Post typhoon forest

I took a stroll to the forest early in the morning after the typhoon. On my way there I could see many trees had fallen down and houses were messed up and people were out cleaning and fixing their homes and the streets. So I feared the worst. Actually kind of hoped the worst, something like wouldn't it be nice if all the trees in my plot had fallen down so I didn't have to cut them myself...?
When I arrived in the woods, the path leading to the forest plots had become blocked by fallen trees.

First glance. My untouched plot is in the back on the left side 

A closer look

I had to walk to the other side by stepping into the Mr. O's flat field. I'm sure he doesn't mind.

From the other side

So now I was getting hopeful. 25 cedar trees in my "bamboo" plot. Surely half should be down?

Broken trees

Of course, I was also thinking that with all the bamboos and the other trees so tight together, the typhoon must have turned into a pretty weak wind. So only the trees in the edges are fallen. Not in areas protected by bamboo groves...Anyway, moving on...

Oh no... the path cleareth

Just as I suspected. Deeper inside the woods the trees had been protected. I passed my "untouched" plot, and then Mr. O's fruit forest plot (well he just planted 4-5 saplings this year)

My bamboo plot is straight ahead

Hmm... looks like all the cedar trees were still standing

Some crap in the path, but the plot itself is pretty clean

Yep, all the trees are still there.

The trees weren't even half the width of some of the trees I saw broken on my way there. The wind simply didn't reach them here. Maybe another good sign that it's a good place to plant trees. Or maybe once I have cleaned out the surroundings, it will become exposed and vulnerable. Who knows. I should keep a balance I suppose.

Bamboos

The remnants of the shredder were still there as I had left them. The bamboos I had gathered in the north were all there still, more or less. Only now there are more because some had fallen over from north side plot. Oh well I was gonna cut those down anyway.

Froggy still here

That's it. On my way back to the path I saw many of these green tiny frogs in my bamboo plot. Plus a few of these green bugs that I don't know what it is.

Looks like a civilized cockroach

I hope either the city or Mr. O clears the path next to his plot soon...

Mr. O's plot

Right now it's pretty tough to pass... demotivating especially for a lazy ass such as myself.

I don't dare walking near those

To conclude, here is an attempt to "panorama" the blockage...

Photogenic.

Panning to left a bit

And more...

Turning around...

...end of panorama swipe

Mambo Nr.5

Typhoon nr 15 came and went. Strongest in many many years according to the locals and the news. The garden made it through though, luckily the only veggies I still had going were the tomatoes which have all fallen down. Otherwise, the mess after the typhoon is hard to distinguish from the mess before the typhoon. The only change is that all the small pine trees are now leaning trees.

I will probably just cut them down some day soon anyway

Easier to pull out the roots now I suppose

The chicken run door was wide open. But thanks to my good craftsmanship the chicken coop door had held. The only thing was that the chicken coop's roof rubber cover had blown off, so the narrow and long opening between the roof's two halves had become exposed, letting the rain and the wind into the coop. Poor chickens were terrified and a bit wet but still ok in their coop. I let them out and gave them food. Very slowly and hesitantly they came out and forgot all about wind and rain as soon as they saw their food. I fixed their roof isolation. Other than that, not really so much damage. The saplings all made it through, and so did the trees and bushes. The walnuts had started to lean just a little bit but I fixed that by pushing it back into place and stump a little on the soil on one side, and then tied the whole thing together with a bit of rope. The passion fruit trellis had fallen over but thankfully there was a wall behind it so it didn't fall all the way. I fixed it back. Good thing it had already dropped all its fruits.

The passion fruit started to wrinkle

I think the passion fruits were now ready to eat, so cut them open and they were super tasty. A very nice comfort after the bad typhoon.

Juicy and sweet. Hope to get many more next year.

Passion falling

The passion fruits are falling off one by one all by themselves. They are still very green when they fall. I looked it up and I am supposed to let them ripen after they drop.
The fruits are very fragrant and the longer I wait the stronger the perfume. The cats are extremely interested too. Not sure if it is because they think these are balls or toys, or if it is the smell. But they are there all the time when I am not looking and playing around with the fruits. Dropping them to the floor and rolling around with them and biting them, although they have maybe fifty better toys.
So I put the fruits in a net and hanged them in the kitchen. That way they are still out and can dry/ripen/whatever with air flowing around them and not too humid so they mold. Hopefully it is somewhat cat proof too.
Only after less than 2 days, the fruits started turning a nicer color.

Slowly turning from green to red, like a traffic light

The last one fell off the branch 4 days after the other 2. Here is what they looked together, almost 5 days after the first two dropped. The two old ones are deeper red, and the new one can show the color progress in such short time. Still the skins are smooth so now I have to just wait until they start wrinkling.

