View from the hill

Naciriyawa Farm in the foreground.

The work goes on...

It is an ongoing job to clear the land.  Claude is still busy laying the water pipes and Bose and Samesa

clears the areas where the tractor can't or should not go!

This is what it looks like once the bush has been cleared.

I will one day make a post just about our tractor mishaps!  Because the land is so overgrown, it is not possible to see all the holes and sitting on a tractor, clearing bush can become a dangerous hobby!

Claude busy doing bushwalking and checking out the terrain on foot before he ventures there with the tractor.

 Thinking ..:" my job to clear this tomorrow"?....

Scamp, our Fijian dog went for a walkabout.  She must have followed the car and got lost.  She was gone for 5 days when she miraculously appeared at the marina where we stay, which is about 3 kilometres away!

The dogs have adopted to their new home and seem to be loving it here.  Scamp has now stayed put and have not wandered off again.

One of the shady , overgrown areas on the farm.

Most of the weekends we end our hard work with a lovely picnic  and swim.

It is wet..wet..wet...

 We are right in the middle of a tropical depression...and it is raining cats and dogs....and more!

 .
The Ba River is overflowing and BA , a town on the northern side of the island,  is under water

Nadi, the tourist town on the western side is not doing much better...

This pic is taken just below our work place and the drains on both sides of the road are flooded.

The schools are scheduled to start tomorrow....good enough excuse not to go?

The water is on!

We have to lay more than 400 meters of waterpipe from the municipal supply line to our compound.

 Uncoiling the 150m rolls of pipe was hard work in the sun.

We sometimes had to lay the pipe underneath the roots of trees rather than go over and maybe get damaged.

Two busy bees making home...

and then the water was flowing...awesome!

starting my garden....

In another life, in another place, we used to hang out quite a lot in  nurseries...in fact , I think we ended up at a nursery just about every other weekend.  Going there was not just for  the plants...but all the eye candy...flowers....blooms..... the tranquility, yes, of course the plants and trees added to it all, but the ponds with ducks just added to the charm of these green wonderlands..... and some of these nurseries even had pet goats and farm animals.....

City people tend to go to plant nurseries or lifestyle centres on Sunday mornings, reading their  newspapers, having coffees with delicious cakes...relaxing and winding down in nature.

In Fiji, the nurseries are small backyard businesses , run and operated by mostly women.  Plants are made from cuttings and in the tropical climate, everything grows profusely.

I had to adapt to this and it has been a huge learning experience and a wonderful one at that!  I have propagated all my plants and it is a huge hit and miss experience....
One has to knock on people or friends doors and kerekere (please please) for a cutting of a specific plant.    Then I embark on a huge fact finding mission....thanx to the internet. Gardening is as popular here as it is all over the world and talking gardens and plants is an easy and sure way to meet people.

My nursery is not on the farm yet.  I started the planting and propagation at work (Worx Fiji Ltd) ...it grew from a small area to a much bigger, ever growing area!
It will be another adventure to transport and take all the plants from our workplace to the farm...that is a story for another day.....

     


Ending the day...
I have not done this chore (watering plants) for more than 10 years (living on the boat and having no garden) and it is a big pleasure.

december 2011

December is traditionally the time when we take Prrrfection  ( read about our travels here.... )
 and  anchor out for at least  a week of fun and sun....this year we decided to rather work on the land.
Rain has also been forecasted for this period and it was an easy choice to make to rather spend the time on our own beach this year ...

 

We are still clearing the bush on the land , but used a few days to mark out borders, servitudes, etc...

This was a job easier said than done...

It felt as if all the boundaries and point of references we had to get to , were in the uncleared and bushy areas!

Picnics were a great distraction.....

Amigo is very happy to be spending 24/7 with his family....and on the beach and in the sand!

The beauty and tranquility of Naciriyawa made for special moments and bonding times...

I must confess...we spent as much time in the water as on land....

We had a  good time ending the year and awaiting a  year hopefully better for all.  Welcome to 2012....

All the best for 2012 !

fixing the oOPs !

Remember the OOPS?
the oops story...

 Claude started to patch together all the small broken pieces that he managed to find..... It was  a painstakingly   s - l - o - w   process....he had to wait for certain pieces to dry/cure before being able to move on to the next piece whilst  re-moulding the missing pieces...

 Starting to look a bit better and the new Bullbar/Crash bar is also starting to come along....

 Welding new iron beams to the front of the tractor..it will also act as front stabilizer weights

Bosse adding primer to the new crashbar...

Some more touch-ups....

Undercoat.....

Thumbs up!

 from our workshop back to the farm...

back to the field....