What a busy time here on the farm. I hate to use the word “busy” because it seems to imply that we’ve been running around doing so many things that we haven’t had time to stay connected with people that mean so much to us. Yes we’ve been focused on some pretty big projects....
A Happy Halloween to all my friends and family in Canada. I’ve been watching the weather report for across Canada over the past month. Snow has come early to many areas and it looks like there might be snow falling for trick-r-treaters in Whitehorse tonight. I have always enjoyed the fun of Halloween, especially...
It’s been almost a month since returning to Fiji after two months in Canada. Every time that I’ve spend time away from Fiji I experience a bit of culture shock on my return. Generally it takes me 4 to 6 weeks to adjust back to life on the farm. This time it wasn’t too...
As some of you may know I’m currently visiting family in Canada. I flew to Vancouver in mid June and spent a couple of weeks with my father and then flew to the Yukon to spend time with my kids. I’ll be back down to Vancouver mid July to spend another month with my...
This month has all been about beekeeping. We started off the month with attending an absolutely fantastic workshop for two days in Labasa sponsored by the Northern Beekeepers Association, followed by the annual Fiji Beekeepers symposium and AGM. During the workshop we learnt several ways of splitting hives, lots of info on rearing and...
Its been just just a month since we planted the mushroom logs. We were wondering how long it was going to take before we had mushroom and surprise, today when Arthur went to vent the tent covering the mushroom garden, eight of the seventy-five logs are growing mushrooms. We had stopped checking on them...
As we’ve been building our compost piles, I’ve also been looking for other organic ways to build our soils. According to Biochar International adding biochar to the compost or soil can enhance the soil by improving water retention and providing a better micro climate for soil microbes. OK I’ll give it a try –...
I saw a comment on the internet not so long ago that really made sense to me and has stuck in my head, although I don’t remember where I saw it so can’t give credit to anyone. It said if you are not composting you are not growing organically. We’re committed to organic farming...
About four to five years ago I stumbled upon some youtube videos by a crazy Australian called Geoff Lawton. He introduced me to a new way of looking at the world through the lens of permaculture. It was pre-retirement and we had just purchased 93 acres of rainforest in Fiji. I read all I...
This month 250 coconut seedlings were delivered by Copra Millers of Fiji as part of a government initiative to plant 30,000 coconut trees this year. This initiative is designed to repair damages to the coconut industry caused by Tropical Cyclone Winston. We had applied for 500 trees but the demand for trees was greater...