VACANT CHAIR SHELLHOLE
NEWS LETTER
October 2016
Morning all, hope you are all fit and well and enjoying the way sunshine, longer days shorter night what a pleasure. It seems as in the past few years we have skipped Spring and gone straight through to summer. Due to the heat and drought water has become like “gold”, please do not waste this previous commodity, and if you see a leaking pipe report to your nearest Municipality for urgent attention, we all ride past this water leaks in the streets and hope someone else will report. The more complaints they get the quicker the response. Courtesy of Stuart Howie he has sent an article from News 24 on water restrictions. Have also included tips on how to save water.
Brian and I took part in the Jacaranda Annual Spring walk on the 10th September and completed the 8 kilometers we set out to do and have the medals to prove it.
Further on Sunday the 25th September popped around to see Betty and Jimmy Strong at their new home. They both look very well and happy, and have also put on some weight especially Betty, they have a lovely room with a view of the mountain. Jimmy also mentioned that Karel, Hennie Pienaar,Tracy, Shaun & Ann had also been to see them.
We would like to wish the following persons and anyone that we may have forgotten who celebrate their birthdays in October 2016 a very
OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS
1st MOTH “O”
15th – Stuart Howie
South Africa: Water Restrictions for Tshwane
The City of Tshwane on Tuesday implemented water restrictions as the country continued to deal with the effects of drought.
Infrastructure MMC Darryl Moss told the media that the Department of Water and Sanitation had published a notice stating that drawing water from the Integrated Vaal River System should be limited.
"The city of Tshwane is therefore obliged to comply with the notice and reduce its water consumption by 25%," Moss said.
"We receive 72% of our bulk water from Rand Water, but we also source 28% of our water from our own treatment plants and boreholes."
Moss further indicated that the limitation for drawing water from the Vaal River System by urban and irrigation users would result in restrictions that include watering/irrigating gardens with a hosepipe or sprinkler from 6:00-18:00.
"Washing of vehicles with hosepipes and filling of swimming pools. The same restrictions which were implemented last year will apply with immediate effect from today.
"We urge all our consumers to join us in making efforts to reduce the water consumption," he said.
Moss added that failure to adhere to the restrictions would result in the City taking drastic steps to enforce compliance.
"Should consumers not adhere to the restrictions as imposed by the department, as well as Rand Water, then the situation will get worse and consumers will be without water for longer periods. Furthermore, if the situation does not improve then the City will be forced to introduce increased tariffs, increased policing and water shedding," said Moss.
He added that they have the powers to impose fines on those found to be going against the call for using water sparingly, but that would be last resort.
"if we don't reach our targets then we will impose punitive measures," he said.
Here are some great tips on how to save water at home:
§ Only water your garden after the sun has set and when it is absolutely necessary. Watering your plants during the day means that most of it will evaporate, wasting water. According the Department of Water and Sanitation, up to 90% of the water evaporates when watering your garden between 10:00 and 15:00. Another great option in this regard is using grey water – the water from your tub for example – for irrigation.
§ Make sure that all your taps and pipes are in tiptop shape. Plumbers can help you out with this, replacing washers and fixtures where and when necessary. Though this might have an initial cost, you will be able to save in the long run.
§ According to Mail & Guardian, Eskom uses about 3% of our water. This means that by reducing your electricity consumption, you may be able to reduce Eskom’s water consumption.
§ Shower instead of taking a bath. According to the Department of Water and Sanitation, one minute of showering can use up to 20 litres of water (so keep them as short as possible) while a bath can use between 80 and 150 litres of water.
§ If you want to make an investment towards water saving in the home, call in professional plumbers and implement duel-flush toilet mechanisms and low-flow shower heads. When replacing washing machines and dishwasher, make sure that they are water efficient.
§ Flushing the toilet unnecessarily is also a waste of water as it can use up to 12 litres per flush. Tissues, cotton wool and things of this nature can be disposed of in the trashcan instead.
§ Collect rain water. Though we realise there isn’t much of that in large parts of South Africa lately, finding JoJo tanks for sale and collecting rain water can aid you in times like this, giving you a water source to water your garden and even wash your car.
§ Another stunning tip is to insulate your hot water pipes, allowing that not too much water is wasted waiting for it to warm up.
§ Put a brick in your toilet and leave it to mellow. Toilets use more water than is necessary, and flushing can be unnecessary. A brick will substantially reduce water use.
§ Shorten showers and teeth brushing, while staying away from bathing. Turn the tap off while lathering and brushing.
§ Don’t refill the swimming pool. These are a luxury and a waste of water when entire communities are faced with trying to live without water. Savings in one place mean people get water elsewhere.
§ The most critical component of water saving is for South Africa to live like it is a water scarce country. Water is the single biggest constraint to development
Other simple ways to save water is to close the tap when washing your face and brushing your teeth. Use a bucket instead if hosepipe if you have to wash your car and, hold off as long as you can before filling your pool.
7 Things You Should Know About Mount Everest
May 29, 2013 By Jesse Greenspan
o Author
Jesse Greenspan
On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay completed the first confirmed ascent of Mount Everest, which stands 29,035 feet above sea level. Though the two mountaineers spent only about 15 minutes on the snow-covered summit, they managed to snap a few photos, share a celebratory hug and eat a bar of mint cake—an early version of today’s energy bars. Tenzing, a Nepalese Sherpa, also left some of the sweets as a Buddhist offering, and Hillary, a beekeeper from New Zealand, placed a cross nearby. On the 60th anniversary of their widely celebrated feat, which Hillary described as knocking “the bastard off,” here are seven things you may not know about Earth’s highest mountain.
