I think I’ve calmed down from the last rant. We lost 3 days work last week with the rain, so Thursday and Friday became a bit of a scramble to do as much as possible to tidy the town up. The Childrens park as usual was a mess, Jacinta and Rose spent both days there, I didn’t get a count of the rubbish bags, but they took 3 packets, (60), and I didn’t see any loose ones when they got back. We made a start on the wall in the container, David, Emory, Adrian and I. I keep forgetting that no one here has had any real training, in anything really other than bush survival, and fishing. Watching David and Emory use a handsaw is a frustrating experience. They have the idea that the faster and harder you push the saw through the better it is, with the result we had more than a few angled saw cuts. I tried showing the difference between steady strokes with it, it is going to take a while to teach stuff though. Same with using a hammer, setting studs and nogs into walls.
I remember having the same things with the trainees back in New Zealand, 17 – 20 yr old guys, never used a hammer or saw before, or even seen one I think. It makes for a long learning experience when you have to start with really basic things before you can progress to actually teaching trade skills.
I may have the little truck back on the road this week, notice I did say “may”. We’ve got new brake shoes, reconditioned fuel pump and filter, new injectors, and new glow plugs to go into it. Which will help with the shopping. I’ve got a bare pantry this week, it’s been raining too much to get into the shops yesterday, well, it rained in the morning, then cleared for the afternoon, after the shops had closed, and this morning it was a choice between getting wet going, or waiting then getting wet coming back. I decided I had enough to last me till tomorrow, ok, it’s scratching in the back of the cupboard for tinned something, those emergency ration type things that the alternative has to be really bad before you eat them stuff.
Sweet corn fritters with chilli sauce is it for tonight.
Wet weekends without transport here really turn into a long drawn out case of boredom. I’ve been writing up the Government house planting plan, plus doing a few sketches for the Post Office. Then it became a long afternoon going through the cds in media player and editing the info, and sorting the tracks out. Plus several cups of coffee, 2 long cold showers to cool down from the humidity, it might be raining, but it is like a steam bath in the house. All my washing is limp on the lines, I think my t-shirts are just absorbing the moisture from the air, they feel wetter than when I hung them out on Friday night.
I had another try dehydrating some pineapple, but it is next to impossible this weekend, 12 hours drying, and within 30 minutes the slices are limp with moisture again, before they cool down. I’ll wait a couple of months for the dry season and try again, fruit will be cheaper then as well.
From the Solomon Star yesterday, it looks as though they are going to try the Cattle Farming Proposal once more, with $10million Solomon to back it up. I can’t really see it getting off the ground, for the reasons I mentioned a few months back, wrong cattle breeds, no real ownership of the scheme, and with the village wantok system, it is hard to see how it will last. As soon as someone wants a beast for slaughter, the breeding stock will be gone. There isn’t any sense of future here, it is all in the now, which is the problem I have with trying to get seeds etc started with the nursery. No one has any concept of waiting for a year, 2 years, for things to ripen, grow, produce. If it is near ripe, it is taken, which I can see happening with the cattle, they will all be killed and eaten within a year, and no breeding stock left. That is, if they ever get the cattle, no one has got land organised yet, fencing yards etc, there isn’t a dairy industry here, so all the infrastructure, even a slaughter house facility, all has to be started sometime before anything happens.
I hope it does happen, we need something to get away from the imported food, frozen meat/chicken from Australia and New Zealand, which very few locals can afford, and the locally grown pigs that are slaughtered in backyards under not the most sanitary conditions. I don’t know if any of the pig stock has worm infestations, but given the conditions, and the lack of inspection, it must be something to consider. Add the tropical conditions, and the usual tropical parasites, ok, I’m crossing pork off my list as well.
Spent yesterday afternoon engaged in designing labels for my pineapple pawpaw chilli sauce. I’ll find some Avery labels and print a few up to make the bottles look a bit better. Zoe may get a bottle in the post if US Customs pass it with a label.
I found the NZ MAF Biosecurity website, with their recommendations for a level 1 Quarantine Facility, all 70 pdf pages of it, so that has helped pass the time reading. Most of it is what we were going to do anyway, and they helpfully put a seperate section detailing the paperwork, checks, and security required. Apart from a lot of writing up forms and procedures, it isn’t all that onerous. Security is the main worry, and authorised personnel and training. I’ll be interested to see the Solomon Island equivalent.
As an aside to everything, I noticed when I was back in New Zealand my hair went decidedly grey, almost white, since I’ve been back in Honiara it has returned to a sort of muddy brown. I guess there is a lot to be said for water purification, I know there are times here when the tap water is a definite earthy colour, I’ve got a glass of it sitting on the bench to settle now, I’ll check it again in the morning.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
3rd March
The storm that arrived Saturday night lingers on still. Monday night was the worst of it so far, trees blown down, power lines broken, roads flooded, rivers overflowing. Being in a slight hollow and protected from the worst of it I didn’t really notice anything, other than the rain, till I went out yesterday.
It turned into another one of those days when I felt by the end of it I should really have stayed in bed, or gone walkabout, or anything. As is becoming usual, the little truck refused to start, and Telekom weren’t co-operative with letting phone calls or texts go through, so it wasn’t till nearly midday that Tiffany and Adrian turned up here. Someone has “borrowed” the truck batteries, again, and it took a while to get things organised. My only bitch about it was that Tiff and Adrian spent the morning collecting everyone and taking them to Ranandi before coming to get me, which made it nearly 11am. As I said to Tiff, if they’d collected me first, we could have had new batteries and been on our way instead of Adrians plan of collecting everyone, then trying to sort out the day. As it was, by the time we got the batteries into the truck, it was nearly 12.30, and everyone had given up waiting at Ranandi and gone home.
The weather didn’t help, it started off almost fine, as in not really raining, but got progressively worse during the day. According to Solomon Island Weather, we have a full week of this, and into the weekend.
We still haven’t any water supply, from letters in the Solomon Star, it has been 4 weeks now for most of Honiara to be without water, and the best SIWA can do is have an intermittent supply operating to some areas, and as you might have guessed already, my little settlement isn’t one of them. My collection of worldly possessions is increasing, I now have 4 10 litre buckets that work as my daily water supply, one for a wash, one has clothes soaking, one for cooking and drinking, and a spare for when it is raining too heavily to go outside and refill them all. Although I’ve been putting the empties on the steps and letting the rain fill them instead of using the water tank.
