Kelly and a classic

This Photo is of Kelly the mechanical foreman, he works with the conservancy on which we live.

He is also a great help with mechanical and electrical issues and a wonderful fellow to boot.

The car is a goer he had just driver about 5km from another part of the conservancy.

Sorry about the lack of posts, this tick fever really knocked me around.

We have now finished putting about 150mm (or 6 inches for the old fellows) of Murrum/ Gravel five meters wide by 8 km long.

Still waiting on our container with the planter in it. Maybe this week.

Starting to get the crop inputs organized and delivered to the farm.

Our next earthmoving project is to level our workshop area and build a grain shed before harvest. The Area is 3.2 ha and in most of Aust it would not be a big deal. Our site however has a 10m difference from one end to the other in only 250m and so there is some serious dirt to move.

I had a fellow do a Topographical survey a week or so ago and so I will be keen to get the numbers on how much dirt we need to move.

Tick fever and Progress

Well things on the farm are coming along, only 3km out of 8km of gravel/murum to go,takes a lot of loads when each truck only does 12 meters.

Grace and James have had a week at home for their mid term break, we had our first sniff of rain over the past couple of days. One local tells me that the long rains will start properly in two weeks. Wait and see.

By the end of this coming week we should have the fence line/boundary road finished and so then onto the fence.

We hope to see the next container by weeks end and then start putting together all the bits of the planter ready to use. Soil testing this week also to get a feel for nutrition status.

I have been ill for about ten days and on Friday was told by my new Dr that I have Tick fever, I have got some medication and hope to feel better soon.

Lots of Ticks here, they plunge dip the cattle once a week for them. I may have to join them.

James Tries out for Kenyan under 19 rugby

On Sunday James was asked to try out for the squad for the Kenyan under 19 rugby team.

Turned out that he was just too young at 16 although they allowed him and a couple of other under ages to have a run which was good.

The Photo shows James third from left, there were 160 young fellows all pumped up to give their best shot.

I am no Rugby guru although I thought the standard looked good. Hopefully he gets a shot next year when he will be old enough to qualify.

Japanese Restaurant, Nice

Nairobi has some fantastic restaurants, we had dinner on Saturday evening at a wonderful Japanese restaurant.

First time at a top quality establishment for all of us, Japanese is so expensive back in Australia, not so here.

Twiga Grazing

These fellows were out enjoying a look over the farming land. We are still about 30days away from having the wildlife fence up and so until then its a bit like a Zoo out there.

God must have been having a fun day when he created these fellows.

The Fence will be 2.1m high and will be using Weston fencing components from Western NSW.

Although Giraffe are much taller than this they are not famous for high jump.

I have seen one jump a standard fence, very messy. (he was OK)

Hello and goodmorning to all this blogs readers.

Zebra at Dusk

I took this snap on the way back across the conservancy in the evening. It is about 10km from the farming area to our house. Early morning there are lots of silver back Jackal's plus all the usual animals.

Progress is coming along with 200ha ready as far as land preparation, we are still running 24hours on with the tractor with a bit of swapping between the plough and grader board.

Road Building

Today we started carting 4000 or so cubic meters of Gravel for our road and fence.

The picture shows our exervator and one of the four trucks being loaded by a contractor with a JCB wheel loader.

It will hopefully be done by early next week although this type of earthmoving operation is way outside my experience and so I guess we will wait and see.

We have ploughed 200ha twice and just about run over it with the grader board to level it. Looks good, we will tonight move onto the first plough pass on the other 200ha.

Cattle Movements

We came across a mob of Cattle on one of the major roads just south of Nairobi.

It is not unusual to see 200 or 300 cattle in around the city.