A Greater Hope Orphanage: Cleaning out The Pond 2012

Cleaning out the pond is a special time of year for us.

It is almost a holiday now.

It normally starts with me having to get something that was dropped in the pond like a tool or a bucket. I am around when it happens so naturally I am the one who has to go in help get it out.

Then inevitably I'll step on what you might think was a a ship wreck but it just turns out to be garbage.

Yes, after 6 years of cleaning the pond out every year, the kids still think what they throw in the pond they'll never see again.

So in May it is more than likely the water will be at it's lowest point at the end of our dry season and we decide to pump the rest of the water out clean up the junk and see how big the fish have gotten.

The event or holiday has become one of our favorites days of the year.

Generally we start early setting up and pumping the remainder of the water.

Before long you'll find the ones (the one) who couldn't wait any longer swimming around pulling out all the hidden "treasures" that line our muddy shores.

Okay, yes most of the time I'm the one who can't wait.

Eventually the boys wonder in and then the crowd of spectators begins to grow and the pond becomes the arena and we feel like gladiators, kind of.

By midday things are in full swing, with around ten of our finest competitors, chaotically scrambling around the waist deep mud and the girls on the embankment acting as lookouts screaming and shouting for their champion. "Channee over there, Channee behind you"; Yeah, I didn't hear my name much but I do think I came in second, catching a number of fish.

The plecostomus has been with us maybe 6 years now.

The walking catfish is common in our rice fields, this one has grown really large about 2 feet and 5 inches across.

We also had a Tilapia and a Snake head that were really, really large. We didn't get a picture of them so you'll just have to believe me.

And now the Giants...

These babies have been with us 4 years now I think.

Are you ready for it??

Oh, wait a minute this isn't the one I was looking for.

Darow and Tong messing around in the holding pen for fish we wanted to keep later.

Okay again, are you ready???

Keep scrolling,

Can you hear the drum roll??

Wait for it,,

Wait for it,,

It's coming.

Yeah, There it is.

We have about 15 of these the smallest was weighing around 4 kilos and the largest was 6 kilo and nearly a meter long. That is over 13 pounds and 33 inches long.

All finished, I think Mao was cooking them before we even finished catching them.
We ate a couple big ones and lots of small ones and put back about 10 of largest ones for another year.

A big thank you to SreyRoth for taking pictures today. The photos below were also take by SreyRoth and are very good.

One of my favorites

We've have a lot of rain recently. So we used the plywood sink cut out from our kitchen to do some skim-boarding.

This one of my very first goals when coming to Cambodia, keeping bees. Originally honey was very expensive here. But things have changed and imported stuff is a reasonable price.

My other goal still unaccomplished is raising crayfish but we found a way to buy and import them when we are ready.

Other interesting items we've made in the past, goat cheese, ice cream, jellies, mushrooms, pickles, fruit leather, even made a chutney and now we have honey. This should really boost the fruit next year, bees are kind of rare around here.

Preparing more rabbit.

Fail!!

"Fail" is the trendy term given when something doesn't come out like planed. it can be used to describe an unwanted person in the background of a photo. It can also be called a "photo bomb"

These are two of SreyRoth's first photo bombs. She hadn't realized them until I showed her later on the computer, she thought they were pretty funny.

Long in the back ground.

Joe's crawling on the couch doing something.

My caption for this one is "Cheeeeese"

Because Sorya says "Cheese and it looks like Joe is cutting the cheese"

Other Joe moments.

Joe lost his first tooth, he told me he broke it. Mao ended up pulling it because it was loose for a week or longer. Joe was fine with her pulling it until he looked in the mirror where he pretty much went nuts. He was highly concerned about his looks and isn't happy with the hole.

"Why is Joe so quiet? Some must be wrong, I'll go check". Yes, Joe found the last remaining candy cane from Christmas.

Joe prefers to eat his candy cane sideways, this ensures no one will want to share his candy.