Loading the first bunch. 

Monkey tactics. 

The second bunch. 

Done!

 Sheep business.

It was a cattle and sheep auction (there are different auctions for different animals), and before they started, we walked around and checked out the process of how the animals got into the pens. First, the entire transporting vehicle including animals are weighed, and then the animals are unloaded and put into their pens. The vehicle is weighed again (minus the animals) so the total weight of the animals can be determined. 

Que for the (giant) scale. 

Empty pens awaiting occupants. 

A (literal) leap of faith for the sheep. 

Some brave ones who weren't supposed to jump. 

Chased to their pens. 

Groups of animals are sold by average weight (dividing the weight of the group by the number of animals). If an owner is selling animals in different groups but all of them were brought to the auction on one vehicle, once one group is unloaded the rest of the animals still on the vehicle has to be weighed again.

Before the auction started, we took a look at some of the livestock already in pens. From tiny calves (sold with their mothers, of course) to huge bulls, rams, ewes and lambs of different breeds of sheep; all awaiting their fate. 

Photographer and assistant (in the making). 

Soft and fuzzy...