Barrigada, Guam 96921 Phone [671] 477 1705 FAX (671) 477 1706 ssSsSnakes in the kitchen July 11, 1997 Had a great day yesterday with Dave, shopping for a gift for Kris birthday next week. We went up on the top of Nimenz Hill and pulled up a load of wild bamboo orchids which are staging a real onslaught this year. It was pouring rain, and this was a wild deserted flat sylvan area on the top of the mountain that seems to overlook the whole island, if wed taken the time in the rain to look at the view. We were both doused and mud covered, but filled the back of the station wagon with gorgeous long stemmed orchid plants, and got back in the front so soaked that we were almost cold. Shade, the black lab, was curled contentedly in the back seat, leaning her head against the glass to watch us and watch the scenery on the drive through the rain when we left. Dave is going to put the orchids in a huge pot and give them to Kris for her birthday next week. I am going to give her a couple of jeweled hair sticks that I got in Bali last time and Jim is going to get her a tool. Trust Jim to be factual!! I am worried about our finances, but we seem to chug along--and when we get the apartment rented, and the Christmas tree sales started we should be over the hump. And we did this all on our own without a bank loan to worry about! At least the place is livable, if not plush--and damned damp in the rainy season, but I think well work out the drips and be quite comfortable in our tin cans. Still need the compost toilet, the bedroom extension, the chicken coop, the insulation and the bamboo plywood paneling put in, the roof over the middle court yard and containers, and the floor put down on the center court yard--enough projects to keep us going for awhile. But we did get a few things hung on the wall.---Poor Jim has accepted that I have to decorate a little--even in a tin can, [ we even hung Grandpa Simcox-or at least his large Victorian framed portrait]--and most of the boxes are put away. I despair of ever getting all our clothes out of the plastic bags, and hung up. Still have to get our container cleared out--lots of boxes put away, but more to go, and still boxes of food, medicine cabinet stuff and so forth on the deck--real mess, but at least, we dont have neighbors that drop in to see the mess!! My cats love it up here--Ylig even brought in a captured gecko to lunch the other day. I know that apartment cats are supposed to live longer, but we dont have a traffic problem up here, and they are having such an adventure, that I dont feel that I have hurt them much by bringing them up here to live the wild life. Im rather happier here too, going into a new phase of my life, it seems--got a lot of future out there, just have to be strong enough to grab the ring when it comes around, I guess. I am really enjoying getting started with my garden plans. Didnt have much time this year to get tomato, egg plants and so forth into the ground, because of the work on this place and the work on the apartment, but we are having a few tomatoes, and when I make spaghetti now, I have great fresh basil, oregano, garlic chives, parsley and boonie peppers to use. My bay leaf tree seems to be holding its own, but I dont think it is wildly enthusiastic about the spot Ive got it in. Amazingly, my golden shower tree is putting out new growth and I am glad about that. I pulled a branch of it from a beautiful tree at the abandoned housing on Nimenz Hill, but didnt much think it would make it. It sat as a sad bare stick for a couple of months, and I kind of forgot about it, but now, it is putting out leaves like crazy. It is next to the pomegranate plant, on the side of the cliff and if they ever bloom at the same time they should be quite a show--the granada has a brilliant orange bloom, and the golden shower boasts lovely cascades of pale lemony blooms. Most of our lot is rather bare rock, with the jungle hanging around the edge. The cliff that over hangs us will always keep us private on one side, and our beautiful deep jungle ravine encircles most of the rest of the lot. When we get to building the house, we intend to have it hanging over the jungle side so that we can live in the tree tops--Guess what pair of old-timers never outgrew the Swiss Family Robinson!! But, because we are going to be building more, and digging and depositing soil I am not planting bushes or trees except in areas I know wont be disturbed. Have been planting banana trees--well, David has--and pineapples, and have red ginger--want to get the white ginger from Kris soon--it is the one that you eat, and it has lovely white flowers. I have been trying to get plants going around the containers that are almost native so that they will take over and blanket the spots that we arent going to cultivate on a serious basis. I encourage the wild ferns-mostly Boston variety, the small cheerful wild poinsettias, the periwinkles, and the velvety leafed oregano covers areas that other plants shun. Got spearmint going rather well, and keep sticking it in different areas so that hopefully, it will decide to become a weed. When we were in the process of building out the containers, my friend, Betsy, was getting ready for her yearly passage to the states--she spends part of her year in St. Paul, and part of her year in Guam--rather like a migratory bird-a large blonde divorced bird, who has deposited her grown chick on Guam to live full time in the old nest, while she flies to the north in the summer to return when the seasons change in the fall. At any rate, I wanted to see her before she left, and she was a good enough friend that I could invite her to lunch on a deck between the containers with Jim still sawing away in the background. I ended up doing it rather nicely--Betsy and I are long time buddies and would have been contented with a pot of tea and lots of cookies and gossip, but Jim has a different point of view in what you serve company at lunch--even on a deck between a couple of containers!