Farm Friday

One morning last month I saw something I hadn't seen in awhile. It's been over a year and I kind of missed seeing it. What was this marvelous sight you ask? My breath. With the succession of chilly mornings here it's becoming a more common sight. I mean we are in the midst of an African winter here ya know! Even though the mornings start out cool, once the sun comes up, it gets hot in a hurry! But as soon as the sun drops again, it is cold! Our family is currently engaging in an ongoing debate over whether we should break down and buy a heater or not. The discussion continues.

The new field is on the brink of full scale production.

Harvest is just in the very beginning stages. The amount of berries gathered by the ladies will slowly increase until we are in full production again August through November. This will be our family's second Zambian harvest season.

First fruits gathered from the new farm.

So...you may be wondering...just what exactly do you do as you wait for the berries to start producing heavily? Well here it is for you, off berry season in pictures.

We build berry barns. And get to know someone new, our summer intern Jonathan Pelsey! Thanks Jon for all your help. We are blessed to have you with us for a couple months. These small booths will be set up different places in town for our farm berries to be sold.

Meet Cowboy. (sorry for the bad pic) Erik has introduced Gift to the old time cowboy of the Wild West. The stories have captured his imagination and he showed up for work one day with this hat. A new nickname was born. Here Cowboy puts up shade netting for gooseberries. 

Trellis blackberries. And irrigate, irrigate, irrigate because it's dry season again.

Plant new gooseberry fields.

Study human anatomy. Make cool snacks that reflect what you are studying.

Catch frogs in the orange orchard. Lots of frogs, like 30 or so. In 1 hour.

Build a toolshed

Decide to raise pigs in the backyard. I knew Erik wouldn't be able to live much longer without raising some sort of animal in the backyard.

Have a berry consultant visit the farm and scout your fields. Thanks to Brian Windsor (from South Africa) for his time and expertise to our Lifesong family.

Taste the berries that are coming on quicker and heavier daily!

Fish in the reservoir. Check to see if the tilapia we added have gotten any bigger.

Laugh like crazy when you go in to town and see trucks loaded with chickens drive over speed bumps and potholes.

Learn a new language.

Gain valuable cultural experience. Smile while doing so. Larissa told me she has been dying to carry home a chicken in a plastic sack since we moved to Zambia. The farm ladies told me today that I wasn't a good wife unless I could kill a chicken in 5 minutes without it making a sound. (too bad for Erik, huh?)

Cover up tight in the cold winter mornings of Zambia

Try to keep cool in the hot winter afternoons of Zambia.