Step by Step...

We've been promising photos of the construction of the second storey for a while but keep getting distracted! It has been happening and dear Kumari and Yashodha have had to put up with living in a building site for a while now.  Finally the bamboos are all in place ready for the roof and then we will be well on the way to completing our second storey.Bishnu is getting excited about moving in.As, no doubt are the cows.  And the bees.Yes, we have identified bee-keeping as another source of income for some ladies and after training and buying the required equipment, the bees will join the ladies up stairs. (The two cows have their own place next to our building!)  Apparently the bees need to be fed and taken to the jungle as part of their up keep!  Who'd have known?Kopila went to do a presentation about women's rights to an organisation in a neighbouring VDC and learnt about their bees.  She came back buzzing with excitement.Groan. Sorry. Couldn't help myself.Anyway, we are going to trial bee-keeping and selling honey as a way to provide an income for some ladies.Our building will remain unpainted for about a year as that is traditional and allows the cement to really dry out. This year's monsoon was not good enough to plant a lot of rice (which means it will be very expensive for us later ion the year) but was enough to flood our little block regularly!  A dampness and leakage problem that were a legacy from our original builder have been fixed by the new builder so we can start to think about colour schemes.....something subtle? Not likely!