The weather isn’t helping with food prices either, everything has gone up by a couple of dollars in the market, due to the fields and gardens being flooded, and lack of transport for a lot of the growers to get to the markets.
We have another meeting with the Japanese Consul today, trying to convince her that the Nursery will still go ahead, despite the obstructions from Dept Lands, Council and Forestry. I’m becoming extremely jaded about the whole thing, well, a continuation of how I felt before I went to New Zealand. It all revolves around personalities, or people abusing their position, or in some cases, just because the person involved has wantok who have a grudge. We have all of our funding through, other the Japanese Grass Roots, which gives us more than enough to get started, if we had the lease signed and agreed at Ranandi.
For anyone interested in the ongoing AGW doomsday IPCC bs, Willis Eschenbach has had a couple of excellent posts in http://wattsupwiththat.com, all well worth reading, including his reply to Judith Curry.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/25/judith-i-love-ya-but-youre-way-wrong/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/14/the-thermostat-hypothesis/
http://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/2010/02/whats-the-problem/#more-3837
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/28/sense-and-sensitivity/#more-16830
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/03/01/a-tornado-free-february-first-time-ever/
Photos will be included soon, of various things, once I know that I won’t lose internet connection halfway through uploading, as has been happening all week so far. I get a touch annoyed when I lose the connection for the 5th or 6th time, always just before an upload is complete.
Evening. Another day in paradise over with. High points, Chie at the Japanese Consul is happy with where we are at with the land issue, it’s between Hasting Deering and Lands now, so it may be resolved. We’ve got the funding money in term deposit for 3 months waiting for approval to come through, we may as well get a bit of interest on it. The Japanese Grass Roots Funding will be through about July, so for once the future looks a bit brighter now.
I finally caught up with SI Quarantine this afternoon, and to say they were helpful is an understatement. Having a bit of experience with MAF in NZ with plant quarantine requirements helped, I was able to show what I expected, and knew, the outcome was that SI Quarantine will be recommending approval for us to put a Plant Quarantine Facility into the Nursery, plus they are going to do all the specifications and requirements for us to follow. I’ll be emailing Malcolm at Lyndale Nurseries tomorrow to let him know things are slowly moving here. I told him 3 months when I caught up with him the other week, which would seem to be about right before we are organised enough to start importing.
One of the good things about having our own quarantine area is that we can be bulking up while the plants are still held, then have a large amount of stock ready to go once we are over the 6 month quarantine period. If it all goes to plan, I know, I shouldn’t use that word, we may need half our area for quarantine, and the rest for normal nursery production, seed raising/propagation etc.
I’m still chasing Island Enterprises for prices, 3 months now and still nothing.
The weather continues to be abysmal, well, tropical weather anyway, clear periods with heavy rain, and a hot humid steamy atmosphere inbetween the rain. The little truck has now been diagnosed with a primary fuel pump malfunction, not dirty injectors or faulty glow plugs. It would all be very nice to think this means it will be running again soon, but experience is a harsh teacher. I’m giving it a week till the next problem. And I’m an optimist. Still haven’t got brake pads yet, the wipers work when it’s not raining, which resulted in me having to throw buckets of water at the windscreen this afternoon while the mechanic tried to find if water was getting into the wiring somewhere. They still don’t work. I’ve got used to driving in the rain with my head out the drivers side window, well, the space where the window should be. Did I mention the glass fell inside the door on Monday? It may be fixed this week.
Further to my mention about AGW, I see in the Solomon Star today that a family in Brazil(?) committed suicide/infanticide because of their fears about global warming and the lack of action by any government. As if the hypocrisy and lies weren’t enough from the IPCC, Jones, Mann, Briffa Hansen, Strong et al, the scare mongering, the alarmist threats and doomsday scenarios, for anyone to kill their children, and themselves over something that is finally being shown to be a load of old cobblers leaves their blood squarely at the feet of the IPCC, and all the sycophants and left wing lentil munching looney sock and sandal wearing one world government idiots. Those ones that want to turn the world into some primitive feral unpopulated wildlife park. I could go on, but there is no point, it has become a religion, not science, and the obfuscations, the denials, the refusal to show the methods, the adjustment of data that doesn’t fit the hypothesis, the discarding of everything that contradicts the belief, it all becomes a really bad joke. And this is what governments are basing taxes, energy projects, future growth trends on? If, as seems likely we are going into the next 30 year cool phase, I’d be building more power stations, cranking up the coal production, finding more oil reserves, and starting on construction of a few nuclear power stations, even in New Zealand.
All the people who have invested in viticulture, and dairy farming in the South Island in New Zealand may find the past 30 year warm cycle is coming to an end, and all their investments will be buried under the snow. I may be wrong, heaven forbid, but if, as Willis Eschenbach has demonstrated, the earth has its own built in climate control, that doesn’t depend on CO2, and the past climate record shows a strong 60 year cycle of 30/30 warm/cold periods.
As most know, I’ve been involved with www.scamwarners.com for some time, and AGW and the IPCC meet all the standard warning signs of an email scam. There is a need for urgency, no one else must be consulted, everything depends on urgent action, it has all been worked out, let others make the decisions, just send money, or in the case of AGW, let your government and the UN take your money and drive you into a cold bitter world without any hope. Add in the transfer of huge amounts of money that will beggar the developed countries, all to keep 3rd world countries at the poverty level, both in energy, and resources. How will giving Pacific Island Countries $20 billion help stop unsubstantiated sea level rise? If the money was given to stop those countries polluting their own shorelines, stop them destroying the coral reefs, decimating the fish stocks that sustain the reef, stop cutting down forest cover on islands and planting bloody oil palm plantations that at best provide a few employment opportunities, at worst destroy the land and all local agriculture, making everyone dependant on imported food, it might have some relevance.
But in close observation, 90% of any of that $20 billion will be lost as it passes through all the sticky fingers, the corrupt political systems, the sheer blatant theft that is endemic in practically all 3rd world countries. Which is the reason they are 3rd world, with all the problems. For all the money and aid poured into the bottomless hole that these countries are, where is the clean water, the removal of malaria, typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, yaws, tsetse fly, the improvement in peoples life expectancy, the education of the people?
My list of people to be up against the wall when the revolution comes grows longer by the day. Lawyers and politicians are still first, the looney leftwing lentil munchers are next. Anyone involved with the IPCC, CRU, GISS, NOAA, NIWA, any journalist who has ever copied some garbage from the IPCC and promoted the whole stinking mess. Not that I’m upset.
