Don't Touch!

Don't touch!  That is exactly what Jay heard the other day while out fishing, to bad the instruction came a little to late.  Jay had the opportunity to get out on the Fly river to try his hand at reeling in a big one, while he enjoyed himself, he didn't catch the big one, but learned a big lesson (a little bit the hard way).
Finding his hook stuck in the weeds after a cast he stuck his hand in to see if he could free it, just too late, one of the national men that was fishing with him said "don't touch that plant it is poisonous!" After Jay quickly removed his hand John Timothy went about removing Jay's hook for him.
Nothing more was thought of it until the next evening when a blister began to form on his hand and what he had originally thought was a bit of a sun burn began to get worse!  Over the next few days the area of his hand that had just brushed up against the leaves in the river became very inflamed, blistery and sore.

Jay's hand after a few days of healing

We were feeling badly about what the other gentleman's hand must look like,  however when Jay saw him later in the week he was unscathed.  It helps to know what you are doing, he had avoided the leaves and only touched the stem.

Puts new meaning in the expression, "being rubbed the wrong way"!

Mel for the Marshes 

Budding Chefs!

I like our home school curriculum!  It has the boys doing all kinds of things as we study through the Eastern Hemisphere.  However one of our family favorites has to be the culinary delights the boys have prepared.  Each country we study gives the boys an opportunity to choose their own adventure and I must say the boys choice pick is also the cooking, as it gets them out of the classroom and around food!

Here is master dessert chef! when we were studying New Zealand Cater made us all some pavlova, complete with strawberries and cream!

The man who loves meat, cooked us up some egg rolls as we are on our way through a study of China, definitely a delicious  by product!

Maybe soon I will be able to retire!

Mel for the Marshes

New Pass Time

Okay first of all

NEWS BULLETIN

COCKROACHES CAN FLY!!!

I just discovered this as one came flying through my kitchen and landed with a thud, now they are even more disturbing

Now onto the real blog topic.  Row Row Row your boat;  the boys have been doing a lot of this lately.  One of the families here on station bought a dugout canoe and the boys have been spending lots of their free time out paddling.  At first we heard lots of complaints about sore shoulders and not being very good but they are becoming pretty proficient with it.  They have even packed up a picnic lunch to go and enjoy across the river on one of the islands.  

Truly a boys paradise: freedom, fire, and food! 

Mel for the Marshes 

Graceful Pumpkins

Look at that beauty as it hangs on the fence out back.  I don't think it will be quite ready for Thanksgiving pumpkin pie but we can be patient a little longer.
Now as some of you know, I have been trying to get something to grow here for a while, so it is a great thrill to look out at the fence and see not just one but two pumpkins getting fatter!
I have tilled, turned, rock picked, weeded, composted, and mulched.  I have started little seedlings and transplanted and must say my efforts have been mostly in vain.  For you see this pumpkin volunteered it's self out of the compost pit and grew with a fury.  For this pumpkin I did exactly nothing to get it to grow.  Once the flowers started to open I even went out and made sure the male and females had some contact, sad to say though, that fruit just shrivelled up and fell off.  So I gave up and decided since it didn't need my help to get started it maybe didn't need my help to finish.
Isn't that a picture of grace, something I don't deserve and can't even work for to get!
Mel for the Marshes