AND WE'RE BACK, THANK GOODNESS

It has been several months since our new computer, old computer and tablet died and our last blog update. Because the computer was still under warranty, we took it back for repair to the computer store in Tacloban where we bought it We stayed at Hotel Alejandro which was nicely decorated for Christmas.

We did a little shopping at Citi Hardware for fixtures and we decided to stop by Ruiz Furniture where we found a nice table with a built in lazy susan and chairs. We also bought a sleeper couch which comes in handy when we have company over.

Since then, we occasionally went to an internet cafe to check Facebook and e-mail. In early February Flor was in Maasin and bought a MyPhone (think iPhone knock off but, get this – it has Angelus programmed in to go off at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock everyday – and I'm thinking if this is America, there would be lots of gnashing of teeth). It is internet ready and Flor was able to check Facebook.

We picked up our fixed computer mid February and while there we shopped at ACE Hardware. They had a Black & Decker string trimmer which we went ahead and bought. We had a couple of days in a row of no rain and Mike started using the string trimmer on the most overgrown part of the property. He enjoyed using it (reminded him of the Kansas) and unburied several pineapple plants that had been overgrown with weeds.

While in Tacloban, JJ and Mike did their annual immigration report. We paid 320 pesos each and had to sign their immigration card.

We enjoyed Christmas with the tree Flor made. It was a tree limb that she wrapped paper on. We did have some blue Christmas lights (Dad Owen loves blue Christmas lights so we opted for blue lights) and decorated the porch. JJ's school had a Christmas program where the kids exchanged gifts.

JJ continues with his schooling. He is doing good, even in the Philippine language subjects. When Mike needs an interpreter and Flor is not around, he calls on JJ.

It is the heart of rainy season here. It has rained for about 4 out of 5 days for the last several weeks. It is not just rain, it is rain with high wind. Sometimes it is side ways rain. We have temporary yard flooding, but the water drains off rather quickly. The rains did reveal a flaw in our house plan. We have big windows and gable vents and the rain would blow into the house. We closed down the gable vents half way and added shutters to the windows.

We also have experienced several earthquakes. Does shake the house some and sways the hanging lights. You can hear some of them coming, there is a deep rumbling sound coming from deep down and then the earthquake hits. We felt the big one that hit Surigao in early February. It went on for a good 3 – 4 minutes and shook the house quite a bit. Still, we do not have any damage and we get on with life.

Plumbing in the house is basically complete. We have a 55 gal drum half buried in the dirt attached to the city water with a float valve in the drum. The drum can fill when we have water (in dry season it comes about 3:00 am). We have a pump on top of the drum with a pressure switch attached to the house plumbing. Open a faucet, the pump comes on and provides water. We have a 2^nd 55 gal drum for reserve water for the dry season. It is nice having pressure at the faucets. We have shower assembly which is a water heater so we can have warm/hot showers.

We continue to buy, process and sell coconut meat. The cooker is working out good and we ended up with an almost mold free batch on our last run. After cooking and shucking the coconut meat, we leave it in the cooker to air dry. We put a fan in the fire box and push air through the coconut meat. We then chop, bag and load the coconut meat in the Revo to take to San Juan where we sell it. We do have a lot of husks left over and try to burn it before it gets wet. If it gets wet it cannot be burned and we have quite a few that are wet and waiting for dry season to burn. We did have a couple of days of no rain the first week of March and was able to burn some off.

Leaving the coconut meat in the cooker keeps it off the porch and we were able to reclaim our porch to use as a porch. And in between coconut processing and making shutters, Mike made a porch swing out of bamboo. His thoughts were to make the swing then go to town to get screw hooks, bolt hooks and chain. Mike misses West Lake Ace, he tried all the hardware stores in town and could not find the hooks and chain. Since we were heading to Tacloban to get the computer Mike thought maybe Ace or Citi Hardware would have the hook and chains. No they did not, Citi did have some chain, but it was expensive and not the best chain. The only option Mike could come up with was rope and drill holes in the framework for the rope. It is very nice and relaxing. Porch swings are an uncommon sight in the Philippines and the looks it gets are interesting. They are not used to that, although they have hammocks.

Our sow had her litter and we had 7 piglets. Two piglets died and we suspect the sow accidentally crushed them. One of the remaining piglets went to the man who provided the boar that inseminated our sow. Since most Filipinos operate on a day to day cash need, they expect payment when selling a piglet. When we had our piglets, nobody could afford to pay for piglets. Since we did not need the cash immediately, three piglets went to a butcher that will pay us when she butchers the pigs. We get a report on the three piglets from the butcher every week. We kept the runt to raise to weight. He is no longer a runt and is eating good. He is a strange pig, acts like a dog, likes to be petted and demands food. He likes to dig and lay in his holes. The sow is pregnant again and should have her next litter in April.

