I started a post about two weeks ago while the girls and I were at the forest. It was our third week straight being in the forest (with weekend trips home). However I didn't finish the post and now it is old. So I shall rewrite what I wrote, to sound a little bit more current.
By our third week, the place was becoming more and more liveable. Having the house to stay in made a huge difference. Not having to sleep in the hut where you crawl up onto your bed where the roof is about 1 to 1.5m above your head is so nice! Having a place to sit and draw and play and do some schoolwork helped too.
I bought four red plastic chairs for $5.50 each which are really nice since they are light and easy to move around. We don't only have stump ends to sit on anymore! Then Ben made the table and a bench for upstairs which I think is beautiful.
And a shelf. I’m always excited when I get a new shelf and this one is particularly exciting. It is holding batteries which are attached to three solar panels that bring light and power to the place! We don't have to haul the batteries out every day to charge anymore.
The workers cleared under the house and next to the house.. oops, I should be saying Office, since it is the Community Forest Office.. but yes, cleared next to the Office, for the kitchen, wash area and toilet block. That is also very exciting. Then they dug a septic tank and poured the concrete pad for the toilet/kitchen/wash area block. They also poured half the pad under the building.
All four of us went home on the second weekend of mine and the girls three week stint at the forest – for three nights, and came back on the Monday morning. Our workers who were guarding told us they had seen the Silver Languars (the leaf monkeys) two times at the garden. So my first morning out there we all troop off to go looking for monkeys. Naturally we don't see any. The previous week I had seen my first monkey run across the road in front of our car. He was just a Macaque so not too exciting, but still the first monkey that I saw. So I went walking further and further to look for these monkeys (after ditching the girls at the house site where there is water to play under). The monkeys weren't where they were supposed to be. I kept walking up the trail and heard gibbons hooting, so kept following the sounds hoping to find someone up there. And I finally got to the spot where I knew for sure that the gibbons were on the other mountain. So I went back not wanting to cross country to the other mountain! And stopping to take little pictures of flora, since no fauna would come out to greet me.
Like this.
And this.
When I was taking the latter picture, I heard a scuffling sound and looked to my left and about 20 feet away, was this little guy.
He was busy getting bugs from the tree and didn't notice me for a long time. Then when he saw me he stared and stared. When I moved, he realised he should probably not be there and quickly scurried off. I wasn't sure what he was. Thought he was probably a civit cat but then I posted some pictures on the Natural Cambodia Facebook page and someone quickly identified him as a juvenile Yellow Throated Marten. So finally, I see something I haven’t seen before.
Here are some pictures of the place as it is developing:
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| View of The Building walking up from the creek |
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| The Bathing Spot or The Waterhole - slowly drying up! |
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| The Office |
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| Toilet Block in Construction |
