Home Sweet Home

Yeah!!! the chickens have moved to their new home and are starting to settle in. I can’t express how much it means to be able to sleep in past 4 o’clock in the a.m. without a rooster crowing right next to the house and tent every 15 minutes. We’ve penned off an area in our cassava patch using the poultry fencing I purchased in Canada from Premier 1 Supplies and built a couple of small shelters, one for the meat birds and one for the layer birds. As the birds scratch and clear the weeds out from under the cassava we’ll be able to reconfigure the fencing give them more green stuff to eat. We haven’t energized the fence yet but will have to get on that soon as the mongoose will soon become pests. But first we need to build better nesting boxes as the temporary boxes made from 20 litre vegetable oil drums are not working out as well as we thought they would. Still the birds are now laying about 15 eggs a day, providing a steady diet of fresh eggs for breakfast as well as a small income.

Progress with building the house continues at a great rate. We celebrated the raising and cementing all the veranda posts with a chicken curry dinner for all the local guys who have been involved with the project to date. This milestone represents the mid point in the project and a hell of a lot of effort. Some of the veranda posts are about 25 feet long (similar to a telephone pole) and were lifted manually. We did have a power auger to help loosen the dirt to dig the holes and a small electric cement mixer to help mix the cement but most of the labour was pure muscle.

Arthur and I just came back from a shopping trip in Labasa where we ordered the roofing tin, siding, flooring, and window frames. We expect everything to be delivered later this week. While we were gone Siana, Allan and crew finished installing the rafters and purloins on the main house and started on the main floor veranda floor joists as well as starting on the veranda rafter bearers. Allan is with us for just another month, hopefully by the time he has to head back to Canada we’ll have the roof up and a good start on the flooring and siding.

Siana and I did find where Pepper has been hiding her kittens and brought them home. Pepper allowed us to cuddle them and enjoy them for the evening only to take them back to her den while we were sleeping. She comes back regularly for food and attention but has not brought her kittens home yet, maybe one day soon.