The Animal Report

Tosh

Ashlee and Andy have a new puppy and is name is Fuzzy Nut. I wonder which of our beloved friends came up with that one. I am going to go out on a limb and say Andy. Actually the puppy belongs to one of the villagers' but he has started staying in Andy and Ashlee's gazebo so they have just sort of adopted him. Tosh didn't like it at first but and left home for a few days but is now back. He is a very friendly puppy and Ashlee says it feels good to come home to something that is happy to see you. Animals are not treated well by the people. That would be hard for someone like Ashlee who is such an animal lover to handle. That is why the animals come around their house a lot. Ashlee says it is kind of like the kids, be nice to them and they keep coming back. Andy's brother, sorry I am not sure which one, sent them some flea and tick shampoo and Ashlee washed him up. She said it killed about 90% of the fleas. His ticks were so bad they were between all his toes. It said on the bottle to shampoo for five minutes which Ashlee determined was physically impossible, but she did the best she could.
She was telling us about a parasite/maggot that gets into the laundry if they don't dry the clothes adequately before wearing them. They had gotten kind of lax on that until recently. She thought there was an infected bite on Fuzzy Nut's head so she tried to squeeze it to release the infection and she squeezed hard enough that a large maggot came out of the sore. If they do not adequately dry their clothes the parasite gets into the clothes and then buries under the skin. She said that her run in with the sore on the dog freaked her our enough to double dry the clothes. (Are we sure we are up for this trip guys?)
Ethel their chicken died. You can see the chicken house in the new pictures on the Fickr site or check this one:

Chicken hut

They now have a new chicken and they have named her Deep Fry since that is what will most likely happen to her in the end. Now that is keeping it real. Ashlee went to church on Sabbath and the benches that were built with the money donated by the Columbia SDA Church are finished and they will be done with the pulpit and chairs for the roster soon. The next project will be finish the floor and then bring electricity to the building.
The river is out and rising ever so slowing closer and closer to them. Most of their garden is coming up Andy had planted 6 new banana trees in their yard. It had been raining most of the week so they are pretty much house bound. Ashlee has been quilting and got a garbage bag of scraps from the tailor for 25 cents.
When Mom and Dad talked to them Ashlee wanted to know all about Carl Peterson (the Chief's GM that recently retired). She likes to keep up on the sport when she can.
An outbreak of Cholera has come into Zambia so they have been advised by PC on how to handle that with sanitation and chlorinating every thing they drink.
They are counting down the days until our visit. Ashlee has it marked on the calendar and it was only 136 days till we would be there for our visit.