Team fun.

Busy, busy week.

We're enjoying Kris' folks and friends of ours visiting. Monday we picked them up after some shopping in Port.

We spent the night at the Ortlip Center and then headed up the mountain on Tuesday morning.

With the vehicle fully packed, we left two suitcases at Ortlip to be picked up later. The picture was taken before 6 or so more bags were added.

They are brightening up our world both literally and figuratively.

One of yesterday's projects included putting up lighting in two locations in the kitchen.

The lights on the wooden wall at one point were on my folk's garage in Allegan and the hanging globes were from my childhood.

They once hung on a pole in Allegan but were shipped to Haiti when her folks moved to Haiti in the mid-70's.

 When we lived on LaGonave, I recognized the lights and claimed them back from the storage shed where they had been placed.

School under the old/new lights. 

 We brought them to north Haiti and now up the mountain.

They look nice! Hard to believe that they have not cracked over all the years and miles of travel.

The guys helped Cory with his hoop nursery while the women cooked and helped Fritzlin with his schoolwork.

Today they are working on mahogany shelves, painting ship-lap for the last wall of the storeroom wall, and thinking about where the outside clothesline can be put up.

 Praying for Port-au-Prince as large protests are set for today.

Continue to pray for Eli and Anna as well during their busy college days.

We continue to be thankful for the internet at the neighbors, especially as we try to set up visits and plans for our partnership development time this spring and summer.

Tree moving...

How many trees and plants can you pack into a Land Cruiser?   LOTS...

Cory enjoyed a short trip to Fauche. Thankfully the area is recovering from last summer's drought.

He not only drove to Cap Haitian to pick up fence, some barb wire, and posts but he also managed to visit the gardens across the river.

Hopefully he can fill in more later but at this moment he's busy grafting mango trees. 

Cory did not count but he packed a lot in the back, which also included 69 fence poles and lots of plastic pots.

We are also cleaning and preparing for my folks, Pat and Jodi to visit next week.

The Land Cruiser was dripping condensation this morning, from the inside roof due to all the plants. 

A blue tarp kept most of the dirt that bounced out of pots contained so not much cleaning before next week's trip.

Shopping list needs to be reviewed and added to before we head down the mountain.

While Cory was gone, three men continued to dig holes for trees.

Unfortunately they didn't keep track of how many holes  but it looks like a giant mole has been attacking the yard...or someone looking for buried treasure.

Once Cory gets some time next week we'll have a better idea of what is here.  Some brought here to see if they can grown here, some for grafting, and some for the village. 

He even managed to bring up a few ornamental plants but not everything from Fauche. 

Will bring more when we visit the end of March. 

Visit to south mountain area

Looking north at Lake Saumatre. 

Wednesday we hit the road at 4am and travelled southeast to the base of a mountain range near the Dominican Republic border. 

This area has the highest mountain peak in Haiti.

Pigeon pea and sweet potato garden with year-old leucaena trees.

About 8:20 we arrived at the home of a missionary who is working with farmers and pastors in the mountains up to about 6,000 feet altitude.

We rode up with him to see the mountain and some of the farmers in the area he works in.

He is leading training on Creation Care and Foundations for Farming, which is like Farming Gods Way. 

They are planting vetiver rows to reduce erosion and introducing some fruit trees, mostly from the Dominican Republic.

Most of the land and gardens are very steep, rocky hillsides, exposed to high winds. The environment is similar to the Delice area.

We sat in on a meeting of about 25 people in a church at the top of a long mountain ridge and listened to the main concerns the farmers had about soil infertility/dropping yields, drought, disease, deforestation, and free-range livestock damage/lack of government law enforcement.

Time to be off to our mission meetings, more another day.

Only a few small remnants of topsoil on this chalk hill but avocados grow well

Vetiver grass cut to mulch part of garden

Délice May Tree/plant list.

Cory's focused on getting trees and plants established as fast as possible at Délice because the rainy season is now.

Because the Wesleyan land is not fenced in and is being grazed by the local people's cattle, he is focusing at this time on the neighbor's property.

