29 June 2017

A man and his chickens…..

I left Austin with his birds and left to take my Canadian grandson home.   This is how things stood when I left two weeks ago.  I’ll be interested to see if thing have changed when I get back.

The small incubators he ordered on the grant from South Pacific Community (SPC) arrived.

He opened one to put it to use.  (The plan actually is for these small ones to go to communities down the line.)

He also put his old beat-up one from Texas back to work.

He is/was trying to get a lot of babies born before a series of Happy Chicken workshops taking place while I’m away.

And this is the status of the hatchery he is building.  It has been taking a while to get built, but now our friend Kaiyum is here, on task – working hard to get it done.  The cement floor is in.  Framing for the walls has started.  Old doors from the Suva house are getting re-purposed.  Water tanks are in place and only need gutters.

And I see one more new hen house behind it.   Chicken Villas.

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Happy week, everybody!

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22 June 2017

LOVE  AND  HATE

There is a plant we knew in Micronesia that is a magnificent medicine for fungal infections – cassia alata.   We have a friend on Valley Road in need of it,  but alas it does not grow here (says Austin).   We found some flowering on the way to Suva and got some for our friend … but then.

I found some growing on Valley Road after all!  YAY.  It is that plant with the pretty yellow flower.

In the northern hemisphere it blooms around Christmas.  So… the blooms tell us it is Christmas in July down here.  The common and pretty name for cassia alata is Candle Flower.  It also has a cheeky name in Chamorro — taki beeha — if you want to know, ask a Guamanian.

Austin has tried to grow “taki beeha” 3 times already and failed.  But he is giving it another go – this time in our greenhouse.

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And 180 degrees from “useful” is my number one despised plant: spathodia.

While on the tree walk, Junia told me that a bio-gas company is cutting down spathodia trees.  Finally a use for that useless darned invasive farm-killer!

Almost immediately, Junia pointed out to me where some spathodia were freshly felled.

YAY!

Here is a copy of my rant about spathodia from 4 years ago (and I still stand by it):

Why do I hate spathodia, you may ask.  I thought it over.  Spathodia is like the bitchy trophy wife.  Not content to be just an ornamental of no other value, the spathodia throws down leaves that poison the ground below and make the soil bitter and unusable.  In Spanish it called “matar finca” (kill the farm).  The Fijians call it “peece-peece” (i.e. piss-piss) in honour of the missed-the-toilet fragrance of its flowers.   The kicker of it is that whereas “a tree without fruit is fit only for the fire” – spathodia has wet wood that doesn’t even burn well!

So now I know it is okay for bio-gas.  Great.  May they all serve as bio-gas fodder.

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I am still in Canada.  And I wish you all a very happy week.

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15 June 2017

A  GOAL  REALIZED

Austin and I have lived on Valley Road for 10 years this month.  For ten years I have gazed up at this beautiful mango tree at Km. 12 every single time I drive.  For ten years I have been saying, “I want to climb up to that mango tree.”  This week – finally – I did it.

These two fellows made it possible.  You know Junia.  The young man on the right is Vilimoni.  His family lives in the house at the foot of the hill.  He showed us the best way up – the most direct route to the ridge, and accompanied us about 1/3 of the way.

And we start.   Victor and Kiki start up the trail in front of me.

Coming out of the trees, I see what I think is “my tree” in the saddle of the hills.  (Moni says it is a different mango tree – I never know for sure who was right.)

Junia makes it up to the tree ahead of the boys and me.  He takes a good view of the river and the road.  He has me holding my water bottle all the way up.  Good luck in finding it – and me.

I’m starting to emerge from the tall grass.  I still am holding the water bottle high.

Now Kiki, Victor and I are all emerging.

I immediately plop myself  under the tree.  How can I prove I was here?

We were here.

I drink my water and say some prayers for the well-being of everyone in the valley.

The boys play with the tree and find lizard eggs.

One last special photo before we go.

The trek was far harder than I expected.  I am in far worse shape than I thought.  If I had not wanted so badly to go, I would have quit.  If Austin had been along, he would have made me turn back.   Good thing I went with Junia instead.

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Today is my daughter Lua’s birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Sweetheart.

I probably already am in Canada with her – as grandson Victor and I are en route as I schedule this post.

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Happy week to you all.

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8 June 2017

I’ll catch everybody up a bit about Austin’s trip to Christmas and Fanning Islands in May.  This is a valuable seaweed he found growing there, that the folks had not been using.  It is in the eucheuma species.   It can be boiled into a jelly that is excellent for eating.  It is used commercially in diapers, paint, ice cream and toothpaste, all kinds of things.

Luckily it is not a restricted species, so Austin was able to bring some home.

Here he is planting a string of it at a safe place on the coral coast.

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A bit more about Kiribati – the Line Islands (that is Kiritimati – Christmas, Fanning and Washington).  Austin got to two out of three.  They are VERY far from the main part of Kiribati, and also very far from each other.   He was able to find some corals to rescue in Fanning that he was able to bring back to Christmas, and he now has a very good coral nursery there, with heat-tolerant corals that are better able to survive bleaching events.

Friends there showered him with presents to bring home.  Here are some of them:

Shell necklaces,  a lovely shell basket and a Kiribati flag.

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Yesterday, Austin made me go along on a trip to the “far land.”  We have been blessed with kind neighbors who would rather have us buy land their family doesn’t need, and so we were able to buy this 20 acres several years ago.  Junia and Guy in particular are looking to fully develop it as a permaculture site (as opposed to a Chicken Playground, like the rest of our land).  Slowly, slowly.   Austin recently got the digger over there to repair the road and clear out some of the brush.

Junia is loading up some plants to take over for planting.

Here is a shot looking up the valley at the field of our future crops.

Ju and Ratu unload the truck on the land – for a morning of planting.

The rest of us go up the hill in the truck, to view the world from the top.  Here is a panoramic shot from there (in two pieces)

And finally, looking back at our house (circled in pink).

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Happy week, everybody!

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