Another week with the wwoofers comes to an end. On wednesday our weeding program was partially interupted by a call from Greg. He was hoping to borrow the tiller to get some propagation beds for some Gigantachloa atroviolacea (a gorgeous, timber quality black bamboo) that he and Ramana had come upon at a wholesale rate, and needed to something with pronto. Of course, our tiller is still at the repair shop, but we decided that I should bring Eric and Tim up there and between us all we could get it done with hand tools. As it was, the plot had lots of roots so the tiller would have sucked at it anyway, and it was a good morning. I got them a load of cinders, and they put some extra good stuff like humates, and some charred, shredded coco fibres in the beds, so I am expected them to do really well! We will of course get a nice share of the atro's when they are ready, but they gave me a textilis gracilis at the end of the day as a token or whatever... which is cool, because I've wanted that species here for a while.
Sharesa and Tim worked in the garden thursday while Eric and I got ready to plant 9 Aspers that are coming next month. We cut back grasses and vines and dug holes on thursday. We also hauled rocks down there and filled in the spillway where it looked like it could erode and potentially break the dam. The majority of the Aspers from this round are going in underneath the dam wall, which ought to help stop erosion from there, I hope. I think we'll work on vetiver on the wall itself, where the wall isn't great boulders...
Friday, Eric went harvesting Lillikoi's and did a bunch of clearing around stuff in the gulch. The little mango that is always strangled by nahiku, and some coconuts up on the western ridge...
Tim fixed the wheelbarrow that I ran over with the truck, and made some small progress with the tractor, I think...
Lorinda has been doing a lot in the garden, I think, with Sharesa and Tim's help. I actually planted some lettuce seedlings in there last night...
Today, friday, I got a load of cinders, the majority of which went into the holes we dug for the Aspers. I went to the irrigation supply house and got parts for doing irrigation driplines for these bamboo's. After dinner I ran around trying to get lines setup for plants we already have in the ground. I guess in time, we will be able to reuse some of stuff in new places, although, a lot of the bamboo's will probably appreciate irrigation even when they are mature...