This will provide seed and cuttings [propagation material] for our location as well as for nursery stock  when we are ready for them, hopefully within the next year.

List of plants and trees already planted on Together We Can property. Also checking samples of over 20 kinds of old garden seeds, 2014/2015 for germination. Some sprouted before we left.

Plants brought to Délice and planted in May:
apple seedlings
abrico (mamey)
asparagus
avocado seedlings and ‘Donni’
bamboo- running makinoi and 4 types of clumping bamboo
banana: Apple, Ceylon/Mysore, FHIA-1,2?,3, 17?, 25, dwf. cavendish, cardaba, kru, raja puri, dwf. red, resistant poban, misi luki, kandarian.
barbados cherry
blackberry jam fruit
black sapote
breadfruit
canistel/eggfruit - jaun d’ouef
carambola/starfruit
chadek
chayote - militon



Cory is  in the middle of this picture,  planting. 

coffee
goji berry
jaboticaba ‘red'
jack fruit - fwi jak/jaka
java plum or rumberry
jelly palm
lacmelia
loquat
lychee ‘Hak ip'
macadamia
malay apple - pom dlo/pom malazi
mandarin - Jacmel? seedling
mango: choc annon, lancetilla, florigon, malika, nam dok mai, rosalie
miracle fruit
mulberry
peach palm
pepino dulce
pineapple
rambutan
sapodilla - sapoti
spanish lime - kenip
starfruit/caimite
Uvalia (two types, like a sour guava that makes excellent juice)
velvet apple - pom vlou

• Incan root crops: ulluco, oca, yacon, mashua 
  
  Other forages or greens:
  chaya
  edible hibiscus
  elephant grass
  forage peanut

garlic
potatoes
various ornamentals

Busy week.

Monday and Tuesday we spent working on packing up some items we wanted to bring up to Délice including plants.

Anna and I spent part of Tuesday morning working out our schedual for her junior year of highschool.

Forage peanut and elephant grass

We know with the trips back and forth from Delice that we will need to be very organized.

In addition Anna plans to combine two literatures: American and British so that next year she can enjoy a new Sonlight high school literature class-world literature.

Wednesday we traveled back up to Délice.

 I think we ended up taking seven hours and seven stops:

gas/bathroom, shopping, snack, look at a used guitar for Anna, drop off plants/trees for a friend, buying mangos, and to drop off some items at Ortlip center.

Thursday and Friday mornings Anna and I did school and I also helped the neighbor's daughters with their school work. Learning and taking notes about living up here...

     Red dirt and light paint, clothes, towels...not a great combination.

     Floors will also be a dark brown or red...

Layering of clothes is important. Clouds come and go. Hot, warm, cool..all in mintues.

Cuttings rooting under plastic

The dead end road after the fort, construction ended with the quake.

We celebrate with Eli both finishing up his first week of internship/work and doing well in his studies this term!

Love hearing how well he is doing from our folks and him.

Very proud of our oldest.


Cory's Report: Sorry the photos won't go where I want, I give up.

Planting is going very well. The climate and soil here appears excellent for farming.

Makes sense since the French chose this place for a coffee plantation and there are many other ruins in the area.

It looks like geologicaly we are on what was once a coral reef.

There are fossil shells and coral in some of the rock.

Some areas have limestone but other areas is a mix of soil and rock that are probably ancient weathered reef.

Temperatures are usually cool, in the 60's and 70's but yesterday was almost hot, probably mid 80's.

Macadamia tree in bean field

The past few days were low humidity but nights often have fog or clouds and we can also be in the clouds during the day so humidity really varies compared to Fauche.

Most of the soil looks like clay but it is generally light and well draining (good texture) and it holds water well (amazed at how much water a pot of dirt can hold) so most of it may actually be loam soil.

This is a very good thing except that it erodes easily after tilling for gardens.

 I hope we can get perennial crops and trees going in the area before most of the remaining soil is gone.

The first trip we planted a sampling of most of the fruits and nuts that we have at Fauche, and a few dozen canistel/eggfruit.

The Baptist Mission provided a few dozen loquats that a security guard yanked out of the ground from under trees where they had grown on their own from fallen fruit.

