The weather is finally cooperative to allow work to continue on our cabin renovation project. and now we're mostly focusing on landscaping.
Joy In The Little Things 🔥
Since making a little impromptu firepit, it has become (literally and figuratively) the hottest place to be in Steung Kach at night. The girls seem to enjoy the meditative relaxation, and so I've been making a small fire nearly every night since adding this outdoor feature. I've been stealing scraps of wood from the construction rubbish pile outside the cabin, but yesterday I finally decided to start picking through the wood, sorting it, and tidying up the area for future landscaping.
There were several rice sacks full of sawdust as well, so I emptied those around the base of foundation, knowing that will be help to make some rich soil once it decomposes even more. It doesn't look very different in the photos, but the mound of wood next to the banana tree is nearly gone, and the plastic sacks and rubbish are all gone. In the other day's post, Monkey-B and I were busy breaking roof and floor tiles with a hammer before covering with backfill dirt.
🪚 Operation Fence Takes Precedent 🪵
Next to the remnants of the hammock that collapsed into the river is about half of the 3-meter fenceposts we had cut for us. After recent problems with our neighbor concerning our land, we have determined it's best to build a fence before we focus on anything else. Also, the neighbors are now building a mountain of trash at the back of our house, I think to spite us, and it can be easily seen from the cabin. With a high fence we can block our view of the trash pile and it will also keep some of the trash smoke away from our lungs.
Unwilling Babysitter 👦
Now that our neighbor is taking the kids to school for $200 a month, I have a little more freetime, and I've been trying to be productive with it. I didn't plan on having to babysit his son while he is away though, kind of cancels out the potential productivity. He's cute, but completely wild, can't focus for more than 5 seconds and can't sit still, wants to throw everything, so basically he needs to be under constant watch. Just before this pic he tried to climb on top of my cutting board and Superman jump off the table. I wasn't happy about this, obviously, and it's clear he needs a little discipline and some speech therapy, or at least conversation practice.
Any attempt to keep him entertained only lasts for a minute at most, even given a paper and pen, it only lasts a few seconds before he's scratched a few lines and is ready for whatever's next. At home he has full freedom to do whatever he wants, but nobody is spending much time teaching him things and showing him how to behave, so I am worried how this behavior will change as he gets older.
👁️ Dragon Eye Anyone?
Monkey-B probably was heading to the bathroom or coming back from it when I took this shot, but I really can't remember. She decided to show off her longan for the camera, but I prefer the name a nearby Chinese grocer in the USA uses for them, "dragon eyes," probably because of transparent jelly with a black seed inside that is partially visible, kind of resembling an eyeball.
Off To School 🛻
Fast forward the morning, and these are kids ready or not ready for school, Srey-Yuu doesn't look particularly excited, and Monkey-B appears to not be fully awake, and I am glad not to be driving them with only 3 hours of sleep in my system. That's all for now folks, just found out the girls have a short school break, so there are likely more campfires to come.
 |  | 🙏 GIVE THANKS 🙏 |  |  |
|---|