Ever since Araceli and I were dating we always had a penchant for wine and cheese. Not sure why but it was always something which we have enjoyed.
It is something we have enjoyed here a few times also, not many though as it is sometimes difficult to get or the price is too high.
Since we have gotten back here things have been quite busy. We have been running around doing things, meeting with people and driving. Sometimes we find it is easy to get lost in all of this.
We of course have set out some time for ourselves though.
Last week we headed out to a friends compound and stayed there for 2 days. While there we got to know a lot about their agriculture program and ended up that their specialist there gave us a bunch of different plants to take back to Kasese and plant.
These were mostly drought resistant plants and plants which can do well in clay soil.
Some of them were vetiver, comfrey and aloe vera. I will get in trouble though because the specialist gave me a bunch more but I forgot their names.
In deciding how to extend our garden we had a wonderful feature which ran through it. It was a natural sump in the ground where the water from the entire land collected and ran through. So we decided to use this as a design feature.
We ended up splitting up the vetiver and planting it along this sump. Vetiver is great for soaking up water and slowing it down and preventing more erosion. One of the problems we had though was the ground is all clay. Just solid clay.
So there was lots of digging beforehand and removing the clay and then mixing is organic soil along with river sand to get the right drainage (there is still quite a bit of work to do on that though).
We developed the garden and brought in some stones from the mountain to help balance the plants. We are still working on that though.
Another thing which Araceli and I have been talking about is re-using our greywater. Now the problem is that a lot of our greywater has a high salt content so we cannot use it at all for agriculture. Be we re-routed one of the drains from our sink to be specifically for non-salty greywater and diverted it to a horseshoe bed.
We planted some comfrey and miniature bamboo to act as filters before the greywater reaches the horseshoe which we are growing carrots, tomatoes and jalapenos in. We will see how it works out, but are quite excited about it.
And although we are not experts in this, and there is a lot of trial and error things still seem to turn out okay.
Yesterday we spent driving around Lilongwe getting quotations for items and buying things for the project here. As we were finishing up we had to buy some groceries also. When we were nearing the end of our journey in the grocery store (Chipiku) we came across some wine which was not too expensive.
So we got it.
And it just so happens that we found a block of cheddar cheese which was expensive but we did not mind that much.
As we returned that evening which was around 6 we decided to do a variation on the cheese and wine and have grilled cheese and wine for dinner.
It was nice to enjoy amongst all of this that small thing which we always celebrated.
It is something we have enjoyed here a few times also, not many though as it is sometimes difficult to get or the price is too high.
Mason installing our new wall to separate shower and kitchen
We of course have set out some time for ourselves though.
Last week we headed out to a friends compound and stayed there for 2 days. While there we got to know a lot about their agriculture program and ended up that their specialist there gave us a bunch of different plants to take back to Kasese and plant.
These were mostly drought resistant plants and plants which can do well in clay soil.
Some of them were vetiver, comfrey and aloe vera. I will get in trouble though because the specialist gave me a bunch more but I forgot their names.
In deciding how to extend our garden we had a wonderful feature which ran through it. It was a natural sump in the ground where the water from the entire land collected and ran through. So we decided to use this as a design feature.
We ended up splitting up the vetiver and planting it along this sump. Vetiver is great for soaking up water and slowing it down and preventing more erosion. One of the problems we had though was the ground is all clay. Just solid clay.
Our working garden. The vetiver on the left
We developed the garden and brought in some stones from the mountain to help balance the plants. We are still working on that though.
Another thing which Araceli and I have been talking about is re-using our greywater. Now the problem is that a lot of our greywater has a high salt content so we cannot use it at all for agriculture. Be we re-routed one of the drains from our sink to be specifically for non-salty greywater and diverted it to a horseshoe bed.
We planted some comfrey and miniature bamboo to act as filters before the greywater reaches the horseshoe which we are growing carrots, tomatoes and jalapenos in. We will see how it works out, but are quite excited about it.
Timeyo and I installing the drainage for the greywater system
And although we are not experts in this, and there is a lot of trial and error things still seem to turn out okay.
Yesterday we spent driving around Lilongwe getting quotations for items and buying things for the project here. As we were finishing up we had to buy some groceries also. When we were nearing the end of our journey in the grocery store (Chipiku) we came across some wine which was not too expensive.
So we got it.
And it just so happens that we found a block of cheddar cheese which was expensive but we did not mind that much.
As we returned that evening which was around 6 we decided to do a variation on the cheese and wine and have grilled cheese and wine for dinner.
It was nice to enjoy amongst all of this that small thing which we always celebrated.
Did you rate the wine? Was it good?
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