Around the Homestead

By Anthony:

First an update on Sara's painting around the yard:

This one isn't finished yet:

Second, an update on my fish pond. It's hard when I only do a post like this twice a year. So much has changed. But here are some highlights.

We tried to get the ducks used to the pond, but they wouldn't go in voluntarily, so we caught every duck with some running around and threw them into the pond. They were pleasantly surprised and really liked it! But then they were too stupid to find the ramp to get out on their own, so I had to catch each one with our fishing net which took a while. We think now that we are in the rainy season, the pond will fill up nicely, and they might be more willing to go in when the water level is higher and it's easier for them to get in and out.

Here is an already old video of the fish feeding. You can just catch one of the catfish in the video. Nowadays the catfish lurk on the bottom and I never see them unless I happen to catch one. They have grown quite large.

Here is my friend Federico catching a catfish.

Some of the tilapia are much smaller than others. Some are decent size. They have already begun reproducing, so we have very small fish in the pond as well.

We have eaten fish a few times so far. We had deep fried whole tilapia for Sara's birthday.

I have to say it's pretty great being able to fish so easily. I'm becoming addicted. If I get tired of being inside doing computer work, I can do some quick fishing for 30 minutes, and then come back in. It's so fun. One challenge is that it turns out the fish are really difficult to catch. I think this is because they have been getting overfed on the pellets we give them. So they don't always want to eat other things. But we are cutting back their rations a bit. They also eat the plants in the pond and the insects, of which there are many.

We also get uninvited visitors to our home like this edible rat (we didn't eat this one - our dog Caleb killed it - but we have eaten it before), a scorpion, and an Egyptian cobra that our night guard killed. Thankfully the dogs didn't see the snake or they might have attacked it and been bitten. (Sara says - "But just so you know, this is the first scorpion we have seen in Uganda and the first venomous snake we have ever had in our yard after 10 years living in Uganda.")  Even while I'm typing this post, Sara just took away a dead bat from one of the dogs. Never a dull moment!

Here is a dead snake that Sara found jogging on the road. This is a puff adder. 

Some critters that we do like include frogs and lizards, like this agama lizard that I caught. And we still have some chameleons.

And we like our pigeons:

But we like our dogs best. And we got a new puppy, Finn! Caleb is getting really old (he is 11) and we wanted to get a puppy while Caleb is still alive. We are busy trying to train him. Unfortunately he was really scared of people when we got him, and it's taken weeks before he would be okay being petted, or not run away from us. But he is now warming up to us. He loved the other dogs right away and he constantly pesters Caleb and Beorn to play with him.

Our house functions also as a warehouse for all kinds of farm equipment, and for books. We just got another great gift of books from Christian Book. They temporarily get stored in our house while I get in touch with various bishops to come pick up loads to give to their church leaders. This is just after unloading the vehicle.

I miss playing drums. I played quints (tenors) in high school marching band. So I've been dreaming for many years now about how to create a set of quints out of local African drums. And I finally got around to it with the help of a drum-maker and a carpenter in Soroti and with Sara's sewing skills.

We had lots of visitors over Christmas time. At one point we had 3 different people staying here in the guestroom and two different makeshift rooms.

Jilanne is a missionary in Kampala, also with Resonate Global Mission as a partner missionary. She stayed with us for a couple weeks and she and Sara painted this world map.

Here are pictures of "white ants" (flying termites coming out to mate), that Sara got on her jog.

Another big update: We got solar installed! We are not completely off grid, but it's a huge change. Putting it in was tricky but no one got hurt.

The solar is a game changer for us. It means - No more dropping from zoom meetings from random power outages, no more shaving with a flashlight in the dark, no more security lights being off around the house, no more electronics getting destroyed with inconsistent power from the grid, no more ice cream melting and refreezing many times, no more 90+ degree nights in our bedroom with the fan suddenly turning off, and we can actually talk on the phone any time (our network is so weak here, that we have to use a powered booster to talk on the phone in our house). And much more besides.

Not from the homestead but last, here are some photos from our travels, including some from staying on the Nile River.

A day care of nightmares: