# North and South



## WantonWoodsman (Sep 21, 2016)

I don't know how to write a journal or even a blog....but this will be my rambling spot. I apologize if any or all of the pics have been posted before. I just thought I'd like to have them all in one spot.

North and South? My wife and I live in South Africa. We purchased land in the Northwestern Province. A nice spot.....filled with weeds, rocks, snakes, spiders and a few things that I haven't quite identified yet.

Actually it was more of a desperate longing to get away from the city that finalized the purchase. (5.93053 Acres. No trees, no water, no electricity)






I'll add some pics as I go along. I will update often as I cannot type more than a couple of sentences at a time. Did I mention that the land was also void of any buildings or structures. So after drilling for water which we found at 23 metres (75 feet 5,512 inches) we applied for electricity. In the meantime, we erected a small wood cabin......just to have a roof over our heads. We also decided to plant some olive trees (120 of them)

No pics of the trees though. They were turned to ashes 'bout 3 weeks after being planted.





With all the trees gone....we decided to build a vegetable tunnel. Fortunately the spot we chose was rock free. Digging the foundation and pouring the concrete by hand took us a while though.





With the structure completed....we decided to cover it with greenhouse plastic.


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## Latestarter (Sep 21, 2016)

Great that you're starting a journal! Sorry you lost all your olive trees. Looking forward to your pics and story!


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## babsbag (Sep 21, 2016)

Sorry about the olive trees. I was really excited reading that you planted some, I was going to ask about harvesting and curing...then I read that you lost them all. Darn.  Greenhouse looks really good.


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## WantonWoodsman (Sep 21, 2016)

@Latestarter @babsbag Thank you. We were just as exited about the idea of harvesting and curing. Did all the research beforehand. But anyhow...... The tunnel was up and being the eager beavers we are, we conditioned the soil and started planting. What better month than spring......right?





On the 12th of October we had a severe cold front sweeping through.....leaving all the crops in a semi frozen/thawed out state. Turning all the plants and crops into compost was the eventual outcome. Nine months later a mini Twister (In bad need of attending an anger management seminar) ripped the plastic to shreds.

Down on our knees....but not beaten yet, we started closing up the tunnel with corrugated sheeting.





Setting the rows to obtain the most sunlight throughout the day was our first obstacle with the new cover.





At last.....I could start selling veggies. Yay!

Frost in spring season seems to be quite common in our area.





Frozen beans (These were planted outside)





This unfortunate plant had too much to drink before bedtime the previous evening. Lol


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## babsbag (Sep 21, 2016)

When I read of things like this I am so thankful that my biggest garden problems are my own rogue chickens and mice/rats eating my seedlings. Both are easy to control compared your twister and frost. I have a long growing season, mid April through usually mid Nov.  A late freeze will often take out my Apricot crop so I have planted a dwarf tree on my front porch in a wine barrel. I can coddle that one if it freezes late.  My winters can be cold, sometimes as low as 17°F but most of the time it stays above freezing...barely. My summers are hot and dry, but that is really the perfect growing environment for most annual vegetables.


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## Mike CHS (Sep 21, 2016)

I'm really looking forward to more of your journal.  Many people would have given up with a fraction of what you guys have had happened.


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## Latestarter (Sep 21, 2016)

Jeeze... one calamity after another... Makes you wonder huh? I wasn't aware that SA had freezes...  Hope everything has gone good for you so far this year.


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## Baymule (Sep 21, 2016)

What is your growing season? Here last frost can be April or May, first frost usually in November, can be as early as October. Winters are mild, can dip into the 20's, but not for long. We can get snow, but it is gone in 3 days.


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## WantonWoodsman (Sep 22, 2016)

@babsbag Our lowest temp dips to 10.4°F but that is not always the problem. It's the other guy. (Jack Frost......only joking....black frost) I n extreme cases the bark actually pops off the tree or shrub.



 

Then we have our fair share of rogue chickens, moles, voles,
pheasants, guinea fowl, hare, mongoose, bugs, locusts......oh no this list is most probably gonna fill a page! Lol



 

Pity I can't get hold of some wine barrels here. Great idea you've got there.


