THIS WEEK our hens are producing!! One egg a day from our 26 first layers. Great excitement as each of our Homes shares out the first round of eggs to be laid! A further 27 layers out of our 100 hundred chicks are growing apace and will soon be joining those already laying AND already a further 100 layers chicks coming up behind. There will be EGGS galore in the not too distant future. We are very happy, although we still need to add more nesting boxes and perch sites. Little by little things are progressing, and finally we know we shall have a good little poultry unit really assisting in our little economy. 
Cottage side - the Allotment is also doing well. The entire plot is now under cultivation. In front of the Poultry Unit seed beds are giving way to individual growing areas, and then over towards Drakeley Cottage the maize is coming on well, as also the potatoes. All this development since July this year is changing the general look of the compounds a great deal - all for the better. A real face lift, which as well as improving us is also tidying us up, and making us more self supporting. All this activity has also attracted quite a lot of local attention and many wander in to have a look at how we are managing the land and the livestock.
On the same side of the road - the Jacaranda
Cottage side - the Allotment is also doing well. The entire plot is now under cultivation. In front of the Poultry Unit seed beds are giving way to individual growing areas, and then over towards Drakeley Cottage the maize is coming on well, as also the potatoes. All this development since July this year is changing the general look of the compounds a great deal - all for the better. A real face lift, which as well as improving us is also tidying us up, and making us more self supporting. All this activity has also attracted quite a lot of local attention and many wander in to have a look at how we are managing the land and the livestock.
ADDITIONAL BLESSING has come to us during this month with the advent of a litter of puppies. Now some weeks old, our FIVE little 'bears' are quite a handful, and Mummy is finding their inordinate appetite for food rather tedious and tiring. They will soon go over to more solid food and thus give her some relief. We shall be selling some and keeping some. All are pure German Shepherd.
THE PAST WEEK has been quiet - and wet! Yes we are told these are the 'Short Rains' though they usually occur mid-November rather than this early. Good for our gardens, but oddly they have ushered in a season of influenza probably due to the sudden drop in temperature. The Laholls, in Drakeley, the Yegos in Tyndale, and the Mulli's in Testimony are all having a dose! Also our Pastor who has handed over his Sunday morning Sermon to me, in order to give his throat a rest. Hallelujah. Good to be a 'back up' which really is what I am more and more becoming. Slowly I now begin to see the wisdom in taking a step back and away from the front row of Management. Daryl is going ahead well, and as he finds his feet as a CEO it is very interesting to see other key players in running the work learning to come to terms with a quite different personallity at the Top. It looks good! Thank you Lord.
TODAY the Primary Standard 1 Interviews have been taking place. Some 70 kids attended to do the Interview, accompanied by their parents. We have 70 places in Primary Class 1 (two Classes of 36 student places each) This has been a good turn out - and there will still be others trying to get in later. Each child is interviewed and also is required to tackle a short though comprehensive Test to assess their basic knowledge in the three Rs. At least half of these children will have been attending our own Nursery School previously, probably since they were about 3 years old. Those competing for a place in Class 1 Primary today will be between five and a half and six years old.
ELDORET remains crowded, busy and PEACEFUL. Bomb blasts in Nairobi and the shadow of the Somali Terrorist Groups such as Al Shabaab continue to be in the news, and in one sense this does bring some apprehension. But we are not currently anywhere near the real theatre of 'war' or even terrorist activity. This so far is limited to the Nairobi/Mombasa and North Eastern corner of the Country. The School children, nationally, are all in School, and the National Examinations are all either in progress or about to begin. Life is proceeding normally though still with stringent economies and privations in many areas and communities.
AND FINALLY THIS WEEK, an old Harry Furnis Cartoon drawn for PEARS SOAP in 1889
Apart from finding it amusing, I include it here because a few weeks ago I happened to find some Pears Soap on sale in Eldoret in our Supermarket. It has hardly changed in appearance from the day it was first made in England in the seventeen hundreds. BUT the ingredients have changed a little in recent years. I bought a cake of it, and have been using it. I have been quite amazed to find that it appears to have arrested a 'dandruff' problem that I have been suffering from for some years. I have tried practically every kind of remedy including some well known modern shampoos. No luck - until now...... SO I went back to get some more today only to find the whole stock has been removed from the shelves - no reason given. Ah well, I still have a little left of that experimental cake. After that is gone, perhaps I also will use 'no other'!!
God Bless you all, and keep you safe and witnessing.
John and Esther
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