Somewhere in Yunnan, China
Somewhere in Yunnan, China
The Giants Republic 2024
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No more bus
On the last day of the year we sold our minibus. The bus played an important role in building up the Giants Republic. It did a lot of the heavy lifting like bags of cement and complete bunkbeds and many more stuff like a full load of succulents. It had the less glamorous task as well to transport all the waste from the place to the dumping station. But given the fact that soon, because of age, the bus has to go twice a years for technical inspection and the reduced need for a large transporter it was concluded that it became time to part.
End of year party
Cake
Cakes showed up in various forms from turbans with pearls to X'mas tree shaped pies to candy-apple/orange towers. Luckily Mark brought some Banana bread so we had something to eat as well.
Apart from fooling around with cakes people made milk tea on the woodstove, played Ping-Pong on a glass table and made a walk to the reservoir and picked strawberries. Meanwhile two ducks were slowly cooking in the drum BBQ and things were prepared for the usual BBQ to finish off the event.
Road, corn and strawberries
The road in front of the Giants Republic has been resurfaced. This made it much quieter at the GR because passing traffic doesn't rattle that much anymore. It should help to keep the dust down as well. The holes in the wall of the ditch are however still there also much more visible now in winter.
Apparently the corn harvest was good this year. Lots of work for granny to make chicken feed of it.
Strawberry season already started in November. Granny sits along the road to attract customers to come and pick them.
Return to the Giants Republic
At the end of November, after a three and a half month absence, we returned to the Giants Republic.
Our kale plants just outside our compound had been looked after by granny and were doing very well.
Inside the compound the spiders and plants had taken over.
During the time we were away the batteries of the electronic door lock had run down and the door could not be opened. Luckily we had access to plenty of tools to help us break in.
While we were away the electricity had switched itself off and that resulted in a freezer and fridge full of spoiled goods. The stench was huge and both units needed a thorough cleaning.
At home
Stuck at home while my foot heals.
Time to attend to some outstanding issues like learning to play the clarinet and finally painting the last roof cat.
The landlady sent me a picture from the Giants Republic to show that the first kale is ready. Granny has been looking after it.
One wrong step
I crossed the street in order to get a new picture from the entrance of the Giants Republic, after they removed the big sign of the furniture factory. When making pictures, cars passed by and while stepping away from the road I ended up in the 50 centimetre deep ditch on the side of the road. Because of the overgrown I hadn’t seen that a part of the ditch wall was missing.
Midsummer Pie & Pizza party
Not realising yet how bad my foot was we went ahead and held our Midsummer party.
Because I hadn't done any preparation after my fall the day before, the gang of three had to come early to prepare the party.
Just after having set up everything it started to rain and for the rest of the party it drizzled on but our rain screen was up and holding out.
Despite the rain we managed to bake five apple pies and many pizzas. And in addition we had our traditional BBQ, slow cooked ribs and duck.
Apple pie
During this time of year we usually get a lot of apples from the apple farm of Xu Ying's family.
These apples are very suitable for making apple pie.
At home I make them in batches of four because that just fits in the oven. Then we give them away to family and friends and they ask how to make Dutch Apple Pie. So we had a training session at the GR.
Pizza
Rain season
Solar energy
The mystery project is of course a complete photovoltaic electric power system.
Solar energy grew quickly from a small gifted panel with a garden party light to a system that now powers the entire Giants Republic.
The system grew from 0.037 to 0.56 to 5.17 square metres. From unknown wattage to 100 Watt to 1100 Watt.
The inverter can pump out 5KW and the batteries can sustain a daily consumption of 4 KWH. Anyway in summer this looks to be enough to live off-grid at the Giants Republic.
Midsummer
The mystery continues
Well if you connect the dots it is not a mystery and you will know what is happening at the Giants Republic.
After party
Niece Jin Lu Jie married two weeks before and gave a BBQ party for all those who helped during the wedding.
Old and new friends
Old friend Melody came over from Qingdao with a friend and two kids to join us for a day at the Giants Republic. Good opportunity to dust off the three-wheeler and the pizza oven. While having fun with the three-wheeler they found lots of mulberries on the ground and made juice out of that.
The final touch and more
Painting
Below the Giants Republic is an underground river and the ground floor floors are therefor always damp. In one of the rooms we had a vinyl floor cover but the dampness got trapped under that and it became a breeding ground for black mold.
Black mold is not healthy so we ripped out the vinyl.
Now we try with a special floor paint including an impregnation layer.
We ordered light brown paint but dark olive green paint arrived so we used that instead.
And some slightly more creative painting; the two panels that, once combined, should form the first of my "Milky way" paintings.
Passion
Right on time the passionflower started blooming at easter and quickly produced fruit. The flower in the small picture below first grew inside the pizza hut but then came out again through a gap between the boards.
Windmills
It is spring and colour is returning to the landscape.
During winter the only colour was from the two strings of windmills crossing the courtyard.
These strings have now been up for one year and the colour is bleaching out of them. The wire is getting rusty and now already several times the strings broke and had to be repaired. Clearly this is something that cannot continue forever.
Spring
Spring has come and the plants in the garden show it.
We went to the Giants Republic on Chinese New year’s eve with the intention of going from there straight to the traditional family banquet that evening but it turned out to be so cold that we called it quits and went home at lunch time. It was 4 degrees.
A week late we went again and winter was over, it was ten degrees warmer and spring had stared and we could do some spring cleaning in reasonable comfort.
Preferred kitchen
Especially during the winter season the pig shed kitchen with the woodstove has become our preferred kitchen.
Sausage
A new experiment is to make sausages. These sausages were made at home and dried overnight at the balcony.
The next day they were cooked and smoked in the drum BBQ. First try nearly successful. The only thing was seriously over cooking the sausages.
Burn out the old
The flame spreaders of the old gas BBQ rusted through and disintegrated during the New Year’s BBQ thus replacements were needed.
Hammer in the new
New flame spreaders were made of some recycled metal. In this case the metal cladding of the old door of the third pig shed.
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