Loquat tree

 The loquats were pruned and planted under the local wild bushes to provide shade while they get established.

Checking all the trees this week I didn't find any that died, and even all the loquats were doing fine.

Macadamia trees have stiff leaves and they are already growing new leaves well despite extra windy weather that is stunting the local bean crop.

This trip most of the plants I brought are forage peanut and elephant grass cuttings, running bamboo, chayote, a few pineapple plants, and one each of several types of grafted mango.

Cuttings of fruits, macadamia and flower plants are now rooting under plastic and seeds are planted for the start of our Delice nursery.

It is fun and good getting experience with the climate here and getting "seed" plants started as a source for the nursery and for planting the Wesleyan land next rainy season.

Rain isn't reliable after October so we need to get our cisterns built soon so there is enough water for mixing cement and for the winter dry season.

Rains usually start in March.

Teaching, gardening, and more...

Of all the weekends in the year..this is one I wish we were able to be in the USA.

Mango tree by clothes line

Although we celebrated Eli's birthday in July, it would be great to sit and celebrate with him, hear in person about his trip to Germany, see his pictures, help him with the move back to Calvin, help him shop and just hang out.

So very thankful that both sides of the family can surround him with love and support..but miss being an active part of it.

My teaching for an hour in the adult literacy class appears to be a weekly event now. Good reports from the first two weeks and more suggested topics. Hard to simplify complicated subjects like the immune system and heart disease.

peach palm fruits

Clinic chats went well this week with great questions [on Monday a young man kept the conversation jumping for two hours!] Lots of chaya branches and information given out.

Tuesday's garden walk showed that despite another cow visit, apparently nothing was damaged and the plants continue to grow well in our hot steamy weather. The neighbor that was given some money to keep an eye on the garden reported that it was a big cow someone let in and he chased it out.

Non-'normal' events this week:

• cutting down of grafted (local variety) mango tree which also served to hold one end of our clothes line.



'Nam Dok Mai' X (mango 'Blanc'?) cross

• Why-because it was providing too much shade on the nursery and not producing enough  mangoes to justify its location
• Visiting the notary's office. More adoption paperwork as the addition of a new attorney to the team necessitated adding her to the power-of-attorney list.
• Watching the Fauche volleyball tournament. They divided the older three teams, ages about 13 to 18 years, and formed three teams each for the gals and guys. Saturday the youngest teams  played. Anna's team came in first with her finally trying more spikes. The winning point for her team was earned by one of her spikes.
• Getting an order and pre-payment for 40 fruit trees from a gentleman who lives near the big Caracol industrial park, and is a cousin of Pastor Nicoderm. It is fenced in, 1 1/2 acres and should be a good place to also do some trial plantings of the mango cross seedlings, eggfruit, and maybe peach palm, etc.
• Getting the lawnmower welded in Port Margot.
• Getting a better understanding of our visa paperwork..see the Grafting Treasure blog for more information. 
• Sharing more peach palm fruit with new people. The rental garden owner was impressed. Trying to pollinate flowering palms to increase the harvest.

Helping Haitian Angels

Cory, Gener and Yvon brought a few dozen fruit trees on Wednesday to plant at the Helping Haitian Angels orphanage, about 15 miles east of Cap Haitian.

A strong breeze comes in off the nearby sea most of the time and the climate is closer to semi-arid LaGonave than rainy Port Margot.

It has been a few weeks since the last good rain so it was a pleasant surprise to find the soil was good and deep, relatively easy to dig, and still moist.

Most of the trees planted are drought resistant, like mango, egg fruit and avocado. Since the soil is deep, other species will also probably do well.

A few each were planted of starfruit, jackfruit, black sapote, everbearing mulberry, peanut butter fruit, and a few others to see how well they grow.

A few kids helped plant the last few trees, and then carried water for each tree.

A second trip will probably be made soon to finish planting the area.

We pray that the future fruit will be a blessing to the children and spread to surrounding farmland.

Link to the Christian orphanage website:

http://www.helpinghaitianangels.org/