It turned into another one of those days when I felt by the end of it I should really have stayed in bed, or gone walkabout, or anything. As is becoming usual, the little truck refused to start, and Telekom weren’t co-operative with letting phone calls or texts go through, so it wasn’t till nearly midday that Tiffany and Adrian turned up here. Someone has “borrowed” the truck batteries, again, and it took a while to get things organised. My only bitch about it was that Tiff and Adrian spent the morning collecting everyone and taking them to Ranandi before coming to get me, which made it nearly 11am. As I said to Tiff, if they’d collected me first, we could have had new batteries and been on our way instead of Adrians plan of collecting everyone, then trying to sort out the day. As it was, by the time we got the batteries into the truck, it was nearly 12.30, and everyone had given up waiting at Ranandi and gone home.
The weather didn’t help, it started off almost fine, as in not really raining, but got progressively worse during the day. According to Solomon Island Weather, we have a full week of this, and into the weekend.
We still haven’t any water supply, from letters in the Solomon Star, it has been 4 weeks now for most of Honiara to be without water, and the best SIWA can do is have an intermittent supply operating to some areas, and as you might have guessed already, my little settlement isn’t one of them. My collection of worldly possessions is increasing, I now have 4 10 litre buckets that work as my daily water supply, one for a wash, one has clothes soaking, one for cooking and drinking, and a spare for when it is raining too heavily to go outside and refill them all. Although I’ve been putting the empties on the steps and letting the rain fill them instead of using the water tank.
The weather isn’t helping with food prices either, everything has gone up by a couple of dollars in the market, due to the fields and gardens being flooded, and lack of transport for a lot of the growers to get to the markets.
We have another meeting with the Japanese Consul today, trying to convince her that the Nursery will still go ahead, despite the obstructions from Dept Lands, Council and Forestry. I’m becoming extremely jaded about the whole thing, well, a continuation of how I felt before I went to New Zealand. It all revolves around personalities, or people abusing their position, or in some cases, just because the person involved has wantok who have a grudge. We have all of our funding through, other the Japanese Grass Roots, which gives us more than enough to get started, if we had the lease signed and agreed at Ranandi.
For anyone interested in the ongoing AGW doomsday IPCC bs, Willis Eschenbach has had a couple of excellent posts in http://wattsupwiththat.com, all well worth reading, including his reply to Judith Curry.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/25/judith-i-love-ya-but-youre-way-wrong/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/14/the-thermostat-hypothesis/
http://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/2010/02/whats-the-problem/#more-3837
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/28/sense-and-sensitivity/#more-16830
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/03/01/a-tornado-free-february-first-time-ever/
Photos will be included soon, of various things, once I know that I won’t lose internet connection halfway through uploading, as has been happening all week so far. I get a touch annoyed when I lose the connection for the 5th or 6th time, always just before an upload is complete.
Evening. Another day in paradise over with. High points, Chie at the Japanese Consul is happy with where we are at with the land issue, it’s between Hasting Deering and Lands now, so it may be resolved. We’ve got the funding money in term deposit for 3 months waiting for approval to come through, we may as well get a bit of interest on it. The Japanese Grass Roots Funding will be through about July, so for once the future looks a bit brighter now.
I finally caught up with SI Quarantine this afternoon, and to say they were helpful is an understatement. Having a bit of experience with MAF in NZ with plant quarantine requirements helped, I was able to show what I expected, and knew, the outcome was that SI Quarantine will be recommending approval for us to put a Plant Quarantine Facility into the Nursery, plus they are going to do all the specifications and requirements for us to follow. I’ll be emailing Malcolm at Lyndale Nurseries tomorrow to let him know things are slowly moving here. I told him 3 months when I caught up with him the other week, which would seem to be about right before we are organised enough to start importing.
One of the good things about having our own quarantine area is that we can be bulking up while the plants are still held, then have a large amount of stock ready to go once we are over the 6 month quarantine period. If it all goes to plan, I know, I shouldn’t use that word, we may need half our area for quarantine, and the rest for normal nursery production, seed raising/propagation etc.
I’m still chasing Island Enterprises for prices, 3 months now and still nothing.
The weather continues to be abysmal, well, tropical weather anyway, clear periods with heavy rain, and a hot humid steamy atmosphere inbetween the rain. The little truck has now been diagnosed with a primary fuel pump malfunction, not dirty injectors or faulty glow plugs. It would all be very nice to think this means it will be running again soon, but experience is a harsh teacher. I’m giving it a week till the next problem. And I’m an optimist. Still haven’t got brake pads yet, the wipers work when it’s not raining, which resulted in me having to throw buckets of water at the windscreen this afternoon while the mechanic tried to find if water was getting into the wiring somewhere. They still don’t work. I’ve got used to driving in the rain with my head out the drivers side window, well, the space where the window should be. Did I mention the glass fell inside the door on Monday? It may be fixed this week.
Further to my mention about AGW, I see in the Solomon Star today that a family in Brazil(?) committed suicide/infanticide because of their fears about global warming and the lack of action by any government. As if the hypocrisy and lies weren’t enough from the IPCC, Jones, Mann, Briffa Hansen, Strong et al, the scare mongering, the alarmist threats and doomsday scenarios, for anyone to kill their children, and themselves over something that is finally being shown to be a load of old cobblers leaves their blood squarely at the feet of the IPCC, and all the sycophants and left wing lentil munching looney sock and sandal wearing one world government idiots. Those ones that want to turn the world into some primitive feral unpopulated wildlife park. I could go on, but there is no point, it has become a religion, not science, and the obfuscations, the denials, the refusal to show the methods, the adjustment of data that doesn’t fit the hypothesis, the discarding of everything that contradicts the belief, it all becomes a really bad joke. And this is what governments are basing taxes, energy projects, future growth trends on? If, as seems likely we are going into the next 30 year cool phase, I’d be building more power stations, cranking up the coal production, finding more oil reserves, and starting on construction of a few nuclear power stations, even in New Zealand.
All the people who have invested in viticulture, and dairy farming in the South Island in New Zealand may find the past 30 year warm cycle is coming to an end, and all their investments will be buried under the snow. I may be wrong, heaven forbid, but if, as Willis Eschenbach has demonstrated, the earth has its own built in climate control, that doesn’t depend on CO2, and the past climate record shows a strong 60 year cycle of 30/30 warm/cold periods.
