Fire Extinguisher Refills

While on holiday in South Africa the fire extinguishers at the farm needed their annual maintenance check up and service. Bayteck drove to the farm and we were able to see the process.

 First each cylinder is checked for pressure and whether the powder is compacted.

 If the powder within is compacted the cylinder is emptied of it's contents.

 New powder is measured and poured back into the cylinder.

 The nozzle is refitted and the cylinder is re pressured.

 The cylinder is then washed and new stickers adhered with expiry dates and inspection dates.

There are a few types of extinguishers on the market today.

Source

When you use a fire extinguisher remember to PASS

Source

 An interesting look at the history and types have a look at Wikipedia, Atwood Fire and Security, Fire Safety Advice Center,

That sums up our fire safety explorations.
Blessings
Chareen

Expedition Earth: AFRICA - South Africa

To round off our recent trip to South Africa we did a slow walk through our next unit in the Expedition Earth series: South Africa.

We have spent a fair bit of time at Werribee Open Range Zoo (Night Zoo & Giraffe encounter) experiencing African Wildlife.

We were blessed with many wide and varied experiences while in South Africa

• Khamai Reptile Centre
•  Mariepskop
• Waterfalls
• Trackers
• Johannesburg Zoo
• Target Practice with an air rifle.
• A day trip to the Kruger National Park

Resources  

Notebook Pages

• Southern Africa pages by Donnette Davis
• South Africa general activity pages
• Southern Africa Huts and Homes 
• Expedition Earth over at Confessions of a Homeschooler
• Expedition Earth Discovering Gods Animals over at Confessions of a Homeschooler (FREE)
• Traditional African Clothing Ndbele, Zulu, Venda, Xhosa, Basotho, and Swazi people.
• African Jewellery.

Stories

• African Folk Tales
• Jungle Doctor Stories
• Select stories from:
  When Hippo was Hairy
  When Lion Could Fly
  When Elephant was King
  When Bat was a Bird

Books

• Nelson Mandela Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson Madela (Chris van Wyk)
• South Africa (Letters from Around the World )- Cath Senker
• African Culture - Rob Bowden
• South Africa (National Geographic Countries of the World) - Virginia Mace
• South Africa in Our World - Ali Brownlie Bojang
• Nelson Mandela (Famous People) - Hakim Adi
• Africa (Exploring Continents) - Deborah Underwood

On the Net

• South Africa Facts and Pictures over at National Geographic Kids
• ♫ ♪ South Africa National Anthem "Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika"(YouTube) 
• Loved the photography showcased in this YouTube clip from Rhino Africa Safaris.
• Quick Facts about South Africa(YouTube)
• 10 Little known Nelson Mandela Facts(YouTube)
• "The Mandela Portrait" a musical tribute to Nelson Mandela (older students) (YouTube)
• South African Youth 18 years after Apartheid. (of interest for older students)(YouTube)

Animals

Touching a Rhino at WORZ.

• African Elephant
  African Elephant - National Geographic
  African Elephants - National Geographic Kids Deadly African Elephant The World's largest land animal.  (Good overview)
  Baby elephant - BBC Wildlife (newborn baby & mating)
  "Duke" Kruger National Parks biggest elephant.  Gosh I wish we had seen him when we went to the Kruger Park earlier this year.
• Leopard
  Leopard - National Geographic
  Documentary Leopard Life Part 1 of 3, Part 2 of 3, Part 3 of 3
  National Geographic - Female Leopard hunts a Baboon.
  Big Cats: Leopard vs Hyena and Lion.
  
• Lion Lions Kids National Geographic
  African Lion- National Geographic
  Lions vs Antelope - BBC Wildlife (hunting)
  Lion Documentary (David Attenborough) Excellent.
• Rhinoceros
  Black Rhinoceroses - National Geographic Kids
  Black Rhinoceros - National Geographic
  Rhinoceros Fun Facts
• Meerkat
  Meerkat National Geographic Kids
  Meerkat - National Geographic
  Adorable baby meerkats explore the African wild for the first time - BBC wildlife
• Zebra
  Zebra -Kids National Geographic
  Zebra - National Geographic

Milk Tart

Cooking

• Milk Tart this is one of my favourite dishes from South Africa.
• Babootie a traditional South African dish

Do you have any favourite resources for learning about South Africa ?
Blessings
Chareen

Here is a 4 min video of photo's Paul took on a trip to Africa a few years ago.

