28 June 2018

I got to accompany Austin out to Plantation Island overnight for some of his coral work again.  We were supposed to leave on the first boat – and had to leave way  early to be at the port on time through the typical Nadi morning gridlock …. so we arrived at Port Denerau before any of the shops were open:

It felt strange and empty.

And then it started filling up, but the staff for the Malolo Cat never showed up.  Oh yes, the first boat was canceled.  Island life.

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Evenutally we got on board — and I learned a few nifty things during the trip.

Behold this photo

Two nifty things about it.   One is that the MOUNTAIN right behind the flag and under the cloud is Mount Koroba (Koromba) – the mountain we see from the farm directly to our north.

The other nifty thing here is the FLAG.  Does it look a bit odd to you?  Turns out this is Fiji’s maritime flag – red background instead of standard blue.

I guess the standard flag lacks the necessary visibility at sea.

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Killing time on the boat ride, Austin showed me the weird line on the skin of his hand:

a definite ridge line between the skin of his palm and the other skin.  This led to a discussion – Austin saying how much more sensitive the skin of this palm is – which led to experiments (tickle here, tickle there: mine is more sensitive, too! … and I guess everybody’s is).  And now finally I have an explanation for why my feet have always been SOOO ticklish.    Lots one can learn when bored!

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Random shots at Plantation Island.   Do any of these strike anyone else as odd?

Palm trees

Saving a pool chair

Thing that went bump in the night

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The Weird World of Burl

These are typical tree burls.

I do not get the appeal, but for some reason some people think it is really classy to buy bowls that are carved out of tree burls.  This is a display of carved burl bowls at Jacks.  I didn’t go look at the prices, but I know they have to run at least US$60 each.

Anyhow – I’m going into details about the burls because there was another oddity on Plantation Island that I saw this time that could have starred in PT Barnum’s side show if only it was human:  the Warty Casuarina Tree.

It has a moderate size burl here.

And the more burls on the branches.  And smaller ones on the smaller branches.

Until every single twig has tiny burls all over it.   YIKES!

That’s SICK.

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FIJIAN WORD OF THE WEEK

I was going to give you “sick” – tauvimate – but I already taught you that.

So instead I’ll give you   yatevuso  – which means “lungs”  .   I’ll leave it to you to figure out why these words might be coming to mind right now.

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Happy week, Everybody!

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21 June 2018

We have a new family member (maybe temporarily) – little What’s-Her-Name.  She is/was Monica’s pup, but Monica is (maybe temporarily) overseas.  Anyway, she came to us with a lot of names: Daino, Jumbo, Dino.  For a female??   I’ve been calling her Domino.   But someone else is calling her Blackie.  I’ll let you know if she stays and what name ends up sticking.

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First trip to the other side of Nausori in a loooooooong time.

This is the Rewa River – more impressive than my photo.

Cattle on the road.

The goal:  delivering 6 dozen chicks to the owner of this “chicken house.”  It is quite a nice structure, but very odd for a chicken house.  There are no roosting poles or nesting boxes.  I love kerosene lamps hanging low.  Anyway, I took lots of photos to show to Austin – but he’s been too busy to look at them.  The owner wants another 14 dozen chicks!  Good Lord!  I want to make sure that Austin knows his set-up will work before he invests in such a huge flock.

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Inside a prosperous home in a village:

I loved this – there are curtains around a bed in the main room.  It is very much like the old European homes.   In the director commentary of the movie “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” – this aspect of the set was pointed out.  🙂

And priorities, priorities!  Big screen TV.   Relative in the “developed world” is envious!

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Construction Project Updates

Tree house – good to go!  A few “extras” to add – but this is basically DONE.

A solution to keep the roosters and hens off my porch!   Guy did this before he left: wire mesh above the gate and on the first window only.  I always objected to covering all the windows – and it really was not necessary.  YAY.

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Permaculture Workshop with 18 people is going on – it is crazy here.  The only shots I got was these.

Altering the cane knives.

That started out looking like this.

And now look like THIS.

Why, Junia, why?  I asked.   He answered, because the hooks get caught on brush when they are using them to chop and drop.   He has no idea what the hooks are used for.  They don’t need them.

