The ladies toilets cistern were not working properly and Mr Forlee had time today to come and fix them so we needed to go out as well. Apart from discussing the toilet problems with him we also managed to do the following: Replaced the wires under the soil in the misting house which meant removing […]
After all the wiring and the first test run last week it needed a small change to the Raspberry program to make the pump controller live. It was quite nerve wracking to have set it for 10 o’clock and having to wait and it was a relief that it worked flawlessly. In the meantime Jenny
2018.04.18 It was a special feeling today to approach the hide on a foggy morning and to see it almost complete. No doubt there will be remarks that there are few birds and, while the vegetation still recovers from the fire, that is probably true but we hope that the hide will provide a tranquil
The Hide–Final touches Read More »
2018.04.14 The final two trips to get everything to the reserve. First the side walls and the roof sections. and then the most important bay window. As I had excruciating back pain and Ellie was still recovering from her fall off the platform we relied on our fellow Fovs members and it was great to
2018.04.08The initial plan was for Colin to help us to transport the hide from our house to Van Stadens. He couldn’t make it so we needed to make a plan with our own trailer. I took the lid off, made a wooden platform, tied everything down and drove very slowly. Our very first load with
The Hide – Waterworks part 4 Read More »
On the fateful day of 14 March 2018 Neil came to help us to put the front corner posts in. When we started it looked like this: It all went very well, posts were put in and even some railings. Neil left and we prepared to put in the final front brace when the whole
The Hide – Waterworks part 3 Read More »
2018.02.21 One of the more difficult parts of the whole exercise was the transport of the poles from the shed to the site. As usual (we never learn) we tried to get the tractor but in the end we overloaded our trailer and transported them low range first gear to the parking and carried them
The Hide – Waterworks part 2 Read More »
2018.02.28 We intended to use reclaimed fence poles and power line poles scorched and replaced after the fire. We even did try to retrieve some from along the N2 but in the end decided that with just the two of us it would take too long and our other work in the nursery and arboretum
The Hide – Waterworks part 1 Read More »
We had a good start to 2018, the reserve is recovering very well after the fire with many unusual plants and flowers to be discovered and admired.There is now a spiffy new welcoming sign at the entrance circle and the ranch poles had a fresh coat of paint, looking great!We asked for a long time
It has taken a while to come up with a new type of signs which don’t cost an arm and a leg and finally I used some old sprinkler pipe from the nursery and some sheeting from an old air conditioning duct and came up with something acceptable. Here are some others: The pebbles on
