alone at the farm

Today Claudia has left the farm for she will spend the next three weeks in Switzerland. Thus I will have to run the farm during her absence. The day before she wrote some instructions about the things that needed to be checked and done and which employee should finish off which tasks. She also gave me some money for I will have to pay some salaries and buy food and feed and other stuff. Claudia had sent the cleaner on leave during her absence so I’ll also have to do the washing myself. Additionally she had also degraded one of the workers recently which will make things a bit more complicated. Then I will also have to do some paper work for the foundation Licht für Vergessene Kinder so I will be pretty busy. Anyway, I’ll manage it.

But first things first, I’ll make bread now and have breakfast! I guess Claudia had left some Nutella! Thanks a lot, Claudia, I’m sure you’ll eat plenty in Switzerland!

 

dough and unleavened bread

which tastes perfectly with a bit of Nutella

of painting, escaping, slashing and planting

After breakfast I applied a second coating of varnish on our new bathroom table that the carpenter had brought yesterday. It was a bit tricky as I also coated the underside of the table which he had left uncoated.

Then I thought that the road alongside the Eco-farm needed some slashing as the bushes rose almost to the middle of the street. Things grow very fast here during the rain season. I picked the slashing tool from the shed and sharpened it and off I went. It felt a bit like playing tennis. Serve, volley, forehand, forehand, backhand. After about two hours it was game, set and match for me. I I was totally soaked and had some bladders on my hand as the handle was not formed ergonomically at all. After that I needed to wash myself, change my clothes and cool down a bit.

In the evening I needed to secure the fence around the ducks house as the 20 ducklings that were born a few days ago escaped the fence a couple of times for the mesh is simply so big that they can easily walk through. Claudia had already laid out pieces of old tarpaulin around the fence to prevent them from escaping but there were just too many gaps and thus we found them every couple of hours on the wrong side of the fence. Lucky them, if Moritz, our dog, would have found them on the path he would have killed them all… Anyway, I wanted to secure the tarpaulin so I filled the wheelbarrow with some stones and distributed them around the fence. Later I went into the fence to place the tarpaulin and the stones to the right position. At some places I additionally I pushed sticks through the tarpaulin and the fence to fixate it properly. I know it’s not perfect, we should put a proper, close-meshed fence but we currently just don’t have the money for that. Anyways, this workaround might be sufficient for a while and the ducklings will grow fast  which will resolve the problem for a while. I was again soaked after that and thus went to the bathroom where I washed myself at the new bathroom table which was now ready to be used.

After supper Claudia had me plant a tree in the middle of the Eco-farm. So I had to pick the hoe again to dig a hole. The ground was hard as concrete as this spot had been used as a way for decades but I managed. Then Charles put the tree in the hole, covered and watered it. That was it for that day.

 

Ladies and gentleman, Mr. Slash!

blood, sweat and tears…

our newborn ducklings lately escaped several times a day

so we had to secure the fence with old pieces of tarpaulin and stones…

at some spots I had to push sticks through the tarpaulin to really make it secure

the new bathroom table after a second coating of varnish

the last task for that day: planting a tree on solid ground…

let there be power III – installation of the door

Last week we had a joiner measure the door frame to build a fitting door and also the bathroom for we needed some kind of washing table in there. As he had promised to build and mount it before Claudia would travel to Switzerland for a couple of weeks, he worked day and night to bring the furniture Thursday morning with a Boda Boda. It’s always amazing to see how many things one can transport with these motorcycles.

As it rained in Bweyale, the town in which he lives, he couldn’t even varnish the washing table so he had to do it at the Eco-farm. After that he mounted the door at the battery house. Unfortunately he forgot to mount a door lock which we needed to lock that house. Fortunately we had one bolt lock left that we usually used to lock our self-made doors for the stables. After searching the whole Eco-farm for fitting screws he could finally mount it.

