A bark resounded across the valley. "Baboons!" barked the old man, fumbling for his rifle.
"Are you going to shoot the baboons Oupa?" My eldest asked his grandfather
"No, I'm going to invite them to a tea party!" came another barked reply. The rifle hovered for far too long in the direction of the raiding baboons. Then an explosion filled the air. Followed by barks among the confused baboons from a dozen different places. Then they disappeared. But in no alarmed hurry. I'm sure one of them flashed the middle finger at the obnoxious old man.
"Oupa I don't think you hit any" The voice rang out; "Why do you always miss?" Before another sarcastic response could erupt from my father-in-law I grabbed the children and, like the baboons, we disappeared back to our own house.
Homesteading is not for the faint hearted. The challenges sometimes seem insurmountable. It may take us almost to the brink of despair. Self-sustainability is an ongoing journey and into the computation are thrown predators. Baboons are probably our biggest problem. Currently. If they would simply satsify their hunger and then leave it would be enough. But they are destructive. The gardens get ravished and trees broken while the fruit is simply smashed. They terrorize the animals and would rip apart the smaller animals if they felt the wicked inclination to do so.
When the baboons become a threat to all life on our homestead they get chased away. With the rifle. A lot of people don't like the idea. Neither do we but when our lives depend on it the scare tactic is necessary. My 80 something year old father-in-law is up for the task. At his age he probably would not hit them anyway. Today after the baboons exited he hitched up the brush cutter and did some cleaning up. For his age. In this heat. And considering the extent of work - it is impressive!
The change of season is always a busy one as you hover between summer and winter. With all the winter preparation I'm pruning my herbs and nursing cuttings or storing seed. Every day we harvest. Potatoes, brinjal (eggplant) figs and the last of the grapes. FarmerBuckaroo has spent days with chainsaw in hand balancing on the tractor to cut back the overgrown branches. The beautiful stumps will see us through winter.
Almost through the first quarter of the year, clean-up fills our days and is what fills this month's Garden Journal
The excavator is still cleaning up in the valley. But the new growth is evident and the flood waters flow every month.
We had a massive Cape cobra in one of the herb gardens last week. It saw us as we saw it. I'm not sure which of us got the bigger fright. We lost a rooster recently to either a snake or scorpion bite.
Living on the outskirts of the Big Smoke, how does your summer garden grow @craigcryptoking? With mangoes and persimmons dripping off the trees, how is my chillie loving Brother chilling among the veggie gardens?
No windowsill microgreens?
Your home never ceases to amaze me. The only things I have to battle are junk mail and a cat who doesn't consistently use litter boxes or scratching posts.
I love your father-in-law.
I have a personal question. I remember reading that you had a husband die, maybe I read this under your buckaroo account? So you have remarried? Farmer Buckaroo #2?
Oh they are going in for an entire post all to themselves! And definitely not in the windowsill. I have them under cover out my back door. I was hoping they would be ready for a salad cover photo for the garden journal but it seems I'll miss that window gap. Maybe next month
No there is no second FarmerBuckaroo. There's only ever been one but I was married before, in my 20's. My first husband worked in one of the biggest game reserves. So we had a homestead of a far wilder nature - lion and hyena and rhino - but he died of cancer before he turned 30. You probably remember that post from the steem days
Yes that's what I remember, the cancer and the previous homestead. So you have remarried then, and moved.
The only thing I focus on, Fig 😍 I adore that fig never try and I am always curious. The flesh is so beautiful I think.
It is beautiful! I love that green outer and inside .... PURPLE!!! Delicious. I'm sorry you've never eaten figs
Wow, a giant fig. I wonder what it tastes like when it's still natural fruit. I remember tasting it but it was preserved. all I can taste is sugar. Is that a lemon basil that green leaves besides?
I feel you with that baboons. I also struggle with the chickens here in my garden.
No, it's flowering peppermint. I trimmed the bush to make halloumi. It's such a pity you haven't tasted real fresh figs. They're amazing. The preserved stuff is totally different. As you say, all you taste is sugar.
Okay, I see,
How I wish I could taste it one day. I never know somebody who planted figs in my country the Philippines I guess they don't thrive here. Only I know those ornamental plants but I don't know those fruit-bearing ones.
Impressive indeed, this is the first time that I have seen a man of his age doing some brush cutting. By the way, I love your eggplants and your chickens (they're so adorable).
Thank you! We love our chickens. These young ones are so much fun
You're welcome (^_^)
We always have a good laugh here in France, thinking of our chickens attacking the local snakes, and in South Africa, EVERYTHING attacked our chicken, like literally everything, and they have no current predators here, except the Foxes, the hunters killed 7 of them last month. Wow cape cobra, scorpio, cunning baboons?
Baboons are super nasty. Don't misunderstand me, I love them, my stage name was Baboon Dandy for almost 10 years hahaha. But they are super dangerous, and I am sure your father in law is well aware of it.
I don't like the idea of killing animals, but it's the farm life, they don't even blink thinking about it with the foxes here, because otherwise it's 20 chickens that get killed the next day by the foxes.
I loved that story at the beginning, Oupa is teaching valuable life lessons, and have a sense of humor!
Ah yes, you would be able to relate. And you still miss Africa?
Yep, all the time. Coming back home will have to be done in few steps, that's for sure.
There isn't a day when we don't say "let's just go home", as if saying it make it possible haha. 😄
Well one day maybe it will!!
Opas sarcasm tickled me. A man after my own heart 😂 I try to restrain it here with the cross cultures on HIVE but it does come out in the classroom 😂 at times, often flying over the heads of teens. Tea with baboons sounds interesting anyways.
Cobras and baboons are NOT something I contend with. Rats and rabbits, yes. Spend a lot of time yesterday clearing grasses and shrubs where they were hiding. Actually we did a LOT of clearing yesterday, felling a misplaced nectarine and an elder that was simply home to starlings who shat purple juice all over the garden. Seems we are both in clean up mode.
We have our fair share of rats. I didn't think we had rabbits - at least not anywhere close but one of our cats is now in the rabbit habit of bringing at least one in per week. Often still alive - kind of.
Happy clean up. I'll be glad when it's over. Mind you, is it ever over? Just want a bit of cooler weather and planting time
Wow, it is pretty wild out there! I am going to share our "enemy" in the garden journal soon and I think you will laugh so much with the problems we deal with :)Sweet @buckaroobaby, baboons and a massive Cape cobra, are you kidding me???
Your father-in-law is impressive :) And sarcastic, haha!
That's a fig you're holding‽ I've never seen one so big!
You have a lot different challenges then we do - I never new the baboons were so destructive - glad you are able to keep them away. Looks like you are still having a nice harvest from your garden. I image you could grow somethings through the winter too or am I wrong?
Oh extremely destructive. And our pomegranates are JUST ripening. It helps to fire off a shot when they get really cheeky. Then the baboon troop bypass us for a week or two. And yes, we get a good winter crop. Our winter is not nearly as freezing as yours. We get bad frost and have to keep a lot under cover but the snow only falls on the mountains so we do quite well in the gardens