August at Casa Kumasi was a happening month between Miriam’s visit, Lauren’s departure, big garden progress, fun with the goats and Tamara’s short stay.
HOME MADE HAMMOCK
Lauren was inspired by the hammocks at Stumble Inn in Elmina, so when James donated his old bed sheets to the house, she took one and made a hammock on the deck. Miriam was visiting that day and got to try it out.
HELLOS AND GOOD BYES
We were very happy to spend some time with Justin’s friend Miriam when she was in Kumasi and sad to see housemate Lauren leave for the States on August 10th.
GOING AWAY CAKE
We honored Lauren’s three months at Casa Kumasi with a cake from the Melcom. When Lauren began to slice it, she noticed that the frosting around the cake was adhered to a ribbon of paper which Jeremy promptly decided to suck on, making us all laugh.
TWO BAGS AND A HAND FULL OF RAMEN
Eric picked Lauren up early to take her to the bus station. We were surprised that she had only two bags. As an afterthought, Lauren took some ramen noodles for the long ride to Accra.
FENCE POSTS
Heavy work is best done by heavy weights. In this case, Justin labored for at least an hour to extract a monster rock and dig a post hole for the garden fence.
A JOB WORTH DOING IS A JOB WORTH DOING RIGHT
All the perfectly aligned fence posts were buried and Jeremy and Justin began tacking the goat wire onto the posts. The 50-foot roll of fence measured out at only 48 feet and so the gate must wait.
MAINTENANCE
With most of the big work finished, you’d think Jeremy would be able to relax. But no, now he is dedicated to the daily maintenance of our future food supply. He is still removing rocks, reshaped the beds, waters the plants when it doesn’t rain and reshaped the beds again after the neighbor’s chickens got inside the fence and roughed them up.
FUN IN THE BACK YARD
August 11 was a good day to burn the cardboard and play with Go-At. We were only slightly disappointed that our trash lacked the aroma of the neighbor’s when they burn. That smell of burning plastic tends to grow on one… As does Jeremy’s little billy goat, Go-At.
AIR BORN IN 1, 2, 3…
Little Go-At is so chill! One minute Bob was admiring the paths he and Jeremy had just finished building across the garden and the next he had scooped Go-At up and was holding him in his arms.
R.I.P. CUCUMBER
One of the cucumber plants, the one in top left corner of the deck garden picture died of unknown causes soon after putting out our very first home grown garden produce. They were delicious and we are looking forward to more garden treats from all the other flourishing plants.
FOOD PROCESSOR
We gave some thought to buying a food processor but decided not to for several reasons. First off, they don’t exist as far as we can tell. Second, the power is frequently out so low tech methods are the most reliable. Third, we bought this incredible clay mortar and wooden pestle for only 3 cedis, the equivalent of $1.50 U.S. Justin playfully picked it up to see if it would make a ringing sound like a singing bowl.Camille is enjoying the challenge of experimenting with new kitchen tools and foods. Here are some kontomire leaves (a.k.a. coco yam (taro) leaves) which will be served alongside pasta and sauce like spinach. The massive leaves are also incredible inexpensive and very tasty. 1 cedis’s worth of leaves (50 cents U.S.) easily feeds 5 people.
TAMARA!
Tamara joined us for few days from the U.K. and dove right into our household routine, accompanying Camille on shopping trips and helping prepare meals. We also took advantage of her visit to do a little sightseeing. More about Tamara’s fun visit at Fun with Tamara
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[Latest] * [Troutsfarm] * [FS2BD Project Progress] * [Central Market] * [Local Color] * [Fun with Tamara] * [Around the House] * [Bosumtwi Revisited]
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