Bev Pervan of CACH Reports From The Karoo Wildlife Centre

Bev Pervan of CACH Reports From The Karoo Wildlife Centre

Moving In

Bev Pervan of CACH Reports From The Karoo Wildlife Centre – Hi Rosemary – Just a little news about the Karoo Wildlife Centre and some pictures – http://www.cannedlion.org/kwc-pictures.html – now this would be a fabulous destination for a volunteer holiday – helping others – helping wildlife and staying with Chris and Bev at their sanctuary!

The new sanctuary sits up on the hill looking out over the fields in front with the Swartberg Mountains in the distance. We arrived Sat morning, got the key to the “castle” and the ex owners left. She shed a few tears.   But they left the property nice and clean.  We had bought some of their furniture and so there is at least some beds and a few chairs to sit on.  I will be looking for a few pieces over the next months to make the house and volunteer accommodation comfortable.  Looking at the house now after most of the furniture has gone, I also quite like the minimal look, no clutter.  

Chris is in his element and so enjoying doing the farming duties again.  Well some of them anyway, the water pipe burst on Sunday night and we lost 8 tanks of water that just drained onto the ground.  Very upsetting, but that is how it goes sometimes in extreme conditions. It was freezing cold and the pipes froze, so they burst.  So we have a lot to fix and learn.

Especially about the olives and pomegranates.  Because of all the rain we had up there last week, 60ml, we will have to spray for mildew, so Agri, the local agricultural department, will go out to the sanctuary on Tuesday and advice Chris on a spray program.   We want to go organic for all the obvious reasons.  Being vegetarian, we do not want to have poison on the farm.  We also want bees and cant be spraying trees and killing the very beasties that need the flowers.
So lots and lots of stuff to organise, find out about and to do.  It seems that we did not sit down for a moment the whole weekend.  

But the house is sweet and comfortable. Not much in it at the moment, but we will get there eventually.  Our  cousin  Kim has given me a dining room table and chairs which are going to look great there.  There is just the spot in the lounge for it.  She has also given me a whole lot of cacti that I will plant right in front of the house.  The Aloes at the moment are flowering. They are bright orange and it looks lovely to see all the little sun birds on the flowers.

If you look at the picture, in front of the little log house, you will see the roof of the extension to the house.  There are two rooms, a sitting room and a bathroom there for the volunteers to stay in, when I have built and established the rehabilitation centre.  This is where you will stay if you ever visit us in South Africa.

Volunteer Rooms

At the back is the shed which houses all the equipment needed to run a sanctuary. We have lots of room to build shelves to keep everything nice and tidy.  Its an awful mess at the moment.  I want to make a place there for the worm farm which i have been developing and which we will need.  Most of the little creatures, bat eared foxes etc are insectivorous and we need to have the right food for them. 

The little building in the front where the solar panels are, is the “power house” it holds the batteries for the solar panels.  We will have to extend these panels so that we have enough energy to run a rehab centre.   At the moment this gives enough energy for a few lights.  This property was used as a holiday home for a Dr and his family.  They live in Cape Town and used to come out for weekends. The energy that is there was adequate for weekend stays, not really for long term.

Down at the dam.  It was so peaceful watching the little birds and ducks swimming about. At the top of the koppie, the only place at the moment to get a cell phone signal. I had to call home (Wilderness) to make sure everything was okay with all our pets.

After a lovely walk over the hill to check on the border fence, we returned to the bike and we could not start it.   We had to push it all the way home.  Thank goodness most of it was down hill – ha ha. We made it after a lot of puffing and panting.  Phew that was me done for the day. 

I came home (Wilderness) – Monday, Chris stayed to sort out water pipes, fix the quad, sort out the tractor (doesn’t want to work either) and find out more about the care of the olive trees.

I wish I was there.  Our CACH representative from Scotland will be visiting this week.  There is tons to do, so poor Malena is going to be a very busy girl when she comes.   She will be sorting out the bee hives, varnishing the portable bird aviary, (our first enclosure for wildlife )  sanding the deck and if she has time we may let her take a nap or two.

Malena – CACH Representative – Scotland – Harvesting Pomegranites!

I got a call last week from one of the farmers to ask us when we were starting, because they have a client for me.  The client is a baby porcupine. Oh well they will look after this little baby this time. As I do not have the place yet to look after a baby where it will be warm and safe. I wanted to bring it to Wilderness but Chris wouldn’t let me!

We hope that we will be able to do a lot for the orphaned and injured wildlife in the area. As the town is very small and everyone talks to one another, I am sure that the news of our new venture will get out.  There are several sheep pens that are empty now, but have been built very well. We will eventually turn these into the enclosures for the wildlife in our care. We will adapt them to suit animals and some for raptors. So a lot of work ahead.  We hope to be fully moved up there by the middle of July.  We only have one dinky trailer and so it will take time to move our personal things up to the sanctuary.We need to build a fence to keep the pets in, don’t want them running after wildlife. So when that has been done we will be able to be there permanently. 

Well big surprise when I got home (Wilderness) was to find no water either. The pipes had burst here too.   Oh dear I seem to have jinxed the water pipes in Wilderness and the KWC.
xx

B.

This is how you can help and get involved with a truly worth cause and incredible people!

Please do send our appeal out for funds:

 http://www.cannedlion.org/crowdfunding.html 

We would love to get the rehabilitation side up and running as soon as possible.

Chris & Malena Standing In Land That Will Need To Be Reclaimed