Icing on the cake

Whew!!! Bring out the cake and party hats!

Who knew? I could not believe that its been a month now since I started a chronicle (in short, blog) of our 'little grand' project. And hopefully (knowing myself), I will be able to sustain this blogging project until the very end, when our 'little grand' project is finally a working, breathing entity.

Since we have a long, long, loonnngggg way to go before the project is completed, let's get back to business. Unfortunately though, I don't have much information to update you with for now.

Once again, I called home to get the latest update and I was told the process of erecting the fence on one side of the farm is moving along nicely but its not even halfway. Finally all the chain links have also been delivered. So apart from acts of men or acts of nature, there should be no reason to stop or even slow down.

That's it. Told you there's not much to update you with. But...

My quest to find garden design ideas prompted me to visit one of the garden attractions here in Salt Lake City. It is called the Red Butte Garden and Arboretum. And I would say it was a fun, interesting and enjoyable experience as I strolled around this sprawling and beautiful city garden. Aside from that, I was also able to get some pretty cool ideas I could certainly use in our own garden.



Wisteria arbor


Modern water features that separate the Herb, Medicinal and Fragrance gardens



Herb (top) Fragrance (bottom) gardens


Entrance of Children's garden



Views inside Children's garden


Waterfalls (top), Koi fishes (middle) and Water Pavilion at the creekside



Other cool water features and foot bridges




Decks and garden patios

If you noticed that there are no close-up pictures of plants and flowers, you are right, there is none. It's because I am more interested with the structures and design concepts. But it doesn't mean I didn't take any, maybe they'll appear on some other posts.

I'm pretty sure though that the designers of this garden did not include this particular creature as an added attraction. Snake!!!!

While we were leisurely strolling and taking pictures, one of our companions suddenly shrieked in fear. There was a rattlesnake slithering its way across our path. And we knew it was visibly irritated because it was vigorously rattling its tail as if saying 'get out of my way!'

I took a snap of it after it found an empty crevice where it thought it can safely hide. Although we ran into a sign that says there may be snakes on the premises, we never thought we would encounter one. Now that's the icing on the cake to our stroll in the garden.

Video Feature

Before we proceed to our featured video, let me tell you about an interesting anecdote...

Several years ago (over fifteen years to be a bit more specific), my father had a foresight to plant several mahogany trees in the farm, thinking that someday we may just have a need for some hardwood. Years later, the trees are majestically standing, neatly lined on the left side of the driveway and a few more are deeply rooted at some other parts of the farm. Back then the farm was way smaller in area than it is today.

As years went by, the farm has grown in size and a new project was eventually conceived. This project will require several timbers for construction. Today, the trees planted way back then are just about ready for the 'need' that father predicted some years ago.

Now on to the featured video for today from Mother Nature Network...

What is a tree farmer?

Construction update #2 --- the fence

After fixing the hassle of going under budget because of a misquoted pipe posts, all the materials have been ordered.

In a matter of few days, all fence materials are in except for the chain-link (interlink). But that can wait since they have to erect all the posts first. Then they need to let the concrete that holds the posts upright to cure for several days. It sounds easy right? Well, if you're a carabao then its not.

A truckful of gravel and sand was delivered but the truck had brake problems and since the driveway slopes downward, the driver was a little afraid of losing control and risk damaging the truck or any nearby structures. The easy solution was to unload the gravel and sand at the entrance by the gate of the farm. Now there's a huge mound of earth blocking the driveway which needed to be carted to the construction site.

They had to find a way to get the huge mound of earth out of the driveway as soon as possible since not only is it on the driveway but the gates could not be closed either. They had to look for mechanical equipments to do the hauling but it's the middle of the harvest season so they could not find available equipment to borrow much less rent.

The only quick solution was to manually put the gravel and sand in sacks and load the sacks on a cart to be pulled by a carabao to where they need to go. And this they did for almost the whole day, going back and forth until the mountain of gravel was moved out of the driveway.


NOTE: Topography of the farm.