The night of February 23, Mike went to put the goats in their pen. Next to the female was standing a new born goat. The next morning Mike went to put the goats out of the pen and there was a 2^nd newborn under the pen. Mike did not know if he missed it the night before, or if the female gave birth to the 2^nd over night and it fell out of the pen. Either way, the 2^nd newborn was not doing good and the mother did not want anything to do with it. We tried to bottle feed it, but by mid day the 2^nd kid was dead, sad. However, the 1^st kid is doing okay, is a female, and we raise it for breeding. Except for the initial cost of buying goats, they are cost-free and mostly profit when sold. Our Billy is starting to sport his beard and still has his do.

The rice field is heading out and looks good. Should be harvesting mid to late March.

We have a couple of jackfruit trees on the property. One of the trees keep dropping its fruit and Mike is working on this tree. The other tree has a nice fruit on it with several small ones.

We also have avocado tree and it's bearing some fruits but not very many. The strong winds cause the flowers to drop before they have the chance to develop. Avocado trees normally have lots and lots of fruits when in season but I don't think our tree will have many this year. This is its first time to bear fruit.

We have a cacao tree on the property that bears fruit. The fruit does not last long as the neighbor kids ask to pick it so they can eat the pulp. Flor lets them pick it as long as they give the seeds to her. Flor intends on grinding the seeds to make cacao powder, which is pure bitter chocolate.

As always thank you for following our blog.  God bless.

Baktin (Piglets)

Baktin (Piglets)

On 11/11/2016 after our sow's evening feeding, about 5:00, I headed back to the house. As I was doing that, the sow gave a terrible squeal. I went back to the pig pen where the sow was laying down and had just given birth to a piglet.  Flor came out from the house, she too heard the squeal and thought something terrible had happened to momma pig.

A litter of piglets do not come all at once, they come for some time. About midnight, the sow had given birth to 6 piglets and finally the afterbirth. She did not appear to have any more piglets coming. Throughout the birthing process, the newly born piglets had been nursing. A little after midnight we separated the piglets into another pen and into a big cardboard box. This was to keep the sow from stepping on them or laying on them. Sows are not the most graceful animals.

About 3:00 am we went to the pen, fed the sow, and let the piglets nurse. After the piglets were done we put them back in the box.

About 6:00 am I went back to the pen for another feeding, and - surprise!- there was piglet number 7. Numbers 1 – 6 are pink piglets. Number 7 is a brown with black spot piglet.

Junie, the owner of the Unifeeds feed store where we buy pig feed came out to help us with the piglets. Cutting needle teeth and docking the tails. He also gave us information on how to make the feeding easier. Flor said because there is so much competition in the feed business, the feed companies provide this service to entice you to buy their feed.  The owners of these feed stores are trained by the feed companies before they earn their "technician" status.

Our feeding schedule is 5:00 am then every 3 – 4 hours until 9:00 pm. The sow and piglets sleep through to 5:00 am where we start again.

When feeding, there is a lot of motion by the piglets. They keep pushing, shoving, moving and climbing over each other to find the best teat to suck.

After feeding for awhile, the piglets will start to wander off and explore. They will also climb on the sow.

JJ likes getting in the pen with the piglets and playing with them.

JJ also helps in the feeding by handing the piglets over the railing so they can get to the sow. He then sits on the rail until it is time to return the piglets to the box.

After 28 days, the piglets will be weaned. The owner of the stud that bred with the sow gets one piglet as payment, he gets first pick. We then will start selling the piglets for 2000 pesos each (about $45). At the weight of 22 kilos (about 44 pounds) we will start selling the piglets for 100 pesos (about $2) per kilo. We will keep one to raise for butchering when it reaches 120 - 150 kilos (about 240 - 300 pounds).

Five days after the piglets are weaned the momma pig normally is ready to be inseminated and the process starts again.

I hope you enjoy reading this little information about pigs. Thank you for following and since this is Thanksgiving week, we wish you all a happy Thanksgiving gathering with family and friends.

Coconuts

Coconuts

When we arrived in the Philippines we needed cash flow. Flor said a lot of people buy and sell Copra (coconut meat). With the coconuts on our own land, Flor started buying coconuts and copra.

The process starts with hiring someone to climb the tree and cut out the ripe coconuts. The pay for this is 8 pesos per tree (about 20 cents).  This is a young man's job.

The coconuts are in a thick husk that has to be removed. I have tried doing this, but it is the hardest part of the process (not counting climbing the tree) and we hire it out at 30 pesos per 100 coconut (about 70 cents).

This leaves a pile of husks and, in our case, since we have been sun drying the coconut meat, we have been burning these husks.  Actually, the husks can be converted into a lot of things, like coco coir, coco fiber, coco mat, etc..

Then the coconuts are split open. Some coconut are starting to sprout and there is a “blossom” in some of the coconuts called botbot  (pronounced boatboat). They are semi sweet and eaten on the spot. The neighborhood kids come around because they want the botbot. The halves are either put in the sun to cook, or cooked over a slow fire. They are cooked to loosen the meat from the shell so the meat can be shucked out. Also, if they are not immediately cooked mold will develop on the meat. We have just finished building a coconut cooker and have our next batch of coconuts stacked next to it for processing. Everybody that we have talked to said the mold is not a problem, but looking at moldy copra you can see how it would effect the weight. Copra is bought and sold by weight.

