permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

My mornings were now starting with a walk to the gate to check on our friendly dog outside, and his reaction was never disappointing. He would stand on his two hind legs with the two front ones pressed on the gate while his tail wagged. He would bounce up and down, making high-pitched playful barks, as I drew near to greet him. I didn't know that his presence was growing on me until yesterday, when I did not see him. My heart sank, and I was left with a hollow feeling. This dog did not leave on its own accord. We had heard whistles in the night, but we were too scared to go out. We had not found the dog's owner yet, and we were still waiting for the SPCA people to come. I felt angry towards whoever had taken it. The character of a person who sneaks in the night to steal a dog is questionable, and it's making me wonder if he will take good care of the dog.

As evening was drawing, I found out who had taken the dog. My plan is to actively look for the real owner and bring him to the dog thief to get his dog. In as much as it was a stray dog, it looked like the owner had taken good care of it before, so I will see if he wants his dog back.

I met with the man who has been said to be having "our" dog, and when I asked him about it, he just asked me who had told me he had the dog. I choked in my statement, his friend is the one who told me that he had it, and the tone the man used made me not to be sure whether it was a good idea to say out his friend's name. I cannot report him because it's not even my dog. SPCA people never showed up.

It has taken a while, but I have managed to get someone to adjust the chickens' cage so that it can open at the bottom. The cost was so much more than I would have ever imagined, but I think it is worth it, the weeds in our yard are growing really fast, it will be straining to keep the weeds in control. If the chicken tractor works this could be an initial solution to the weeding problem. The job will take a day, I am anxious to see the finished job.

I am relieved that I found the lost dog. It has a proper home now, until it finds it's original owner.

We have started selling the few beetroot plants that successfully grew. It would have been a really good flow of income, just after the onion sales, we would have had beetroot sales as we waited for the beans. The bean plants have an insect that's eating the flowers and my aunt said it greatly affects the yield. We might have lovely plants to look at, but they might not give us any pods if we are not careful, so I have to work on this.
The chicken tractor is almost finished. There was no power at the welder's place, so its taking too long to finish, I like how it is coming out though. Kumbi is almost finished with the second weeding round. The weeds are coming out very fast, if this tractor works, I will invest in more of these for next season, so that we can reduce the labor required for weeding

We successfully hosted our uncles, it was so much work to just get our things in place, but it was worth it. A lot of things still need to be worked on at our house, but we have managed to present our home as a place not too far from a modern interior look. I hope we were able to show that we have a stable lifestyle.

We took them to the field and the bean plants took their attention. So I was right, there is not much I can say with regards to regeneration that can be understood, unless I have tangible proof that it works.   So I have a lot of planning to do for the coming year.

The chicken tractor went to the plot today. It's too big to fit into the rows now, because of the wheels. It's embarrassing really. It never occurred to me that wheels that will be on the cage can eat up so much space to cause the cage not to fit in.
First, delays to this experiment were because of no power which dragged the modification of the cage. Now it's an over sight on my part to a very important detail. What I am feeling does not matter right now, what I am learning is that it's okay to fail and keep trying. It's just I was so invested in this a 100%.

I was taking pictures of the keyhole garden in the afternoon. This is one space I am also determined to see developing into a productive area. It's been hard, and I have not been talking about my trials here, because I thought I was going to wait until I start winning. The cage thing has just made me want to be honest, about this. I divided the garden into 4 portions to make filling up of the garden practical. I have filled up 3 sections, two of them have potatoes growing in them, the other one has pumpkin, and the fourth one has a tomato plant that just grew on it's own and I kept it. The last section is the one I still need to fill up. I planted four pumpkin seeds so that even if something eats up the pumpkin plant as it grows, there is an increased chance that one of the plants, can make it past the vulnerable phase. One is already dead, I still have 3.

The thought of my niece, the one I tried doing online lessons with and failed, is gnawing at me. Like I mentioned earlier, I feel like an opportunity to change her life is slipping away. I decided to visit the donors to find out if they are open to giving a child a second chance to sit for her exams if she fails the first time. They said it is not possible, but my niece will be helped to start a business to help herself earn an income. I found children actually applying for grants for them to get some money to start something up as they wait for their results. It's a relief to know that the organisation stays in the children's lives even after they are done with school, but I know starting a business is more than just money, so I am excited but I am not any less worried. What I am doing in case she gets a grant is to find out how she can grow in the business world, which I am learning as well, without losing money that is meant to be her seed in business.
Organising the trip to my niece's province has had me face a number of challenges that I have. To begin with, it took me over a month to put down words to be able to talk to the donor, and to be honest I was just lucky that the person I talked to seems to be a genuinely kind person. I mumbled and stuttered through my chat with him, requesting an appointment. Then secondly the happened meeting time coincided with a time that a serial killer was in Guruve. I was keeping away from social media or news, for  reasons  I mentioned in my earlier posts. When I got to Guruve I dropped off from the bus where I was told to, which was just before the township. There was some tall grass along the road's sides, and there were not as many people around. Still, the thought of the serial killer had not crossed my mind. I am naturally a very anxious and timid person in a new environment, so I am not counting this as abnormal feelings in this case. I saw a young boy and asked for directions to the school I wanted to go to, and he showed me. I walked a few steps from him, and I heard a voice from behind me calling out to me. When I looked back, there was a man making a sign for me to stop. He was coming out of the tall grass. Every sketchy detail of the serial killer that was scattered in my brain gathered and became very clear. It was now the focal thought. I went towards the shops and tried to blend in, but he came for me. I did not say anything to anyone, I couldn't. I just walked so closely to some woman, but this did not worry the guy. He continued to chat with me.

