permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

Hi Rufaro,

thanks so much for your posts, I might have read all of them in this thread. It is very vital to get real informations beside the lies MSM (main stream media) is telling us. In addition foreign investors are not good for you nor for your country. They just come to fill their pockets, destroy nature and so on. Just as you can develop your farm, your whole country can develop on its own. Maybe you should be the next Zimbabwe president, you sound much more intelligent then most (western) politicians!

Now your monkey problem seems to call for guardian dogs, LGD dogs. Sure you need to calculate how much at least 2 of those dogs would cost you in terms of buying* them and monthly feeding costs. I feed ours from scraps I get for free at local butcheries. Though dunno if this would work out for you, to minimize the costs?

But I guess some monkeys wouldn't have much fun getting closer here and we do not have much if any fences. Dunno how close to neighbours you are, as those dogs tend to bark especially at night, never without a reason, they can sense predators on quite some distance. There primary goal is to drive them away by simply barking. There are very rare cases, once every few years were mostly due to being wounded or so a predator doesn't get away..

Anyway, there is some South African known not so large LGD (Rhodesian whatsoever?) which might be useful, perhaps someone here in the forum from the region could help out? But perhaps you can get some decent guardian dogs local easier?

*In reality one can not buy or sell a real good dog, you can just become it donated or donate it to someone.

As for the help to others/charging. What about they come to your farm, do some work and pick up some skills while working (for free), this way you might save some worker for one or another day and they can learn(ing) by doing?

Happy day today...!!! We have started harvesting our beans!

Drought relief has started in my province, for families in the rural areas who rely solely on field harvest, we are one of the lucky ones to have a crop still looking good. I took pictures of different fields along the sides of roads.

This season we spotted a weed which is actually a traditional vegetable, Nyovhi in Shona and spider flower in English, it's species is Cleome gynandra. I would like to think this weed grew always in our field but we were just too preoccupied to notice. I remember my parents would occasionally buy it from some old lady, who used to move door to door selling traditional vegetables back in the 90s. I had never seen the plant and traditional vegetables were uncommon (they still are) as they were associated with a poor rural lifestyle. I'm glad we discovered it because it tastes so good.

We have decided to have one customer whom we sell our products at spefic times a week. Starting with one day a week without failure. This will further push us to become more reliable. We will continue to serve our random customers as well. The guy we chose is very hard working and the image shows him at his stall. He sells everything he can get a hold of.

Hey Rafuro, that gets me excited to see you re-discovering local, wild vegetables and marketing them. That is where sustainability really kicks into high gear! Here in Chad people still eat a lot of traditional vegetables in their sauce, mostly mulukhiya and Sesamum angustifolium.

Which makes me wonder: is sesame seed or sesame oil a desired commodity in your area? It is a great Africa crop and potentially can be quite lucrative. I did a small field this year of black sesame and I'm putting it in all my sauces!

Sesame is not common, though my mum talks about it sometimes. The oil we use for cooking is sunflower oil and recently it has been overshadowed by soya bean oil.

It is true that embracing traditional plants as part of our normal meals marks the start of true sustainability. The 'Nyovi' we got was just enough for family consumption for a few dinners. The things we are selling include tomatoes, eggs, chomolia, okra...

Below is a comment to a link on an article on this year's drought by a UN personnel.

http://www.msn.com/en-xl/africa/africa-top-stories/un-seeks-dollar234-million-in-aid-for-drought-hit-zimbabwe/ar-BBUh832?ocid=spartanntp

One lady came to our house and saw us drying our beans, also noticed the tomatoes we have for our own consumption. She then said to my mum "You are a different elderly lady, we are used to those that go and wait by Mukuru (similar to Western union) for money from their children, and they have to wake up really early to bit the queues,  you actually get things from your field that can feed you properly."

This to me is very positive feedback.

Lol, Rufaro, with the whole world drinking Rooibos tea we have learnt to be proud of our indigenous foods here. There are some people working at spreading the knowledge of how to grow them and cook them - not me although I do make the traditional black soft soap from olives. Hopefully a movement will grow around your feet too, it is easier to do these things when many are helping.

