Loving how Living Soil feeds the soul

I am so sorry; you must have thought that I had succumbed to some farming mishap. Fortunately, not so. I simply did not get round to an inspired sit down with my laptop to share new farming learnings.

But today was a great day of working the cattle and teaching my dogs how to ride a quad bike. So I am at peace, with no corporate obligations chasing me down. I can finally share with you, the importance of compost.

Let me start by saying how much more into “organic agriculture” I am getting. Originally, when we bought the farm, I had said I wanted to be self-sufficient, and equally important, not deal with “poisons or chemicals”. Then when I moved to the farm, it was about national food security, and our moral obligation to look after our battered planet.

To that end, I have had to learn some tricks of the trade, on dealing with pests in the garden, without reverting to carcinogenic compounds. Some tricks are quite simple, and yet effective. But, if I am to stay within 600 words for this post, I shall leave those tips & tricks for another post and focus on composting for this post.

Paying attention

Recently I had the privilege to attend a workshop hosted by Namibian Organic Association, and nahop, on organic composting. There I learnt that organic farming is all about the soil. It is as simple as that.

https://noa.org.na/

https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrEnbUaSRVlvl8FRC1XNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzIEdnRpZANTWUMyNjA3OUNfMQRzZWMDc3I-/RV=2/RE=1695922586/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.facebook.com%2fpeople%2fNAHOP-National-Association-of-Horticulture-Producers%2f100064155511933%2f/RK=2/RS=8KGlRj2QD3ITB4lQfxeLqy6P_J0-

lecturers who care

Shout out to the 26 participants on the Organic Agriculture Training-Stampriet WhatsApp group. We are learning from each other’s postings, and Eckhart & Tangeni share their knowledge and experience freely.

I must borrow from our lecture, because keeping it simple allows you to focus on what you must do, rather than worry about why.

In turn, the bacterial colonies feed off the sugars, and break down soil particles to produce nutrients. Fungi attach to the plant roots, and take those nutrients provided by the bacteria, and water, to the plants.

So, if your soil is poor, there is nothing to break into nutrients. And if you add “artificial nutrients” you gain in the short term, with a powerful boost, but lose in the long term as the microbes, bacteria and fungi have nothing to live off. And they need to help the plant become a robust pest resilient plant over the long term. Not just produce pretty, but ultimately poor-quality fruit and vegetables.

If you page through my blog, you may see that I am in love with the red Kalahari sand. It feels good beneath your feet. (Except in high summer when it is too hot to handle ). I am always barefoot when it is socially appropriate, and sometimes when it not the social norm.

So as beautiful as the scenery is, the soil (or in this case, I should rather call is sand) it is not particularly nutritious.

So, I have taken the time to gather materials in my environment, at no cost other than “sweat equity”, and invested it into my own soil wealth. Let me paraphrase the crux of the full day learning we shared that day in Stampriet.

Mattrass, water, brown, water, green, water, brown, water, green, water etc. etc, ending with a blanket. Leave for a couple of weeks, you will feel it heat up by itself. Turn it, leave for another couple of weeks, then its ready to distribute in your plant beds.

Matrass being the first layer of branches. Required to create airflow under your file of organic matter.

It needs to aerate, which is why I have repurposed this old container webbing.

It is also necessary to wet each layer as you put it down, to feed to microbes and organisms that will be breaking down the plant material. Hopefully also providing water to some grubs (good for compost but try and leave out of the ultimate bedding) and earthworms.

Brown layers are wood chips, dried leaves, and grass etc. Provides useful carbon.

Green layers can include Bokashi (well matured), manure (cattle, chicken (including feathers and all that comes when you spring-clean the chicken coup)) even weeds and any green trimmings from tidying the garden. Kitchen waste (but avoid oils, citrus, and vinegar) also good.

I have taken a week or two to create my layer cake, I would say it needs another couple of weeks before I will turn it.

