The best laid plans of “mice and men” go astray sometimes.  When Steve Carroll left Ban
Xai in June 2012 he had planted a magnificent garden – much of the garden was in
Cassava so that MiVAC would have a really good crop ready to feed the pigs when we
bought and penned them at the MiVAC Block at Ban Xai. You might remember we need
the pigs so that we can collect their dung to feed the bio-digester to make methane gas for
heating, lighting, and cooking with the treated dung going onto the garden.

The fence was great – on three sides. The fourth side was a good quality bush fence. When
the Cassava grew it was seen by the cattle – they broke through the fence on more than
one occasion and ate to their hearts content.

So a new fourth side of the fence had to be hurriedly built. The villagers helped (for a fee)
and you will see here the villagers at work – and then having their photos taken with
Moua, Yang and Michael. The man carrying the Fence post is the Number 3 Naiban
(village chief).