Wednesday 11th August

It’s been a busy week, we’re making progress finally, after the months and months of frustration and delays.

The shade house is half completed, all we are waiting on is the shade cloth to arrive from Brisbane, along with the irrigation, we have 2 layout beds set out with weedmat, the crew did a really good job of it. As I found out, laying out weedmat in 30*C isn’t as much fun as it is in a temperate climate. Everytime we thought we had all the wrinkles out, the mat would heat up a little more and stretch, it ended up being laid twice, once to get the initial stretch out, then the crew went back and lifted the pegs and pulled and re-pegged it all again to get it as flat and wrinkle free as possible. Still a couple of ripples, but we can live with that.







The little truck is finally gone. BJS bought it off us for parts I think, I’d hate to think what it owes them for all the time it has spent in their garage being repaired. Well, being worked on, repaired implies it was fixed and going at some stage. It had to be towed away, despite a new battery etc it still wouldn’t start, and the brakes still don’t work. I would have liked to keep it, if it had been going, I’m getting a slightly bit bored with going to work, coming home, going to work, etc and not being able to get out of Honiara at weekends.

All the new MPs are camped out in the hotels around Honiara now, wheeling and dealing, paying back promises and bribes, trying to come up with enough numbers to form a government and decide on who will be Prime Minister. It should be announced early next week, I’m hearing bits of talk from the crew and around Ba’hai about possible trouble, depending on who gets put in as PM, so I’ll make sure the truck is fuelled up, and I have the cupboards stocked for a few days.

Tiffanys sister bought in some fresh squid today, Tiff didn’t want it, she isn’t all that keen on it and doesn’t have much luck cooking it, so I had chilli stir fried squid with rice for dinner. And very nice it was too. You either cook it very quickly, high heat and spices, or slow casserole, anything in between and you may as well be chewing bicycle tubes. I’ve found marinating it for a few hours in olive oil with garlic and chilli helps keep it tender, but remember to drain the oil off before stir frying.

Late edit, for those interested, the Perseid Meteor shower is expected tonight, and also the conjunction of Venus, Saturn, Mars and the crescent moon will all appear together in a tight circle to the west around sunset.

Tuesday 10th August

Well, we’ve had a good day so far, 4 posts to go for the shade area, 10 in so far for the afternoon. I’m not one for doing things the hard way, 20 years of boilermaking/welding/factory maintenance has convinced me that there is always an easy way of doing something, without a lot of thinking involved.

I had Geoffry helping me to set the post in, we ran string lines etc for height and to level against. The first post as always was the most awkward, it needed to be 2 metres above ground, and Geoffry was quite happy to hold all 2.5 metres of 4 x 4 timber up while the concrete was poured around it, but I had doubts about the actual placement of it while it was wavering around.

The simple solution was to nail a board across at the 2 metre mark, and just let it sit on the ground, centred in the hole to the right height and level. I keep forgetting that there was a time when I didn’t know things, and had to be shown stuff. It was the first time Geoffry had seen it done, after that, he was away. He had the corner posts all marked and ready on his own, and set in the holes. It was even more terrific when you understand Geoffry doesn’t speak english, his pijin has such a strong island dialect I can’t understand him, and he has no way of understanding me at all. But, show him once, and there isn’t a problem.

Geoffery setting the post height guide

Geoffery with post

Post in place





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So we had a fun afternoon, I was giving out at Andrew as usual, he gives it back as well, his thumb has healed really well since he cut it in half. I suggested he should have left it split open, then we could call him Andrew 3 thumbs, but he didn’t think that was such a good idea.

We dug the post holes a fair while back, I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but every morning I’ve been doing my Francis of Asissi good deed and rescuing all the frogs and snakes that have fallen into the holes over night. Luckily the snakes have been all Solomon boas, similar to the one I posted the pic of last week, and fairly small. I’m not sure if I’d have been rescuing a tree snake or any of the other poisonous ones. So here are a couple of pics of the lucky frogs.







We found a few more earth snakes today, cleaning out the holes before the concrete went in, all the same as I’ve posted. The guys don’t jump back so much now they have seen me handle them, and I’ve managed to stop them killing them as well. All I need now is for someone to tell me they are deadly venomous.

The compost heap is heating up nicely, more than finger depth into it is almost too hot to touch, I’m hoping for rain soon to cool things down, well, to keep it at a reasonable temperature. Just damp enough to keep the microbes happy and to stop any fires starting. Now all we have to do is keep the crew to a weekly schedule of turning the heaps, and collecting sawdust and chicken manure to keep the process going. It’s one of the things that can get frustrating here, there is no sense of future planning, if you have a compost heap, and it is working, why start another each week? The fact that it takes about 4 – 6 weeks for the heap to be ready, and we will probably be using about 5 cu m a week, once the present heap runs out, if we wait till then to start another, what do we do for the couple of months it will take us to have more ready?

I’d like to have at least 4 of the bins full all the time, with one being filled as the others get used, but that concept is going to take a while to get working.