As most know, I’ve been involved with www.scamwarners.com for some time, and AGW and the IPCC meet all the standard warning signs of an email scam. There is a need for urgency, no one else must be consulted, everything depends on urgent action, it has all been worked out, let others make the decisions, just send money, or in the case of AGW, let your government and the UN take your money and drive you into a cold bitter world without any hope. Add in the transfer of huge amounts of money that will beggar the developed countries, all to keep 3rd world countries at the poverty level, both in energy, and resources. How will giving Pacific Island Countries $20 billion help stop unsubstantiated sea level rise? If the money was given to stop those countries polluting their own shorelines, stop them destroying the coral reefs, decimating the fish stocks that sustain the reef, stop cutting down forest cover on islands and planting bloody oil palm plantations that at best provide a few employment opportunities, at worst destroy the land and all local agriculture, making everyone dependant on imported food, it might have some relevance.
But in close observation, 90% of any of that $20 billion will be lost as it passes through all the sticky fingers, the corrupt political systems, the sheer blatant theft that is endemic in practically all 3rd world countries. Which is the reason they are 3rd world, with all the problems. For all the money and aid poured into the bottomless hole that these countries are, where is the clean water, the removal of malaria, typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, yaws, tsetse fly, the improvement in peoples life expectancy, the education of the people?
My list of people to be up against the wall when the revolution comes grows longer by the day. Lawyers and politicians are still first, the looney leftwing lentil munchers are next. Anyone involved with the IPCC, CRU, GISS, NOAA, NIWA, any journalist who has ever copied some garbage from the IPCC and promoted the whole stinking mess. Not that I’m upset.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
3rd March
The storm that arrived Saturday night lingers on still. Monday night was the worst of it so far, trees blown down, power lines broken, roads flooded, rivers overflowing. Being in a slight hollow and protected from the worst of it I didn’t really notice anything, other than the rain, till I went out yesterday.
It turned into another one of those days when I felt by the end of it I should really have stayed in bed, or gone walkabout, or anything. As is becoming usual, the little truck refused to start, and Telekom weren’t co-operative with letting phone calls or texts go through, so it wasn’t till nearly midday that Tiffany and Adrian turned up here. Someone has “borrowed” the truck batteries, again, and it took a while to get things organised. My only bitch about it was that Tiff and Adrian spent the morning collecting everyone and taking them to Ranandi before coming to get me, which made it nearly 11am. As I said to Tiff, if they’d collected me first, we could have had new batteries and been on our way instead of Adrians plan of collecting everyone, then trying to sort out the day. As it was, by the time we got the batteries into the truck, it was nearly 12.30, and everyone had given up waiting at Ranandi and gone home.
The weather didn’t help, it started off almost fine, as in not really raining, but got progressively worse during the day. According to Solomon Island Weather, we have a full week of this, and into the weekend.
We still haven’t any water supply, from letters in the Solomon Star, it has been 4 weeks now for most of Honiara to be without water, and the best SIWA can do is have an intermittent supply operating to some areas, and as you might have guessed already, my little settlement isn’t one of them. My collection of worldly possessions is increasing, I now have 4 10 litre buckets that work as my daily water supply, one for a wash, one has clothes soaking, one for cooking and drinking, and a spare for when it is raining too heavily to go outside and refill them all. Although I’ve been putting the empties on the steps and letting the rain fill them instead of using the water tank.
The weather isn’t helping with food prices either, everything has gone up by a couple of dollars in the market, due to the fields and gardens being flooded, and lack of transport for a lot of the growers to get to the markets.
We have another meeting with the Japanese Consul today, trying to convince her that the Nursery will still go ahead, despite the obstructions from Dept Lands, Council and Forestry. I’m becoming extremely jaded about the whole thing, well, a continuation of how I felt before I went to New Zealand. It all revolves around personalities, or people abusing their position, or in some cases, just because the person involved has wantok who have a grudge. We have all of our funding through, other the Japanese Grass Roots, which gives us more than enough to get started, if we had the lease signed and agreed at Ranandi.
For anyone interested in the ongoing AGW doomsday IPCC bs, Willis Eschenbach has had a couple of excellent posts in www.wattsupwiththat.com, all well worth reading, including his reply to Judith Curry.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/25/judith-i-love-ya-but-youre-way-wrong/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/14/the-thermostat-hypothesis/
http://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/2010/02/whats-the-problem/#more-3837
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/28/sense-and-sensitivity/#more-16830
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/03/01/a-tornado-free-february-first-time-ever/
Photos will be included soon, of various things, once I know that I won’t lose internet connection halfway through uploading, as has been happening all week so far. I get a touch annoyed I lose the connection for the 5th or 6th time, always just before an upload is complete.
It turned into another one of those days when I felt by the end of it I should really have stayed in bed, or gone walkabout, or anything. As is becoming usual, the little truck refused to start, and Telekom weren’t co-operative with letting phone calls or texts go through, so it wasn’t till nearly midday that Tiffany and Adrian turned up here. Someone has “borrowed” the truck batteries, again, and it took a while to get things organised. My only bitch about it was that Tiff and Adrian spent the morning collecting everyone and taking them to Ranandi before coming to get me, which made it nearly 11am. As I said to Tiff, if they’d collected me first, we could have had new batteries and been on our way instead of Adrians plan of collecting everyone, then trying to sort out the day. As it was, by the time we got the batteries into the truck, it was nearly 12.30, and everyone had given up waiting at Ranandi and gone home.
The weather didn’t help, it started off almost fine, as in not really raining, but got progressively worse during the day. According to Solomon Island Weather, we have a full week of this, and into the weekend.
We still haven’t any water supply, from letters in the Solomon Star, it has been 4 weeks now for most of Honiara to be without water, and the best SIWA can do is have an intermittent supply operating to some areas, and as you might have guessed already, my little settlement isn’t one of them. My collection of worldly possessions is increasing, I now have 4 10 litre buckets that work as my daily water supply, one for a wash, one has clothes soaking, one for cooking and drinking, and a spare for when it is raining too heavily to go outside and refill them all. Although I’ve been putting the empties on the steps and letting the rain fill them instead of using the water tank.
The weather isn’t helping with food prices either, everything has gone up by a couple of dollars in the market, due to the fields and gardens being flooded, and lack of transport for a lot of the growers to get to the markets.
