
I wandered over to the kitchen one morning, only to see this plate full of grubs. Coconut rhinoceros beetle grubs. I blogged about coconut rhinoceros beetle grubs before, many years ago – gee whiz, it was one of my first blogs! 25 July 2013 Maybe the grubs are a seasonal delicacy?! We did not eat these guys. We did taste them five years ago (I’ll confess it now) – the taste was not bad, but ….. (nah, it’s too early in the morning to go into details.) (gag)
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I thought I saw some hens attacking another hen at the bottom of the bank beside our house. I would have sworn they were all pecking at the loser.
I went to get Austin but by the time I found him, no hen was under attack. Austin did not believe me. “Was there blood?” he asked. “Uh, no…” I replied.
We watched the remaining hens for a few minutes. “They’re taking a DUST BATH,” he announced, “in that rotted tree trunk.”
Go figure. But I KNOW I saw one getting pecked. Maybe they were pecking out feather lice or something….
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The never-ending quest to keep the chickens out of the human areas. The screen above the gate worked for my porch. Now the ice cream tub lids are serving as a deterrent at the laundry room gate. Clever!
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THE COCONUT TEMPERATURE SCALE
After years of observation and contemplation, I have finally decided to institute a “new” temperature scale that is suitable for the tropics, based on the freezing point of coconut oil.
Coconut oil gets hard, or “freezes,” at approximately 23.5o Celsius or 72o Fahrenheit. That is 0o Niu (pronounced, “new” – which is Fijian for “coconut” – since the C has already been used.) In my Coconut Scale – 1 degree N = about 1 degree F or about 0.5 degree C. Yes, I know it gets inaccurate the further from zero you go, but that’s ok. This is a scale of COMFORT, not a scale for carrying out sensitive engineering operations.

Here is a photo of frozen and not frozen coconut oil from July 2014. (Amazing how I’m finding all these companion photos from July’s of yesteryear…. or maybe not so amazing since we are in the depths of winter.)

Here is a photo of coconut oil in my kitchen at four in the afternoon. The temperature must have been around 5o N (five degrees Coconut). This was causing the previously frozen oil to be melting.

Just as with water, both freezing and melting start from the edges, so it is easy to tell whether temperature is rising or falling by the location of what is frozen. This one is in process of freezing.
Anyway, on the Coconut (Niu) Scale – the average daytime temperature is around 10o N, (which is 83o F or 28o C). Normal tolerable temps for us tropical softies is 0o N to 15o N (that is 73-88o F or 23-31o C).
For excess heat – well, we’re tropical. We just head for the shade and turn on the fan, and wait for sunset. But for the excess cold … that is tough.
At -5o N, we are wearing sweaters and using blankets. At -12o N we are using three blankets, and claim we can see our breath. At -20o Coconut we really can see our breath and we think we are going to die. And it is not very kind when relatives from Canada and Japan are still walking around in shorts and calling us wimps. MINUS 20 COCONUT (53o F or 14o C) is PAINFUL STUFF.
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All seven grandchildren – in their Happy Canada Day t-shirts, and imported colorful cowboy hats. And Granddaddy.
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Fijian Word of the Week
Niu (“new”) = coconut
Wai (“wye”) = water
Waiwai (“WYE-wye”) = oil
So coconut oil is waiwai ni niu.
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Happy week, everybody. Stay warm (or cool).
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