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A bit of cuteness:

Granddaughter Alice and some chickies.

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Fijian Word for the Week

“People”  is  tamata.

There are plenty tamata  here right now.

(I have no idea how to say this whole sentence correctly in Fijian yet – a wild guess is Sa levu na tamata ikei wale saraga oqo.   Watch next week for the inevitable correction. )

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Happy week, everybody.

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14 June 2018

Happy FIVE YEARS to this blog!  FIVE YEARS !!!!!   I was going to quit at this date, but because of a bit of urging, we’ll slog along awhile longer.

This issue is coming out four hours late.  Here is why:

and

 

Prep for workshop.  We have TWENTY participants coming on Sunday for a five day workshop.  This is on the heels of non-stop Teitei guests … and in the midst of a lot of family arrivals.  Lucky us!

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Son Guy – lead carpenter on the tree house – left.  He was supposed to leave on Tuesday, but missed his plane because it actually left on Monday (ha ha) – so he finally got out on Wednesday.   This was the tree house when he said his second goodbye:

Now our friend Rakesh will step up and finish it, but Granddaddy is getting involved – and God only knows what it will be like when it is done.

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I went up to Leo’s garden by myself.  This is what I saw:

Cabbages.   and……

I don’t know what that is.

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All kinds of oddball photos in my phone this week

Here is where the truck conked out –

Best place possible to conk out – in the parking lot the day before we had to get guests and Guy to port and airport for very early connections.  We knew to arrange a different transport for them.   Man, if it had conked out on the way to Nadi at 6 a.m. it would have been a disaster!

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Goat in a trunk.

Bridegroom and his dad came on the morning after the wedding to buy some roosters or a duck.   Austin had one duck he could spare (was going to just give it as a wedding present, since I didn’t take an envelope the night before) … but he could not catch her – tried for nearly 20 minutes.  Oh well.  So he put the value of the duck into the bridegroom’s hand.  As they got ready to leave, the groom mentioned he’d already gotten a goat.  First time I saw a goat transported like that.  Poor goat – about to be the chief guest at a feast.

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A morning rainbow (this is unusual) and a malabar chestnut flower.

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Finally …. watercolors from the farm.  Granddaddy goofing around with the grandkids.

Hibiscus on new photocopy, painted with lemon juice.

Hibiscus on the old old photocopy paper, painted with baking soda water and dots of lemon juice.

Haldi (turmeric) on new paper, painted with baking soda water.

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HINDI Word of the Week (instead of Fijian)

Kaha?  means “Where?”

hammar  means “my”

Rakesh borrowed something from me, and before he left, I asked him,

“Kaha hammar hammah?”   (I thought that was quite cute 🙂 )

(I didn’t know that word in Hindi anyway – although I do know it in Fijian:  tuki)

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Happy week, everybody.   Mo mamarau tiko.

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7 June 2018

Moon Mist Mountain Morning

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I hardly took photos this week.  More family arrived, and more guests, and a party.

What I really missed (Austin kept telling me to go get photos) was Leo’s Garden!  Something about peanuts????   Anyway, yesterday chickens got in there and trampled most of the bok choy.  Mami was sad and Guy was calling it a “bad luck day.”  I’ll try to get some garden photos next week – if it’s not totally destroyed.

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This is the way we roll.  Here is my latest Gate Latch.

Desperate to keep the dogs off our porch at night, my most recent iteration is wedging a pole between gate and post, and anchored in the framing.  The dogs cannot pull the gate open, nor can they jump it.  Yay!   (Now to keep the chickens off.)

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Update on the mongoose situation.  Austin has killed 4 mongooses in the last two weeks.  There are only one or two still assaulting our poultry.

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More construction:  a Tree House!

I was going to use this in the “history of the construction” report, except this is where construction has stalled, and the lead carpenter leaves on Tuesday … so we’ll have to see if we get more house or if this is it.

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PIZZA oven.  HOT fire.

YUMMY pizza.   Totally worth the work to make that oven.

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Fijian Word of the Week

Maleka  (ma-LEH-ka) means “delicious”

Maleka sarega (ma-LEH-ka  sa-reng-AH) bumps it up a level to “truly delicious”

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Have a happy week, everybody – with some treats that are maleka sarega.

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