Late night escapades

Wednesday is dustbin day in our area, and it's my son's job to take our bin down to the pick-up area on Tuesday night. Inevitably he leaves this as late as possible unless prodded. This week we managed to get him off on his duty by 10... only to have him come running back with tales of a small snake he'd seen on the road, that hissed at him when he tried to get close!

Now Favourite Man knows snakes and has handled a good few large and dangerous types in his days, so off we all trouped to go see what it was.

And found this.

Definitely a snake, and apparently a juvenile Cape Cobra! Well Favourite Man had an appropriate stick and it was quickly decided this little character needed to be relocated to a safer place. Neighbours were marching up and down with bins, and most were not quite as fond of legless slitheries as the three of us are! So he coaxed snake onto stick while I ran for a bottle to house it temporarily. During the coaxing process little snakey spat out a decent amount of venom - as small as he is, he's still a Cape Cobra, and fiesty!

Back with the bottle, we finally got snake safely on the other side of glass and wacked on the lid.

He's truly a beautiful creature!

But what to do with him? Over the wall of the complex? Too close to roads, random passers-by and a train line. We marched down instead to a neighbour who works at the nature reserve, hoping to get her to release him on the morrow - but she was already tucked up in bed and fast asleep.

Only one thing for it. We hopped in the Landy and drove up the hill to a wild place, near a dam, with long grass and natural vegetation - a good place for little snakes to find food and water and learn their place in the world. Carefully let him out and within seconds he was gone to his new environment.

I hope he grows up to be a nice big snake. Much better than being smacked over the head by a clueless human in a cement-and-brick housing development.

Of course, little snakes come in batches - we're keeping an eye out in case his brothers and sisters make an appearance.

Global Warming vs The Recession

This story came my way today and had me thinking pretty hard.

Yes, it's quite a shocker. The fact that the shipping industry is in such dire straits, added to the poor bottom-of-the-rung workers this will only hit in 2 years, added to... well there's a whole lot of bad news there.

Been sneaking in an Oprah show or two while making supper lately too. And she's also on about the recession, scrimping and saving, being thrifty, and watching where your money is stored. She's got experts from here until kingdom come to help us along the way.

There was an interesting show on a little while ago about the tent cities springing up as people try and survive a sudden lack of income. Treehugger has a piece on Transition Towns too - people who are finding new (or old?) ways to cope - paring down, foraging and planting their own food, cutting back on the electrics and electronics...

And here's where Global Warming hits the picture.

Step back from all the bad news, add in a pinch of the other bad news - and what do you get?

And entire planet that has basically ground to a halt, has cut their pollution because they can't afford to drive / run a tanker / keep the lights on all night. There are less commuters thanks to jobs disappearing. Families are rediscovering alternative entertainment in the great outdoors as opposed to the latest and greatest gadgetry. And those planting their own backyard (or balcony!) farms have started re-greening what was once simply cement and stone. People are rediscovering what our grandparents knew - how to can vegetables and bake bread and mend things and make things.

In short - suddenly there's a lot less pressure on our environment to sustain a techo-industrial lifestyle.

So I have to ask - could this worldwide recession actually be the best way of fighting global warming (or global destruction if you believe global warming is a myth / natural cycle)? It's one we could never have dreamt up as a solution, and certainly not something you could get millions to do in a hurry.

I dunno, just thinking...

Soundproof

Our house is perhaps the only one in the complex of 140 that is bricked up front and back, not a blade of grass anywhere. With solid 2m walls on each side, we're literally "boxed in" by concrete and brick surfaces. We're also the second house from the gate on a one-way road - so anything entering the complex goes right past our front door. The back of the house faces on to the main road through the suburb.

It's noisy. And very hot.

Come summer, our north-facing bricked-out front yard turns into an absolute oven, reflecting heat up into the house until we can barely move.

Then there's the nosy parkers who insist on peering in and criticizing what we are / aren't doing in our yard and house...

So I've been doing a bit of thinking this afternoon (actually, I've done a LOT of thinking, plotting and scheming today). I think it's time I soundproofed the front yard. And peering-eye-proofed it at the same time.

First up, I'd like a head-height row of small trees / large shrubs in pots down the front of the yard on the side where we don't have to park to create a mobile hedge. That's going to mean some sort of levelling platform for them, but it's not an insurmountable problem. Then I need to sort out the reflective qualities of the other three walls - a creeper or two on a lattice (also in pots so I can move it if necessary) will help. Under the windows a couple of window-boxes of plants or knee-high raised beds (easy to stick direct on the brick work) will do nicely.

That will add a bit of greenery, privacy and deaden the echos. Best thing of all? I can make it all edible landscaping and pick the fruits (literally) of my labours for dinner.

Plotting and scheming continues. There's still the back yard to deal with! But I'm starting to see a vision form here that could just work.

HotDog

Now that we're down to one dog, we have only one doghouse to manage. And with summer on the way I've been thinking of ways to keep Didi cool.

Once the sun reaches summer height, his part of the yard gets very hot in the morning until about midday. There's a tree shading one corner, but it really doesn't make much difference. His dog house has a tar paper roof and wood sides, which heats up considerably. He tends to spend his days (and apparently recently his nights) under a bench against the wall further down the house.

So what are our options?

1. Roof the back yard. Nope, not going to work - we still need to dry washing there and have an open-air bit. Don't think the body corporate would like anything other than cookie-cutter norm either.

2. Use all those computer fans taken out of equipment Virgin Earth recycles, string them together in a grid, attach a power supply and give him aircon in his roof. Do-able... but not likely to happen. I don't fancy running power out into potential rain and wet.

3. Then there's this. A green roof for dogs. Love it. Can even grow some herbs and veggies on it!



Didi - you're about to become a little closer to nature.. :-)

Dark Ages

Between Eskom cutting power now and then and Telkom simply collapsing the entire internet access thingie, it's almost like we're headed back through time to the days where there Was.No.Internet (ie we had to club people over the head to talk to them).

I really wish we'd get someone who could:

1. replace Eskom's monopoly over our power with a green solution that didn't fail when you dropped a bolt in it. A little wind power (we have LOTS of wind!) or solar power ("darkest" Africa ain't that dark...). But no, apparently they want to build more power stations - nuclear or coal-based.

2. wrest the telecommunications network from Telkom's grubby, customer-unserviced paws. Drop the price of access, sort out the bandwidth limit and speed issues, get some decent cover etc.

That way I may actually be able to Blog. Provided Google stops with it's bX-j-something-or-other errors...

Blackout

A word that strikes fear in the hearts of South Africans. A word directly related to Eskom in our brains, and fodder for many excellent jokes.

But what about this? 5 minutes of planned blackout, tomorrow - 1 February (hey, where did January go??) - at 6:55pm (in this time zone). You're done with work by then. Switch off the computer and lights on your way out. Give up Isidingo or 7de Laan for one day. Hold off on cooking supper. Just switch it all off for 5 minutes.

Eskom's been moaning again about our power useage, saying more blackouts before the weekend. How about we give them one from our end? Show them that we can really do without their power for at least 5 minutes?

Consider yourself challenged.