February 7, 2013

I have trying to post something since February 3, but have been too busy to get anything up.

The first thing that kept me occupied is that I got the dog that I was supposed to look after for a few months.  Well, that lasted exactly 2 1/2 days.  Her name is Bo, but I renamed her the hound from hell.  She is young, only 3 1/2 months old and I think she just missed her pack.  She went crazy.  There was not 1 hour that she did not get up to something.  I would take her outside to do her business.  She wouldn't go.  Then when I brought her back in, she would pee and poop inside.  If I left her outside, which I can do as the yard is fully fenced, she would dig up the whole yard.  If I locked her out of some rooms, she would either pee or poop to show her displeasure.  Dharma, the cat was also terrified to her, even though all she wanted to do with the cat was play.  So Dharma could not get outside to do her thing and was using the indoor garden room as her big litter box.  After 2 days, I called her owner to say he would have to take her back.  I was almost in tears and could not get anything else done.  All I was doing was yelling at her which also made me feel bad.

So, she went with Jez and is now happily living in Gampola.  He says she is fine and must have just been missing all of them.

After Bo left, the gardener came and put my garden in order.  He pruned the mango tree so that it looks great now.  He made it into a perfect ball.  He brought a bunch of plant cuttings with him.  Coleus and some other things that I don't know the name of.  He works at the Peradiniya Botanical Gardens and therefore has access to a lot of plants.  We went out and bought bougainvillea to run up the wall and fence, palms to shield the garden from the driveway and have bamboo and some cascading stuff coming to block out the neighbors and cover another wall.  He also cut and weeded the grass, so now things look really good.

I put up curtain rods on all the windows and bought 53 yards of mosquito netting to make sheers from the netting.  They will look good and serve the dual purpose of keeping the mosquitos out.  I just have to find someone to sew the netting.

The coconut project has really gotten underway.  Jez and I went out to Moorock yesterday and walked some 15 acres where we are going to starting intercropping.  We will have 5 acres each in banana, papaya and pineapple.  We are starting this 15 acres out as organic so that the intercrop will be organically grown from the outset.  Then we will slowly convert the rest of the 77 acres.

We also reexamined the site for the oil and beauty products plant and gave Chuminda, the plantation manager instructions as to what to do.  He does not move very quickly, so we will have to keep on him to make sure things are done.

We have also found a small ceramics plant that can make our cheese pots, vinegar bottles, and beauty products containers for us.  Yes, we are making goats milk cheese and will start to make coconut vinegar as well.  We should be seeing some money coming in by June or July.

We used my car to go up to the plantation.  It runs great.  Just a couple of things that have to be adjusted.  It idles too low and keeps stalling out, the AC belt is squeaking and it needs seat belts that work.  So it has gone back to Gampola with Jez to have that done.  He thinks I should be driving myself in town at least.  I think I need a GPS as I have no clue where I am going.  I will look for one in Colombo when I go down on Sunday to hopefully get my 12 month visa.

That is the update.  I am off for fur/claw in Kandy today.  I hope this will do it.  I don't want to go down to Colombo once a month just to have my hair and nails done.