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## WantonWoodsman (Sep 22, 2016)

@Mike CHS Thank you. Your kind words make me feel like a survivor! Awesome. Love the feedback!

@Latestarter Lol. Calamity Survivalist! This year was okay. Lost my job, lost 2 lambs, had severe mechanical breakdown on our vehicle (22000 ZAR /1581.875 USD)

Other than that it's been an awesome year so far. We are alive and that counts for a lot. Lol

@Baymule Growing season should be September to March. But we have experienced late frost in October months and early frost in early March.

Thank you


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## WantonWoodsman (Sep 22, 2016)

Okay...enough grim tales for now. Every smallholding/farm needs a good guard dog or two to keep all the predators at a safe distance.......

First pic. Spike - Jack Russell - Extremely vicious......licks all his victims to death and regularly prays for reincarnation of the deceased bones


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## AClark (Sep 22, 2016)

I think sometimes the trials and tribulation of it all is meant to be there to give us strength to keep on going. You can either let it defeat you, or try harder!


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## babsbag (Sep 22, 2016)

What are the little bugs you showed a picture of?

Love the dog. Dogs are the BEST. But I am cat lady too so cats are also the BEST


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## Baymule (Sep 22, 2016)

We all have our bugs to fight. I don't use poisons because I also have beneficial bugs and I don't want to kill them.


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## WantonWoodsman (Sep 22, 2016)

@AClark Your words are so true. (When the going gets tough....the tough get going) Something like that. Lol

@babsbag Those are locusts. Ugly looking buggers! I love cats too, but it's too risky to try and bring one home. Spike and the two others would trnansform into terminators. Lol

@Baymule I don't believe in pesticides either.....that's why I'm fighting a losing battle. I whack those hoppers with a spade.


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## Alexz7272 (Sep 22, 2016)

What you have done is amazing so far! I am loving your progress and resilience, all I can say is wow and great job


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## WantonWoodsman (Sep 22, 2016)

@Alexz7272 Thank you.


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## micah wotring (Sep 22, 2016)

Oh, cool! Good job! Man, being in a different place really changes farming/homesteading/prepping. I mean, here(WV) we need to clear land to graze animals but out west everything is all about water. It's been great to have you on the forum! BTW I kinda know what you mean about north/south. I'm on NORTHern WEST Virginia, an EASTern state, SOUTH of the mason dixon line. XD
Anyway, great job!

MW


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## WantonWoodsman (Sep 22, 2016)

@micah wotring Thank you so much. You mention that it has been great having me on the forum.....has been? Am I on my way out?  Like your version of North/East/South/West


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## WantonWoodsman (Sep 23, 2016)

Its the 23rd day of Spring and haven't felt a drop of rain yet. Starting to worry that this will be another very dry year. 

Okay....next up is Nikita - One of Spike's pups that we kept. If I could train her to dig in a straight line, I would have my own epol driven Rotavator. 






 

Then we have Sammy - Not quite sure of the breed. She was a stray that we found where I used to work. She was a living X-Ray and was covered in bitumen. We had to use paraffin to remove it. She spends most of her time digging in my flower beds as she loves beetles & earthworms.



 


 

Well, that's it for now.....hands are acting up again and I have to go and tend to our sheep.


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## babsbag (Sep 23, 2016)

Locust...eeew. I am not squeamish about most things but large bugs that fly are on the top of my list. For some strange reason I envision getting them stuck in my hair.


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## micah wotring (Sep 23, 2016)

WantonWoodsman said:


> @micah wotring Thank you so much. You mention that it has been great having me on the forum.....has been? Am I on my way out?  Like your version of North/East/South/West


XD nah
Yeah, I use that often.


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## WantonWoodsman (Sep 23, 2016)

@babsbag I can only imagine.....


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## WantonWoodsman (Sep 23, 2016)

As for my sheep....On the 29th of March 2015 we bought our Dormer ram from Abrica Stud. We named him Grootseun (Big Boy) He weighed in @ 270 lbs! Some of you might have read my post (Sheep from Far Far Away) but for those who didn't.... We went out looking for an ewe and came back with 7 Dorper ewe's on the 6th of April 2015.

