Reality is what we focus on.
The exquisite beauty of a white orchid bathing in the morning sun, or all the junky mess in the background.
NOTE: orchids in coconut husk containers are from our beautiful Monica, the other stuff is not. ha ha
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Happy week, everybody.
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Drat, drat, drat – WordPress has made a bunch of new features mandatory. Not great for elderly bloggers. This MAY be my swan song.
I totally forget what photos I just formatted and what the flip I was planning to tell you about! Arrgh. Let’s take a look.
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Well, Akka sent me a bunch of photos. Here is what he found interesting:
A good looking chick with interesting coloration. He says he knows it is a rooster because of the comb. I don’t see a comb, but anyhoo.
A couple of pure blood turka chicks. Turka is like “turkey” or “Turkish” – neither of which makes any sense. Turka is the naked neck chickens. Akka especially liked the little one on the right with just 2 feathers on its neck.
A hen having a bad day. (I know the feeling.)
Ducks hitting the water bowl – it was EMPTY – when Akka showed up with water. He stopped to take this photo, and THEN put water into this bowl. Ha ha
And a flower that is usually red, but is now yellow – lack of rain or what?
Last one from Akka – I was there.
My lap with chickies. Monday morning Austin was going to Suva, but he discovered that the hatcher had gotten way too hot. Chickies were dying – it was baaaaaaaad. About a dozen were Gone, about five dozen rallied quickly, and about two dozen were in limbo. I brought most of them to the living room and tried keeping them awake and breathing. About half of them made it. Whew.
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The market is full of fresh veggies. Yum.
They are also selling reusable vegetable-shopping bags made out of old feed sacks.
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And my very happy news of the week. Austin went to Suva for a ceremony
… because
… he got a great GRANT.
Work ahead for Monica and me 🙂 Details to come as it all unfolds.
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Happy week, everybody.
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I took coconuts for planting over to one friend’s house and his mother asked if I’d like some tomatoes. “Sure,” I said, “some rejects.” I figured she’d give me a dozen or so. She gave me ….
a CRATE full!  “Be sure to bring my crate back,” is all she said.
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More in this generous spirit – Ashmita came this morning with a container of sweets she’d made.
Yum. The round balls on the left are called suji laddoo – that is laddoo made with semolina. They are Austin’s favorites.
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Ashmita is here because we have HOMESTAY GUESTS for the first time since covid. (They came in as crew on a yacht.) It is SO NICE to have guests.
Akka was showing how to husk a drinking coconut.
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Daisy delivered another litter. Three little kittens.
Don’t say it: I know. I’ll take her off to get spayed once the kittens are big enough. (or at least I’ll never publish news of another litter – ha ha).
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I had some friends here for tea yesterday. Had to show the kittens off. Lanieta said she has been wanting a cat. Didn’t want to wait for these kittens to get big. Was really serious about wanting a cat – Buttercup was not too big.
So yesterday, Lanieta took Buttercup.
I drove them home, carried Buttercup into the house. Had Buttercup sit on my lap, which she’ll do in the evening for hours if I let her. After about 10 minutes, Buttercup crawled off my lap and started exploring the room. She didn’t want to get back on my lap, so I figure she liked it there.
Lanieta’s family has only one dog that is well controlled.  So there is a good chance it will all work out well for Buttercup.
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Follow up on the changes to Sigatoka town. There is parking where the tracks were. Hooray for more parking.
Our truck is the first one. 🙂
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Happy week, everybody.
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Mishap early in the week. I was driving up the driveway one evening with a pickup full of friends. Dogs and geese in the driveway. I slowed way down and yelled out the window. The critters scattered. I felt a bump, but a goose went running off. We had our little party and I didn’t think any more about it until it was time to take people home, and there was a big white lump in the driveway. Oops, I’d killed a goose.
Austin did not yell at me or tell me off. I felt bad enough. I really did not know why the goose was silly enough to get hit … they’d gotten out of my way heaps of times. Austin said the poor gander was probably blinded by the headlights and didn’t know where to run. That’s heartbreaking.
But this is a farm and we don’t let sentimentality ruin a windfall. Goose meat is yummy, and so we “dressed” the goose. Also, I learned more about this beautiful creature.
Do birds have teeth? Technically, no.
But try telling yourself they don’t have teeth if THIS grabs you!
Do birds have fur? Technically, no.
But these feathers on the neck were as thick and soft as fur. It was amazing.
What do angel wings look like? They look like GOOSE wings!
The wing was just stunningly beautiful. The only part I could manage to photograph was the top ridge … totally lovely. Some day, maybe, we’ll be able to get a good photo of a whole wing.
And then we plucked. Oh the DOWN!
Half a pillow’s worth! There are at least two of us lusting after that pillow when it will be finished some day.
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The other matter this week SEEMS like it is the same thing, but it actually unrelated. Austin noticed a goose quill in the yard and suggested I show Kiki how to write with it.
So I got out my little bottle of india ink, found a second quill in the yard, used scissors to snip the nibs, and taught Kiki the very beginnings of quill calligraphy.
It’s obvious if we are going to do this much at all, I’m going to have to learn how to make our own ink. That will be a project for another week.
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Happy August, everybody.
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Flora and Fauna Weekly Report 