I picked the @kidsisters up from school and then we made our usual trip back home passing all the roadside landmines along the way.
🛺 Dangers of the Highway ☠️
The HALO Trust is very busy in these parts demining new territory each day. Much of the land around here has not been examined for landmines, but that hasn't stopped locals from building homes and farms right on top of these still active war relics. Each day I go to the school, I see new areas marked for mine dangers, even places I've made pee stops.
Hopefully Not Digging Up Mines 👩🌾
When gardening it's always important to not dig up landmines, just kidding, or not, neither of us like disturbing the dirt too much because we're still unsure whether or not the HALO Trust has explored our district for landmines. Well, there are no stories of anyone ever being blown up while gardening in our village, so we put our faith in the odds game.
The wife decided to plant the strawberries on the slope behind the hammock hut and under the banana tree, but in my experience strawberries need lots of direct sunlight to produce fruit, so I doubt they will grow any fruit down here in this little mostly sunless area.
Rock-Tossing For Erosion Control 🪨
A portion of our property is on an outside bend of the river, so I've been trying to build up rocks near the hammock hut because erosion has already created a lot of vertical drops, not friendly for visitors who want to access the river easily. I try to put in a few hours of rock tossing every day, and hopefully in several months there will be a nice gentle slope of river rocks to make accessing the river without a ladder possible.
Look At The Progress 🔬
The veranda project is coming along slowly but surely, and now we no longer have to use our imagination. It is really exciting to imagine us enjoying a meal or a social gathering in this space, and we can even see the kids swimming below.
It's an incredible view isn't it? In the morning it's perfect weather for a good sweater and a hot cup of coffee, paired with watching the fog and clouds move through the river valley. I really think an outdoor kitchen will be a nice addition, likely along the wall of the house so that's it's out of the weather a bit.
It's A Steep Drop ⛷️
If you look very carefully in the above photo you can see the @kidsisters splashing water in the river. I like that we can keep an eye on them from above, and when we cut the grass back a bit more, we'll have an even better view. That's all I got for now, my computer is crashing on and off, so I work as much as I can when the PC is also working.
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Nice! That porch - sorry, veranda - is looking really good! With the outdoor kitchen it will be a lovely place to make food, eat, and look out at the river. That blue-roofed house has been my favorite from all the buildings in your pics, so I think it should be easy to rent it out, especially with that addition you are completing on it.
I'm still not sure where to put your mention of land mines. On one hand I appreciate a good joke, and judging from what you said that no one you've heard of got hurt, puts me at ease to laugh about it. On the other hand... that sign in your second pic shows that it's a serious issue indeed! Please be careful!
To relate it to a personal experience - again (I hope you don't mind): A colleague of mine who is a big snowboarding fanatic told me about volunteering in Bosnia to clean up the mountains from landmines. It was a huge collaboration between some NGOs and the local skiing resorts, so it was completely safe (as long as you followed procedure) and he got to enjoy the slopes after de-mining them. I suppose there isn't a similar initiative in Cambodia, since the war there has been twice as long ago as in Bosnia...
I still don't know what to call it, show's how my English is getting worse each year because I don't get chances to use fancy words anymore like porch-erand-azebo. The landmines are nuts, and sometimes areas we think are fine, we'll cruise through a week later and see the whole area is marked with red signs, people evacuated. I have never lived anywhere like this before, the previous town we lived in was part of the Ho Chi Minh trail, and therefore heavily bombed the US Air Force. The danger there were undetonated cluster bombs, little things about the size of a golf ball.
Wow, that's a cool initiative for demining. When I lived in Colorado and was attending wilderness school, a popular summer job was demining. I can't remember exactly why, but the 10th Mountain Division trained there, and that were the guys sent to fight in the Nazis in mountain environments, so they built a training area there for telemark skiing, ice climbing, etc.
I guess one of the training areas consisted of laying land mines which were left behind. They paid $20 per hr to do the metal detector work, and many of my friends did it, but I played it safe and washed dishes for $10 an hour without hazard pay.
Here in Cambodia the HALO Trust is the NGO doing the demining, but they are underfunded, understaffed, and overwhelmed. Germany, the USA, the UK, and Belgium seem to be the most common sponsors I see marked on the demined areas. The demining here will go on forever because nobody knows where they were laid, so tragic, but it will likely keep certain forests of Cambodia safe from logging.