Poor beast of burden, she had to pull a heavy load from one end of the farm all the way up to the other end and down to the ledge. Hopefully she's okay since she may be on the family way. We'll see in a couple of months of she is indeed carrying a baby.

The buck stops here

I know, this is an idiomatic phrase.

But the buck did indeed stop, albeit not here but at the farm. It's an Anglo-Nubian buck.

NOTE: Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

An Anglo-Nubian is a breed of domesticated goat. Considered a dairy breed, it is known for high quality, high butterfat, milk production. It is of mixed European, Asian and African origin.

Remember my topic about a government bureau lending livestock (see 'Of good governance') to farmers? The bureau has granted our request for another goat (of different breed) to improve the breed of the goats that we have on the farm today. Introducing a new and better breed will not only alleviate the problem of in-breeding that usually happens but also improve the quality of the livestock's gene pool.

After paying all the required fees, the buck was picked up and brought to its new home. When the quarantine period expires, it will then be allowed to mingle with the ladies of its own kind.

My two cents' worth

Actually its at least 10 cents.

Ever since we began this little project, my calls to mom have become very frequent. Used to be, I call at most once a month just to hear a familiar voice, something I don't get even from frequent exchanges of text messages.

Now, apart from text messaging, I have been calling (or should I say harassing) them at least once a week. Just so I could get the latest and greatest (though not always) news from them.

That is why I was deeply delighted when my long distance carrier has lowered their per minute charge to 10 cents (from 17 cents) when calling a number on a certain cellphone carrier. Now that is cheaper still than calling a landline, which used to be the cheapest. Its a good thing that my mom, the person I call a lot, subscribes to that carrier while the rest in our family use the competitor's services.

I won't be mentioning the name of my long distance carrier nor the cellphone carriers and their per minute charges since that would be free advertisement for them. Isn't it? But if you want to know, I'll gladly share the info privately.

I know there are still cheaper ways to call international long distance. But if it requires dialing an 800, 888, 877 or 866 toll-free numbers plus account number... forget it. I won't torture my poor finger pressing those extra numbers when I can dial direct.

But if you know of a cheaper direct dial rate to a cellphone, please let me know. Every penny saved is a penny I could use to stretch my limited budget for the farm.

Midnight dream

Around past midnight today, as I was about to be transported into dreamland, a sweet, melodious tone broke the silence that has finally descended on my room. My half-shut eyes were pried open and my mind awakened by the alarm of an incoming text message.

The message was from my dear mother. "Oh no, not another problem", so I thought before I could even begin to read the message.

Rewind to four days ago.

Whenever I read a text message that goes something like "your dad needs to talk to you", it translates to only one thing: a problem. And that's the kind of message I got four days ago. As quickly as I could, I composed myself, sat on a chair (just in case my knees would start to wobble) and prepared for the worst. Then I called home.

It turns out that the money I wired a week ago to purchase the materials needed to build the fence on the left side of the farm was not enough. The quote they previously got was wrong on one of the materials. Consequently, the budget was now short.... waaayyyyy short!

Rather than halt the construction and wait, I breathed in as much air as I could and coughed out the required amount (really, if only its that easy). I ran to the nearest money transfer shop (you know the ones that charge an arm and a leg?) and sent the money. Crisis averted.

Fast forward to early this morning. It was my mom updating me that they have the money, and that they went to some nursery to buy a few more plants.

Now if only I could get my sleep back...

Video Feature

The plants have arrived and will be transplanted soon so they could start acclimatizing to their new surroundings. I'll let you know about their condition in my future updates.

In the meantime, while there is not much news about the farm to update you with, I've linked a video that tackles news of environmental importance. From here onwards, I'll be posting videos like this and call it "Video Feature". And here is our first featured video.

Today's video from Assignment Earth highlights one man's novel attempt to repair the damage inflicted by man on a rainforest and earns a living in the process.

Re-seeding the Rainforest


For more videos of environmental news stories across the globe, visit Assignment Earth.