We have another meeting with the Japanese Consul today, trying to convince her that the Nursery will still go ahead, despite the obstructions from Dept Lands, Council and Forestry. I’m becoming extremely jaded about the whole thing, well, a continuation of how I felt before I went to New Zealand. It all revolves around personalities, or people abusing their position, or in some cases, just because the person involved has wantok who have a grudge. We have all of our funding through, other the Japanese Grass Roots, which gives us more than enough to get started, if we had the lease signed and agreed at Ranandi.
For anyone interested in the ongoing AGW doomsday IPCC bs, Willis Eschenbach has had a couple of excellent posts in www.wattsupwiththat.com, all well worth reading, including his reply to Judith Curry.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/25/judith-i-love-ya-but-youre-way-wrong/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/14/the-thermostat-hypothesis/
http://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/2010/02/whats-the-problem/#more-3837
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/28/sense-and-sensitivity/#more-16830
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/03/01/a-tornado-free-february-first-time-ever/
Photos will be included soon, of various things, once I know that I won’t lose internet connection halfway through uploading, as has been happening all week so far. I get a touch annoyed I lose the connection for the 5th or 6th time, always just before an upload is complete.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
1st March
Happy Birthday Mum, my apologies again for not being there.
I’ve only been back a week, and already the frustration level is approaching high. The land at Ranandi is in dispute with Dept of Lands, they class us as agriculture, and the area is rated industrial, so they won’t let the lease go ahead. I’m going to SI Agriculture today to see if we can get a Quarantine License, and then hopefully that will sway the decision. It’s better to have a quarantine area in an industrial site than in the middle of cropland, well, in my opinion anyway. It may work, anything is worth a shot now.
Steve and I and all Steves wantok went diving Saturday, the next beach past Bonegi, the reef has been pretty well fished out, only the small fish left, but the reef did look reasonably healthy. I’ll get an underwater housing and camera next trip back to NZ, and get pictures. It’s been raining since Saturday afternoon now, heavy, steady, the road is a swamp past the house, I’ve had to put the truck over in the carpark, and I doubt it will start without a hill to roll it down.
SIWA still haven’t resolved the water issues, so it has now been a few weeks since Honiara had any water supply, SIEA are having problems with the generators again, so the power goes off without warning, all in all, nothing has really changed since I went away 6 weeks ago.
I was going to catch up on the drawings for the Governor Generals Residence yesterday, but there is so much moisture in the air all my graph and drawing paper is damp, and either rips or smears when I put a pen or pencil to it. It’s 7am, and there is a wall of water falling outside, which made having a shower this morning simple. I stood outside for 5 minutes, washed my hair, lathered up the soap, felt clean and refreshed, waddled inside and left puddles of water over the floor but it felt better than a wash out of the bucket. I doubt the little truck is going to start again this morning, it refused yesterday, so now that it is raining it will take great delight in making me walk down to the road and wait for Tiffany come past with the work truck.
I’ve only been back a week, and already the frustration level is approaching high. The land at Ranandi is in dispute with Dept of Lands, they class us as agriculture, and the area is rated industrial, so they won’t let the lease go ahead. I’m going to SI Agriculture today to see if we can get a Quarantine License, and then hopefully that will sway the decision. It’s better to have a quarantine area in an industrial site than in the middle of cropland, well, in my opinion anyway. It may work, anything is worth a shot now.
Steve and I and all Steves wantok went diving Saturday, the next beach past Bonegi, the reef has been pretty well fished out, only the small fish left, but the reef did look reasonably healthy. I’ll get an underwater housing and camera next trip back to NZ, and get pictures. It’s been raining since Saturday afternoon now, heavy, steady, the road is a swamp past the house, I’ve had to put the truck over in the carpark, and I doubt it will start without a hill to roll it down.
SIWA still haven’t resolved the water issues, so it has now been a few weeks since Honiara had any water supply, SIEA are having problems with the generators again, so the power goes off without warning, all in all, nothing has really changed since I went away 6 weeks ago.
I was going to catch up on the drawings for the Governor Generals Residence yesterday, but there is so much moisture in the air all my graph and drawing paper is damp, and either rips or smears when I put a pen or pencil to it. It’s 7am, and there is a wall of water falling outside, which made having a shower this morning simple. I stood outside for 5 minutes, washed my hair, lathered up the soap, felt clean and refreshed, waddled inside and left puddles of water over the floor but it felt better than a wash out of the bucket. I doubt the little truck is going to start again this morning, it refused yesterday, so now that it is raining it will take great delight in making me walk down to the road and wait for Tiffany come past with the work truck.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
25th February
I know I’m definitely back in Honiara. The list of problems is getting longer quickly, as is the list of things that can be really annoying if I let them.
Dept Lands is holding up the resource consent for the Nursery at Ranandi, I get the impression it is a personality conflict going on there, without the consent we can’t get the Japanese Grass Roots funding for the building, so we have a meeting at the Japanese Consul tomorrow in an effort to get something resolved.
Lands is the same office that had us removed from the Botanic Gardens, so I think it is just a personality thing happening.
SIWA (Solomon Island Water Authority) have major problems with water supply as usual, although this time it is major. There has been no maintenance on any of the infrastructure since independence in 1976, which leads to pumps failing, pipework crumbling, and no water supply to most of Honiara. I have the problem here with the main tank being below my roofline, so the pressure isn’t sufficient to feed my house, as I mentioned a while back I swapped my feed line over to the main supply line. As SIWA have shut off the water to this part of town, it means I have no water once more, other the rainwater tank below. It could be worse, and I could have no water available at all, so going outside to collect water from the tank isn’t too much of a burden. I tried tonight swapping back to the header tank, but it is well below the level needed to reach my house.
Good news is that MID liked our plan for Commonwealth Ave, I have to have completed drawings and details to them asap, probably Monday at the latest, and it goes through for approval. We should have added more to the cost, the $420,000 seemed a bit low to Ambrose, but we make a bit on it, and there is enough built into it to cover any problems. I haven’t managed to get to the other end of town yet to check on the Post Office, I know it is only a kilometre away, but life has been hectic so far this week. Tomorrow for sure.
I’ve got a few Cordyline australis seeds, and some Campanula var. seeds to try propagating, Jennifer was putting mulch through the Rover Mulcher when we left the Nursery this morning, so I’ll have some fine seed mix for tomorrow to sow seeds into. It will be interesting to see how the Cordyline grow here, I think they should grow a lot faster than in NZ, with the considerably warmer climate and the fairly constant rain. The Campanula should go ok, I’ll plant a few in some of the roundabouts to see how they grow, having plants with 2m flower spikes will be interesting here.
