|| dailies no. 101 ||

Loadshedding.  I'm sure most of you have the same reaction as Liesl up there.  ^^ (huh?!?!)

Well, let me explain.  

Since there's been below average rainfall for the past three years, our dams are very low.  We use the water in our dams to generate power.  Since the biggest dam of all is at the lowest it's been in a while, there is not enough water to generate power for the country to last us until the rainy season.  And also, once the rainy season begins, it still takes the water time to flow into the big dams.  

Therefore, the power company has put us on this lovely little exercise called loadshedding.  The power is shut off every day on a rotating 5-hour schedule. But we are "lucky" because we live on the farm.  The farm is on a daily 5-hour outage.  The big city is on 8-10 hours per day outage.  Ouch.

Today, our schedule is 10 am - 3 pm.  I was able to get several loads of laundry done.  Power is out now and I will continue in just a few hours.  Thursday is our nicest day with the power being out from midnight to 5 am.  

We are also going to have to look into another generator and possibly some type of solar power.  Solar panels are an expensive option and there's also solar powered hot water tanks.   We only run the generator if the milking needs to be done or if the milk still isn't chilled.  

I know those of you reading from a first-world country can't imagine being without power for 5 hours a day but it really isn't that bad.  We prepare each day for it and work around the schedule.  I'm only dreading the hot season because then the fans can't be on for five hours each day.  Count on me to be in the pool during that time.  :)

Another peek into our life here...