• PS We pick and choose what to read from each site. We do NOT read every article in its entirety.  
• Due to the every changing nature of the Internet please check that these sites are still safe before allowing your children on them.  
• This post does not contain affiliate links. 

Linking with 

Grateful for Grace: What We're Learning

 Collage Friday over at Home Grown Learners,   

Favourite Resources at Learning All the Time.
Look what we did at  Home Grown Learners

South African Milk Tart

Milk Tart is one of my all time favourite tea time deserts. We are currently studying South Africa in our Expedition Earth series so wanted to share it here with you.

Recently while on holiday in South Africa  I asked my Mom in law to please teach me how she makes Milk Tart.

She shared with me that she makes the crusts well in advance and stores them in a cake tin for when ever she wants to make a milk tart. She either bakes them in a glass pie dish and removes and stores the crust or she bakes them in aluminium pie dishes and stores them in those.

Crust (I do not know how many this makes I think around two)

• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 egg
• 4 ounces butter
• 1/2 cup sugar

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar
2. Beat egg well and add to mix.  Mix well.
3. Add dry ingredients and combine.
4. Roll out and cut circle to line pie dish.
5. Line pie dish(s) decorate edge with a fork.
6. Prick the center
7. Bake at 180'C till light brown (approx 10 Min)

Filling (This is enough filling for ONE tart)

• 2 cups Milk
• 6 teaspoons sugar
• 5 ml vanilla Essence
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• Pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoon corn flour
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 2 eggs beaten well.

Method

1. Gently heat milk in pan with sugar, vanilla, butter and salt.
2. While the milk is heating, add a splash of milk to a jug and mix corn flour and flour in the jug till no lumps are present.
3. Add eggs and mix well.
4. Once Milk is warm and all sugar is dissolved just before it boils pour in the flour/egg mix while whisking fast.
5. Return to stove and cook till it thickens.
6. Pour into crust and set aside to cool for 15 min
7. Sprinkle with cinnamon and place in fridge to cool down completely.

Serve cold with afternoon tea.


What dessert / afternoon tea delight do you enjoy from your country ?

Blessings
Chareen

A trip to Khamai Reptile Centre

When we lived in South Africa 16 years ago we managed a farm called Richmond Game Farm.  On the corner of the farm there was a little park called Swadini Snake Park and we were friends with it's owner.  So on our return to SA we decided to take Sir N and Miss J and go back for a visit.


A lot has changed in 16 years and we had a wonderful day rediscovering Donald's park which has been renamed Khamai Reptile Centre.  I highly recommend his website it is full of interesting information. Donald is an expert on snakes from all over the world so if you have a snake question get in contact with him.

Khamai was opened as Swadini Reptile Park in November 1984.

MISSION STATEMENTS

• To conserve through education and research. 
• To locate, propagate and relocate rare and endangered reptiles. 
• To establish viable captive populations of rare and endangered reptiles.

In the Park there are an assortment of cement figures and one Sir N particularly enjoyed was the life size figure of a Nile Crocodile.  I think he was a little bit overwhelmed by it sheer size (so was I) and enjoyed climbing on it.  We learned about the Nile Crocodile during our Egypt Expedition Earth Study before we went to South Africa.

We then went over and had a look at the small one Donald had in an enclosure just behind the model.

At the Park you can find Lizard Rock Cafe where I can remember enjoying the most wonderful hamburgers for dinner. Sir N enjoyed exploring the interesting dinning room.


There are numerous snake enclosures to explore and I took loads of photo's of snakes and all variety of creepy crawlies.

This is an African Rock Python (Python Sebae).
 

• This snake can grow to 30 feet in length and is Africa's largest snake and the third largest snake in the world.
• They are non poisonous and kill their prey by constriction.
• Females lay eggs of up to 100 eggs in a clutch which she aggressively defends. 
• The babies are 18-24 inches in length.
• These snakes can live up to 12 years in captivity.

This is a Black Mamba.

