Monday, August 31, 2009

3rd Quarter

I got notice that my Leo Rat horoscope for September is ready for viewing.

There had been no vacant time, with so many things going the past weeks and months even. We just didn't realize how busy we were because we were seeing friends, farms and travelling a lot. But inbetween and through cellphones, yes, now I realize that we did a lot.

My horoscope reads now (I rarely read, I am just waiting for a download that I decided to surf) that we will be more busy! I guess its about turnover of previous work done.

We are working on plans for our move to the Araneta Center for a centralized location. Provincial bus terminals, buses to pier, major cross for train stations, variety of shopping around, accessible from all points and we will have a more secure and larger parking area.

Our shipment of new Certified Parent Stocks is arriving soon....and we can't wait for our new lines to be available some 6months from now.

Shows, seminars, travels...seems all are in September.

The last day of August, a holiday....I am sitting in the coffeeshop of the hotel I frequent in Vigan... earlier I was around walking and looking at trinkets :). Ilocos Sur visits are my time away from time.

Oh yes, aside from work....my social schedule for September is also full. Is it because of age that you decide you all want to see you kinder friends?????

September W/ Ka Lui

You must know Ka Lui (Tabing) of Sa Kabukiran fame from DZMM (every Saturday and Sunday at 4:14-5:30am).

He is holding a seminar on September 6, Sunday, at about 2pm at AANI Quezon Memorial Circle.

Doc Rey is invited to give a talk on Raising Free Range Chicken.

Hope you can join us :)

Friday, August 28, 2009

Natural & Conventional

Opposite poles attract. Everything has pros and cons. No one thing is solely right nor wrong. Everything has its benefits. Total different ideas and practices may meet.....Those are some things we learned over time....experience dictates so.

Andry and Doc Rey are BOTH...take note, BOTH Pisces Horses. Both born in March and in 1954. The worst combination for my Leo Rat! Jojie and I are so different from Andry and Doc Rey, but then again, the four (4) of us are all so different from one another.

But, experience led us to the wisdom that the differences should help one another and everything is doable as long as the doer accepts it....so let's give everyone the choice to select what they want to do...for it to be doable and sustainable.

Remember when we all first met. Both men had their eyes closed. Maybe it was Jojie and my chit chatting that made them realize that they had to listen as they had no choice being thrown in that company.

They both realized that natural farming has to know, listen to conventional practices. Same with Doc Rey, he just had to see reasons and outcome to accept the natural farming way. Even if you don't practice...JUST LISTEN and be open. Later, you will find you way into it also, w/o realizing it. Because eventually you will see the logics and the whys.

That is what happened. Natural farming and conventional practices may and SHOULD be merged. There will be practices in poultry management or in all aspects, that we can't throw away.

Classic examples are the followers of natural farming. They attend Andry's seminar. When they go into Sunshines, there may be problems encountered. Brooding most especially..then hygience when they don't follow the spraying of the IMOs properly :)

Most who attended both Andry's and Doc Rey's seminars separately do better...because they are able to merge and select.

Lately and when possible...Andry and Doc Rey are present in one another's seminars. Even when silent, they both know that they can both count on one another. When technical questions arise..the ones that you don't just read on...Doc Rey can show the light. When the natural feeds are asked...oh...Andry has the floor, dancing around.

Bottom line is...for natural farming enthusiasts...you can't throw away conventional and scientific ways. We need both and all. Knowledge about both will give you a larger picture to play color or edit :)

Bohol Schedule

Updated September 09.

Nope, it doesn't mean our schedules got knotted....

It means, we are scheduled to go to Bohol! Never been there before and looking forward to some rest and recreation, of course after poultry management seminars :)

September 21, Baclayon, Bamboo House - POSTPONED

Since we have a host, I think seminar is FREE and outsiders may attend.

Will post further datas.

We have been requested by host to delay schedule for a further date because the one of the hosts wants to attend the seminar but will be out on Sep20-23. Will update once settled :)

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Ultimate Taste Test

Some people go through tough tests. Some, we opt to go through. Others are just showered our way, much like blessings in disguise :)

I ran across an Ultimate Taste Test, wherein food companies are invited to showcase and they will be rated by guests.