Demonstrating the benefits of mulching
Layer 1 – old vines in this case
next layer brown, and water
watering each layer
Woman power – finish with a blanket of straw
The finished layer cake
the group

So, when you garden, especially when you have your own little (or large) vegetable patch, think of “living soil” – the better you care for it, the better it will care for your plants.

Soil feeds the soul.

the origin of The Great Reset – thorn; coming out of COVID

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Inspired to share – Day 77 to 109

OK, today’s heading is a red herring. I have not written in a while, because “the muse” has left me. But today, I must revive her in whichever way.

Option 1 – what tabs are open on my laptop?

  1. Comprehensive written warning. (No, not for someone on the farm, it is to advise someone on some pitfalls). – Not a particularly positive sentiment to share.
  2. Fixed term contract. (Again, advising someone, and not necessarily something I want to regale you with.)
  3. Beneficial ownership forms. While I value transparency and appreciate what anti-money laundering bureaucracy is trying to manage, it is not a topic for today.
  4. Shopping list. I could expand on the typical groceries list for farm workers, and maybe inspire an on-line shopping & distribution solution for farm workers, but it is going to be a high-volume low value transaction. Besides which, airtime is too expensive, and smart phones are not necessarily widely available per individual.
  5. Produce excell spreadsheet. Aha, here I can share some thoughts, and do pre-launch publicity of the products I have been developing.

Food security

These little piggies did not make it to market – Simply irresistible

If you had met me in the last few months, you would know that I am particularly passionate about food security for Namibia. As a country, we export prime free-range beef. Yes, I am biased, yes it really is particularly superior beef. There is a little bit of local vegetable production but mostly we import food, fuel/oil, some energy and our currency is linked to the South African Rand. There is a whole debate behind that last part, which I will leave for a well-versed economist to expound on.

It would appear that Namibia is poised to become self-reliant (or at least actively participating in a conversation) on the fossil fuel front (bleh!), and on the renewable energy front (yeah for solar and green hydrogen) .

For as much as the world is a global village, and glocalisation is the way much business is conducted, it cannot be sustainable for a country to be reliant on imports for food. The minute there is a Russia Ukraine war, and 2 liter cooking oil increases from N$65 to N$125 within the space of a month, the denizens suffer. Large corporates like to pretend that they suffer, but the end grass roots user is the one that really bleeds in this specific scenario.

Namibia is a semi-arid country, which poses its own challenges for large scale agriculture. Regular droughts make investment in this sector risky, and as much as the commercial banks all have “agriculture” as a target sector, they themselves are bound by regulation and risk management practises that do not engender low value high volume production businesses.

Then there are the long distances between towns and villages. You can travel for a day, even on a gravel road, and pass by only 2 small villages, with perhaps a shebeen and not much else.

My word count is forcing me to get to the point.

I have changed careers, and am pursuing self-sustainable living, and contributing to food security of our nation.

Challenge number 1: Distribution

I have written before about how living off the land makes you an expert generalist. I have now engaged with an on-line store to take care of my distribution and revenue collection. This platform could work well for small scale farmers (specifically organic and “all natural” enthisiasts) to drop of their supply, collect their payment and charge back to the farm to manage the next round of crops.

It works well for the users who can collect, or have delivered to their doorstep.

Maketaan, peppadews, and variety Chevre
ChocChip, Seed Crackers, Labneh (yum!) and fancy lettuce
Peppery radishes and lettuce

Challenge number 2: Value vs volume

There is really not a lot of money in plain produce, not at the volumes I am operating at currently, and the distance makes fresh distribution problematic.

Fancy lettuce awaiting order & dispatch

Enter beneficiation. I first learned about this word when I was facilitating a risk management workshop for a diamond polishing company. And the Minister of Trade always said that Namibia needs to manufacture more.

By somehow preserving my produce (without using “chemical” preservatives – sorry Dad!) the shelf life is extended, I have somehow added more value to the product, and we are keeping our money within the borders of the country, no longer needing to import processed foodstuff.

