Tractor tyres and bush buckets in Masailand
I have just spent a week in the field studying Masailand ecology and community conservation with Princeton University students. The location is not that remote (Kitengela and Olerai within 40 km of Nairobi) and the community are wonderfully resourceful when it comes to day to day tools for pastoralism.
Tractor tyre trough for water for goats and sheep
This old tractor or truck tyre was somehow cut, opened up and sealed at either end to make a perfectly good livestock watering trough. Even Joy Adamson noted that the Masai question using modern appliances if home made ones do the job anyway.
Tractor tyre cattle salt lick
Another way to make a salt lick, Evelyn just cut a truck tyre in half and placed it on the ground supported by stumps.
home made bucket works perfectly
Why buy a bucket when you can just make one with an old water container and a piece of metal?
Home made shovel
And if you don’t have a shovel for your manure, just straighten out some corrugated iron, cut it and nail to a stick and Presto – probably more effective than anything you could buy in Nairobi. Manure is one of the few products sold to passing trucks on these remote ranches.
Keeping land open for wildlife migrations in and out of Nairobi National Park can be costly to those living with wildlife. Those in The Wildilfe Foundations land lease scheme earn 4$ per acre per year to keep the properties open (no fences) and to supplement their income they make beautiful beaded artworks for sale on Olerai Conservancy.
It might look like a tough life for some of us, but the Masai out here seem perfectly satisfied and at peace
Tags: conservation, containers, kenya, Kitengela, Maasai, Masai, Masailand, nairobi, pastoralist, salt lick, tractor, truck
19 February 2010 - 7:28 am - :
Such uses of old tyres seem to be common. I have seen sections of a tractor tyre used in a number of places in Nyanza to make feed, water or saltlick troughs. They seem to be a strong container the animals will not destroy!