on the farm in March - April 2013

The farm is starting to look beautiful again.  Although it will take a long time before we can get it back to the state it was before  cylone Evan,  we are starting to see the garden recover.

 

 The flowering shrubs flowered profusely and it was quite an adventure to look for the blooms on the hibiscus and other flowering shrubs.   I made the cuttings over the past months and it is the first time that they are flowering..

 A series of troughs of low pressure, prevalent trade wind
flow and Tropical Depressions influenced Fiji’s weather in
March.
Rainfall during the month was generally average to above
average.

 The presence of TD16F during the first week of March
brought rainfall to all parts of the country

The above shrub is particularly beautiful.  The flowers, which resembles a hibiscus, change colours over a few days...from white to pink to darker pink.  Don't know the name yet, but will blog more about this shrub.

 At Monasavu, 278.7mm of rainfall was recorded in March,
which was 45% of normal.

As you can see, the worst is cleared up in this area....I think the fallen tree in the back will stay ...use it as a feature....

The workshop is just about finished. Floors done with one of the walls to be finished.

 Claude started on the laundry and a workplace for me.

Once again we had the help of strong Fijian boys to help lift and carry the roofs and walls sidings that we used previously.  It was neatly stacked on the farm but got

 'shaken'
                           and 
                     ' stirred'                                  during cyclone Evan!

just a few boring shots of  holes for the poles....

 and we had an Oops again!

The land is still  full of broken down trees and branches dangling from the tops of trees that we have not been able to clear after cyclone Evan .  Claude is slashing as much as he can with the tractor -  clearing at the same time.  Whilst slashing and clearing in a spot where he has not cleared since cylone Evan, a  tree branch dislodged itself ....from somewhere........ and stuck right through the cab of the tractor.

His foot got stuck ( see the LH  shoe underneath and behind the branch ) and he managed with great difficulty to get the tractor to stop as he could not push the clutch!

OUCH!

 

 After this mishap and dare I say it was the second Oops as the first Oops was a branch that fell on him.....(no photo)   - Claude was on light duty and ever the busy bee, he started to renovate this

 

 Yamaha AG 200 farm bike

From this - 

 To this !

Mobile on the farm !