Well, here I go again....who will cook? But, I think I like to take this up. It should be fun :)

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Best Weight To Grow

I had just been asked "What's the best weight to get a good ROI"?

I replied...Let's start with what your market wants and work from there.

Easiest to give first what the immediate market wants and see how you can work around that. That way, the market is around you and no need to transport nor spend for information campaigns far and wide :)

As you are getting known, then educate them and introduce the weights you want. That way, you will give them options too.

Timing

Why are we fully booked these past days and the coming weeks?

You guessed it! The BER months are here and it is perfect timing to grow now for the December-January festivities.

We ourselves have to load. Every week Doc Rey had been preparing to brood, but we always run out now. He will surely put his foot down soon and just reminded me to prepare for Agrilink 2009.

Liliw Durian

Nakakaaliw when I saw native Durian as Davao knows them.

After a lovely lunch at the place of Jonathan and Marlyn Polistico, we went around town to look at footwear...Liliw is footwear capital.

We can't believe our eyes when we say mountains of Durian at PHP50 per kilo. Wow, that is cheap. It was exactly like the Davao natives.

Our tourguide, Tita Pilar told us the story of how her uncle brought back some seeds from Davao where he worked. He and a brother (the father of Tita Pilar and Marlyn) planted in the mountians and was successful in propagting Durian. They shared the seeds with the other Liliw folks and that was how Liliw now reaps Durian in all its glory.

That was started in 1930 with a few seeds. Another lesson known from before but reiterated by this sight....plant and plant and you will reap.

Let Liliw be known for Durian too! Zac Sarian featured it today and we hope noses get led to quaint Liliw.

Changes

I feel so bad about my lack of time to post the past weeks. Going online is a means of keeping my sanity when I have to relax, so when I started this blog, it was nothing new but more exciting. Mix of play and work!

So many things kept me away from the site. I will say a balance of work and play...makes you want to live forever.

I was toying on the idea of changing truck wraps for the chickvans. We had changed logos and the truck wraps had been delayed in changes.

Well, what I can't decide for...God decided for me. Last Friday, one chickvan figured in an accident. Moral of the lesson.,...do not drive when sleepy! Lesson #2, sometimes it may be cheaper to get a new one rather than repair a truck that had served well already and will cost a lot to bring back to excellent condition. #3, while going through the phases of releasing problems...take time to relax.

On the way home..we thought about eating Camaro at Everybody's Cafe. Exit Mabalacat, and we had a very filling merienda cena. Next stop was at Susie's to get Tibok Tibok and Mochi.

Fretting about who was to drive for the hatch tomorrow....then we realized that we just hatch every once a week starting Thursday. We had fallback postions, but God makes you play your own games first....He saw that you obeyed first before questioning :)

Be open to changes. It happens for reasons.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Duku Lanzones

Been so busy with work and relaxing...with relatives, friends and alone :)

One of the friendship trips we did was going to Laguna, Magdalena and Liliw. No chickens, no chicken talk...just eating and talking.

I did both beside this Duku Lanzones tree. It was the sweetest and easiest Lanzones to eat for me. The origin was from Thailand. It was easy to open, hardly any latex so not yukky to handle. Seeds were not bitter. It was sweet but had that bite of a Lanzones.

Literally, I stood by the tree while chatting with friends. When we had to walk further and away, I spotted another tree and stood by there!

Little did I know that Zac Sarian took pictures of me in several phases of my studying, tasting and eating to my heart's content. I hope he doesn't play on me and publish those unguarded moments.

I now see the importance of planting and planting. That farm we went to was just heaven with all the various fruiting trees and coolness the shades brought.

Exotic fruit trees are available at Teresa Orchard, Teresa, Rizal. We will carry these trees in our new location in Cubao.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Use Your Senses

Tonight Doc Rey was in a farm to check on brooding. When he got there late in the afternoon, he asked that additional heating source be added. Not contented with what science suggests, he set to eat dinner and decided to stay longer. The sky was dark and the wind was starting to blow stronger.

Again, do not be contented with the suggestion of 1watt per bird during brooding. Observe and use your senses. Your eyes and ears will tell you if the chicks are comfortable and contented.

Remember....they need enough heat, but equally important - they need fresh air that circulates. Let the fresh air enter and exit, not just circulating inside that becomes stale.