It is wonderful to see you thriving so well in the midst of the drought.  I am sure people are looking and will strive to emulate you next year.

Indeed beans make people happy !

Nice to see the results of so much loving labour.  

Thanks for posting photos of different fields around your area.  It was such a good plan that you put in the drip irrigation , that will give a huge payback in the coming weeks, hopefully mother nature will also provide some rain !

Good point about the native greens. There are so many such plants in most countries. In our area we have several but the most tasty is the Evening Primrose, the leaves are excellent even uncooked in a salad.

THe young man with the stand will surely be a good partner for you . Strengthening the local economy .

You are such an inspiration Rufaro !

It was officially stated that our rainy season is over.

The battle doesn't always go to the stronger, but to the one who doesn't stop fighting.

What you're trying to do is necessary, and you've made huge steps forward. Think of your mother's garden, say, ten years ago, then measure it against your crops today. Look at the neighbors who are slowly beginning to see the benefits of your "new" ways of doing things. As long as there is progress, you aren't losing.

What if you had started this project today, instead of however many years ago? You are ahead of the trend, poised to survive in the face of the unexpected. Yes, there will be adaptation needed. Yes, new challenges will require new solutions. But you will not lose.

Thank you Lauren. Can't tell you how many times I read your message and today it sank.

It is so easy to magnify the obstacles, drown into self pity... Maybe it is not my job to fix the world but to just live life the best way I believe in, with positive results or not.

I have been listing positive things that have been happening to help boost morale.

I have been trying to grow seedlings for the kitchen garden all this while and just this year some results are showing so maybe in about two months I will be able to post images of a good looking kitchen garden.

I got images from my uncle in Hurungwe (I mentioned him in earlier posts) though we still are working on all his elements and to figure out exactly what he envisions in his mind. I am still working with him to get images that I can post. We got $75, $50 from a friend Sarah and $25 will be topped by our cousins, the Kapere family to help fence the garden. It seemed like the first thing to tackle, because cows have been destroying plants in the garden in the past years. A lot is still out of our control in order for us to just fence the garden but at least we have started.

I had forgotten, my facial skin has improved so much. It is smoother. I have been religiously washing it in the morning and evening then applying olive oil and tumeric. It is my second month now. I guess in the long run, I will not only have a full stomach, but will be looking pretty too!

Dear Rufaro, I am so sorry the rains are ended. But indeed it would have been much, much worse if you had not done all those preparations years ago. And you will find it gets easier as time goes on, as your soil gets full of humus and your trees get big. My first ten years were the hardest and although it never gets easy the garden is standing up to the challenges of the changing climate.

You should think about making large batches of that incredible lotion and selling it. That is how I make a cash income for myself, by selling soap and beauty products. You might think it is simple to make but it is surprising how happy women are to pay somebody else to do the work :)

We replanted chomolia suckers we have been nursing at our newly discovered nursing area. We realised we can use some space under the lemon and guava trees for our seedlings. There is an area with complete shade and another portion allows a little sunlight, which is perfect for suckers.

The seedlings seem to be liking it under the trees,  I am not moving them this time,  the last time I tried exposing them to the sun, they turned into toast.

I planted a few plants in the kitchen garden and they look good, even the potato plants we started right from the skin now have leaves.

This year on our flowers, we have put bottles filled with water. We sunk them upside down without any caps on, and we hope to have water dripping slowly on the flowers. We will see if we win with the flowers this year.

Today was an amazing Sunday. I spent it with mum and her best friend and we were at the plot. When we started off, there was nothing positive to talk about, as so many things which are outside our circle of influence are really going bad.

We were sharing images and videos from social media of terrible things happening around us. Then there was a moment when we were just quiet staring into the field. We realized this is it. We had this time together and yes so many things are not right, but we were together, today and now. We suddenly started appreciating the things we were taking for granted and they are so many.

We ended up reading a book together and I took them pictures as they were pruning the vegetable beds.