Andrew is reading through the Small Motor Maintenance book I bought in Auckland, hopefully he can learn enough from it to do a knowledgeable job on the machines now, rather than the “Lets take it apart, put it back together and see if that works” approach.
I have to try again with Carann Agencies in Brisbane for planter bags, irrigation equipment, and nursery trolleys. Island Enterprises appear to have lost or forgotten about the order I took to them before Christmas, well, November actually, so we’ll try getting everything shipped on the BJS monthly container from Brisbane. I know I should be waiting till the lease etc is settled at Ranandi, but sitting around waiting has never been a strong point with me. We may as well be doing something in the meantime, at the temporary site, and making some improvements.
I’ve been loading photos into facebook, not a lot, the main amount go into webshots.com, but some anyway. Facebook is under Warren Dennis, webshots is http://community.webshots.com/user/VWKombi if anyone is interested.
Once I look into blog tools I‘ll figure out how to post those links permanently in the blog.
The small truck is still a lethal mix, but I’ll put up with it till we get the parts. It’s been 9 months now since we started trying to get it serviced, the brakes still haven’t been fixed, the fuel pump is still leaking, now the wipers have burnt out, there is a huge hole in the exhaust behind the cab, right where you can’t get at it. Well, not without taking off the manifold and feeding the exhaust system out through the chassis. Or lifting it up through the cab. Either way, it’s been put in the too hard at the moment basket, onto the “soon” list.
The good thing is that anyone seeing me driving it around knows I’m not working for RAMSI or any of the overpaid organizations.
Things are getting a bit on the “be cautious” side in Honiara lately. With the elections coming up in August, there is a fair bit of tribal/village/wantok trouble starting. Security here in the Ba’hai compound have issued everyone with police whistles, to use at night or daytime if there is any trouble. The compound is small enough to be sure someone will hear it, and security walk around with 36” bushknives, so it might be an interesting thing to see, if you weren’t involved. My bushknife sits by the bed at night, and I put chairs across the doorways at night to give me some warning if anyone breaks in. But other than that, it is still reasonably safe here, ok, you don’t go out at night alone, or anywhere off the main street, although even Mendana Ave isn’t that safe at night. I might do what Steve suggested and get a couple of spear guns and keep them loaded at night just in case.
From the Solomon Star this week, since I’ve been back, there have only been 2 murders this week, both kwaso related, people having a drunken argument while holding bushknives. The 3 that attacked the woman in Ranandi about a month ago have been caught, it’s hard to say what they will get, it was robbery, and assault. They stopped her car on the way home, smashed the windows in, cut her face with bushknives, and got nothing from her. They were hoping for the wages for her business, but as usual here, they got the day wrong, and it wasn’t the day for wages.
All the fun of village life up close.
Dept Lands is holding up the resource consent for the Nursery at Ranandi, I get the impression it is a personality conflict going on there, without the consent we can’t get the Japanese Grass Roots funding for the building, so we have a meeting at the Japanese Consul tomorrow in an effort to get something resolved.
Lands is the same office that had us removed from the Botanic Gardens, so I think it is just a personality thing happening.
SIWA (Solomon Island Water Authority) have major problems with water supply as usual, although this time it is major. There has been no maintenance on any of the infrastructure since independence in 1976, which leads to pumps failing, pipework crumbling, and no water supply to most of Honiara. I have the problem here with the main tank being below my roofline, so the pressure isn’t sufficient to feed my house, as I mentioned a while back I swapped my feed line over to the main supply line. As SIWA have shut off the water to this part of town, it means I have no water once more, other the rainwater tank below. It could be worse, and I could have no water available at all, so going outside to collect water from the tank isn’t too much of a burden. I tried tonight swapping back to the header tank, but it is well below the level needed to reach my house.
Good news is that MID liked our plan for Commonwealth Ave, I have to have completed drawings and details to them asap, probably Monday at the latest, and it goes through for approval. We should have added more to the cost, the $420,000 seemed a bit low to Ambrose, but we make a bit on it, and there is enough built into it to cover any problems. I haven’t managed to get to the other end of town yet to check on the Post Office, I know it is only a kilometre away, but life has been hectic so far this week. Tomorrow for sure.
I’ve got a few Cordyline australis seeds, and some Campanula var. seeds to try propagating, Jennifer was putting mulch through the Rover Mulcher when we left the Nursery this morning, so I’ll have some fine seed mix for tomorrow to sow seeds into. It will be interesting to see how the Cordyline grow here, I think they should grow a lot faster than in NZ, with the considerably warmer climate and the fairly constant rain. The Campanula should go ok, I’ll plant a few in some of the roundabouts to see how they grow, having plants with 2m flower spikes will be interesting here.
Andrew is reading through the Small Motor Maintenance book I bought in Auckland, hopefully he can learn enough from it to do a knowledgeable job on the machines now, rather than the “Lets take it apart, put it back together and see if that works” approach.
I have to try again with Carann Agencies in Brisbane for planter bags, irrigation equipment, and nursery trolleys. Island Enterprises appear to have lost or forgotten about the order I took to them before Christmas, well, November actually, so we’ll try getting everything shipped on the BJS monthly container from Brisbane. I know I should be waiting till the lease etc is settled at Ranandi, but sitting around waiting has never been a strong point with me. We may as well be doing something in the meantime, at the temporary site, and making some improvements.
I’ve been loading photos into facebook, not a lot, the main amount go into webshots.com, but some anyway. Facebook is under Warren Dennis, webshots is http://community.webshots.com/user/VWKombi if anyone is interested.
Once I look into blog tools I‘ll figure out how to post those links permanently in the blog.
The small truck is still a lethal mix, but I’ll put up with it till we get the parts. It’s been 9 months now since we started trying to get it serviced, the brakes still haven’t been fixed, the fuel pump is still leaking, now the wipers have burnt out, there is a huge hole in the exhaust behind the cab, right where you can’t get at it. Well, not without taking off the manifold and feeding the exhaust system out through the chassis. Or lifting it up through the cab. Either way, it’s been put in the too hard at the moment basket, onto the “soon” list.
The good thing is that anyone seeing me driving it around knows I’m not working for RAMSI or any of the overpaid organizations.