He even had a receipt book with him so we were handed out a receipt as evidence of our payment which is pretty unusual around here!

Both the door and the washing table were built nicely and seem to be solid. Excellent! So if you ever need a joiner, Simon’s the man to build great quality for a good price!

Anyways, a few days later Charles painted the power house in Eco-farm green.

 

Simon the joiner varnishing our brand new washing table

the door for the batteries’ house

Simon attaching the bolt lock

the house is now almost perfect… it only lacks painting and a padlock…

after a few days we bought a padlock and painted it in Eco-farm green

let there be power II – installation of the solar power system

After the old duck’s house had been transformed into a new home for the solar power system we engaged an electrician to install the equipment that was supposed to allowing us to run a small fridge, a few light bulbs and to charge Claudia’s notebooks and battery packs etc.

The electrician estimated the work to take 2-3 days. As he came late he didn’t really get far on the first day and only attached some sockets. After two hours he realised that we needed some small things which had to be bought next town.

On day two he finished the wiring in the main house after we had to buy some additional wires and other small things, mounted the solar panels on the roof, installed the charge controller, inverter and the batteries in the new house, wired all the huts and installed a light switch and a bulb in each home.

He worked pretty hard that day as he wanted to finish and return home. After a short explanation of how things work he wanted to leave and got involved in a final negotiation about the payment of his work. Claudia managed to reduce the price they had discussed the day before. As I thought that this was not proper, I gave him some additional amount that covered his transport costs when he left. Then I collected some of the rubbish that he left behind which seems to be normal here.

As it got dark we tried turned on the lights. Wow, what a difference a few light bulbs make! You cannot imagine how difficult things like preparing a meal can be in the dark.

Then I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth without having to use a torch or bringing my small solar light! This is just fabulous. Back in my hut I switched on the light and saw the inside properly for the first time after 3 months! I then sat on the table to write this very blog entry!

What a tremendous improvement!

Ok, we’ll have to see if the fridge is really going to work. I was pretty sceptical when we discussed this with the sales guy in Lira but he assured that it would work. When I discussed it again with the electrician he told me that we need to buy one or better two additional solar panels to producing enough energy to run the fridge constantly… That’s what I had feared from the beginning. But we shall see, the batteries need to be charged properly before we can test how things will work during the next couple of days or weeks…

As it got dark, we installed some Chinese lanterns on the veranda and inside the main house as the light from the light bulb only didn’t look so nice. Initially Claudia had brought them from Switzerland as a decoration for a party.

Now, lights out and good night, everybody!

 

the solar panels on top of the roof

the batteries in the house

charge controller and inverter

freestyle wiring

the electrician installing the light in my banda

my light switch

a whole new world

even if it looks pretty dark on this picture it’s pretty bright in reality

we installed a Chinese lamp in the main house which produces a nice atmosphere

let there be power I – construction of a house for the solar power system

We recently had our builder Simon construct a new duck’s house as we had planned to buy a solar power system for which we wanted to use the old duck’s house. Last week we finally bought the needed equipment in Masindi and therefore had to engage Simon again to rebuild the old duck’s house to fit all the equipment. We wanted it to be about 2 m high so firstly one could easily walk inside and secondly the solar panels would be in a perfect position to producing power during the day.

Finally Simon and his employee started to rework the old house. First they removed the roof and stored it for later use. Then they layed bricks, plastered everything, re-attached the roof and finalised. After they left I had to clean and later remove a remaining metal post, which was formerly  used to fix the fence around the old duck’s house. After two or three days the house would be dry and ready for the electrician to install the solar power equipment.

 

Charles cleaning the old duck’s house before the construction begins

our builders removing the roof

and storing it for later reuse

Moritz monopolized a pile of sand that later would be used to mix cement

Simon laying bricks

after plastering

Simon re-attaching the roof

that’s it – our new house for the solar power equipment

the power of imagination - who needs toys anyway?