Fresh , creamy Labneh
Bountifull Peppadew harvest
Selection of Chevre Ball Bites
The cheese maturation chamber
Some ways to preserve the small oranges harvest – Marmalade, and orange leather. aka dried fruit roll – except I struggled to roll it :-).

And to top it all, my baked goods (it really was worth investing in a SMEG full gas oven – I love baking) also contribute to local manufactured goods.

There is another story, quite a long story, behind the SMEG oven, but for now, let me just say thanks to Nictus Furnishers, for sorting my full gas vs gas hob electric oven issue, with no hassles…https://nictusonline.com.na/search?q=smeg

Challenge 3: Seasonal impact

Extending seasons I also address through dried herbs, spices, and certain vegetables.

Daikon style radish – works fantastic with stir fries
Calming camomile tea
Dried herbs & spices
Tomato Pasta Sauce & Tomato Jam
Dried beetroot, perfect for pseudo strawberry smoothies

So there you have it – How I am aiming to become self-sufficient with producing what I need, and effectively bartering with my excess for what I cannot produce.

Challenge 4: ESG. Specifically the environmental part.

Eco-friendly packaging. Either glass (which can be recycled – please do so), or bio-degradable packing, or multi use plastic in the worst case.

My ingredients I purchase from the Zero Waste store, eliminating excessive packaging in our landfills. https://www.zerowastestore.com.na/

As soon as I have concluded my distribution agreement, you can look forward to convenient on line shopping and door to door delivery.

Sourdough ChocChip Biscuits
Cant stop eating them
Sourdough Seed Crackers

I’m off to care for the baby-spinach which should be ready shortly.

Infant spinach

Taking the bull by its horns – day 76 of 365

Now that I have a title, I can play with the concepts to share today.

I started with the practical interpretation of the title, but I was using too many words, and worried about losing your interest. So, I adapted a snakes and ladders style of writing.

One step forward, two steps back.

Why did we call our bull Ganamede? I am not going to directly tackle this bull by its horns….

I would like to say that I named him after a divine hero in Greek mythology, Ganymede or Ganymedes, who Homer described as the most beautiful of mortals.

A bit closer to the truth, is that Ganymede, or Jupiter III, is the largest and most massive natural satellite of Jupiter as well as in the Solar System, being a planetary-mass moon.

Here’s Our First Close-up Image of Ganymede in Over Two Decades! – Lights in the Dark: Taking the bull by its horns – day 76 of 365

It is the largest Solar System object without an atmosphere, despite being the only moon of the Solar System with a magnetic field.

So, blessing the bull with a large-scale name would hopefully result in a massive bull with large scale offspring. But that is not the naming convention we were following.

Nor was it based on the “great hope of future colonisation” as implied through NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope finding possible evidence of an underground saltwater ocean (with more water than all of Earth’s surface) on Ganymede. Identifying liquid water is crucial in the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth and in the search for life as we know it.

This last explanation comes closest to the truth. As a “Trekkie” , I love the concept of space as the final frontier, and I am an avid Sci-Fi reader. I was reading a book where Ganymede was the base station for a rebel force that was planning to overthrow the corrupt shenanigans on Jupiter.

Yep, there you have the bull by its horns.

Now let me deal with the literal implications of the title.

Ganamede is our prime stock building bull. We bought him as an untested young male from a neighbour, and the only criticism was that his horns were not well treated, so they were growing out right next to his head.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Ganamede-mug-shot-768x1024.jpg

Why are cattle’s horns cut in the first place? Folklore will have you believe the horns take up all the testosterone, so a bull with horns will have less mass. But it is just a practical consideration – when working with animals in close quarters, horns are a danger to kin and kind, so that is the reason horn removal is practised.

Ganamede’s horns were growing crooked, and it was nearing the point where it would penetrate his eye. Urgent intervention was required.

We have heard many tips on how to deal with horn removal.