Everyone else went their way, and it was just the two of us now. I was so tense I could feel how stiff my body was. Just after we entered the school gate, the men looked at me straight in the face and said firmly, "I am Moses Mangeza", and his tone was as if I was meant to know the name. I literally shivered because the one name from Guruve that was so famous was the serial killers name, and I didn't know it. There was no one anywhere near us it was a school holiday. I just asked softly if I was supposed to know the name. He did not give me a straight answer. He was too drunk. It was such a relief when a group of girls came out from a block of classrooms. He walked me until I got to the men I was supposed to meet. It turned out that this guy walked me all the way so that I could pay him a dollar for his kindness. Instead of being grateful I was so angry at him for making me go through what I went through, and secondly I had absolutely no money to spare, so I didn't see why I had to pay for a service I didn't request for or needed.

Results for my homeschooled child are out.  It's a nail biting time to wait for her to send the results. Other children have shared their results and I am concerned that maybe the reason why she has not send hers yet, is because she is not happy with them. I don't think I should ask her, but I have to wait for her to tell me what she got. When she is ready, at least for today. Tomorrow going onwards I will ask her.

The worry I had about my niece, the one who had a scholarship was right. She did not make it, meaning she has lost her scholarship, and she was crushed. She wants to rewrite, and though I want it for her, I want her to first know that school is important but her failure now does not define who she is. She is  now working as a maid, a job she talked to me about and she will be at this for a month. I might be doing another year of homeschooling with her, and I want it specifically for this one, because I feel like it will give me time with her time that I think as a child she deserves. I was convinced I am the one who wanted school for her ( mostly to buy time before she transitions to an independent adult), and she seemed like she was excited about school mostly for me. I was actually surprised she wants to go back to school to be honest.

I don't know how sustainable doing a second year of homeschooling is, I need to think this through. I am already working on the economic aspect of my plot project,  as this year's main goal, which I will share in detail in some threads to come, if it works, it might cover my second year of homeschooling.

The one  I taught still has not taken her results, she will also help me to see if I can consider taking my niece in for some classes.

We have sold the last bit of beetroots we did not do to bad

I am excited. Snowballing or branching of things, is something I have been seeing but it was still restricted to my circle of influence. Today, I can see the project is branching or snowballing into something that is growing out of my circle of influence. If I am able to describe clearly what I am seeing, it is probably the beginning of something big.
I've been putting off updating my thread, because I was trying to figure out how to write progress in a way that is not confusing, or that doesn't seem like I am digressing from the main goal. There are more things other than the plot to talk about now, and all of these things have come into existence because of the decision to start building a regenerative homestead. Initially, everything was centered on just permaculture. The need to grow at the plot has resulted in some connections and activities. Again, because of a driving force that gets its life from the plot, I started working with mai Kumbi because I saw some of her qualities and knew she was the right person to help me develop my vision. But before I could get her full commitment, she had to understand the vision first, and this led to years of building a relationship that allows us to understand each other. So essentially, from her side, I am sure that she just needed a place to stay, and she had to tolerate my ideas in exchange. Now, after seeing the benefits, she is staying at the plot for productivity as well, which happens to be regenerative.

Then, I started working with the peanut butter making business guy, whose name is Apo, with the intention to start an income-generating project to sponsor the activities at the plot. The partnership we had encouraged a regenerative business relationship, with profit is a pillar of things, but also with honesty, integrity, productivity, empathy and protecting the environment as pillars that are equally important in business. From his side, initially, I think it was about getting an easy loan from my friend (I can't borrow money yet because the cash flow in my projects  doesn't allow me to). Again, we had to work for years to build an understanding of the value system we wanted, which is so different from how the business world is. I went to see both mai Kumbi and Apo today. I feel like each one of them should start writing their own threads because their stories are beautiful ones, and they are directly connected to the plot and a regenerative lifestyle. I am literally branching the thread, and I will keep this one for my own journey.

For both of them, I will start sharing the experience I had with them today. The two titles I am thinking of are, "I am a mother," and "What it takes to build a legacy." I chose these  because these are the things that define them. The sponsoring value system for both of them will be based on regenerative principles.