From somewhere deep in the Limietberg behind us, this water flows all year long into our farm reservoirs.|
In the past 4 months, we have only had 48 mm of rain, or just over 4% of the year’s average. We normally get most of our rainfall in winter, but this was really dry.
Fortunately, for the sake of the flora and the less obvious fauna, there is still plenty of water in the soil.
It has only rained twice since December 1, but we have at least 4 springs still running.
One is an ever-present metre-square pool that is Poppie’s corner pub in the orange grove.
Another runs, strongly, filling reservoirs for the general farm needs. A third supplies eau-de-source to the homes.
The fourth flows strongly into the vineyard dam, which has an overflow down through the central line of the property into the Windy River (called that because it winds here and there. To tell the truth it is named Kromme Rivier, which means roughly the same thing).
This overflow stream has not only run all year long for millions of years down though here, it has cut and shaped the valley we live in and is responsible for the fact that we have north facing and south facing slopes.
It has no other name that I can find than Die Sloot or The Channel.