Planting 2000 hectares (That's 4960 acres folks)

Alan says that a 5000 acre farm is a pretty large-sized farm, by most people's standards in the US.  We have been planting nearly one week now, and 1000 acres are planted.  Planting should be going faster than this, but because we have no bulk grain, just quintal sacks, it is as slow as a tortoise.  Usually, the tractor and drill have to travel back into the farm compound to get loaded sack by sack because we have no way of transporting enough grain out to the field to load it there.

Alan and Haile checking the drill.

 We have had the new John Deere tractors  and drill for just over a month now, and they are doing fine, however the tires are wearing out fast.  The land clearing has not gone as well as expected and stumps, sticks, and thorns have taken their toll on timely planting.  You're probably wondering why sticks and stumps are so hard on our tires,; it's because this wood out here is the heaviest wood I've ever handled.  It feels like it has iron in it.  Not kidding, it doesn't break.  The tractor tires, which were sturdy, strong, and so sharp looking last month, look like they've seen 10 years of heavy usage.

The tires are literally getting chewed to pieces.  Alan has never seen anything like it.  It is not unusual to get a flat tire on either the tractors, disk, or seed cart everyday, in fact one day Bracken had three flat tires, not his fault of course, just that he happened to be the one driving.  It is causing issues with planting because the tractors have to come in to the compound and the fieldwork is delayed or shutdown.  What to do?  Track tractors are on their way, but won't be here for sometime.   Even so, the tracks will get chewed up also, but no flat tires to change.  Forestry tires are being considered, also foam urethane was considered to pump into the tires.  Everyone is weighing in on this one because it is a major problem.  The wear and tear on machinery and equipment on this farm is unbelievable.  Items that were purchased a few months ago look like they are five years old.

We celebrated Alan's birthday last friday night (four days early) because so many people were leaving and wouldn't be with us on his birthday. 

Earlier in the day, Ashreka and I made a carrot cake.  We had to one and a half times the recipe because I was expecting a crowd. 

Zakir and Ashreka were very curious about the frosting that I was making, but because they are both fasting they didn't taste it, but I could see that they wanted to very bad. 

This fasting business is hard on all of us. 

We had a big "campfire" down by the dorms and restaurant.  I hired the restaurant, through my special events coordinator, Nahom, to  cater the party.  I supplied the cake (carrot of course, Alan's favorite).  We invited everyone living here on the farm, about 50-60 people and about 8 government officials were there too.  I was worried about having enough cake to go around.

 We surrounded the campfire in chairs, stools, wood benches, whatever and had good music and fun.  Here are pictures of just some of our guests.

Alan and I went into the two different restaurants, to check out the food, but it was too dark to take pictures with my little camera.  Two goats were killed and cooked, basically the same, but one restaurant is the Christian restaurant and one is the Muslim restaurant and since our guests were of both faiths, we didn't want to offend anyone, we had to commission a goat from each.

 The goats were made into tibs, basically little goat chunks cooked with onions in a ton of oil.  It is a big greasy pot of meat.  But I have to say, it smells really good, and it was really tasty that night.  We had rolls and injera made by the restaurant and Coke for everyone, which Mark had to go buy in Beltu.  "Going to Beltu" is like going to Rexburg, or Price if you're from Emery Co., which some of you are.  It's the happenin' place for all of us here at the farm.  We also had coffee as part of the coffee ceremony, in which we forenjees did not participate.  They brought out the tibs, big platters for everyone and rolls and coke and everyone really chowed down.

Nahom, our social events coordinator, and the birthday boy enjoying their plate of tibs.

 Then we brought the cake to the middle of the big circle and Alan explained with the help of Nahom as translator, our traditional birthday cake ceremony.  Everyone laughed when he explained about having a candle for every year, the birthday wish, singing, and blowing out the candles.  We only had six candles and we lit them and invited everyone to join in to singing "Happy Birthday" to Alan.  Of course we Americans had to carry the tune and sing louder, but it was so fun to have such a large group singing to Alan and they all cheered really loud when he blew out all six candles. 

I cut the cake into something like 60 pieces, to make sure everyone would get a piece.  And it was like feeding the five thousand, everyone got a piece and there were pieces left over.  It was a birthday miracle.  Then we had dancing by Alan the birthday boy, Elyn, and Nahom who had coordinated the whole event.  It was a great night, probably our best over here at the farm. 

We could have danced all night, but didn't because we got tired and went home.

Overheard at Alan's birthday party:
UMMM, that's good goat!
Is this the Muslim goat or the Christian goat?
He's only six years old?
Do I have grease on my face?
Was this goat hand shucked?

Why is he dancing like that?

It is the best cake I've ever had, may I have some more please, Madam?
Wow, these forenjees know how to throw a party!

The next morning as I was looking out my kitchen window, I saw a horse drinking the bath wather of Nia and Ethan next door.  The horse was so thirsty that he came and sucked the water right out from where they were bathing.  (Here on the farm the little ones often take baths out on the front porches in big plastic tubs.)  Nia liked the horse and was petting it as he had a good drink.  And after he had refreshed himself with water, he sneaked back behind my house and had ate all my peas and red-leaf lettuce.  If I could have caught him, I would have whipped him a good one. And to add insult to injury, he left a big poop in the garden.  What a nasty stinky thief!

Here are some other pictures of Nia with a tortoise, that Wally brought to show us, and the deer that lives out with the goats and cows and chickens.

  And here is Zakir with two chickens that he is taking to Beltu for Ramadan.  His mother will make Duro Wat for the family.  Duro Wat is a very traditional dish here and made on holy days and other times too.  It's a spicy chicken stew. 

A word of caution for those who can't look at gross things.  Do not go any farther.  If you are under 12 or your name is Bracken - this is not for you!PG-13.

On Friday last week, I was called to the clinic to attend to the arm of a child about 5 or 6.  His arm had been broken about four or five weeks ago, a compound fracture.  This is what I saw when I unwrapped his arm.

 This is a picture of the little boy's arm - rotting away.  We sent him to Ginir and I'm sure that the arm couldn't be saved.  He was a cute little boy and his mother looked so sad and upset. The smell was horrific.   It was very upsetting to all of us.  Too many of these kinds of things happen here.  We did get a thorn out of a man's eye this week.  Cheers to the clinic for dealing with all these things. 

Just to leave you on a good note, here are some pics of the garden. 

The potato bed.

Carrots, carrots, and more carrots.  The horse ate some of these.  Nasty Stinky Horse!

Til next time.