Things are getting a bit on the “be cautious” side in Honiara lately. With the elections coming up in August, there is a fair bit of tribal/village/wantok trouble starting. Security here in the Ba’hai compound have issued everyone with police whistles, to use at night or daytime if there is any trouble. The compound is small enough to be sure someone will hear it, and security walk around with 36” bushknives, so it might be an interesting thing to see, if you weren’t involved. My bushknife sits by the bed at night, and I put chairs across the doorways at night to give me some warning if anyone breaks in. But other than that, it is still reasonably safe here, ok, you don’t go out at night alone, or anywhere off the main street, although even Mendana Ave isn’t that safe at night. I might do what Steve suggested and get a couple of spear guns and keep them loaded at night just in case.
From the Solomon Star this week, since I’ve been back, there have only been 2 murders this week, both kwaso related, people having a drunken argument while holding bushknives. The 3 that attacked the woman in Ranandi about a month ago have been caught, it’s hard to say what they will get, it was robbery, and assault. They stopped her car on the way home, smashed the windows in, cut her face with bushknives, and got nothing from her. They were hoping for the wages for her business, but as usual here, they got the day wrong, and it wasn’t the day for wages.
All the fun of village life up close.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
24th February
I may need to have a holiday soon, we’ve got the revised budget for Commonwealth Ave done, well, Tiffany was writing it up and I was adding or subtracting bits and pieces, and trying to remember what we had started before I left. MID don’t want the pavers in the centre, at this point, but do want the footpath on the eastern side paved, and planter boxes erected around the existing Delonix and for another 8 trees to be planted there as well. The seating is to go on the footpath, and the rubbish bins. It’s down to $420,000 and small change now, I’ve just finished the revised drawings for tomorrow when we have another meeting with MID about it.
The Governor Generals residence is on our to do list for tomorrow morning, followed by the MID meeting. It’s mainly security issues at the GG Residence, no tall shrubs that will obstruct the guards view up the roadway or between them and the house.
Tiffany has taken the Lyndale Nurseries catalogue home tonight, no doubt she will have a long list of plants to import tomorrow. I have to see SI Quarantine this week about what we need to put our own quarantine facility in place at Ranandi, neither of us are happy with having our plants stored somewhere else, although they woul in theory be ok, we don’t feel like spending a considerable amount of money to have them sit elsewhere for 6 months without being able to check on them, plus we could be propagating and growing on while we wait out the quarantine period.
I’ve got cordylines, agapanthus, hebes, some different carex, and hibiscus to import, and if I can find it, some Nandina domestica for the town gardens to give a bit of fresh colour.
I barely got a chance today to check emails, let alone do any browsing, so if anyone is waiting for me to write, please be patient for a bit longer.
Back to the usual stuff now, no water at the house, SIWA have a supply problem again, power cuts all day long at work, for an hour or so each time, which plays havoc with internet connections when the back up generators cut in.
I think the rat that was in the house when I left may have finally succumbed to the poison, there’s been no droppings anywhere since last night, and I’ve found a hole outside in the verandah it may have been using to get in through, so a bit of timber nailed across tomorrow when I get home should help solve that problem for a while.
Next thing is how to stop all the neighbourhood dogs from sleeping on my steps in the daytime while I’m at work. They all look like an encyclopedia of dog diseases, mange, scabies, runny eyes, conjunctivitis, fleas, broken limbs, underfed, I’m not happy with finding them on my steps. You can smell if they have been there as soon as you get near the steps. Another photo subject I guess. None of the dogs are neutered, so there are constant fights when there is a bitch in season, which seems to be every week, and always a bitch in pup or feeding, with several undernourished pups trailing behind.
I mentioned I think about buying a dehydrator, and in the best tradition of men with a new toy, it has been in continual use since I unpacked last night. I bought a hand of bananas, a couple of pawpaw and pineapple at Kukum Market on my way home from work yesterday, and so far the banana slices have dried well, it is full of pawpaw now, tomorrow will be the pineapple. Mixed together it should hopefully make a good lunch to nibble on, instead of the usual fried fish and cassava chips Tiff and I were surviving on at Christmas.
I was a bit annoyed this morning, I missed out on the NZ High Commission Feb 6th Waitangi Day Celebrations, nice invitation and all as well, as only High Commissions do, all gold edging and delicately understated elegance. I probably would have got into an argument over something from one of the looney left lentil munchers though so it may have been for the best I didn’t get there.
Young David that we hired to do the cleaning down Commonwealth Ave is still working away steadily, and still smiling and happy. He’s on $5 an hour, turns up on time, works till 5pm every day, and seems to be enjoying the job. It says a lot for the place when a street sweepers job is a huge status symbol for a 17yr old. He is probably supporting his wantok with his wages, I don’t think anyone else in his family are working, and he has younger brothers and sisters still in school, so a fair chunk of his wages would be going to school fees and food.
Friday I have another meeting with the Post Office about the designs for the inner garden area inside the fence, I’ve settled on a crab claw sail design with woven stainless bars fixed to stainless steel poles, adjusted slightly from a picture I found in NZ Gardener magazine. Plus Kennedys canoe prow shapes and the shrubs trimmed to wave like curves. We’re using river stones in the flower beds along Commonwealth Avenue as well, as a decorative edging, again, I took a lot of pictures while I was back in New Zealand, and now David can understand what I go on about with large boulders used as effect in a garden. It makes life a lot easier if he can see where I get my ideas from, explaining something in english, then translating to pijin isn’t always an easy option.
I’m going to try for some old ships anchors if I can find them, and use them along Commonwealth as well, to tie in the wharf area with the business section of town at the top end of Commonwealth.
The Governor Generals residence is on our to do list for tomorrow morning, followed by the MID meeting. It’s mainly security issues at the GG Residence, no tall shrubs that will obstruct the guards view up the roadway or between them and the house.
Tiffany has taken the Lyndale Nurseries catalogue home tonight, no doubt she will have a long list of plants to import tomorrow. I have to see SI Quarantine this week about what we need to put our own quarantine facility in place at Ranandi, neither of us are happy with having our plants stored somewhere else, although they woul in theory be ok, we don’t feel like spending a considerable amount of money to have them sit elsewhere for 6 months without being able to check on them, plus we could be propagating and growing on while we wait out the quarantine period.
I’ve got cordylines, agapanthus, hebes, some different carex, and hibiscus to import, and if I can find it, some Nandina domestica for the town gardens to give a bit of fresh colour.
I barely got a chance today to check emails, let alone do any browsing, so if anyone is waiting for me to write, please be patient for a bit longer.