  1. There is an acid you can apply to young calves, which kills all future horn growth. But then you must isolate the calves from the mothers for 24 hours, because calves use their heads to thump mother on her udders as a not so gentle attempt to get better access to the milk on tap. And with that action, the acid on their baby horns may cause pain to the cow.
  2. We will be trying a new trick: a “bal rekkie” or “ball elastic”.  It’s a similar process to making bulls into “eunuchs”. You putt a very tight elastic band over the horns, right to the root of the horn, and the horns stop growing due to interrupted blood flow. But it is a slow process, and Ganamede’s horns were simply too big to be able to affix the elastic.
  3. Medical horn removal, which I don’t espouse for the trauma it would cause these large docile animals.
  4. Mechanical removal is the solution we opted for. Embryotomy wire is used to saw through the horns. Great care must be taken when positioning the cut, as you do not want to cut through the root of the horn, which will cause excessive bleeding, and in the heat of summer, flies may lay their eggs in such bleeding wounds. Tar is solution to stop the bleeding and prevent infestation, but better is to avoid open wounds in the first instance.
Embryotomy Wire

Thanks to Dr Theuns, who showed us how easy it was, with the least amount of stress to the animal, but not foregoing human safety while working with a half a ton brute force hot and bothered animal.

Here is another tool we have found to work well. It is important to keep the animal still, but it is difficult to convey to said animal, that they must keep still even if they are scared. We purchased an immobiliser which connects a negative terminal to the animal’s hind, a positive terminal to the skin at the corner of its mouth, and an electrical current then keeps the animal still (but not necessarily quiet).

Applying a tar salve, and good picture of positive terminal connection

I know, it seems a bit barbaric, but it was an essential procedure, and we could not put the animal down for the duration. Other options include a nose ring which physically restrains the animal, or a shock stick which is inserted… but let me leave that image just there, and rather show you the interesting composition of cattle horns.

For the closing credits, here is one happy chappy, who can eye all the lovely ladies, and procreate to his heart’s content.

Farmstyle R&R – Day 67 of 365

I am at a bit of loss for words this morning. Of all the topics I had lined up for discourse, none jumped out as a delectable portion of wordsmithing.

And if I am using such a word, I think its best I focus on the R&R of farm life for a change.

What has caught me off guard, is exactly how busy managing a farm can become. It starts early morning taking the dogs out for their ablutions.

Weetbix & Oxo

Simply because inhouse accidents will interfere with that first cup of coffee, and one cannot have that!

There is no life without water because water is needed to make coffee.

Then there is getting the house in order before staff arrive for the daily taking stock meeting, after which everyone disperses to attend to their allocated tasks.

Before you know it, its lunch, and you had forgotten to take something out the freezer. Luckily, new hobby number 1 comes in handy here. Sourdough baking.

Creativity in the kitchen is probably my favourite R&R activity. Not only have I finally gotten the art of sourdough bread down to a T (excluding the “open crumb ) , but I have also discovered great recipe’s that use the sourdough discard. Lunch therefore often becomes a “savoury sourdough discard crumpet,” as there is always bits and bobs in the fridge that can be used in a flavourful light lunch.

Discard also makes the best crackers, which will do in a  pinch for lunch with all manner of toppings. Especially the creamiest Labneh (Lebanese cream cheese, which I make from goats’ milk).

I can rarely sit still, so R&R will include some sort of creative pursuit, be it crochet (working on a stained-glass window effect for a bed spread here), knitting (with a treasured inheritance, thank you Marthana) or producing marketable product while listening to an audio book.

I mostly listen to sci-fi. And be warned here. Confusing Star Wars with Star Trek is a transgression akin to interrupting the first cup of coffee for the day.

TheGreatReset-thorn.com
Understanding the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars

An enjoyable R&R activity is taking a drive to visit all our livestock, even if you are “gater.”

