Lake Farm Centre- We Care

Go Green Last update: 24-3-2010

Organic Farming, Sustainable Energy, Healthy Environment, Nature Conservation

Welcome to the Lake Farm Centre Web site.

Registered in terms of the Nonprofit Organisations Act, 1997. Registration number:033-544.

Lake Farm is registered at SARS as a Public Benefit Organisation(PBO) exempted from incomes tax and thus can issue Tax certificates.

Lake Farm Centre is a residential care facility registered for 90 intellectually and physically disabled adults.

Why Go Green?

Food shortage? High electricity rates? Global warming? Climate change? Energy crises? Pollution? Endangered species? Oil energy dependance? Carbon footprint?

Save ! Re-use ! Recycle! Renewable energy!

Recycling of Waste at Lake Farm Centre

Cardboard Newspaper Magazines Whitepaper Plastic Tins Glass

Lake farm centre collects the following clean( not wet or soiled) and sorted(preferably) waste material:

All cardboard boxes and any carton (clean)

small and large, porridge boxes, appliances type packing,

All plastic:

bags, bottles, milk bottles, cool drink bottles, shampoo, oil, all colours, all shapes, all tops, etc.

(Recycle signs Triangle 1 to 5)

Not polystyrene(triangle code 6), or chips bags, “noisy” plastic, aluminum foil type or 1L milk boxes.

All tins and iron

All domestic tins and scrap metal, clean please.

All paper:

All magazines, newspaper, copier paper(please), books, (we are the paper “forests” of China)

All glass:

Cool drink, wine, jars, any colour or shape. Please not broken.

Kindly drop large deliveries at farm workshop if possible and not at our entrance.

Lake Farm is in the process to get large containers to make the process more convenient for our supporters and "green friends"

Thank you for your support

Bennie

0762568262

041-3791555

"Go Green" plans

We are in the process to start or improve the following:-

Community recycle depot for all waste material in the Lake Farm, Sea View, Colleen Glen, Theescombe and surrounding areas;
Environmental education support in partnership with Pierre-Louis Lemecier's Renewable Energy Centre;
Rain water tanks to catch more rain water-please, we need sponsorships!
Improvement of soil quality and larger scale earth worm farming;
Permaculture organic veggie farming;

Spekboom - to combat air pollution and reduce our carbon footprint;

More solar heated geysers, more energy saving light bulbs, more grey water, more trees, etc.

Energy audit.

Organic Farming and Sustainable Energy - BBC Movies

Please contact us if you are interested in movies that explains why we all should start with activities that protect the environment, water, soil and use alternative energy resources. The movie helped us to gain a better understanding of why we should continue and improve on our current attempts such as our organic veggie garden, recycling water and waste and sewerage, solar geysers and alternative energy, nature conservation, earth worm farming(started recently), etc.

If you need more information, please contact Pierre-Louis at 076190 6384 or our LFC office at 041-3791555 or 0713650221 after –hours.

Pierre-Louis from the Renewable Energy Centre will present this special opportunity not to be missed.

Lake Farm's "go green" progress

How can you support us and help conserve nature?

Re-Cycling Project: Drop-off depot for all sorted waste material*

We started with a recycling project in April 2009 and almost 50% of our waste material gets re-cycled by the Waste Management Company.

We welcome friends and visitors to *deliver their dry and sorted plastic bags, all kinds of plastic bottles, glass, and carton, newspapers, magazines, tins and iron at Lake Farm Centre. We save money and protect and preserve nature and the earth.

Solar geysers:

We now replace damaged geysers with solar geysers and three have been installed the last year.

Compost and earth-worm farming:

Our vegetable garden has been making their own compost and we use our cattle dung in our gardens. Our vegetable garden uses very little insecticides and tries to farm organic as far as possible. We started recently with small scale earth-worm farming.

Lake and nature conservation:

We support and assist with the preservation and protection of our natural lake in co-operation with other land owners who contracted with Algoa Angling Club to manage the lake area for us.

Alien plants and water conservation:

We attempt to control alien invaders and poisonous trees but need the help of volunteers to really make an impact.

Rain water recycling:

We have a system that directs rain water into our dam and from there we irrigate our veggie garden.

Rain water tanks will help to conserve water and we would welcome a sponsor to help us with water tanks.

Sewerage:

Lake Farm Centre has it's own a sewerage plant independent from the municipality and pump all recycled sewerage water into our own dam to re-use on farm.

Plastic Recycling Codes-American Chemistry Council

Recycle Triangle Codes 1 to 7: Please visit their website www.americanchemistry.com for their plastic packaging resins codes or e-mail bennie@lakefarm.org.za for a copy of the file.

Local Nature Conservation-The smallest antelope in SA!

The Blue Duiker/Bloubokkie ( Cephalophus monticola)

Did you know that we have the smallest antelope in South Africa also in our Lake Farm area?

The last spotting of an adult Blue Duiker was on Thursday 11 March 2010 at about 5:30 pm at edge of the hilly Lake Side Road close to Chelsea Mountain near Old Seaview Road.

Size and colour: The Blue Duiker/"Bloubokkie" is ±30 cm in height, lenght of ±60cm and weight of ±3 - 6 kg.

It is the smallest of South African antelopes with very slender legs and short tail. Presenting a general slaty colouration, there is a tuft of hair on the head, and horns, ±4 - 7 cm long, are present in both sexes. It can live for about only 7 years.

Diet: Forages at night on the edges of the thick bush or forests, browsing on leaves of shrubs(e.g. Olive wood and Spekboom), bushes and berries.

Breeding: Usually a single fawn is born in the spring

Fairly widely distributed in only the narrow coastal forest regions of the South-eastern Cape up to near Mozambique. It is rare near urban areas due to depredations of dogs and snares.

(Mammals of the Cape Province)

Please help us to protect the last remaining Blue Duikers in our area and report any illegal practices or hunting in our area.

Please visit again and give us suggestions to improve our webpage.