Back to the usual stuff now, no water at the house, SIWA have a supply problem again, power cuts all day long at work, for an hour or so each time, which plays havoc with internet connections when the back up generators cut in.
I think the rat that was in the house when I left may have finally succumbed to the poison, there’s been no droppings anywhere since last night, and I’ve found a hole outside in the verandah it may have been using to get in through, so a bit of timber nailed across tomorrow when I get home should help solve that problem for a while.
Next thing is how to stop all the neighbourhood dogs from sleeping on my steps in the daytime while I’m at work. They all look like an encyclopedia of dog diseases, mange, scabies, runny eyes, conjunctivitis, fleas, broken limbs, underfed, I’m not happy with finding them on my steps. You can smell if they have been there as soon as you get near the steps. Another photo subject I guess. None of the dogs are neutered, so there are constant fights when there is a bitch in season, which seems to be every week, and always a bitch in pup or feeding, with several undernourished pups trailing behind.
I mentioned I think about buying a dehydrator, and in the best tradition of men with a new toy, it has been in continual use since I unpacked last night. I bought a hand of bananas, a couple of pawpaw and pineapple at Kukum Market on my way home from work yesterday, and so far the banana slices have dried well, it is full of pawpaw now, tomorrow will be the pineapple. Mixed together it should hopefully make a good lunch to nibble on, instead of the usual fried fish and cassava chips Tiff and I were surviving on at Christmas.
I was a bit annoyed this morning, I missed out on the NZ High Commission Feb 6th Waitangi Day Celebrations, nice invitation and all as well, as only High Commissions do, all gold edging and delicately understated elegance. I probably would have got into an argument over something from one of the looney left lentil munchers though so it may have been for the best I didn’t get there.
Young David that we hired to do the cleaning down Commonwealth Ave is still working away steadily, and still smiling and happy. He’s on $5 an hour, turns up on time, works till 5pm every day, and seems to be enjoying the job. It says a lot for the place when a street sweepers job is a huge status symbol for a 17yr old. He is probably supporting his wantok with his wages, I don’t think anyone else in his family are working, and he has younger brothers and sisters still in school, so a fair chunk of his wages would be going to school fees and food.
Friday I have another meeting with the Post Office about the designs for the inner garden area inside the fence, I’ve settled on a crab claw sail design with woven stainless bars fixed to stainless steel poles, adjusted slightly from a picture I found in NZ Gardener magazine. Plus Kennedys canoe prow shapes and the shrubs trimmed to wave like curves. We’re using river stones in the flower beds along Commonwealth Avenue as well, as a decorative edging, again, I took a lot of pictures while I was back in New Zealand, and now David can understand what I go on about with large boulders used as effect in a garden. It makes life a lot easier if he can see where I get my ideas from, explaining something in english, then translating to pijin isn’t always an easy option.
I’m going to try for some old ships anchors if I can find them, and use them along Commonwealth as well, to tie in the wharf area with the business section of town at the top end of Commonwealth.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday 23rd February
I’m back in Honiara, arrived 2pm today. Things aren’t looking good for Mum, I know it’s been the last time I’ll see her, I probably should have gone back when I intended and stayed over at this end instead of going early. I’ll go back for the funeral, whenever Mum decides to give in to it.
Tiffany and David met me at Henderson, dropped my baggage at home and went back to Ranandi to see how things are there. We still haven’t got a lease signed yet, but it is looking closer. The pricing I was hoping to have done from Island Enterprises is still floating around somewhere, some of the MID Commonwealth Ave contract has been altered, Imelda has left and got another full time job, we’re down to 10 working crew now, but the good news is that all the palm seeds Hendry and Sharon planted a couple of months back have all sprouted, so we have a few hundred palm seedlings, all Archontophoenix, at the 2 leaf stage now, and should be ready to transplant into growing on bags soon.
The rat in the house has been having a party by the look of the kitchen and floor. I think it may have finally succumbed to the poison, there weren’t any fresh looking droppings, but I had to throw out a bag of flour, and onions and kumara that had been nibbled at while I was away, plus the edges of the cupboard shelves.
I may need to get a cat.
I’ll gradually get back into posting again as things progress this week, at the moment settling back here is a bit of a jolt after Auckland, where the water is available and the power doesn’t cut off at odd times. As usual I’m out of water in the house, I’m hoping it may come on later in the evening, although it is now 8.15 pm, and no sign of anything happening.
The rain is still here, 4.30 it started again, after a brief burst of thunder and a few token lightning flashes. Steady rain today, not the usual bath tub all at once that we get in January.
I’ll have a look around town tomorrow, Tiff said the Post Office gardens are looking good now, David got a load of chippings spread over the copra sacks, and everything is growing well. I’m not expecting things to have changed much in 5 weeks though, the rubbish is still everywhere, we really need some better method of getting everyone to understand and stop dropping rubbish everywhere.
Tiffany and David met me at Henderson, dropped my baggage at home and went back to Ranandi to see how things are there. We still haven’t got a lease signed yet, but it is looking closer. The pricing I was hoping to have done from Island Enterprises is still floating around somewhere, some of the MID Commonwealth Ave contract has been altered, Imelda has left and got another full time job, we’re down to 10 working crew now, but the good news is that all the palm seeds Hendry and Sharon planted a couple of months back have all sprouted, so we have a few hundred palm seedlings, all Archontophoenix, at the 2 leaf stage now, and should be ready to transplant into growing on bags soon.
The rat in the house has been having a party by the look of the kitchen and floor. I think it may have finally succumbed to the poison, there weren’t any fresh looking droppings, but I had to throw out a bag of flour, and onions and kumara that had been nibbled at while I was away, plus the edges of the cupboard shelves.
I may need to get a cat.
I’ll gradually get back into posting again as things progress this week, at the moment settling back here is a bit of a jolt after Auckland, where the water is available and the power doesn’t cut off at odd times. As usual I’m out of water in the house, I’m hoping it may come on later in the evening, although it is now 8.15 pm, and no sign of anything happening.
The rain is still here, 4.30 it started again, after a brief burst of thunder and a few token lightning flashes. Steady rain today, not the usual bath tub all at once that we get in January.
I’ll have a look around town tomorrow, Tiff said the Post Office gardens are looking good now, David got a load of chippings spread over the copra sacks, and everything is growing well. I’m not expecting things to have changed much in 5 weeks though, the rubbish is still everywhere, we really need some better method of getting everyone to understand and stop dropping rubbish everywhere.
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