Fritz's Birthday and Continuing Land Preparation

Last week was Fritz's birthday!

He is growing up fast.

Thank you to everyone who sent birthday greetings.

Fritz enjoyed them all and I helped him to know some of the connections of people.

We enjoyed some home-made pizza and cake, along with store bought ice-cream.

He is working hard at school and enjoys soccer and helping set up games with local teams.

Thursday was Zambia's Independence Day day so we had a long weekend. 

Fritz enjoyed joining the students at Jembo school for the celebration and lunch. 
 

Bags of corn seed and fertilizer was distributed from the Zambian Wesleyan Church to the district pastors and some of the Bible College students.

A utility/solar hybrid pump and solar panels was also delivered for the new borehole but we need to buy the pipe in town.

The gardens and trees are still suffering from the limited water supply.

Monday, Patrick, two of the teachers and I visited a government farm institute that is only a few miles away.

The government is encouraging mechanization and provides equipment to the institute. It can then be hired to prepare fields and there is equipment for even very small fields.

There is also equipment to increase the value of crops like grinders for cornmeal and peanut butter and presses for sunflower and soy oil.

The fees are just enough to cover fuel, maintenance, labor, and to help the program grow.

The field rates are almost as low as hiring oxen at close to $10 per acre.

22 acres were ripped on Saturday by two tractors despite much of the time being spent replacing shear pins due to hitting tree stumps, a few rocks and very hard dry soil.

It would take a team of oxen 1 or 2 days to do one acre.

On Monday work was on one of the fields with the most tree stumps so going was slower. 

The red ripper is hard to get adjusted correctly (too deep causes the tractor to lose traction) so it didn't get much done.

They plan to bring a two prong ripper for the next day.

Rain would soften the soil and make the work much easier but any delay in planting causes loss of yield potential so we are happy to have at least part of the land prepared before rain.

Last night we received about 3/10 of an inch and it soaked in a couple inches.

Unfortunately a lightning strike took out the power so limited water for the compound today.

Thankfully the gardens and trees will not be needing to be watered today-while we wait for the power to come back on.

 Most years our area doesn't have a long enough rainy season for the higher yield late maturity corn varieties.

People were encouraged to bring their seeds to church on Sunday so that they can be prayed over. 

The plan is to plant a few different corn seed types...early, middle, and late.

After some good rains we also plan to hire people to dig stumps.

Than you for the prayers.