Saturday, April 26, 2008

Our bit for Earth day

We have a patch of land next door to our house which was used as the site office when construction began on our house and next doors.
In Indonesia builders live on site; they build a shack first then build the house 12 hours a day 6-7 days a week.
Once these two houses were finished the guys moved on to their next venture. Left behind was the shanty, broken stuff, bricks, piles of unused cement (hardened of course), rusty nails etc. This was then covered with weeds and jungle and locked behind a rusting tin fence...
It was an eyesore and a waste.
The owner of the street (yes one family owns the whole street!!!) said that we could have use of it.
In Australia I would have got a bob cat (truck thingy) in and a dump truck/skip and it would of been clear and flat in about four hours. Probably would of been $300 all up. Here it cost the same but took three and a half weeks of hard labour, BUT pool boy and his mate got the job.
So now we have a big patch of land completely cultivated providing food for many as well as getting rid of an eyesore.
I have found a shop that sells seeds(Ranch market) and we pick up a new type each time we go as well as save seeds from all vegetables we eat. Samino and the family next door grow all sorts of exotic things for themselves as well as their families and the families of other staff members. I think sometimes there is enough left over for bartering and/or selling.

Next post will be about a new vegetable that we tried from the patch.

Georgia and Chelsea took these photos for me, I am recovering from a little procedure. In Australia I had a general anesthetic last time, here it is just done in rooms with a giggling specialist......

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