Chicken Tractor

Ran this around my backyard with 100 broilers in it. Good for soil good for the birds. Thanks Joel Salatin.

Walmer Vinyard

I have been working for a few weeks now on cleaning up the vine on my east boundary.

The vine has been there for a long time. When we moved in 13 years ago it was already very established and giving small purple blackish fruit. The I count three vines, with a least one on the neigbours side of the fence.

I intend to make wine from these grapes come Feb or March next year.

The best gues so far is that the cultivar is a Catawaba. This cultivar comes from America. When I googl Catawaba, it does come up with a number of sites trying to popularise the wine.

Interestingly though, when I went to the Nursery a few weeks ago to buy 4 new vines, the only red cultivar that they had available was Catawaba. Perhaps the nursery man their knows a thing or two about suitability to the Port Elizbeth climate.

Which brings me to the Theescome wine estate that i visited last week. Sandra there is making wines from four cultivars - Pinotage, Cabernet Sauvingon and two whites. here vinyard is only two hectars in extent!

Climate therefor does not seem to be an impossible impediment in Port Elizabeth.

I can be worked around!

Backyard Aquaponics.

I bought a compressor on Sunday to replace the little bubbler that packed up. This seems to work quite a lot better. I bought it from Ultimate Aquatics in Heugh Road  Don't know if they gave me the best price though. R474.00

It comes standard with a four way splitter attachment. Quite handy.

Walmer Tilapia Hatchery

Major disaster on Sunday. I heard a crashing noise. When I got to the hot house the glass aquarium had broken and the red tilapia breeding group were all over the ground flapping around. Managed to save them but I think we lost the fry the broody mother was carrying in her mouth.

I bough this tank second hand about a year ago for about R200.00. Just to replace the broken glass would cost me about R600.00. I t does not seem worth it. I have never built a fishtank before and the chances of me getting it wrong are quite big. Perhaps I will live without the glass aquarium. (for now)

Backyard Aquaponics

Sent from my iPhoneStrawberries do ok in the spring, before its too hot. The slugs love the ripe fruit though. No poison, because poison in an Aquaponics system kills the fish.