We grow organic brown rice Kuya and Joy are busy getting last minute rice deliveries to Manila. This includes brown rice in gift packages both for folks to buy, and as gifts to the business owners. They are also buying gift baskets (with groceries) for the employees and farmers who work with us.
Ruby is back from going to her cousin's graduation in Korea, and will stay here for school break: She is teaching in Manila, but since the salary is low, is seeking an overseas job, preferably in Asia so she can visit home frequently.
She came down with a bad case of the flu, mainly sore throat and diarrhea, and low fever. It lasted five days, but she is now over it and luckily none of the rest of us got sick. Flu or covid? Who knows. Nobody is testing unless they are sick enough to go to the hospital.
Both illnesses are going around, and today's count shows 440 cases of covid in the Philippines, but no deaths. However, a news article notes that population screening shows that there is a lot of covid going around.
December 22 2023 DOH reported 557 new Covid-19 cases, 0 deaths, 318 recoveries 5569 active cases. 18.1% 7-day positivity rate. 235 cases in NCR. Projecting 500-600 new cases on 12.23.23 #COVID19 @dzbb @ali_sotto @AthenaImperial_ @wengsalvacion @DrTonyLeachon @DZAR1026 pic.twitter.com/jUQ9Rk1Y8k
— Dr. Guido David (@iamguidodavid) December 23, 2023
In other news: Lots of parties at the local Plaza every night...we live one block away, and so the local trash in the street is worse now, since people coming home from the plaza are dropping uneaten food and dirty paper etc in the street on the way to their cars which are parked all over the side streets near our house... So there have been more rats than usual.
So when my oldest Dog Gigi got sick, we took her to the vet who diagnosed leptospirosis. Sigh. She did get shots for this, but I didn't keep the dogs shots up to date after covid hit. The vet had our other dogs put on antibiotics just in case, and they seem okay but Gigi has died, and we buried her in the front garden.
Sigh.
The dogs have recently been killing one or two rats a week, which is bad news since we store our rice here.
we will have to put out poison again. But the danger is if the local feral cats or dogs could accidentally get poisoned...In the meanwhile, traps will have to do.
In other pet news, our white dog Baby had six puppies last month, and this time they all lived, maybe because this time she bred with the neighbor's dog instead of the dogs in our compound, who are related to her. When the puppies open their eyes and start wandering around, they will get moved out to the living room, and I'll try to put up a photo.
This time she had the puppies in the side room closet, next to Joy's room and when Ruby came to stay, she bit Ruby who got too close to her puppies.
We don't have any weapons for safety, but everyone has dogs for protection.
We have six dogs at present located in different parts of the property, which contains several apartments, guest rooms, storage room, a business center and a meeting room.
The dogs are medium sized (we no longer have George the Killer Labrador) but when three or four of them come in a rush and bark at you, they do frighten visitors.
I take them with me when I answer the door, for protection.
In other news: There is a Chicken Pox epidemic in town. The secretary's son has it and I warned her that her preschool child will probably come down with it by Christmas, which of course means no parties for them. The maid's teenage son has it too.
Lots of traffic going by the house, and in the evening lots of cars parked here for those going to the Plaza for partying.