It was another typical Thursday late afternoon at the Eco-farm. I had to buy food at our store to later bring it to the school that Licht für Vergessene Kinder supports. As I was waiting at the store for the farmers to bring their food I watched a girl play “Leli” (as she later told me), a game that I knew from my childhood. The game’s name might be Hopscotch in English or Himmel und Hölle in German if I recall correctly.

I was pretty amazed as she neither drew the required fields on the ground as we used to do nor used a stone to throw in one of the fields. She threw a virtual stone into a field that only existed in her imagination instead. She literally grabbed that virtual stone and swung her arm forward aiming precisely at the desired field and – as that virtual stone landed – jumped to exactly that field.

I enjoyed very much watching her do this and finding other kids being attracted and thus gazing at her.

Isn’t it amazing, human imagination?

 

kid playing "Leli", hopping on a virtual field after throwing a virtual stone

for whom who may have forgotten about that game; but actually there’s plenty of ways to play this game

how to prepare our new charcoal stove for cooking

When I recently drove to Gulu with Nelson I bought a new charcoal stove as our old one was a bit worn down. I bought a bigger one this time as it took too long to prepare meals or even boil water with the old stove.

It was already late when I came back with the oven and the next day I had to leave the farm early as I had to travel to Masindi for two days and therefore couldn’t even deflower the stove. I was a bit disappointed when I came back and saw that someone had already used it but what to do? At the first opportunity I tried to light it and realised that the old method would not work with this stove even though I had used paraffin. I had to try two or even three times until it really worked but at least it worked nicely afterwards.

As it is essential to light fire to boil water to make it drinkable and also to prepare food, I thought about a new best method to light this stove.

So I grabbed my big pocket knife and a piece of timber and cut it into small pieces. Then I experimented a bit and soon found a very efficient method using Paraffin, cardboard, ash, and of course charcoal.

Next morning I started mass production. So I got the machete and a hammer out of the shed and a few pieces of old timber that we had sawn off in our many fixing sessions at the farm and got going. A few hours later I was soaked and my back ached but I had filled a cardboard box with small pieces of wood. Lighting the charcoal stove shouldn’t be a problem for the time remaining on the Eco-farm.

 

the new charcoal stove in action

it took blood, sweat and tears to cut these pieces of wood out of the timber

here’s the ingredients for making perfect ember:
cardboard, ash, wood, charcoal, paraffin, a stove and matches

first pile ash on a piece of cardboard and put it in the stove

then stack a few pieces of wood on the ash

then add the charcoal and pour a few drops of paraffin over it

then lit it

and after 10 minutes only the stove is ready to be used – new record!

Meeting III – meet the engineer again to check his offer on-site

I got up early in the morning so I could re-check the quotation for the renovation of a few buildings that might be used in an eventual future project. The buildings are owned by the Church of Uganda and that’s why we had to meet the bishop last week to discuss that project and to ask to enter the buildings with an engineer to estimate the renovation costs for the object. As I wrote I had spent the last night going through the offer and recalculating it as it contained lots of calculation errors. The engineer and his colleague arrived at 09:30 so the meeting could finally be started. I checked my calculations with him which turned out to be correct. Then we went through all items on the 10 pages and negotiated for some of the rates, which seemed a bit high, and also the necessity of some of the items on the offer. After that the two of them drove back to the office to adjust the quotation. When they returned we re-checked the offer and then went on-site to check again if all the renovation was necessary as listed. As we walked from building to building, room to room, we discussed a few changes to the offer which needed to be refined. We then made another appointment for 02:30 p.m. to receive the final quotation which they brought punctually. It seemed to be correct now and we were able to save a reasonable amount of money through negotiation without having to cut essential expenses. Phew, I’ll still have to check all the items and will recalculate everything, but I’ll do this once they send me the file via e-mail. After a short break I’ll have to check a few things in town with Dennis… but first I’ll need some coffee!

some impressions of the buildings which would need to be renovated