Weekend 23rd to 25th July

Friday 23rd July

We’ve made a start on the compost area, it was starting to get a bit out of hand with people bringing tree prunings and leaf litter for us, plus our usual 3 truckloads of sawdust a week starting to pile up. The hold up has been getting water for the concrete, with only one truck available till the new one was certified and registered it has been a juggling act. We’ve got 14 posts in place, enough to start putting the sides up on Monday while we continue putting posts in for the other bins. I was thinking it looked a big area, now I’m feeling it isn’t big enough. Each bin will hold 120 cu.m of whatever, which should be enough to keep everyone happy, but I keep thinking BIGGER!!!!!!! We can use it!!!!!!!!

We have an area 12 metres by 20 metres, with 4 bins, well, open ended walls with a 5 metre spacing. If we can get into Solbrew, and a bigger supply of chicken manure I think we’ll be working continuously through each bin as it matures. It’s good though, utilising what till now has just been dumped into the tip or the harbour, or into the streams and rivers. We do need a larger supply of nitrogenous material though, the spent brewery waste has a reasonable amount, but with the amount of carbon we’re putting through as sawdust we’ll never have too much. One bin will just be green non-shreddable stuff, it will rot down, but takes time. The others I’ll trial different mixes, sawdust/brewery waste/manure, brewery waste/manure, and flourmill waste/brewery waste/manure, and we’ll work out which one or combination works best.

Security warnings for the election are getting a bit more dire. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m between the bridges, Lungga River bridge between me and the airport, and Matinikau and Chinatown bridges at the city side. Which is ok, if it gets nasty in Honiara I can possibly make it over the Lungga River bridge to the airport, unless it is really barricaded, then I’m stuck where I am. If, and it is only if at this stage, things do go upside down, the city is the last place to be trying to get through anyway. I think I’ll be packing the suitcase and having the laptop and camera ready to go from the day before, and trying to make it to the airport. I’m fairly sure RAMSI would be securing the airport, as well as the embassies and consulates first, and evacuating anyone wanting to go. It’s going to be interesting.

It’ll be a case of making sure the truck is fueled up, I have food for a week or two at least in the house, and water, and keeping the mobile charged and cashed up. The election day should be ok, it’s not till the actual announcement of Prime Minister 10 days later that things tend to go awry.

We’ve given up with the little truck, it’s going for tender as is where is, and may God have mercy on whoever buys it. 12 months of living in a garage being worked on and it is in worse condition than originally. But the Mitsubishi more than makes up for it. Nice high cab, you can see the problems happening ahead of you on Prince Philip and Mendana Ave instead of suddenly arriving at an “OH S$^*&($&$” moment in driving history. And the brakes work really well.

Just been talking to my son, my grand-daughter Jesse has a bad Staph infection which may have affected her heart, they are still waiting on test results to come back, so far everything is looking good, but it didn’t look good apparently for a while this week. I feel so sorry for Damian, he always gets the short end of the stick, but to his credit, never gives up and manages to come out on top. Hopefully Jesse will bounce back, she’s too full of life to let anything keep her down. As for Kahu, he’s like the Energiser Bunny on steroids.


Saturday 24th July

I’ve found out what I won’t be stocking up on, Campbells Soup in tins, well, certainly not the one I bought anyway. Or any of them really, it isn’t worth spending an hour or so throwing up after eating it. I bought a couple of tins ($24.00 each) this morning at Wings, thought for a change from rice or pasta I’ll have soup tonight, which I did, but it didn’t stay down for long. I’ll stick to my usual rice and pasta and fresh fruit from now on, I’ve not been sick from food since I’ve been here, till today. Lesson learnt. Plus it was probably so overdate anyway, like most tinned stuff or bottled goods here.

I’m convinced we get every countries rejected or out of date stuff.

Sunday

I’m over the food upset from yesterday, thankfully I threw it up before it travelled through me too far.

I was up early and down to Kukum Market, and stocked up on fruit and greens, I’m not going to venture outside my staples from now on. Pineapples are still expensive, between $25 and $40, watermelons between $5 and $50, bananas and pawpaw still the same price as usual, but eggs have gone up $3 a 10 tray, to $30 now.

Made banana cake when I got back home, added cinnamon and nutmeg, so it is sweet and very rich, nice slathered with butter though.

Steve called around and went over security issues for the election period, there is no real warning being issued, but only past experiences to go by, so it may pass over peacefully, or it may not. So the boy scouts motto rules. Heading for the airport if it turns belly up is the best option, any trouble will be in Central Honiara or West Honiara, and RAMSI will be securing the airport as a precaution. All I have to be able to do is get over the Lungga River bridge. As suggested, get the truck moving and don’t stop, it has enough weight to move any barricades, which are usually taxis or buses. In a way I’m almost hoping there is something happening, add a bit of excitement to my usual go to work, come home, go to work routine. So long as it is happening a long way away from me.

I’m hoping to have the compost bins finished by Tuesday, or at least all the posts done, and the sides on at least 3 completed so we can start filling them, we need potting mix, although another few weeks waiting while we build all the structures won’t matter. No sign of the irrigation pipework yet, it should be here soon we hope, then we can start arguing with SIWA over getting water connected. There is still the fence across the paddock to put in, and the gates, trenches for the irrigation, weedmat to lay our and peg down, posts for the shadecloth, it all sounds a lot but seems to get done once everyone knows what to do.