Hi there from sunny South Africa

[Denim Deb]

Welcome! I'm looking forward to reading about your progress! (I finally found where all the smilies are)

I keep hitting the post reply button when I want to use a smilie. And, if I don't have anything else typed yet, then I get an error message.

 

[Wannabefree]

Welcome back!

 

[baymule]

I can't wait to hear more about your farm! And Pictures too! Isn't the internet a marvelous tool for us to learn more about each other, no matter where you are? Glad you got the email and came back!

 

[naturegirl]

Hi everybody! Have just come back from the farm after spending 5 days all on my own. This time I did not have to worry about rain and floods, but rather extreme heat. On the weekend and Monday we had over 40 deg Celsius, with Sunday hitting a high of 43 Degrees!!!

Luckily the heat we experience is not humid, but rather dry. If it were humid I think that I would crack! The only way any of the farmers here can function in the middle of our summers is by starting in the early hours of the morning, at about 4 am (as soon as it starts getting light), taking time off during the middle and hottest hours of the day, and then starting again in the late hours of the afternoon. The only poor guys who cannot do this are some of the dairy farmers who start milking at 2pm!

We were very lucky to be able to buy our little place in the best place in the whole of South Africa, we get rain right through the entire year. Our drinking water is rain water caught on our roof, and is collected in a 750lt drum. We have never run out of water, in spite of the terrible summer heats, and my using the water to do our laundry. If I used the dam water to do laundry, everything would be stained brown. We will be basically setting up a tank farm, as we catch all our drinking, cooking and laundry water from our roofs. We are not lucky enough to have a spring to get white water.

We are planning to build 3 small cottages, the main farm house, a big shed, as well a Kraal/stable complex to house our animals at night. Each and every roof on this little farm will have to do its duty and catch as much rain as it can, even the chicken coop!

Our building laws in the western cape have been changed to include the farming and rural areas. We now have to put in building plans to the local municipalities for pig sties, chicken coops, stables, etc, you name it! If you want to build paddocks on your land, you have to have a plan for it. The government is already talking about taxing solar power panels and wind generators. This is becoming ridiculous. We are already paying a fortune on buying the equipment, paying VAT on the purchase price, paying land taxes, paying water taxes, now we are going to be paying taxes on the sun and wind? They are also going to tax farmers on carbon gasses that are produced by their livestock by the middle of 2015. The law is already in existence, they are just still trying to work out how they are going to apply it. This law applies to the whole of SA. This is really a comedy, except that it is a tragedy/comedy!!!!

 

[Marianne]

And they say rules like this are to help and protect us. Oh har.

 

[Denim Deb]

Sounds like the whole world is running amok!