Ok that last picture now gave me an exact idea of it's not really that near, and the drop is really steep. In my mind was, jumping off your kitchen and immediately reached the river. Now it seems more like, if I jump out from your kitchen, I will have to make a couple of summersault before I decide if I can land on my feet or my head, or my back for that matter.
The distance view of the property is absolutely amazing. The veranda did come along nicely. I have a small imagination of the roof lining to be decorated with an artsy elegance apron.
Haha, that would be a comical but fatal way to go to the river. We are planning a wooden staircase down to the river, but right now only steep muddy paths exist. One missed and you going skiing on your butt to fall off a 2 meter cliff at the river's edge. I've already skied this slope several times while trying carry the water pump and hose back up the hill. It hurts the most going feet first on your belly.
Alternatively, may be can build this fire exit
I think the Strawberries will do okay there as long as they get LOTS AND LOTS of water. I was always surprised at the amount of water my wife dumped onto the Strawberry plants versus the other ones in our garden lol.
Man, the threat of landmines is crazy! It sucks that Ukraine is going to be filled with them now and another generation of kids from there will have to grow up with that threat ever-present...
The area where I grew up in Indiana was full of U-Pick Blueberry and Strawberry farms, but I never really understand what about our area was so special. We had sandy soil, cold winters, warm hot summers, and they were always grown in full sun. Having too little water will not be a problem here, if it's not raining, it's foggy.
The landmine stuff is nuts, definitely a huge problem in this part of the country. Every morning on the way to school I pass and am passed by demining convoys. I think in the Ukraine the situation will be different because of satellite imagery. I think there will be much more certainty where mines were placed and therefore easier to demine quickly.
Cambodia is a nightmare because so many different forces laid mines here, and nobody has ever shared any info for fear of prosecution. A little kiosk I used to stop at on the way to school has now been evacuated and marked for demining. I guess the owner will be thanking the lucky stars and sleeping elsewhere until his property has been demined.
Hi hi.. Justin.. wow.. hahaha.. the last photo.. I had to examine it really hard to see your lovely daughters... Your really growing strawberries? wow.. that means that the weather is pretty cool at your place. The view from the veranda is awesome.. Sitting there reading a book listening to water flowing.
The river is so far down that the girls are as small as ants from the porch. We bought a few strawberry plants a few months ago, but they haven't fruited since we got them. I have told my wife strawberries need several hours of full sun each day, but they are in a very shaded area, so I don't think they'll fruit, but at least it will be a good gardening experiment for her. Perhaps in better weather they may fruit.
I can't wait to have a hot coffee in the morning and watch the river.
In this case, I agree with you, because my younger brother used to cultivate strawberries on the roof of the house, the trees were in full sun and grew fast. However, I hope your wife will be successful in this case.
Full sun is the way, and back home in the USA local farmers seemed to like growing strawberries in very sandy areas, not sure why. Wow, where you live is a very hot climate I think, did your brother have any strawberry troubles with because of the heat?
Dude, that would be incredibly disappointing to come across a land mine on your property. Definitely a negative experience, that.
But it's great to see everything coming along! Awesome progress.
I hope it's not an issue because our land was deforested 10 years ago and then backfilled. I hope if there were any mines that all those disturbances would've detonated them. The rain hasn't stopped since we moved in, gonna be impossible to get some grasses growing in the mud if we can't get a break in the weather.
That's really a view I enjoy waking up to. I miss the lodge at Raleigh falls 😔. Oh well, there will be other trips.
Stay safe ya'll! Really disheartening to read.
When the rain stops for a few days, the water is really clear. It's absolutely incredible to live right next to such a magical place. Every day that I miss a quick swim is regretful.
Yeah you want to get the most out of it, as you deserve it.
Loving the progress on the construction @justinparke.
Looks like the project will be completed soon.
Loving the nature shots as well river, greenery etc.
It is such an incredible place to live, but not without our share of difficulties. Right now the weather is our biggest foe, but with more roofs comes more comfort. Thank you my friend.
It must be tough living with landmines in your midst. The damages caused by war are far reaching.
It's hard to believe how much work is left to do, and how many more years it will take. Landmines are such a danger and prevent development, but there are some tourism opportunities here despite these dangers.
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The kings? Do you mean King Sihamoni or king cobras?
They are common in the forests here, very scary.