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Coffee, Bags, House and Rice Mill

This is a pretty packed update.  Not just because my last post was in January but there just seems to be a lot happening.  I have never been this busy since I moved to Thailand back in 05.  Which means we are coming up on our fifth year mark here in April.  I won’t get into to many details otherwise this is going to be a long post.  So I’ll get to the main points.

Coffee

We have already dug some 2,500 holes for coffee seedlings and about 2,000 more planned.  We are planting our own as well as micro-loaning seedlings to farmers who want to grow.  Primarily working with people in the church and family.  Many farmers have told us they may want to grow coffee after they see ours succeed.  Apart from the holes being dug we have also built a small (and I mean small) nursery to keep seedlings and other plants.  A new water project has also been proposed and will consist of drawing water from a natural spring, running one kilometer of pipe and possibly building a cement tank.  It will provide water for the coffee plantation and possibly give water to a near by village during dry season.

Also we hope to have a training event where villagers who are planting coffee will be able to learn all about growing, mulching, trimming and harvesting coffee.  We are hoping to receive training from a local coffee company.  www.silaacoffee.com

Bags

J’Nangutong ~ My Sister’s Bag

The vision includes bags from a variety of women groups around the world, but for right now, we only have Karen Bags.  We have modified the tradition style side bag to meet the grocery bag standard in the West.  We are also thinking some products like tea towels, table runners, napkins, etc. might provide a more consistent appeal to western markets too.  This is all still in the marketing research phase and a web site will hopefully soon be up and running.  For the mean time we have women busy making bags and tea towels to be sent to the States and Canada.

House

I am building a small two bedroom house for our family to stay in while we are in the village.  Mission teams and guests will also be able to use it while visiting the village.  We are cutting the wood from big pine trees in the forest and building it ourselves.  It will be a traditional Karen style house raised off the ground.  I also hope to have this done before the rains hit in mid May.

Rice Mill

We have just installed a new machine in the rice mill.  It will take the rice husks that get tossed out in the back of the mill and grind them up to a fine bran that will be bagged and sold for fodder.

Though we are having some initial set backs and some mild miss-communication on how to use the machine.  We hope to get the kinks out soon.  Thank you to those of you who have supported our rice mill project.  We will be using the profit from the rice mill not only to pay for the workers but also to help establish small businesses in the village.  Including the bag and coffee business.

Eli Blue Abbott

That’s our new sons name.  He was born on September 8th at 1:30 in the morning.  He is strong and healthy and weighed in at about 7.5 pounds.  Because of his size a caesarean was necessary.  Prang just couldn’t manage to get him out by her self.  She is doing well and is back home after three days in the hospital.  I am adjusting to this new change in my life and I’m not sure if it has completely hit me yet.

I am having driver problems with my computer.  So everyone is going to have to wait on the pictures.  I’m hoping it’s just my memory card and not my camera.  But don’t worry I will get some up soon enough.

July 27th

These are just a few of the really good photos our friend Kevin LJ took for us when up in the village.  Click here to see all of them.  We also did some video of rice planing and of the rice mill.  We took up about ten gallons of some organic fertilizer that I have been making for them to use on their rice crops.  It’s still in the experimental process but I am learning heaps all the time.  I’m still keeping busy with Im Jai House and mentoring teenagers.  We’ve gotten lots of new landscaping work in the last month and it’s keeping me and the boys busy.  We also have a new member in our house.

His name is Tinglee.  He is 17 years old who we originally knew from Im Jai House.  Though he hasn’t been living there for a few years I have still been mentoring him.  He has ben with us for at least a month now and is adjusting well.  He grew up with Park who already lives with us.  They both go to a dramatic arts school.  He is a very talented musician and is studying the violin.  He is on my soccer team and also works the landscaping business with me.  A very smart, talented and hard working teenager.  We are pleased to have him apart of our family.

Soccer Field

So we finally have a nice soccer field for the kids to play soccer on at Im Jai House. When Im Jai was first built the contractor promissed they would put in a soccer field for free but never did. So thanks to a generous sponser we finally have a soccer field after almost three years. I’ve ben busy making sure that someone takes care of the grass and that the sprikler system is kept up and running. Last week I brought in two eight meter, cement lighting poles and dropped them a meter deep in the ground and then poured concrete. Soon I’ll have to climb up to the top and mount some spot lights for the late night games. Click here for more photos.