New arrival
If I have to wear shoes
Like mother like son
Immersive experience
a smattering of kids

On the occasion that I do sit still, it is to savour the sand between my toes. Nothing beats a basic lunch out in the veld. Quick braai a “vlam worsie” and ponder the horizon and everything in between.

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the wind longs to play with your hair.

Khalil Gibran

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A scorpion’s tale is no joke – Day 53 of 365

In my last blog, I gave you a glimpse into my day-to-day life while settling into this living off the land sustainable lifestyle. I’m not going to bore you with self-congratulatory messages for sticking to my to do list, nor will I regale you with corporate stories from last week, because these last 20 hours have been most instructive for a wannabe rural farmer.

There is “Dramatic”, which I can do at the drop of a hat, for entertainment’s sake, and then there is “Traumatic”. Now, while my crises response mode is not “cool as a cucumber”, it is in fact, “cucumber ice-cream”, not being able to solve the problem is what brought me here to your counselling couch.

By now you may have picked up from my social media pages, that guard dog has been cloned, and now I have two.

Curious
and curious-er

When you visit you will understand the extent of the cloning allegation.

The original guard dog, by name of Weetbix, started acting weirdly last night during the humans’ dinner. The canine dinner had been served already, and Weetbix and Oxo had been jolling in the veld outside.

She came in limping. I inspected her paw for the inevitable duwweltjie (loosely translated as little devil, and a particularly innocuous little %$^ thorn) but found none. She was not overly complaining, but it was clear something was bugging her, and she kept gnawing at her hind paw. A few minutes later, she started shaking her head vigorously, and a few minutes more, she started gagging, with no “output”.  Thank goodness no output, because we were in the guest cabin, and I would have had to clean it up. Gagging myself nearly.

I put her outside (you reckon I was put outside as a child “to get over it”? ) and when I went to check up on her, she ran away. Very odd behaviour indeed.

Eventually we had her under the bright kitchen light, inspecting as best we could: her foot, her mouth, her cheeks, her ears, her throat, her tummy; all of which she dutifully allowed.

She continued that behaviour for more than an hour, and it was time to revert to Dr Google. Yep, you guessed correctly, the most likely diagnose was scorpion sting. The rabbit hole that is Google just caused more concern and confusion with poisonous or not, and its not like I was going back into the veld in the dark of the night looking for “the One with the missing stinger”.

Here I test your mettle: Do you jump in the car and travel to the nearest vet? Yes, or no?

And if the nearest vet is 200km in the dark on gravel roads on which you will most likely come across massive kudus? Yes, or no?

Having made her as comfortable as I could and having made peace with the probable indoor toilet drama, we waited out the night. Not pleasant. Not when she loudly yelps every half hour or so. Which I think was caused by her brother bumping against her hind quarters during the night.

I was very relieved when the very friendly vet in the nearest town, Dr Gaugler, answered my midnight question at 7am. Given the symptoms described and displayed in one of the middle of the night scenes, he also guessed scorpion, but he did not comment on my question whether I could administer a quarter tablet of disprin. It’s just as well he didn’t, because she was not interested in drinking anything, and how was I going to administer it? (Suppository apparently…. Not sure about that one!)

By this time, she was weak in the legs, and could not stand when I took her outside to relieve herself. Decision made, I jumped in the car, and drove (as a sensible speed given the gravel road and my experience in rolling a car) the 1,5 hours to the nearest town.

By this time, she was exhibiting signs of her friendly self, and allowed me and the vet to poke and prod her. I knew she was going the be OK when she excitedly thought the injection the vet was unwrapping, was a doggie treat. And by the time we got home, she was her old self.

Conclusion:

  • Maybe she would have survived the incident without a 320km round trip visit to the vet.
  • I have used disprin for goat kid injuries before, and will do it with dogs in need, but you make your own choice there.
  • Dogs’ pain manifests in a myriad of ways.
  • Dr Gaugler understands pets under stress; and humans under stress.
  • Farming is not for the faint hearted.

Good night, everyone!