November 1, 2009
Hello everyone,
Sorry for now new post the last couple of weeks. Life in the village has been busy and internet has been hard to get. We are traveling for the next 3 weeks and will not be able to update this blog during that time. However, we should have a lot of fun things to share with you all when we get back.
Peace,
J.&A.
October 13, 2009
So today my wife and I made bamboo feeders and water troughs for one of our newest chickens. This chicken was a gift. Here is the story behind the gift…
About a month ago our neighbor came to us at night and gave us his last two young chickens. The rest in that clutch had all died. Then since that clutch he had yet another group of chicks and they all died. So having only these two left he asked if we could look after them for him and help them to survive. Shortly after that he has yet another group of chicks hatch. When they did we were at his house and he asked us to help them to survive. So I (j.wu) ran to our house and got a local woven bamboo “cock fighting” cage (which I had bought at the market for such an occasions as this), a water basin, some cloth mesh, and some rice husk. Soon we had a small warm, dry, safe, portable chicken brooder for his group of chicks. We put the chicks in there and then I got an idea from Above on how to make a self refilling watering trough. So yet again i ran and got some materials. This time it was some bamboo I had cut from the jungle, recycled 1.25 liter Soda bottle, and some wire. Soon the new chicks had all the water their little bodies needed. I later gave him a thermometer and a 25 watt clamp-lamp to keep his chicks warm at night. For the weeks that followed our neighbor and his family could be seen at night crowded around a little lit chicken cage watching the baby chicks play around. It looked as if they were gathered around a camp fire. And during the days, the grand daughter would often go around picking grass for them to eat. During those first couple weeks when most of the chicks in the village usually died, every one of our neighbors chickens survived (even a little runt which they thought for sure would die. This is pretty amazing and we thank the Lord for it because I have heard and read that on average the mortality rate for chicks in a village setting here in Thailand is between 50-80% (especially during this time of year which is raining seasons).
It has only been about a month since A. Wu and I have helped our neighbor with his baby chick management and now has over 20 healthy and growing pullets and cockerels running around, and more hatching daily (we helped him find a natural way to have his hens lay more often). This all has greatly multiplied his chicken flock which previously was only 1 Rooster and 3 hens. Pretty good multiplication in a month, eh?
So a couple days ago our neighbor he gave us one of his best little roosters from that very first batch that we helped him with. It is a beautiful little guy. This little rooster is at one month old the size of the average village chicken at 3 months old! And that is all natural! No growth hormones
My wife and I have really been loving taking care of our chickens. We really hope to be able to bless the people of this village soon with fresh eggs daily and the occasional roast chicken to celebrate life together.
This is my nieghbor's new baby chick brooder we made
October 9, 2009
We just got back to the village, however our internet connection is not stable right now.
We hope to have it sorted out soon. And when we do we will be blogging a photo tour of our home here in the village.
So we hope to ‘be back soon’
October 1, 2009
First of all, I have not been able to get that Dumb and Dumber scene out of my mind where either Lloyd or Harry (i forget) share about their dream business and open the conversation by saying something along the lines to “We’ve got worms”. Well, my wife and I are not Lloyd and Harry (even though many people have thought I look like a love child of Jeff Daniels and Matthew Perry… how that would work I don’t know.), but we have just gotten our first batch of composting earthworms.
Today, I went to meet with one of the foremost professors and practitioners of Natural Farming and Thailand’s foremost expert on Vermipost. Vermipost, for those unfamiliar with it is a method of using earth worms to make compost, which is markets as “worm castings”.
Anyway. I had a meeting with him today and took a tour of our worm farm and worm testing lab. It was Great! And at the end of the meeting I went home with 1 kilogras (about 2.2 pounds) of lively dancing earth worms.
My wife and I head back to the village soon and can’t wait to give these little guys (and girls) their own little vermi-condo to live in.
Pictures are on there way. And I will describe the why and how of what we are learning about vermipost. But for now, I need to get to bed.
I just did not want anyone to be left hanging there thinking my wife and I have tape worm or some other nasty tropical critter living inside us. So just to make the record clear. My wife and I are now new stewards of a kilo of earth worms.
We pray that these worms and the micro-organism rich soil they create can help to revitalize the soil in our village, which is pretty much dying or dead in many areas due to chemical pesticides.
Pictures are still forth coming. Please bare with us. We are new to this 
October 1, 2009
We’ve got worms! Blog about this coming soon.
You will have to believe us… this is a good thing 
September 29, 2009
"What does it look like to follow Jesus through sustainable stewardship in a community?"
Some of you may ask what this blog will be about.
The short answer is, “Well…we’ll see”
There are different directions this blog could go and some of that may be influenced by who reads it and why. One possible direction for this blog could be linguistic, cultural, or anthropological musings about living with the Iu-Mien hill tribe. Another direction could be a catalog of daily activities and interesting foods. And yet another, and the one we seem to be the most excited about at the moment is, exploring ‘green living’ in the area of sustainable gardening and farming. However, we are new to this and will be learning as we go. Hence the title “Green Greenhorns”
The reason this blog has been created has been to allow us to share our lives more fully with friends and family… as well as maybe throw out some crazy ideas about how to possibly Love God and Love our neighbors through sustainable stewardship of the earth and community.
My wife and I have many thoughts and ideas that float through our minds everyday which we do not have much of an outlet for at the moment due to the language barrier in our new village community. My wife and I are currently living in a Iu-Mien village south of the Golden Triangle in Northern Thailand. I am currently working on a linguist research for my MA Thesis, with the much needed support of my lovely wife (here in known as A. Wu). My research will focus on styles and forms of indigenous storytelling, and how these stories are passed on and what makes them memorable.
I hope you will all enjoy the journey with us.
September 1, 2009
My wife and I have been trying to have a blog for a while. However, life has kept us busy and we have wanted to do blogging right. However, like a little kid flirting with cold water with his toe, we finally decided to take the plunge and jump into the water, even if it was still cold. So here we are… official in cyberspace and typing off thoughts into the electric void.
