March 2010

 Chigumula property

Farm activities

* The vegetable garden is producing egg plant, chillies, pumpkins and lettuce. We are planting tomatoes, onions, carrots, rape and more lettuce.

* We are still harvesting lots of guava's, and avocado pears. 

* The sweet potatoes are maturing.  We harvested the sunflowers and are busy shelling them.   We had a big problem with birds eating the sunflower seed and some rot because of heavy late rains.  We also harvested a small plot of maize. We will start harvesting the rest of the maize this week.  The groundnuts are maturing and we planted peas where we harvested the beans and replanted the soya plot with peas too. 

* Mushroom production is still regular.  We are harvesting and selling 3 – 4kg / week.  We bought new spawn for our second batch.

* Thankfully the rainfall has decreased this month, giving the maize an opportunity to dry. 

* Contractors are still busy cutting 2 x 4’s and 2 x 6’s out of the bigger logs of trees we fell. The boards have been stacked for drying.  We took the first 15 boards in for plaining. 

* The lawn on the inside of the fence and the hedge around the property is slowly being established.

Construction

* The guest room attached to the main house was furnished with two single beds, mosquito nets, bedside tables and a portable wardrobe. 

* The guest bathroom was finished with a new toilet and sewer connection.  The basin was properly installed and some tiling was done. 

Video ministry

My brother in law brought a 1.5 Gig external hard drive, external DVD writer, 2 gig DDR 2 RAM, a set of computer speakers and earphones from Switzerland.  This will enable me to set up a second desktop as an editing station.  I am still waiting for my camera to be repaired in Cape Town.   

Visitors

* We hosted Mark Becket, a missionary from Mzuzu and the Bray family from Mangodchi for a few days before they joined me to the Foundations for Farming Conference in Harare.

* We hosted a team of 3 from The Lighthouse for 3 days.  They camped out in tents on the property.

* My brother in Law and his friend from the same church are visiting at present for 2 weeks.

Staff news

Isaac and Ruth Gomani who is staying on the property in the cottage, were blessed with a healthy baby boy!  Ayah, meaning miracle, was born early on the morning of March 15.  Ruth's mother from Zambia is visiting them for a few weeks. 

Billy and Julianne Bray and their two little girls are doing missionary work in the Lake District.  They are planning to join us later in the year in Blantyre.  We are looking out for a house near the Crown property which they can rent.  Billy volunteered to do the bookkeeping and administration and will also be involved in training Crown and Foundations for Farming.  They are developing a 30ha farm near the lake as a model for rural development and a training centre.