Dry and Dusty!

Rob was looking up our rainfall statistics this morning, and the last time we had rain here was the 5 November. No wonder the bushes are running after the dogs!

The green has turned to khaki! 

I know that it isn't our wet season, but we should have some rainfall , the average over the last goodness knows how many years, shows that November's average is 12 mm (we had 17), December's average is 15.5 mm, (we had 0) and January's average is 13.7 mm, (nope, not a drop so far!) So when I tell you that we are dry and dusty here, you better believe it!

A duiker having a morning snack in the garden!

We always know when the surrounding green areas are of no use to man or beast, especially beast, as we have a nocturnal visitor in the shape of a duiker. I have mentioned him before, he tiptoes through the garden and delicately nips off the geranium flowers, leaving stalks to greet me in the morning.

There were flowers on those stalks!! Yesterday!

So in the dry summer, we put out a little extra for him in the way of two chopped apples and a cup of maize on the 'feeding rock' where we feed the birds.

Bokkie take-away!

I used to do this when the sun was still fairly high, but then we noticed that the birds were hanging about and waiting for me. So now we put it out at sunset or a little later once the feathered ones have gone to nest and then we keep an eye open for him/her. Sometimes we are lucky enough to see him when we peer through the blinds, he is usually here around nine or so, and sometimes he only comes after we have gone to bed. It's so funny, but Alfie also peeps out to see if he is around when he goes for his last 'emptying' before bed! But each morning the rock is licked clean, and we feel that we have filled a tiny hole in a tiny tummy.

The morning after the night before!

We do this until after the first rains, and once there is enough grazing, he stops coming. After three mornings when the apple is untouched and the birds are tucking into the grain, we know that we can cut back (excuse the pun) on the apples, and Pick and Pay's profits plummet for the next few months!

The white is salt, the dark blob in the salt is all that is left of the water.

Our other 'pointer' as to how dry our summer is, is the little water-hole on the way to town. It has never dried up completely, well, not since we have lived here, but I have a feeling that it will be gone in a few weeks. Because the water is very saline, we are left with a wide crust of salt as the water evaporates and I often think that someone could be harvesting that salt and selling it! (Once the bird and animal poo is sifted out!) One year I thought a sheep had drowned and was lying on the edge with its feet in the air, but it turned out to be an old sack covered in salt crystals! 

Sacred Ibis with the cows.

But, unlike humans, the birds and animals share what water they have. The troughs in the fields are visited by numerous bird species, including Blue Cranes (sometimes with young chicks), Sacred Ibis, Egyptian Geese, Black headed Herons, Kelp Gulls, Yellow Billed Kites and Lesser Kestrels, to name but a few. The cows and sheep, horses and donkeys, happily mingle with them. This morning we saw crows perched on the backs of the sheep, hitching a ride to have a drink!

They say that the next war will be fought over water.

We need to take a page from the animals book and learn to share.

And only to use what we need.