• They get their name from the blue-black of the inside of their mouths which they display when threatened.
• These snakes can grow up to 14 feet in length and travel at speeds up to 12mph.
• They can strike from 4-6 feet away. Before antivenins were developed, a black mamba bite was 100% fatal.
• The Mamba has a lifespan of 11+ years.
• The fangs are Proteroglyphous and the venom is Neurotoxic.

Snake Skeletons of interest


One of the most interesting displays I found was one showcasing different snake head skeletons.

No Fangs Aglyphous Non Venomous Snakes.

Back Fangs (Opisthoghlphous) Venomous Mostly Semi Venomous but also Boomslang and Vine Snakes.

Front Hinged Fangs (Solenoglyphous) Venomous Adder or Vipers

After a good look around the different enclosures in doors Donald arranged for us to hold, touch photograph a snake.  I must agree with Sir N I don't like touching snakes however Miss J really enjoyed the experience.

There are three Squirrel Monkeys living in the gardens and when they saw we had some lollies they wanted in on the action.

Sir N with a Squirrel Monkey on his shoulder.

It was so good to see Donald and how much his park had grown.  If you ever find yourself in South Africa take some time to pop in and explore the park and take some time to get to know these interesting reptiles.

Blessings
Chareen

A day discovering Mariepskop Picnic site

We went with Dave to explore Mariepskop on Thursday last week.

On the way we found a Chamilion.

Here is a smorgsboard of what we saw and did

Some of the flowers we saw.

Mariepskop Picnic site

A little stream.

Looking up stream at the view points

Sir N enjoying the freedom to climb and explore

Paul enjoying the swinging rope :o)



Taking a moment to enjoy the sights and contemplate.



The view upstream



There are beautiful little streams all over adding to the tranquil feeling.

The view driving home after a wonderful day of memories.

It's been so wonderful watching Sir N explore and discover both himself and his surroundings.  I am enjoying watching him gain confidence with his own abilities.

Blessings from Africa

Chareen

A walk to the waterfall

On Wednesday last week we decided to take a walk up the mountain to look at the waterfall / stream that feeds the house fresh stream water with Sir N. 
In the beginning of the walk he complained bitterly but we persevered and had a wonderful time together.   This experience taught me not to give up too soon with young kids when going on a nature walk.

Here are a few of the sights we saw

The start of our walk

I love the shapes of the trees

Sir N found this rock and wanted to sleep there for the night !

Nearly there

Sir N exploring to find the best way up

Experimenting with shutter speed while the boys explore the mountain

The sun has disappeared behind the mountain. Time to go home.

I'm thirsty Dad!

This place holds special memories for Paul and I as we courted up here.  20 years ago we used come up here with his Dad and the school groups who had come to the farm for outward bound camps.  Paul and his Dad used to rig up abseiling ropes and the classes would climb up here and enjoy the day exploring.

Blessings
Chareen

Week 1 - Photography Challenge Showcase

I love taking photographs and capturing memories. One of the things I desire to learn is how to use my camera more effectively to capture the precious moments that happen around me daily.

I was reading on Erin's blog the other day that she has created a little Photography Challenge for the month of May. The challenge is to a photograph each day and explore a new aspect of photography.

While on holiday I have been using some of Erin's challenges during some of my travels.  Here is my first weeks attempt.

High Angle

Looking down on Jessica the Hippo.

Low Angle

Mushrooms growing at the base of a tree.

Changing Light

Sunrise from the balcony at Trackers.

A pink rose with the sun shining on it from different angles.

Up Close

Macro photography is one of my favourite forms of photography. I love to look for the smallest flower on my travels and see if I can photograph it.

A Frangipani bud.

From a Distance.

Sammy Marks Residence near Pretoria.

Sitting on a rock at The Three Rondavels View Point.

This photograph could be for two divisions. High Angle and from a distance.

Eyes

Miss J holding an African Python at Khamai Reptile Park

Emotion

Sir N didn't want his photo taken !

Thank you Erin I had a lot of fun this past week.

Don't forget to pop on over to Seven Little Australian's Photo Challenge Showcase Blog Hop and see the photographs other friends are taking and be inspired.

Blessings

Chareen

[PS To illustrate the length of time it takes to use the Internet in Hoedspruit:  It took two hours to upload these pics :) ]