Monday 9th August.

You can always tell when it’s Monday here, something will have happened over the weekend to throw any plans right out the window, down the road, and behind whatever tall tree happens to be around.

I had hopes of getting the posts up for the shade house, but some probably drunken driver had decided to demolish the fence at the Childrens Playground, which is next door to the Rove Police Memorial. Ok, so it is just a fence, repair it whenever? Not when the Police Memorial Park is being used on the Monday morning for the August 7th Commemoration of the Guadacanal Campaign of WW2. David found some of the crew over the weekend and had the fence mostly repaired and rebuilt by this morning, but still needed everyone there to finish off and tidy up. Then we still had to get the usual Monday town clean up done, and start on the median strip mowing. With a few of the crew still coming back from the elections, we don’t have a great number of people available.

Still, we did manage to get 16 bags of chicken manure this afternoon, and I had 3 of the crew to help put up another compost heap. As the pics show, we started with shredding a lot of branches and prunings, then put down a layer of sawdust, then chicken manure, chippings, sawdust etc like a large layer cake. All up the heap is about 10 cu metres, a metre high, the width of the bay is 5 metres, between posts about 3 metres. Another load of chicken manure will see all the sawdust in the background layered, then it becomes a matter of praying for rain to keep it moist, and the temperature to stay high, not that it ever drops much below 27*C over night, and we should have a good supply of potting mix again.


First thing is to shred all the prunings and branches


Then we made a layered heap of sawdust, chicken manure and the shredded prunings.


Added water to each layer


Sawdust and then more chicken manure and shredded waste



Then a final capping of sawdust, and we wait a couple of weeks, and hope it rains to keep the heap moist

Next we start filling all the other bays, SolBrew are delivering a load of brewery waste tomorrow, I was hoping for the sludge, but it seems all we can get at the moment is the spent grain, which is still better than nothing.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better, and we can get the posts in.

It’s still quiet around town, the only trouble has been in some of the outer islands and provinces so far. Now we wait till August 14th for the new Prime Minister to be announced, and hopefully it will be a popular choice. Not all results are in yet, but so far it looks like half the previous MPs have been voted out, the usual state of affairs here. Plus the usual calls of corruption, vote buying, bribery by the losing candidates, which means they didn’t spend as much or bribe as many people as the winning person did. That might sound cynical, but unfortunately here, it’s far too true.

We’ve finally go the MID contract for another year, well, it’s taken 6 months to get it signed, and it expires in January next year, so it’s for 6 months anyway. We’re still waiting for the last 6 months payments, from March till now for the work we have carried on doing while the contract was being decided. It should be a good cheque when we finally get it.

Saturday 7th August/Sunday 8th

According to the Solomon Star things have been a little heated in Auki, Tulagi and Lata, no one killed fortunately, but some rather ugly scenes happening. At Auki some supporters were upset at their candidate losing, so they stormed the hall where the votes were being counted, took the ballot boxes and burned them, on Tulagi a few windows were broken by stones, and a shop belonging to Mark Kemakeza the successful candidate was broken into and cleaned out, a school on Malaita looks like being closed for a while after a crowd damaged the water pump, and destroyed the food garden, because their candidate lost, and there have been reports of trouble on Lata (Temotu Province) for the same reason.

Out of 29 confirmed MPs so far, 13 are new faces, only 16 are returning, which is about the usual percentages for elections here. Half the sitting MPs are replaced each election, which does lead to a lack of continuity, although it does clear out some of the dead wood too.

It’s been quiet around Honiara so far, well, there’s been no trouble this side of town, and I was through Honiara this morning shopping, ok, early, but it appeared to be peaceful enough. Monday will be the day for any more disturbances, once all the votes have been counted and results announced, then a lull till the 14th when the Prime Minister is announced. Between Monday and the 14th all the MPs will be meeting to decide factions, groups, who they will support etc, and deciding on an acceptable Prime Minister, depending of course on which faction has the most support.

I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather the last few days, by Friday I felt totally washed out, and I was running a slight fever. I came home early Friday, slept from Friday afternoon till Saturday morning, still have a fever, paracetamol is helping, and still feel washed out. I’m having cold showers every few hours, tg I have water this weekend, and I’m hoping it passes off by Monday. I think this is the third time now for a fever, no cause I can think of, I had a blood test for Dengue Fever when I was back in Auckland, which was negative, the test last year for Malaria was positive, but as I was already taking Doxycycline there wasn’t much they could offer. And it certainly didn’t last as long as I’ve seen with others here. I’ll just get used to it, I’ve been healthy enough the whole time I’ve been here, tinned soup and stuff not withstanding, a few spider bites but no skin infections, or infected cuts.

There was a bit of a breakdown in communications while I was in New Zealand, and our irrigation system hadn’t been shipped. Finally sorted last week and it is now on its way, along with some shade cloth, so September will be a bit busy getting it installed. Hopefully it will arrive about the middle of September, I’d like to have the weedmat down and the propagation house and posts in for the shadecloth, so it will be simply lay out the irrigation and connect it up, and put the shadecloth up.

