Typhoon after a typhoon. Our country, Philippines has been hit again by a typhoon goes by the name Paeng. Different parts of the country were ravaged and submerged in floods. Also a lot of properties were severely destroyed, life were lost left and right plus the damage in the sector of agriculture is just so heart breaking. It's really be a nightmare for Filipinos now, especially for those who have been severely affected. While I was checking on my relatives in different places, I couldn't help but to be sad to see the damage caused by this typhoon. There's another one again but I'm praying that it will not continue to form anymore.
Moving on, we are thankful this time that the heavy rain during the typhoon didn't cause flood here in our place and the water level of the river beside our home just stayed with that level as you can see at the photo below. I took this one at 6:30 am this morning and this was the level through out since it rained hard in our place. The depth of it is around 7ft. to 9ft.
As I've mentioned in my past blogs that we've been using firewood to cook our food. Since there's still a lot of trees here in the province, firewoods are the bonuses when a typhoon hits. A lot of big trunks and branches will break and fall. That is the time when we collect them and cut them into a desired size.
This time there were no big trunks that fell but luckily the branches of our coconut trees fell down while the strong wind doing it's business here. I'm so happy because there's a lot of it. Firewoods just came down from the sky lol, free fall.
The other reason why I'm happy about it is that the sticks from it's leaves can be turned into a broom which we can use here in different works such as sweeping our yard. Another purpose of this one when it's already a broom is that we can sell it and it can cost upto a good price. Some people here especially in town buy one coconut stick boom for about 50-75 pesos or upto $1. For simple people like us who just live an ordinary life, it's a big help already because it can buy daily supplies already if you can sell 4 of it.
There's money in it but the process of making it is not for lazy people, real talk. In doing it you need a lot of patients because it has a lot of steps that needed to be done to turn it to broom. Also a good business if you have patience.
One of process that I'm talking about is the one at the photo below. What I'm using to remove the leaves from the branch is a bolo and a little mistake will make me bleed just like what she did char. While I'm doing it, I will choose those leaves with a complete stick then those are not will be put around the stem of my bananas as mulching.
As what I'm talking earlier, those branches will be cut to become firewood. So after removing and clasifying those leaves, I took my bolo and cut them into my desired size then slice those big into two pieces just like what I was doing in the photo below. If I make a mistake again then I can lose a finger or two because the bolo is so sharp.
This is the finish product and I compiled it using the improvised rope made from bamboo.
After doing all those things, when I'm about to compile the coconut leaves, I noticed something moving under it. I took a closer look and here what I found. Some ants but I was not sure of it at first since their color is silver and it's my first time to see something like their kind. What I usually see are black and red ants so this is a new discovery for me.
As you can observe from them each of them are protecting an egg which made me to be amazed with them. I'm sure their queen is just within the leaves but I didn't bother to check it anymore since I have something to do.
Since the strong winds hits us here, I was worried with our rice in the field so I took a little walk to visit them. Another thing which made me to worry is that our rice is ready for harvesting again and it's will be a huge loss if it will be damage. When I arrived I was glad that the wind didn't cause serious damage to our crops. Hoping that the sun will show it's rays finally for us to harvest them already.
Before leaving I noticed a flower in bloom along the road and it's such a good sign. It's saying a strong message also that after a storm, there's still hope and we can still bloom.
Thank you for reading this friends and keep safe.