22 August 2019

Little clouds nestled in the hills at dawn.   It was a nice start to the day, and a nice start to the week (in my camera).

*     *     *

Holes in the ground under my clothesline.  Almost fell because of one.  What were they?  Then I see This.

And THIS

Junia says they do this to cool off.   Seriously?  They never did it under my clothesline before.

*     *     *

I’m not the only one asking irritated questions.  Son Guy was going through a storage box in which he had left items when he moved overseas.  He got out his hiking boots.

“What happened to my shoes????”

The soles were mostly gone.  My guess is Ants.

*     *     *

Some neighbors came to my house for the first time, and left with a memento:

 

 

A furry, bundle-of-love memento:  Blanca the pup.   (It can be hard finding homes for the females, and these friends were really happy because they want a female on their farm so they can get More Pups!  Hooray!)

*     *     *

That was all I had until this morning.   It didn’t seem enough, so I went to get one more item and then the day mushroomed out of control.

First off:  Mushrooms.

The kids went to a mushroom workshop about a month ago.  Austin had Rakesh extend the orchid house/nursery into the nearby decommissioned chicken villa.  The kids tried mushrooms there.   They didn’t work.  The mushroom folks did a site visit – said it was great, just needed shelves.  I never looked.   Yesterday, my son comes to the kitchen with a big basin of mushrooms!  I had to go see.

Ok!  I see them growing.  Just wish it were something we could keep replicating without outside resources….

*     *     *

Meanwhile, poking around the nursery – which looks really beautiful now – I am struck by the numerous …

beautiful square planting tubs we have.  Seriously there must be a hundred in the nursery.  Those are ice cream tubs – also used as doggie dishes and water bowls for all the chicken pens.   Tuckers should pay us to advertise for them!

*     *     *

Next:  ROCKET MEN

Guy and Junia have started curing the inside of the rocket stove.  It is crazy.

 

This is the low bowl.  The fire goes here – and the flames go sideways as the heat is sucked up and out the tall chimney.   I put my hand over this fire and it did not feel hot at all, only warm.  Above the chimney – YEOW!

*     *     *

Then:  Handicrafts

We have a guest who wanted to try out the handicraft activities – so I got my friends

Handicraft team – Lanieta and Venaisi.

Lanieta got Junia to cut some coconut leaves –

–  and he pretended to dance.  What else is new.

Venaisi taught pottery.  Man, I am so out of it – when she said we could make clay bowls and fire the bowls in one day, I did not realize this is two different bowls.  The new bowl has to dry for 2 or 3 days.  Oops.  Anyway, Guy is here and will help our guest fire her bowl the morning before she leaves…

..  

Lanieta taught weaving – but ended up just using the pandanus  she brought instead of the leaves we cut.

*     *     *

Also:   Three more folks in today’s madhouse

A  sweet turn of events is that a Fiji Times crew showed up wanting to do a piece on the homestay (suddenly we are media darlings) – and they ended up interviewing Lanieta and Venaisi – locals who are teaching handicrafts, and also Ashmita, our Kitchen Angel, who was teaching cooking to our guest today as well.   “Locals in business” sounds a lot better to me than “another foreigner with a successful business” – right?

( Still waiting on the link from Fiji One TV who did air the segment on us a couple of nights ago, and we’ve heard about it but not seen it.  The Fiji Times article will be easily found, and will then be wrapping roti parcels and lining the chick boxes for months to come 🙂 )

*     *     *

FIJIAN WORD of the Week

I think I’ve told you all these before:

Madua  (mahn-doo-ah) – means “ashamed.”  I have to make a correction to last week’s word of the week ….

Isa, isa   –  “alas, alas.”

Au ulukau.   –  “I  blockhead”  (that might not be good grammar, but would be understandable).

The problem is that “lips” are  TEBE  ni  gusu  (tem-bay ni ngoo-soo) – not that other thing I said.  I got confused, but do not know the word for “confused.”

Isa, isa.

*     *     *

Hope you have a happy week.

*     *     *