Sometimes the coco water gets splashed into your arms and legs when you split them.  I found out that coconut water makes your skin very soft and supple that's why I like to help split the husked coconuts :). 

The neighbor kids wanting to have some of the botbot.  It is a nice and refreshing snack.

 Then you load the halved coconuts on top of the cooker.  You slowly smoke them for 24 hours using the husks.

Our newly built cooker with coconuts ready to be processed.  This pile is between 5 to 6 hundred coconuts.

The neighborhood dogs also love to chew on the coconut meat.  Here's our dog Yawny who helped himself with a half of the split coconut.

After it is cooked the copra is shucked out of the shell. A heavy spoon-like tool is used. Either hand held or attached to a seat. I can shuck 2 – 3 coconuts a minute using the seat. I have used a Buck knife to shuck, but the spoon tool is easier.  This can be hired out, but we do it ourselves. If it is hired out, the pay for this is the shells themselves. They will make charcoal out of the shells and sell it.

After shucking there will be a pile of shells left over. We bag them and then will make them into charcoal later. There is a street vendor in town who buys our charcoal.

At this time we store the copra on our front porch. We plan on building a shed to store it in. The copra does require more drying at this time. The best way to finish drying it is in the sun for a day or two. Our subjective moisture check is how crispy it is when broken.

Once shucked the copra can be sold at market. We bag it, load it in the Revo and haul it to San Juan, about 45 minutes south of us.  There are a couple of markets in San Juan. The first one we we went to, San Miquel Oil, appeared to be more subjective on the moisture content. We then started going to Talcoban Oil and they are more objective on the moisture content. It takes a considerable more time to be processed at Talcoban Oil, but it is worth it for the objective moisture content.  People bring the copra by car, jeepney, truck, trike and motorcycles.  It is dropped off and workers carry it into the warehouse to be weighted.  Then they dump the bags and pile it high in the warehouse.

They come in trucks.....

.....passenger jeepneys....

...tricycles.

 Most people who buy and sell copra do not worry about moisture content and so the first time we took it to market we did not worry about the moisture content. That first time we were docked 14% weight for moisture content. After talking to the market owner and some research, we now dry the copra. When first cooked and shucked, the moisture content is somewhere around 40%. We now dry the copra down to about 5%.

The moisture content led to another problem. Coconut is bought in two forms, Lubi, where it is still in the husk and shell. And Lugi, where the copra has been shucked from the shell and cooked. Currently the buy price is about 30 pesos (about 75 cents) a kilo. The sell price is about 40 pesos (about $1). Since moisture content is not a concern we were buying the lugi at about 40% moisture and were either being docked, or us drying the copra and losing weight, we were not making much money. We have talked about docking the people we buy from, but we do not have an objective way to determine moisture content. So, we are now mostly buying Lubi. Lubi is more work but we make a little more money. We buy the Lubi at 8 pesos (about 20 cents) each. It takes about 4 lubi to make a kilo of copra. We process about 600 lubi at a time. People like selling to us because they do not have to pay anyone to haul it to another buyer.

All the copra brought to market in this area is loaded on ships and hauled to processing facilities in Tacloban. It is processed into coconut oil and sold worldwide. It is said that 90% of the world's coconut production is from the Philippines. Driving around the country there is not much land that does not have coconut tress on it. Even the resorts we stayed at lately had coconut trees on it.

Thank you for following.  Now it's back to work on the next batch of copra, tehehe.  We love y'all.

Vacation in Paradise - Epilogue

Vacation in Paradise – Epilogue

On the way home on Tuesday, we decided to visit the Agas-Agas Bridge north of Sogod, Southern Leyte. It is the tallest column bridge in the Philippines.

It has a zip line and cable car that goes across the bridge.   It was a great tourist attraction and to think of the economic benefit it would have offered for the locals in the area with restaurants and gift shops and other services.

However, and from what we hear, the zip line and cable car are not in operation due to politics. The zip line and cable car are owned by a person of one political party and the mayor of Sogod is of another political party. When the license and permit was up for renewal a couple of years ago, the mayor did not allow it to be renewed. I wonder if it is a power thing, money kick-back thing, or the inability of the mayor to see the economic impact that this enterprise would have given the locals of his municipality. But from my perspective, the mayor of Sogod, Southern Leyte is being petty and is hurting the economy of the locals in the area. There is a nice looking building on the hilltop overlooking the bridge, apparently designed for restaurants and gift shops that the local tourism office of Sogod had put up the capital to build it.  It is not being used for its intended purpose - what a waste of tax money and resources - all because of politics. There are no restaurants now to cater to travelers. There are three small gift shops so you can still get t-shirts and mugs if that's any consolation.

I wish the zip line was in operation, we would have enjoyed it and would go back for more excitement, but until that happens, we'll explore other places some other days.

Thank you for following.