Well, this critter is a last minute addition. I carried my camera along on my morning walk just in case there was something interesting. This is the first centipede I have seen in our neighborhood. There were plenty of them in Micronesia when we lived there, and every single member of our family has experienced the awful attack of a centipede. After immortalizing this one, I nudged it with my shod foot to see if it was alive – it was in the middle of the road after all. The creature slithered away, and I chose not to act on the impulse to kill it.
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Austin’s friend in Vanuatu did the research on bio-security and what it will take for him to be able to export his chicks there. Guess what …. this chicken pen is sub-standard. It is SO substandard (for many reasons – some very obvious, such as rats and wild birds can get in) that it will take a complete overhaul. The alternative is Austin will need to find a source of excellent chicks from an up-to-standard facility in Fiji. He is now exploring options on both fronts.
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Our first POMEGRANATE !
This is not from a tree Austin planted, but from one planted by the former owner Jai Karan. God bless him! As you can see the flesh on the seeds of this pomegranate is pink.
We wondered if it was ripe, but when we tasted … YUM ! It was Monica’s first time eating pomegranate, and she declared it her new Favorite Fruit.
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Finally, for those who require the fuzzy or furry to feel satisfied – two handsome young bucks who have just appeared in our neighborhood.
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Flora and Fauna Weekly Report 
Hi Kim, Chickens find centipedes very yummy. That is probably the reason you don’t have them on the farm. Photo attached of one on my ceiling rafters. He woke me up getting banged around by the gecko. Gecko kept trying to bash his head against the roof and rafter without much success. Something like a cat playing with a mouse. Sergai
Hi Sergai – knowing chickens eat centipedes makes me like the chickens in the yard more, lots more. Unfortunately your photo did not attach. Would you send it to my email? I can stick it in the blog next week with your explanation. Love to you and Mary!
Wow! Growing your own POMEGRANATE, That is pretty amazing. I love them, but they would not live here. I enjoyed hearing about the chicks and the fact that they eat centipedes. I know the last one I saw was on my grandparents farm and it wasn’t near the chicken coop. My grandparents probably wouldn’t have met the EPA requirements with their farming, but things were certainly healthier in those days. We used to use a lot of DDT and we all seemed to live thru it. We also didn’t have any roaches or bed bugs. Ha. Hope you are doing well. LG
We’re fine, Larry. We humans tend to make it through the first phases of agricultural poisons just fine (like the DDT of your childhood), and then pay for it in the next generation. The new Bad News that Austin read this week is that nearly all of the rice has dangerous amounts of ARSENIC in it. There is no mandatory testing for arsenic, because arsenic in marine life passes through our systems, no problem. But the arsenic in rice, it turns out, hangs around and causes troubles – like cancer. Unlike wheat, rice soaks it up and we end up with it. Bother bother. I’m for organic farming now.