--and I ended up serving a relish dish, garlic bread, Indonesian broccoli, grilled chicken and potato salad with a cheese cake for desert--not a cookie in sight! I used blue place mats, blue batik napkins, the old blue and white dishes, and the good flatware. I even used some little blue flowers , sprigs of a purple-flowered weed, and some lavender periwinkle, with the velvet leafed oregano for filler, in a centerpiece consisting of a large coffee mug of water nestled in a cute basket. A few days later, I decided to stick the drying flowers from this bouquet in a flower bed, and when I was finished doing this, threw the water from the cup under a small papaya tree that was on the other side of the path. It made a fairly successful small spot flower bed that I have dubbed Betsys Lunch Bouquet. Betsy found it charming when I told her about it, and frankly, so did I, but a short time later, I was even more charmed to see that the little tree I d thrown the stale water under is now also surrounded by periwinkles--there must have been seeds in the water--so we now have two Betsys Lunch Bouquet gardens. Jim is back from running, so I am going to close this off for now and do the uninteresting domestic duties that come along with living the wild alternate-style life --I will try to write more later, about the business angles we are trying to develop, and maybe more about the plants I am so enjoying living with. Jim needs Juice!! July 13, 1997 Hot, bloody hot!! Jim is in the courtyard working on making Kens shelves, and I have been trying to keep alive, even though the heat seems unbearable. The cats hide out under the chests and seem to keep cool in the dark. The beginning of the rainy season is bad, always--no rain, just a long hot still day and the sky seems about eight inches above my head. Sept 1, 1997 Be careful what you wish for!! The rainy season started with a groan of thunder and we had the wettest August on record--38.95 inches!! It is always so impressive to set records, even if it is for wet, dark days!! Sept 17, 1997 Problems--everybody has them and how we solve them is what makes man as a species interesting. Our embarrassingly, uniquely Guamian problem manifested itself or selves as the case may be, on a warm starlight night during the middle of this summer. During a TV commercial or something equally as mundane, I strolled out to our big open raftered outdoor kitchen to get ice cubes and came face to face with a rather embarrassed looking snake looping itself over the counter, and drooping down over my sink. I calmly walked back in the container and interpreted Jims TV watching, stuttering Jim, Jim, theres two snakes in the sink!! [I have never stuttered till now]. Jim went out the back door to encounter the monster or monsters, and I yelled from the side door for Dave, thinking Jim probably was going to need at least a battalion of Marines, for back up, but Dave was better than nothing. Jim and Dave had a great male-bonding time, debating the best way to kill a snake, Dave following the island tradition of a machete severance of the head, and Jim explaining his California mountain-man lore that you had to break the back of the beast. Needless to say, between the two theories, the snake-there was really only one, he was just very long-[6 foot, the men maintained and probably nearer to twenty by my reckoning] ended up very dead. While they were dealing with the snake, I ran back in the main container and sat down at the desk, thinking I should probably call someone. I considered the standard 911 call, then decided to call my red-headed daughter-in-law instead--granted, she lives on the other end of the island, but I figured in a pinch I would rather count on Kris than some nameless 911 person. Of course, by the time I got on the phone and stuttered the story to Kris, the snake had been dispatched, and Jim and Dave werent quite singing a chorus of MEN, MEN, MEN, but there was definitely a lot of loud male laughter and tetestrone flowing out on my deck! THE SNAKE in capital letters, became just that for a few days when we told the story, and was an exciting onetime adventure--we thought--until two nights later when I found another hanging gracefully in the shower. This one escaped, though Jim got one good whack in at him with the machete before he slid into the darkness--hopefully discouraging him and definitely putting a historic ding in the top of the wooden shower stall. The next night, one was drooped on the top of our container, out of reach, even if he had been slow enough for a good whack. The men considered the problem, and since I was concerned, supplied the corner by my rusty refrigerator with an equally rusty [rust is a definite decorating statement in my life now!] machete, and a long pole with a couple of nails in it. This, of course, was if I needed to pull one out of the rafters and murder it some night when they werent around. Now, I did appreciate the thoughtfulness, but since I have never knowingly killed anything larger than a cockroach I was worried. I understand that men definitely function in different mental patterns than normal people, and I try to be understanding, but, I privately thought that I couldnt see myself handling this thing the way they assumed I would.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 19:26:37 +0000