Saturday, February 19, 2011

Some Highlights of November

I am often asked why we have been so long in keeping up our blog that I feel I need to explain.  I'm sure you out there agree that Shelley has done a very good job of posting through out our stay in Ethiopia and then one day I made an unfortunate comment to her that maybe she was posting too many pictures of flowers and other "girly things" and that it wasn't quite in the spirit of what I felt "Idaho Farmer in Ethiopia" was meant to be. So suddenly I found myself alone in keeping up the blog, very unfortunate for me and the fans of this Site.  Please beg her to accept my apology and for you out there please bear with me as I attempt to slowly fill in many of the highlights of the past few months.  Shelley has been such a good support for me through this venture and I so appreciate her. We have had many interesting things that we were part of that I will spread out over  a few posts.

On Nov. 6th we had Alyssa and her sister return to the farm for a brief visit.  As you may remember after the attack on Wes, Kate was left in Addis Ababa to take care of the five children that Was and Alyssa were attempting to adopt.  Wes and Alyssa then flew back to the USA for further care and surgery.  After the successful surgery and Wes' post surgery recuperation needing to be in Rexburg  Alyssa flew back alone to rejoin Kate to tend to the children.  This day they were able to jump on the our normal scheduled supply flight to the farm for a few hour visit before the plane returned back to Addis.  Of course this meant a brief celebration with Goat Tibs for all!  Yum!

From left to right: Nati, Alyssa Haws, Kiya (Alyssa's maid), Asefa, Kate Hill (Sister) , and Dennis Strong our project director 

It was a good visit and we got caught up with things and revisited the eventful day when Wes got hit in the head with the ax by an angry local farmer.  It was a miracle that it didn't turn out worse than it did.  All of us were so happy to see them.
She explained of the hardships they have encountered since the incident and the trials of trying to adopt the 5 children who are still in Capital, Addis Abbaba.   

Meanwhile the crop was maturing with little to no rain since planting 





The brush and trees were drying up showing that the sub moisture was tapped out down deep too


We had approximately 3" of rain for the crop to survive on which was spread out in brief storms from July through the end of September and only trace amounts there after.  This crop was planted though the month of September with harvest set to be in December.


The Ground 
Clearing  Continues



The Hectare/Acreage goal for Morrell Agro for the next planting season (March 2011) is 3,000 ha / 7,400 ac. and at this point in time we had a grand total of about 1,800 hectares of tillable acres prepared using a combination of hand labor with axes, loaders, and wagons with more hand labor.  This has provided much appreciated opportunity for this poor economic area. 

Coming up in the next blog is the the visit from our Daughter's family to Ethiopia










2 comments:

Sid and Kelli said...

Sid and I love to read your blog. It is so interesting to us . Shelley I love the flowery things and to see the different types of plants that can grow in your garden and out on the farm! No matter who blogs and what material is in it- we love to read it.

Anonymous said...

Great again to read your blog...have missed it. Shelley, I loved hearing about the flowers and people, and your thoughts with the pictures. Alan, you do a nice job too. I feel like I know you both and am in on this adventure with you. (Of course, we are very interested in it because of our family involved there too). Hope you will keep it going. It was fun to meet you in person at the wedding in Rexburg in Dec. I knew you immediately when I saw you. Best Wishes. Wes & A's G-ma H.