Agro Forestry Nursery

We  love our trees. 

 All of them .  

We have tried not to cut down too many trees  on this property since we have been here and have made the fields and roads on the farm  around the trees, trying to capture 

 

                                                                        and  preserve 

 the special feeling of the trees on Naciriyawa Farm.

 

 

So, when the opportunity came to get involved in a

 reforestry  project in Fiji, 

we were very happy. 

read about it here 

and here.... 

It however, also meant that we had to cut some trees ...to save some trees.....

Claude measured out the area we thought would be big enough for about 100 000 saplings and he started to
                             de stump and remove  trees...  
Funny how life is.....Claude and his brother had a de-stumping company in Knysna , South Africa many years ago and now that knowledge and experience came in handy!

Holes had to be dug...a job that seemed endless and hard..as hard as the dry soil....rainy conditions had not yet set in....

So , as the saying in Afrikaans goes....a Boer maak n plan.....(to make another arrangement/plan)

 and pretty soon the fence posts were up....(ok , maybe not that soon....)

and then the fencing material arrived.....

a work in progress.....

and like he said - there must be a time for
                  pleasure (fishing) 
                                                                                         as well......

the rains came....and our  
                        Agroforestry Nursery
              is now a proud addition to Naciriyawa Farm.

 more about this later.......

reflection.....

Do you remember these days?


http://naciriyawa.blogspot.com/2011/10/our-first-day-on-land.html

I always refer to my blog posts to remind myself of what 

Claude and I 
              have accomplished here in Fiji 
                                  on our farm....

It has been a roller coaster ride. 
                                Sometimes just up...and up....but Oh boy, we had 
downs...and downs....and downs 

as well. 


But I guess that is life -  

    Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is.  The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.

where are we?

This is  the directions to our farm via Saweni Beach Road.....

These are the directions  to our farm via Dreketi Feeder Road 


 geographical coordinates are 17° 54' 0" South, 177° 48' 0" East.

                  see you there!!!

roza

a duck? a dinosaur?....a chicken !!

If this was April 1 , I know you would have thought it to be a joke....or photoshopped.....

It is not....but what happened here, I do not know. and if there is a reader who knows..............please do tell.

the egg on the Right  is a chicken egg....the one on the left.....a chicken?

the suspect egg in the foreground, a normal chicken egg behind it, and behind it a duck's egg....

 

left - THAT egg

middle - chicken egg

right - duck egg

 

This egg weighed 186 g !!!!

drought in the Tropics....

It is dry dry dry here in our part of the world.  In fact, the Western Division (our side of the island) is in a meteorological drought.....meaning that the rainfall is average to below average.

The government is urging us to save water and conserve power....

Wide cracks are appearing everywhere

It is now illegal to start a fire and people wanting to light a fire must obtain a special permit....

The next two photos are actually incredible....
This is the view in front of the cottages as today.... brown grass....

and this photo was taken during a flood....after cyclone Evan

tomorrow is 1 September and officially Spring.....so hoping for bucket loads of rain.......

fish poison tree...

I want to share with you some of our local coastal trees....

Barringtonia asiatica (Fish Poison Tree,^[4][5] Putat^[4] or Sea Poison Tree^[4]) is a species of Barringtonia native to mangrove habitats on the tropical coasts and islands of the Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean from Zanzibar east to Taiwan, the Philippines, Fiji, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, the Cook Islands, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia.^[

 It is grown along streets for decorative and shade purposes in some parts of India, for instance in some towns on southeastern shore. It is also known as Box Fruit due the distinct box-shaped fruit it produces.^[6] The local name futu is the source of the name for the Polynesian island Futuna.

The type specimen was collected by botanist Pehr Osbeck on a sandy beach area on the island of Java, later to be described (and given the original name of Mammea asiatica) by Carl Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum in 1753.^[3]

from Flora de Filipinas

Immature fruit (about fist size)

Flower

It is a small to medium-sized tree growing to 7–25 m tall. The leaves are narrow obovate, 20–40 cm in length and 10–20 cm in width. Fruit produced as mentioned earlier, is otherwise aptly known as the Box Fruit, due to distinct square like diagonals jutting out from the cross section of the fruit, given its semi spherical shape form from stem altering to a subpyramidal shape at its base. The fruit measures 9–11 cm in diameter, where a thick spongy fibrous layer covers the 4–5 cm diameter seed.^[4][8]
The fruit is dispersed in the same way as a coconut – by ocean current – and is extremely water-resistant and buoyant.^[9] It can survive afloat for up to fifteen years;^[6] it was one of the first plants to colonise Anak Krakatau when this island first appeared after the Krakatau eruption.^[4] When washed ashore, and soaked by rainwater, the seeds germinate.
All parts of the tree are poisonous, the active poisons including saponins. Box fruits are potent enough to be used as a fish poison. The seeds have been used ground to a powder to stun or kill fish for easy capture,^[4] suffocating the fish where the flesh is unaffected.^[10]
Barringtonia asiatica is a common plant in the Malaysian Mangroves and wetlands such as the Kuching wetlands and Bako National Park. Barringtonia asiatica is known locally as Putat laut or Butun.
Its large pinkish-white, pom pom flowers give off a sickly sweet smell to attract bats and moths which pollinate the flowers at night.

time for a revamp!

The bathroom was the first construction we built on the farm...(naturally ;) and by now  it needed a bit of a revamp.

The old timber stand for the basin was repainted....

a new curtain added some tropical flair to the shower.....

The fish pond is still a bit of a problem....we are fighting for control over it with the frogs.....

 

We share our showers with banana trees...pawpaw trees....and occasionally - ducks...........

and then it all came together..........

Claude , as usual taking the pics for the blogs......

we even made a new sign.....