I never thought I would be the type to sit and whinge about the weather, but it is so damn hot and dry out here. Nearly a month into this farming journey and not a drop of rain has hit the ground, just constant 35 degree day beatings. Some days even get to 40 degrees.
It's incredibly dry out here at the moment
Daaaaam.
The kicker is the dams are still full, but all three pumps on the property are broken. The solar bore needs a $700 replacement box from Lorentz. The electric pump for Dam 1 & Dam 2 has seized up and won’t pump. The diesel pump we have down at dam 3 is broken and Dam 4 is missing the pump altogether. How water gets inside a Lorentz pump box is beyond me, and apparently beyond them as well. From my limited experience I don’t think this Lorentz setup is suitable for the Australian climate.
I sit outside watching the plants and trees beg for water, with their shrivelled leaves and early ripening fruit. I can’t get water to them yet due to all the broken irrigation lines and no pumps for any of the dams. Much like us, they’re at the mercy of this relentless heat.
The dams are full at least. Now how do I get this to the plants
What Rainy Season?
February is meant to be one of the rainy months up here, but as of writing this we have had nothing, the weather reports 1.2mm, but even that isn’t enough to dampen the ground let alone water anything. It’s a far cry when the area normally records over 100mm by this time of the year.
It’s dry, my god it is dry. To borrow a famous Australian Idiom (and censor myself in the process), It’s as dry as a dead dingo’s donger.
This chart shows a bleak outlook for February
At Least The Frogs Are Having Fun
On this property we have three rain water tanks, one is connected to the house. One seems to be connected to a dam that can’t currently be pumped into and the other is connected to nothing. It is not sealed either and the water is brown. Not a great situation for this tank.
At night or the early hours of the morning, you can hear the frog parties inside this tank as they rejoice in their makeshift watery cave. They are having a great old time and it makes me wonder what else is inside this tank. The roof of it has around 100 mud wasp nests, that I can tell you.
The water seems to only be good for watering plants so I set up a little tap on the side to fill buckets of water. It’s with this I am watering some of the plants that are in range.
It’s like stepping back into the stone age. Next I’ll learn how to balance buckets of water on my head so I can wander around the farm watering everything that needs water.
Moving Water Around
As I noticed the weeping slow down around the concrete tank supplying the house with its water, I came to the stark conclusion that our water tank is low. I personally, don’t know the last time it was full as we are using whatever was there when we moved in. The good news is on the hill near the sheds the water tank has a consistent level still in it.
But how do I get it to the house tank without a pump? With a stroke of luck, this tank is actually in usable condition, and is above the level of the main tank. I bought 50m of hose and let gravity do the work for me. It still took about seven hours to nearly drain this tank and move it to the main tank.
At least now we have water again for the home, but for how long I do not know. Water management is going to become vital up here on this Moringa Farm so I will need to sort this out ASAP. I could not imagine what 3+ months of no rain and 35 degree days is going to do to the supply and I think that is what we will need to prepare for.
Sowing the Seeds of the Future
What better time to try and grow Moringa when you have no water, a genius move by me but it is something that needs to happen ASAP. Demand outweighs the supply at the moment so getting the seeds in the ground is priority.
Moringa seeds are a bit of a pain to get growing. I am trying multiple ways but the most common is to soak them in water for 24 hours. After 24 hours if they are still floating then they are most likely not suitable for growing and are duds.
If they sink, then you have a chance at growing them. So, we soaked them for a day and started to prepare the land for the first test run of seeds.
The Little Engine That Should
When I bought the property, I inherited a Husqvarna ride-on lawn mower that I have nicknamed the little engine that should.
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It should function as a lawn mower
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It should function as a working bit of machinery for the farm
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It should be able to drive around and
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It should take petrol and not cash as fuel
It does none of these, I have poured money into this stupid machine to get it going and it just disappoints me each time I try to use it. New blades, new batteries, new belts, new filters, new hoses and it continues to find ways to break after 10 minutes of use each time.
It’s truly a terrible machine, it feeds off cash and not fuel. As a matter of fact it leaks all the fuel and I just spend more and more on it. One day it will mow a straight line. It’s like watching a celebrity nepo baby just squander their life and spend all the parents money without doing the most basic task.
I will never let another machine with the words Husqvarna step foot onto this farm again.
The Old Faithful Never Lets me Down
Years ago when I was living in Victoria I bought a new push mower, it still starts on the first pull and is as reliable as the sun coming up each day.
The little engine that should failed at the basic task of mowing down a small patch of land for the initial Moringa seeds. But you can bet your bottom dollar my push lawn mower was up to the task. I am more the issue here with a 35 degree sun bearing down on me pushing this mower up and down the field.
But mission successful, the area was cleared and I had a nice close encounter with a wasp nest that was built on the side of the fence. They charged out of that honeycomb looking nest and went berserk. I don’t know how they missed me, I may have let out a little scream as I prepared for the inevitable wasp ambush.
I rewarded them of course with a nice bath of wasp spray. Something to cool them down on this hot and dry day. With a bit of luck that’s it for that particular colony of paper wasps that were inhabiting my new Moringa field.
The New Toy That Kicks
In case I forgot to mention above, it has been so dry here. So dry in fact that I couldn’t dig, hoe or make a hole in the ground. It’s like rock. But I do have a new toy up my sleeve. A Ryobi post digger.
This thing has some torque. It spins quite slowly but it kicks like a mule when it gets stuck. It has an anti kick setting but it keeps going off. Which is what it is meant to do I guess, but I turn it off and let it go. Thinking I was strong enough to control it. Which it turns out I am not. It throws my arms and shoulders around like a rag doll.
But it is fun to use and it got the job done. The soil was loosened and the holes were big enough for the seeds. Mixing a mixture of 50% potting mix to the soil I already dug, I planted a couple of rows of the soaked Moringa seeds. And covered them up.
They are in a perfect place, the soil is good, it does not flood as Moringa hates wet feet and it has room to grow. With a bit of luck I will use these to clone more and more trees.
More Water Woes
As with all seeds when they are planted, they like a bit of water. This field is situated between 2 dams, 2 inaccessible dams currently.
So I am now carrying buckets of water down from the water tank and watering the seeds in.
When there is a will, there is a way. And if these moringa seeds sprout I will feel an enormous amount of pride just from the prehistoric way I had to get them in the ground and watered.