BAN XAI NEWS 28th March
We need to renew our visa today so we are in Phonsovan . Luckily we can extend for another month here without leaving the country, so we thought we would take the opportunity and travel to Luang Prabang for the weekend. It is Easter in Australia and Lao New Year here so looking forward to some festivities.
Activities at the farm have been brisk this week. The water point at the school village will be operational by the weekend.
Next week there will be discussions with Naiban with reference to seven connections for water for West Ban Xai.
The chook pen is ready for chooks with the old dunny being filled in with concrete chips from the mixing pad. The wooden structure maintaining the hole was getting a bit shaky so the structure will now be housing the chickens. The pen measures 7m x 5m incorporating the old toilet.
The sprinkler system supports a drip system and six sprinklers .
A hole was dug measuring 2m x 2m x 1.2m as a trial for the fish ponds. It was filled with our plentiful water in the afternoon but was empty by morning. The soils is so porous being the dry season . Once the soil becomes saturated then maybe the water will hold .
Now that most construction is nearly complete a clean up programme has commenced . Brick retainers have been built around the water valves. Fallen trees and debris being burnt .
Liquid fertilizer is constantly being spread around the dug soil in preparation for the Cassava which should be in the ground by next Thursday.
So all is progressing.
In the last news there was a photo of a kettle no it wasn’t due to a UXO my kitchen skill have been revealed. What happens when you let the kettle boil dry.The book was engrossing.
Cheers
Sabadii
Colene & David