A Greater Hope Orphanage: March 2008

Mar 30, 2008

Thing you may not know.

Odd jobs not always mentioned but they still happen.

The back waste pond was emptied and dried. We scraped the good dirt out and are building up the sides. We plan to plant around it to help with the sides falling in. We also plan so suck the mud out of the big pond.

Our hopes is the mud sucked from the big pond will settle in the little pond and the over flow of water will go back into the big pond. We will see how it works , so far there is heavy vote that it will not work. About 90% of the time they neighbors are wrong so we will see.

We are doing some repairs to the sides of the pond. I also leveled it out a little for planting. We will plant the morning glory or unchoi so if it rains and the pond floods. The plants will grow just fine also holding the sides from erosion.
As we look to plant the whole property these little places are becoming important.

Most to the time the watering is done by hand (or shoulder) from the pond. We just removed the tomatoes that did not do well here and are trying beans which grow a little easier.

Gates my children did not grow up in a barn most did not have doors. So keeping them closed has been a challenge here. With the dog it is even that much more important. To help keep the ducks a live I hung some brick to weight the door shut. Now I have to do 4 more.

Septic woes. High clay content has slowed the rate of which grey water is drained so we had to put an over flow. Now we do not have to pump it every month. Some septic advice in the past just didn't work out here.

What is Nite making? Rice for the mother pig to help her out after the birth.

Things we are growing.

Far left is egg plant, middle is like a ginger for soups and right is the cassava potato plant being replanted.

This is a smaller round egg plant.

Sweet peas are growing really well for the first time, I am so happy.

And cilantro finally a real herb we have missed.

This is a type of bean here easy to grow and really big.

Bigger egg plant some are coming out yellow.

Sam is really enjoying the dog. Even though as a puppy it is still a little ruff.

Coon our Nanny had a wedding to go to. The girls thought she was so pretty and wanted a picture. We are so very thankful for her service to us things would be much different with out her to help.

Birthdays for Jan to Mar.

We celebrated 6 birthdays this quarter.
Nite is 12 and her first birthday party
Tate is 12
Own is 12 and her first birthday party
Kyo is 11 and her first birthday party
Nune is 10 and her first birthday party
Tong is also 10 years old.

We played the bucket race again.

Nite,

Kyo,

Rachana,

Own,

Weed didn't play but something says he was helping.

Warning: Animal Lovers Stop Now!

We had a goat die from gas.

So we had a class on skinning and butchering.

Below are the picture in case you are sensitive.

Wut wants to be a doctor so we brought her out to watch.

By the end of the class it seemed everyone was outside watching.

It was not very big about 10 pounds but the children and staff ate 2 meals. So about 50 bowls of stew for free not to bad. And they really liked it.

We have had a lot of comment about goat meat and that it taste bad and taste like urine.

After reading a little and doing it for the first time I realized they are butchering it wrong. You have to be delicate and I am sure they are just hacking it up.

So having it done right and tasting good changed a lot of minds. If I can show more people n the future and they start eating it more the price might do better for goat.

I have always done smaller animals, you first big animal is really big. It is hard when you like the animals.

Sorry, to those who may not have wanted to see or know about this, but it is what they are learning to do here.

Mar 22, 2008

Today we

We had a real fun day today.

The christian radio station put on a marriage conference at Pastor Khons' church and our children where invited to dance. So they practiced all week and 10 of them danced, 5 girls and 5 boys. The number was small because of the stage size. Anyway after they where finished they where given two radios that you can plug in or charge by turning the crank. They where also give $20 to share so that was great as well, we did not expect anything but the children where very excited.

preforming for more than 200 people.

After on the way home. The little girls are just so cute.

The speakers and the station owners also came by for a visit. They really enjoyed the place. The wife loved the building and what we do, the husband really liked the animals and asked for the dog and some rabbits. We kindly told him we could not.

Also I spent some time with a mission pastor from Orange county who works with a mission radio station. He mainly works in the Philippines. I will let you know more when we hear from him again. He to was excited and it seems that he might be a good contact.

Also we began preparing for a birthday part tomorrow. We are making a rabbit curry with white noodles. It is the children ask for every time we have a birthday party.

So while I was showing the boys how to skin a rabbit Ream was showing the girls how to bake cakes.

Unfortunately we forgot butter. So thanks to the Internet :) I found a butter less banana cake that we are trying.

They chose to watch a Robin Hood movie tonight tomorrow they will watch a Jesus Movie.

Also the other day our second pig delivered 12 babies we where real surprised because she is a small young mom and this is her first litter. Also they they are big babies about 12 to 13 inches each. Head to tail they are about 7 feet longer than mom is, that is a lot of babies.

Mar 17, 2008

Bubble family

Orphans from the planet Cambodia

We have been having a lot of fun with this photo program.

Babies

11 out of 12 babies made it today 3-16-08 5:30 pm. The other two moms are due this week.

Our neighbors pig had 15 babies last night, they where hoping we would have less so they could put some babies with us.
They have to stay a wake all night switching the babies off because there are 3 more pigs than teats. The good news babies are paying off, almost $50 a piglet right now.