This year's harvest

It is only the first year. I heard from my colleague that from second year onward when the tree becomes bigger it yields much more fruit. I just need to protect it from the frost so it doesn't die like the one last winter.

Summer Sweet

It's good to know at least one or two good fruits come out of my garden each year...

Egg next to it for size comparison

I waited and waited until all signs of ripeness where there. The color of the pale part was just perfect, the little twig thingie next to the water melon was all dried out and dead, and the sound when I tapped it just right. And then I removed the Mickey Mouse net that was protecting it, noticing that it had grown a lot in size since I covered it, cause it barely came off... and then with ease picked the fruit. Water splashed from the branch it was attached to.
It felt nice and heavy, thanks to the constant recent rain...

Yummmy

The whole water melon was extremely juicy and I couldn't eat it without spilling a lot. As for taste, it was extremely sweet and good in the middle, maybe equal to the size of a couple apples, ok sweet the rest of the way where it was red, and no taste where the red color was thin. Unfortunately the not red part to the shell was pretty thick.
It had also lots of tiny seeds. But no big deal.
The next day I was coming back from feeding the chickens when I noticed the other big melon had cracked open, I guess because it had grown too fast. The net had still protected it from most of the bugs but maybe a handful had found their way in and were feasting on the goodness.
I gave that whole fruit to the chickens. They had a blast. It was a very hot and sunny day and they enjoyed the cool and juicy water melon a lot.

Stuck

Amazingly my complaints did work, and the company I bought the shredder from did send me the big brand new impeller part for free. In fact (although I think that was a mistake on their part) they sent me 2 impellers.
Great, I took a trip to the woods and started taking apart the shredder to get to the impeller. It was not an easy task.

impeller is the black thing in the foreground

There was no way around it. I literally disassembled the whole thing to reach the center part with impeller. After it was done, I had to remove the blades from it, but the thing had rusted and warped so badly that I had to break a ball bearing to detach the damn thing.
So.. next week I will be buying a new bearing and then put the thing back together with the new impeller and blades again. That is if I remember in what order they were put in the first place.
I keep telling myself that I don't really need the shredder and that I can burn or let the bamboo rot. That is positive thinking, to keep me from going insane every time I touch the machine from hell and something new breaks.

Show me your melons

Interesting... the watermelons seem to just pop up instantly out of nowhere. I cant really see any gradual growth in size. One day there is a flower, and the next day there is a watermelon. OK, OK, I see some change in size but nothing big. If the fruit was tiny when I found it first, a couple of weeks later it is maybe 3 cm bigger, but still tiny. Same deal with medium size ones etc.
So the first watermelon I found has now kind of stopped growing and instead started shriveling so I figured I should pick it cause it will waste the plant's energy and focus.

tiny, cute shriveled up thing

Now there are 4 watermelons left and maybe 4 more female flowers with potential to be pollinated. All 4 fruits are much bigger than the first one. Let's see if they grow more and prove my pop-up theory wrong.

this one is kinda heavy

I stopped worrying about the civet eating these, cause I put out a trap in the garden, and also I wrapped 3 of these watermelons in nets to protect them...

Not as big as the one before, but bigger than the first one

When it is not raining too much, I water the plants, and there has been a lot of sun so I expect some edible fruits...

Watermeloncoli

The watermelon flowers got pollinated and the nearest bed to the house is full of green, big leafs with that typical shape.

Just had sex

Still very tiny. Compare with the ant to its upper right

While taking the pictures above, saw one that had been growing in hiding...

Taking shape..

And just a couple of days later, it looks like this

Mini mini water melon

Here is the whole bed

And there is another tiny water melon 

There are a couple of mini tomatoes also growing in the same bed... not that I planted them there but after last year they just pop up every where like weeds.
Really looking forward to seeing how far the water melons get. But there is this worrying thought in the back of my head... Before I had a chance to harvest, the first big tomatoes as well as almost all the corns were eaten up by the civet who seems to see my garden as its own buffet by now. As you remember it started by eating the eggs, and attacked one my my hens and almost killed her. Now that I keep those locked up, it has started eating fruit and veggies. It did have its fun with my strawberries too. I can only see how it eats the watermelon too just before they are ready to pick.
The fencing and netting can hold most animals away but the civet seems to not get the point, and is doing real damage now.

The first tomato that is not stolen yet

So now I got myself a trap and put it in the backyard. Hoping to catch the thief/murderer...

It's the biggest one I could get. 1 meter long.

I put a banana, a tomato and an egg in it.