Kenyan Traffic

Well, Friday night and Annie has been helping at James and Graces school all day, now almost 10pm and they have been on their way home since 4.30pm this afternoon, its only 52km and they are about halve way home. I have had one bad experience getting stuck in traffic, although not this bad.
Just texted them, might be home by midnight (seven and a half hours to get 52km)Traffic is mostly thick but OK in and around Nairobi although when something goes wrong it really goes wrong

Weigh bridge foundations

I took this about two hours ago (6 pm Friday afternoon), the lads concreting the weighbridge foundations, note the cement loader (man) on the right (bit dusty), double click on the photo to see what I mean.
James our very faithful farm Foreman is on the left with his arm out.

Water System in progress

We have been busy this week putting in about 4km of pipe lines, two 24,000lt tanks ect ect. Should have water flowing by tomorrow (Sat)

6.30am 15 deg C, Nice

Now

Mostly Cloudy

Temperature

15 °C

Feels Like 15 °C

Wind(km/h)

9

Sunrise / Set

6:30 AM

6:35 PM

Moon

Waxing Gibbous

More Astronomy

Today

25 °C

Chance of Rain

50% chance of precipitation

Tonight

13 °C

Partly Cloudy

20% chance of precipitation

Tomorrow

26 | 14 °C

Mostly Cloudy

Saturday

27 | 15 °C

Mostly Cloudy

Sunday

26 | 12 °C

Mostly Cloudy

Monday

26 | 12 °C

Partly Cloudy

Harvester leaves Germany

This is our new (second hand) Header (combine) leaving the dealers in Germany, check out the low,low loader,no good on Australian roads.It is now on a ship and so we hope to see it in about a month. My new friends Terry and Rex did an amazing amount for us in organizing this machine. Thankyou gents.

Kids and Cameras

I visited the kids yesterday (Sunday) afternoon,Annie had to take James and Grace back to their school and is helping the new boarders settle in.
As do kids all over the world, these larikins (that's Australian for characters) love cameras, I was showing them how to use mine.
I took some Sunday papers for them to read, some of the older kids have an amazing level of knowledge about who is who in politics etc, they absolutely devour the papers. 

Muddy Boots = happy days

20mm on most of the crop

James and I went out early to see how much rain, anywhere from 2mm on a small area to about 20mm on about 80%.
As you can see the plants liked it. Click on any photo to expand.

Thankyou,Thankyou,Thankyou

This is a photo I took out our bedroom window (second story), it is 6.10pm and it is raining at our farm,only yesterday I had some people here and said "if only we could get 20 or 30mm, that would do"
Well 18 hours later it may be just happening as I write this. As it is black country I will have to wait until morning to go to the farm and see what we have had. I can see we have had something, and that is more than we had before. James is keen to have a look now although we may end up stuck.

Digging the weigh bridge foundations

First Chickpea pods

Lots of flowers on the chickpeas, these are the first pods I have found. They are about 30/35cm high, I hope we grow some more legs otherwise harvest will be fun.

Most and least advanced all within 50m

We had mvua kidogo (very small amount of rain) this morning,maybe halve a mm.

Sunday Lunch with the Kids

I went to church in Nairobi this morning,excellent, then went to see the kids at the children's home (Orphanage).
Had lunch with them and read them two story books then played soccer with them,not many rules but lots of laughing.

Cory Bustard (not sure of the spelling)

These are really large birds, this fellow and his mate were helping keep the insect population in check in the chickpea trials. The Chickpeas are starting to flower.
I would love 30 to 50mm of rain although the chances are not great. (like almost zero)
There has been at a best guess 5 to 10mm on some of our crop with the rest having 1 or 2mm since planting. Certainly testing the skip row concept.

First use of the New stone cutting machine

We tried out the stone cutting machine this morning, as you can see it is a dirty business.
We buy hand cut stones from a local quarry and then make them into nice stone blocks for building.
You can click on any photo on the blog should you wish to enlarge it.

Preparing workshop site

Mama Grace and her daughter

Mama Grace is one of the small holders we are hoping our research helps, she walks quite a distance to our farm and supplies our fellows with lunch. Maize, beans and Japati.
As I have been in the truck of recent days she has given me lunch while the truck was loading.
We have about (not exactly sure) 11 fellows (with contractors) that Mamma Grace provides lunch for.
It costs about 60 bob each for lunch (70 US cents) which our business covers.
Kenyans are very resourceful and you cannot not be humbled by their drive.

