Thursday 29th July

We’re finishing the week on a high, the compost area is completed, all the bays are ready for use, although it will take a few months for us to fill them all. We’re doing a big collection drive tomorrow, sawdust, chicken manure, moving the existing heap that needs turning down to the new bay.





We start on the shade house Monday, then the propagation house, and I’ll get some of the weedmat laid out as well. We need posts and shadecloth for the shade house and also for the lay out bed, I’ve got a price from Brisbane, just going to check with Island Enterprises tomorrow for their price before confirming the order.

The crew are going to build the propagation house, I want a thatch island style roof, it’s cooler than tin, and will look more natural for the nursery.

A little bit of excitement this morning. I went in early this morning to load the paling timber onto the truck so we would be ready to start, I’d got about half the timber loaded when I found a small, about 15 – 20 inch boa quietly sleeping in the container forklift hole, hidden by the stack of timber. It didn’t appear to be to perturbed by me, in fact it waited till I went and got my camera, took a couple of pics, before moving slowly off under the container. They are really beautiful snakes, slow moving, and the markings are absolutely gorgeous. I’ve seen a few variations in the colour so far, the one this morning is the first grey to black I’ve seen.


Other than all of the above it’s been a quiet sort of week. The election campaigns are heating up, truck loads of different supporters being driven around Honiara cheering and shouting. Without a play list you have no idea who they are, different coloured scarves and bandannas, but without the playlist, they could be anyone. A few of the crew have gone home to vote, there is no allowance for absentee voting here, you have to return to your home village, even if it means going 4 or 5 days by ship, then a couple of days in canoes or walking to get there. I think Temotu is the hardest province to get to, the Reef Islands are about 1 – 2 days sailing away from Lata, the main port, and it is usually banana boats or maybe a larger boat for travel out to there.


Elections are next week, no-one is expecting trouble till afterwards, when the votes are counted, and winners and losers announced. Then there is the 10 day bun fight over who will be Prime Minister, followed by the ministerial appointments based on how much everyone has contributed to the Prime Minister.

I’ll try to keep this updated as it happens from next week.