Trying to propagate plants without a water supply, potting mix, and crew at the moment is a bit of a farce. I’m meant to be redeveloping the Memorial Garden entrance, the design is done, all I’m waiting on now is for the plants to grow. We lost over half our stock with moving from the Botanic Gardens, due to lack of water, and shelter, it’s been a bit of a problem just keeping the existing stock alive.

A few more pics from Tuesday, things have been remarkably quiet ever since.

Thursday 5th August

Things are still quiet around town. We’re still down on staff numbers, it will probably be next week till most of them return from the outer islands after voting, and even then, I’m picking some will stay over a bit longer to catchup with wantok.

Vote counting in Honiara electorates started today, results should be announced tomorrow, so the weekend promises to be either interesting or just another weekend.

We’ve had really bad internet the last couple of days, Kim said internet was completely out on Wednesday, it wasn’t till I remembered an article on Watts Up With That about the expected Solar storm that I put things together. Although Kim said there was also a rumour about SI Telekom being blacklisted for spamming activities. I’m more of the opinion the solar storm had more to do with it. We’re on satellite link to Brisbane, so anything that disrupts the link plays havoc here.

I’m hoping to have the posts for the shade house in tomorrow, but doubt it with the size of the work crew, we haven’t enough people to spare this week.

Wednesday 4th August

It’s been a quiet day so far, a little bit of rain and cool conditions to keep everything calm. The police helicopter has been overhead a few times today, but around me things have been remarkable quiet for a public holiday.
I managed to get a few pics yesterday driving Tiff home, you’ll have to excuse the quality or lack of, it’s not easy taking pictures while driving a 5 tonne truck through Honiara in the traffic, leaning out the window and hoping the truck knows where to go. The biggest procession was Namson Trans’ supporters, he’s standing in West Honiara, it is probably the most hotly contested seat in Honiara. If any trouble starts, West Honiara and Central will be the hot spots with clashes amongst the differing supporters after the tally is announced.







The amount of noise on the roads last night was incredible, with all the various groups driving along Mendana out to Burns Creek and back till about 9pm, cheering shouting, music playing and horns blaring.

It’s been so quiet through the night, I’m beginning to wonder if all the security warnings were needed, but then again, still early days yet. Once the results start coming through and the PM is selected, then it could boil over.

Monday 2nd August

A few more pics of Franks statues

It was a deadly dull weekend, the only bit of excitement was taking David out to Tongs Motors on Saturday to pick up the old truck after they had finally got the suspension bushes and oil and fuel filters replaced. We still haven’t got the speedo working, I think the gear in the gearbox that drives it is either stripped or the shear pin is gone. Either way, Tongs said it would mean removing the gearbox to fix. I can’t see that myself, I’ll find a manual somewhere and have a look, but I’m sure it can be replaced in situ, without having to do a major removal.

Kukum market is still thriving, some prices are falling, some still high at this part of the season. What I call flowering brocolli, well it looks like brocolli leaves, with a small yellow cruciform flower, has dropped to $5 a bundle down from $10, bok choy is still $10 but bigger bundles, bananas from $6 to $15 a hand, depending on the size of the hand. Pineapples are still dear at $25 - $40 each, I’ll wait a few weeks till they drop to mid season prices around $15 - $25. There haven’t been any chillies available for a while, I’m pleased I stocked up when I did and filled jars with chilli and vinegar, and a bowl of dried as well.

I had a big spend up today, and ordered shade cloth, clips, for the shade house and layout area, and timber for the propagation house. The shade cloth came to AUD$1820 from Tropigro Brisbane, nice people to deal with even if their website needs some work. In Solomon $ it works out to $12,740.00, you eventually get blasé about the amounts here, I haven’t yet. It always sounds horrendously expensive till you realise just how little the SBD is actually worth. Even the plastic fold clips to fix the shade cloth to the wires come in at SBD$3.50 each, from AUD$0.50

There is a high Police and RAMSI presence around town this week, all alcohol sales have been banned for tomorrow and Wednesday, including the sly grog shops, which sounds as funny as it is. They’re illegal to start with, how telling them to stay shut is going to work I don’t know. The police are out in force to keep it quiet this time, after all the security warnings etc, it will probably be a fairly peaceful election, but you can never tell here. Much the same happened in 2006, and the police and RAMSI were caught totally unaware when everything blew up.

Half the work crew have vanished for the week, gone home to vote, so things are a bit more chaotic than normal, trying to keep the minimum amount done to keep the town looking reasonably tidy and clean.

We’re struggling to get enough chicken manure now, it is either feast or famine here, now we have sawdust coming out our butts, we can’t get manure to break it down. It was the other way round a month or so ago. Eventually we’ll get it right. Once I have one bin filled and rotting down I won’t worry so much, it will take us a while to use 100 cu m of mix.