Our French Truck, Brazilian trailer and Asian Excarvator

Spent the day as a truck driver carting Murrum (gravel) to our weighbridge site,it has a bit of moisture in the gravel and so it is a bit tricky to tip. (paula paula, slowly, slowly)
Another day tomorrow as a truck driver, the truck came from Ireland and the trailer originally came from Brazil, it is a Randon, we bought both second hand.
The Excavator is a DaeWoo a fellow we know imported it and we bought it from him.
We are sourcing the gravel from a water storage we are building. Its only a short haul to our workshop site where we have dug out the buildings foundations and are now back filling with gravel then compacting with a vibrating roller. Two birds with one stone.

Sorghum just coming out in head

Makes you fear for your next shipping container

I would like to say that this was a rare event, not so, it is only 35km from our front gate to the center of Nairobi and I would estimate there are two trucks a week end up on their side.
The traffic is a bit feral and many times people pass on both the left and right which is semi OK in a car although you would think these truck drivers would start to get the idea.

Twiga

I probably get a bit used to seeing all the animals every day as I drive across the conservancy to our farming land.
Thought I should show you what my daily drive is like. These fellows have amazing long eyelashes.

Dinner with the Kids

Spent the day in Nairobi doing business,dropped into see the kids at the Orphanage on the way home.
A group of the girls and I topped and tailed beans for dinner,two big bowls.
Had dinner with the kids and then read them two books from Annie's collection, they all want to know when Auntie Annie will be back.

The Weather over the next 5 days

Today

23 °C

Chance of T-storms

40% chance of precipitation

Tonight

13 °C

Overcast

20% chance of precipitation

Tomorrow

25 | 12 °C

Partly Cloudy

Sunday

22 | 13 °C

Partly Cloudy

Monday

25 | 12 °C

Partly Cloudy

Tuesday

23 | 13 °C

Partly Cloudy

7

Simon and his cake

It was Simon  and Courages birthdays,the childrens home does such a great job of making it special for them.

Birthday Party with the kids

I visited the kids on Wednesday evening and had dinner with them,they then had a party for two of the boys birthdays, lots of dancing, I bet the kids all slept well that night, I did.

Paula Paula (slowly, slowly)

Sorghum Head (cesarean)

The crop has responded well to a couple of warmer nights with lows of 12/14, better than the 8 min we had a week or so ago. It should start to warm up a little from now on.
I performed a cesarean on a plant to expose this head, I expect to see a lot of heads in the next two or three weeks.

Chickpeas Growing Well

Some funny Kids from today

From the left, Stephen, Prudence (very funny girl) and Wisdom having a laugh.

A Great Afternoon at the Orphanage

I went to visit the kids at the Orphanage that our family has been involved with,after giving about 20 kids multiple rids in the wheelbarrow, I was exhausted. I hope they had as good a time as I did. These kids live in a wonderful children's home and have no family at all. In saying that they have each other and the house mums who look after them very very well.
What a privilege it is to show love and care to these kids.

Side by side of Chickpeas and Sorghum

This photos shows the comparison of the Sorghum and Chickpeas, Desi chickpeas on the left, Kabuli chickpeas in the middle with the Sorghum on the right.
I would appreciate any agronomic observations, the new growth in the Sorghum is not a great colour, i.e pale green with extra pale veins on leaves. If you click on any photos they should expand to get a better look.
Some people have problems posting a comment and so if you like you can email me direct on stuartbarden70@gmail.com as long as your not a robot or Nigerian who lost their wealthy father to a plane crash and needs my help to release the $10,000,000US that his corrupt partners are about to take if I don't help. 

Maize OK, not great

James in the maize trials, we have two local varieties planted, it had the same fertiliser and row configuration as the Sorghum although it has a great deal of purpling at the base of the plants, maybe the cool weather stressing it although I would have thought the maize would be better than the Sorghum on this front. I need to investigate further.

Chickpeas going well

Quite a difference in 30days with the chickpeas, I had James our farm Foreman to stand beside them to give some perspective.

Back in Kenya

Well back home in Kenya after about 4 weeks in Australia. The crop has progressed although a lot slower than I would have thought. It has been cold for here. They tell me that the nights have been down to 8 Deg C with day highs of 20 to 22 or there abouts.
The Sorghum as can be seen in the above picture is going OK although the newest growth appears a bit pale and I am not sure if this is due to the cool conditions or something in the nutrition line.
PS our two dogs Max and Watson are very happy to see me. All our team have done a wonderful job and have carried out their duties to the letter. They are wonderful people.