1. No one knew of Everest as the roof of the world until the 19th century.
In 1802, the British launched what became known as the Great Trigonometrical Survey in order to map the Indian subcontinent. Heavy equipment, rugged terrain, monsoons, malaria and scorpions made the work exceedingly difficult. Nonetheless, the surveyors were able to take astonishingly accurate measurements. They soon proved that the Himalayas—and not the Andes, as previously believed—were the world’s highest mountain range. By 1852, they had fingered Everest, then called Peak XV, as the king of them all, and by 1856 they had calculated its height as 29,002 feet above sea level. A 1999 survey using state-of-the-art GPS technology found them off by only 33 feet.
2. Hillary and Tenzing might have been beat to the summit.
George Mallory, a British schoolteacher, participated in the first three documented attempts to scale Mount Everest from 1921 to 1924. Before the last of those expeditions, he wrote, “It is almost unthinkable…that I shan’t get to the top; I can’t see myself coming down defeated.” On June 4, 1924, a teammate made it within about 900 vertical feet of the summit before turning back. Mallory and climbing partner Andrew Irvine then made their own attempt for glory. They departed the 26,800-foot Camp VI on June 8 and were last seen that afternoon trudging upwards in their tweed coats, hobnailed boots and other primitive apparel. Some people believe that Mallory and Irvine reached the summit before dying on the way down. A camera they supposedly carried could perhaps solve the mystery, but it was not among the items in Mallory’s pockets when his corpse finally was discovered in 1999. Irvine’s body remains unfound.
3. Tenzing had almost reached the top once before.
After Mallory’s death, the next 10 or so expeditions to Mount Everest also failed. Tenzing gained valuable experience participating in six of them, starting off as a porter and later progressing into a full team member. In 1952 he and a Swiss climber came within about 800 vertical feet of the top—likely higher than anyone had ever gone. He broke his own record the next year by reaching the summit with Hillary. Since then, around 4,000 other mountaineers have likewise climbed Everest, including Hillary’s son and one of Tenzing’s sons.
4. Corpses are often left behind when a climber dies en route.
About 240 people have died attempting to climb Mount Everest. Avalanches, rockslides, blizzards, falls, altitude sickness, freezing temperatures, exhaustion and combinations thereof have all proven fatal, particularly in the so-called “death zone” above 26,000 feet. Since getting them down is grueling and dangerous, most of the corpses remain up there. They are well preserved in the snow and apparently serve as trail markers for climbers who pass by. Everest’s deadliest day occurred in May 1996, when eight people perished in a storm. Yet that incident, made famous by Jon Krakauer’s book “Into Thin Air,” did nothing to stem the tide of people willing to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for a chance to tame Earth’s highest mountain. Traffic jams have even been reported near the top, and a fistfight broke out this April between three European climbers and more than 100 Sherpas, over what the guides deemed to be rude and dangerous behavior during an attempted ascent. Meanwhile, the deaths keep coming, including at least 10 last year and around eight this year.
5. Everest’s litter problem goes well beyond cadavers.
As early as 1963, a climber wrote in National Geographic that parts of Mount Everest had become “the highest junkyard on the face of the Earth.” Empty oxygen bottles, human excrement, food packaging, broken climbing gear and torn tents continue to spoil the environment there. A single cleanup in spring 2011 removed over 8 tons of trash from Everest, and many more tons remain uncollected. In order to counteract the problem, Nepal’s government now requires climbers to bring back all of their equipment or risk losing a $4,000 deposit. New trash bins and a waste incinerator have also recently been installed near the mountain.
6. Few animals venture into Everest’s upper reaches.
Sagarmatha National Park, which includes Mount Everest and surrounding peaks, supports a variety of mammals at its lower elevations, from snow leopards and musk deer to red pandas and Himalayan tahr. About 150 bird species also reside within the park. Almost no wildlife, however, is found above 20,000 feet, the point at which permanent snow prevents even the hardiest lichens and mosses from growing. Among the exceptions are Himalayan jumping spiders, which have been observed as high as 22,000 feet, where they eat insects blown up by the wind; yellow-billed choughs, a crow-like bird, which have followed mountaineers up to about 26,500 feet; and bar-headed geese, which migrate over Mount Everest on their way from the Tibetan Plateau to India’s marshes.
7. Everest is the highest point from sea level, but other mountains are taller.
Mauna Kea, a volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island, tops out at 13,796 feet above sea level. But because it rises from the ocean floor, its base-to-summit height is actually more than 33,000 feet, making it, by that measurement at least, the tallest mountain in the world. Nor is Everest the closest to outer space. Because Earth isn’t a perfect sphere—it bulges at the middle—that honor belongs to 20,561-foot Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.
Mount Everest: World's Highest Mountain
By Kim Ann Zimmermann, Live Science Contributor | September 20, 2012 05:30pm ET
Reaching 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) above sea level, Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth. Located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas, the mountain's summit straddles the border separating China and Nepal.
The mountain's height was first determined in 1856. The Great Trigonometric Survey of British India pegged the mountain, known to them as Peak XV, at 29,002 feet (8,840 meters). But those surveyors were at a disadvantage because Nepal would not grant them entry due to concerns that the country would be invaded or annexed. The current accepted elevation was determined by an Indian survey in 1955 and backed up by a 1975 Chinese measurement.
Lit by the sun, Everest's northeast ridge, the place George Mallory and Andrew Irvine were last seen alive.
Credit: John L. Semple.
In 1865, Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India, suggested that the mountain be named after his predecessor in the job, Sir George Everest. The Tibetans had referred to the mountain as "Chomolungma," or Holy Mother, for centuries, but Waugh did not know this because Nepal and Tibet were closed to outsiders.