Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Apologies

Maybe I spoke too soon. The "trouble" has appeared to have spread here too. Drove past the police station after work today and there must be 200-300 Malawians milling around so obviously they have been threatened and are too scrared to go to their homes in the townships. By now their houses will have been looted and burned (guaranteed). Hopefully no deaths or injuries.

You see the problem that we have is that the "foreigners" are such good workers. They are intelligent, friendly and adaptable. We employ them and contrary to popular belief that we pay them badly because they are desperate, I actually am prepared to pay a premium because of the quality of their work.

By contrast our local labourers are bone idle, insolent and work as and how they like and any complaints and they run straight to the Labour Dept. and we get into huge trouble.

Very sad, but I suppose thats how the job market works in Africa.

I will make sure that the house gun is ready tonight just in case. We live quiet close to the township and sometimes things tend to "spill" over.

As far as the wind problem, the North wind is not really the prevailing wind (which is South West) so that is why I built the greenhouse North/South. A wind break may be the only answer. South, West and East are all protected. Here is an image of the valley in the North from which the winds came.

Today I drilled 72 x 50mm holes in the grow beds for drains !! I discovered two things;

1) The bottom of the grow bed is too round for a neat fit of the drain fitting.
2) The wall is too thick for the thread of the fitting.

Mmmmm, sat and thought for a while and then came up with this cunning plan.

Used an angle grinder blade to recess the hole from top and bottom. This way it thinned the wall and provided a nice square surface to seal the fitting.

Temperatures today are worth noting.

Outside temp in the shade 17 deg C
Inside temp at midday (air) 32 deg C
Water temp at midday 22 deg C

Working in this heat is "interesting" and I stripped down to the bare essentials.

* Please note the first image is not for sensitive viewers. *

Fast growing wind-break that doubles as Tilapia / live-stock and human food,,see the Moringa thread:)

Cheers

They are awesome grow beds

Moringa make awesome growbeds now? What can't they do?!?!?

rofl, too early in the morning for this carp

No, I'll be using Tilapia

*groan*

Did ya manage to find a place to sleep over in Perth regards your planned visit?

I like the grinder recess, looks really slick!

Thanks for the blow-by-blow description of your project. It truly inspires.

Yes I did, but I'd sure like to call on you if that would be possible.



Thanks, and it works well. A little bit heavy on the grinder but hey, cheap at the price.



Pleasure, "blow-by-blow" sure describes it at times.

Didn't achieve much at the greenhouse yesterday as I spent most of the day dodging rubber bullets in the local township. My "Induna" (foreman), "Ziggy" got a call to say that a mob were busy tearing down his house and looting his possesions. He is South African but rents a small outside room from a Malawian family. The mob weren't interested, as the house was "foreign" so it had to be burnt. I rushed him home just after the mob had left. They were coming back later and if he could produce a South Africam identity book they would spare his room.

Malawian, zimbabwian and somalians are fleeing in vast numbers. Most slept at the police station overnight. I helped an elderly Zimbabwian woman with a single bag of what was left of her possesions escape the township. I fear that a major ethnic cleansing exercise may be playing itself out.

Many foreign workers are sleeping at work in the industrial area, homes and farms, to fearful to return to their homes. They have lost everything as criminal elements just steal everything they own with impunity. I saw a Somalian have his last tiny bag of clothes casually taken from him by three thugs armed with sticks.

Some hurried images from my cell camera.

On a more positive note.............GO SHARKS !!!!!!!!!!!