Unfortunately my pocket Wi-Fi device which allows me to access the internet was fried by a power surge when charging it on an old generator. So the only Internet access I’ve had for the past month is 3G on Arthur’s ipad and its not good enough to access my blog and upload pictures. We had to make a trip to Labasa – 6 hours by bus or 3 hours by truck and only 168kms – to visit the Vodafone store to get it repaired. All good now!
I hope that everyone had a great New Year’s Eve and are enjoying the new year. We spent our new year at a neighbour’s house, which was a very good thing as a category 1 cyclone hit Fiji on December 31st unexpectedly. The weather bureau had been reporting on the progress of a category 3 cyclone which bypassed Fiji and didn’t report the category 1 cyclone which was following on its tail. It hit our area with gale force winds at 147km/hr and rain on New Year’s eve. We were secure at our neighbours and barely felt a thing. After have a great new years feast Arthur and I came home to our camp to discover at least 4 trees down including a very large tree that just missed our kitchen. We were lucky that there was no other damage to the camp and I am very glad that the tree did not come down while I was sleeping. We’ve since done an assessment of our camp and taken down a few more trees that might be blown over in the next storm.
The construction of our road and clearing of the house site continues to progress on Fiji time. The project was supposed to be completed by Christmas but due to a number of equipment issues we’ve had lots of stops and starts. We think we still have another week of work to complete the road provided that there are no more equipment breakdowns.
The planting is also progressing. We now have almost 4000 taros planted and we’ve cleared enough land to plant another 3000. The first taros that were planted in October are now about 3 feet high. This month we’re going to make a nursery covered by greenhouse bio-cloth so I can start some veggie seedlings and some Yasi-seedlings. I can’t wait to add some more veggies to my diet.
January 17, 2016
What an ambitious undertaking.! I imagine Fiji time is slower than Yukon time? Hope to hear you will soon have a road to your camp. Glad to hear you were at your neighbour’s when the cyclone hit . Nothing more frightening than to have a big tree come down close to you. Glad to hear there was no damage done. We are enjoying a fairly mild winter so far. Christmas had a few cold days, but it warmed up for New Year’s. It is absolutely beautiful here at Mary Lake with all the snow on the trees. We had a hoar frost in early December, then snowfalls, and the snow is still on the trees. It is truly a “Winter Wonderland” .
Dorothy Burke
January 17, 2016
Your method of cooking – in a lovo, and the varied types of vegetables is rather interesting. What are tarros? Is a lovo used only for cooking large meals, or used more often for regular meals?
January 17, 2016
Super enjoy reading your updates !!! An interesting and full life!
January 18, 2016
Wow! You were so lucky the tree did not hit your kitchen, and that you were somewhere safe when the storm hit! Glad it is now just a ‘good story’ on your blog!
Loved seeing the photos of the love…I am remembering the camping trip we did with you back in 1998 or so when Arthur made dinner for us. Good times.
January 30, 2016
WOW Karen! I have just read your blog from beginning to end – what a journey you and your husband are on! Congratulations on LIVING life! I will be so looking forward to all your future blogs!