We had 4 lambs born by the 19th of September 2015. They were sold off. (4 Rams - Rodeo, Zorro, Blacky & Snowflake) We now have 14 ewe's and 2 rams. My wife mentioned that we should limit ourselves to only keeping a few....at the rate that she grows fond of them, I'll have double the amount in no time. 

Oh....we returned our first ram (Grootseun) to the stud and exchanged him for a younger less aggressive ram. Lol

This was Grootseun



 

Our new ram (The one with the hen on his back)


 

Grootseun with his ewe's


 

The 5 new ewe's we added in February this year. 


 

We lost 2 lambs in July this year, but we are keeping the other 4. Will post pics of them tomorrow.


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## WantonWoodsman (Sep 26, 2016)

Sorry all. Just wasn't up to it. But let's start with Zoey. Born 12th of July this year.





Next up Emmett. Born 20th July.





Okay that's 2 down 2 to go. Will follow shortly. 

A bit off the current topic but hey I am so excited. I planted some Elsedina Iris last season and the first one bloomed yesterday. Everything is starting to sprout new leaves and the color of green is so welcome after all the brown I had to stare at for sooooo long. Lol. 

It's kinda funny how most people want everything for free......even when they know you are unemployed and struggling to survive. I placed an advert to sell off some of my plants/flowers and was quite amazed at how many of the folks that know me......asked if I couldn't give them some for free.

But anyhow....this is my first pic on the Elsedina Iris.


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## babsbag (Sep 28, 2016)

The sheep are very good looking, both of those rams are nice. If your wife's fondness for sheep is anywhere near my goat addiction you better be very very careful. I have gone from 3 to 40+ in 8 years. 

The iris is really pretty. We are just getting ready to go into winter so brown and dreary is just around the corner for me. We don't get any rain here after the end of May until Oct. so brown is pretty much the color here more than green. I plant a lot of flowers, mostly for the bees. Right now there isn't much in bloom and I am always looking for late summer/fall flowers for the bees...and for me. I even let weeds bloom this time of year just to give the bees their last supper. Wild mustard and clover in my lawn are in bloom right now.

I cured my first olives today. I soaked them in lye for about 10 hours and for the next 7-8 days I will be rinsing them frequently and then into the brine. These are green olives, I would like to do black ones but they seem to take a bit more work so I started with the easy ones.  

Now that I have the olives under my belt my foray into making apple cider is right around the corner. I was going to make some Honey Peach mead too but the freezer with all of my frozen fruit had the door left open and I lost all of the fruit I had frozen for the mead. Also lost all of my frozen goat's milk for soap, and a lot of goat meat.   Fortunately the pork, beef, and more goat was in other freezers and the goats are still in milk, but I really mourn the loss of all of that fruit.


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## micah wotring (Sep 28, 2016)

babsbag said:


> Now that I have the olives under my belt my foray into making apple cider is right around the corner. I was going to make some Honey Peach mead too but the freezer with all of my frozen fruit had the door left open and I lost all of the fruit I had frozen for the mead. Also lost all of my frozen goat's milk for soap, and a lot of goat meat.  Fortunately the pork, beef, and more goat was in other freezers and the goats are still in milk, but I really mourn the loss of all of that fruit.


Oh, apple cider is the best! I like it hot too. Every year lots of people in the neighborhood come to Ed's barn(the biggest and the cleanest) and we have a big barn dance and drink apple cider all evening. It's a blast.
My sister is looking into mead. She has two different flavors of wine going(fermenting?) right now and we'll be getting bees next summer.
Back to apple cider though, Try it You'll Like it. no, you'll LOVE IT! It's gotta be a little thick though. Much thicker than store bought.

I'd better shut up and get back to working on my school. :/


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## misfitmorgan (Dec 13, 2016)

Wow crazy adventures you guys have!

I hope your growing season has gotten better for you.


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