In cold weather, like tonight, do not put curtains or wrap the brooder's walls....instead, add source of heat.

Think of installing wind breakers :)

Wind Breakers

Planning to plant living fence or trees in your brooding/ranging area?

Having them as wind breakers may be a good idea, aside from the fact of course that they will be productive in terms of fruits, lumber, fragrance, medicinal etc.

How as wind breakers? Observe the direction of the wind and plan planting to break the strong winds.

Why install wind breakers? Instead of putting curtains in the pen, that inhibits proper air circulation, wind breakers will do the job. That will be good for your brooding/ranging area so your Sunshines will be protected. Also if the farm beside you sprays pesticides, you will be able to cover your farm :)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

No Obligation

We did a seminar yesterday in Greenhills for a private charity of an individual. She gives livelihood then buys back the chickens to sell, to help her chosen groups. Mostly resettlement areas, a major Television/Radio network liked her projects and had done similar ones. Their respective projects are in place now, but they want the employees to be more aware.

They have partnered and Mrs Private Charity will now purchase network's harvests too.

We got several calls for this free seminar and we accepted some to join. Sadly, I turned down some as I was embarrassed to decide to announce it when this was supposed to be a private seminar.

Surely the network's foundation's liasons were there. Mrs Private Charity's employees were there. But guess who were most excited and came with photos of their farm? The blog readers who walked in after requesting attendance :)

They were not obligated to sit in, not directed to be there...and most of all, not tasked to take care of chickens.

As we say, in everything you do....you should love it passionately!

Thank you that our blog guests were included in the merienda. Thank you, but no thank you, to the seminar fee being given to Doc Rey. We love what we are doing and the seminars are not our source of income. I asked that the "fee" be given to Mrs Private Charity's choice group.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Cleanout

Rainy days cleaning...

Two (2) straight hatching days, we fully booked and didn't leave any for retail in Fairview. To clean out and clear. Inventory zeroes out and time to take stock of equipments.

Same with our Organika's stocks. We didn't stock the freezers last week. Only to realize that our stocks are not enough and it means we have to add freezers to have more supply of dressed chickens on hand.

Clearing and cleaning makes you see what has to be done to improve :)

Thank God Its Friday

Three (3) weeks from now, starting Aug27, we will be hatching once (1x) a week. We added manpower and decided to hatch weekly. Trial basis for several reasons:

1) We get stressed on logistics for 1day in a week :)

2) Hatchery open/close is lessened and manpower is also cut by 50%.

3) We can do other things to improve.

It will get to get used to new schedule...all hatches will be on a Thursday soon. You get the day olds on Friday.

This is our answer to try keeping our costs down.

Nueva Ecija Seminar

Doc Rey had been invited to conduct a seminar in CLSU on September 07 at 8-11am.

Updated August 23:

When: September 07, Monday, 8am
Where: University Auditorium, Central Luzon State University (CLSU),
Munoz, Nueva Ecija
Who: Doc Rey
What: Raising Sunshine Chicken

FREE seminar...see you there.

Friday, August 07, 2009

Can You Guess What's New?

Do you hear that on the Jollibee radio ads running now? They are introducing a new product and was teasing the listener if they can guess what it was. I like their ads and taglines. Bee happy.

We are bringing in new strains/products, to add to our present line of Sunshines. ADD, not change nor remove. It just shows we thought about our moves from the start and saw that right decisions were made. So no need to change....ADD yes. To give you choices, all of which are up to our standards.

From SASSO of France, again another right choice....we will be bringing you something new.

Can you guess what it is?

Landslide

Sounds like how you'd describe the outpouring of emotions or how the results will be :)

I may always talk in figures and ironies...but this is literally a landslide. I don't know how to save pics from mms sent to my phone but its on the news....a portion of Caranglan in between San Jose in Nueva Ecija and Sta Fe in Nueva Vizacaya, was closed to traffic because the can't clear the landslide. Four (4) hours of work is erased, or rather surmounted by 10mins of rain :(

Doc Rey left Santiago after lunch so he has time to rest in Manila before proceeding to Cavite for a seminar in the Capitol. Getting a call in the afternoon about closed traffic sounded like a delay. It was good...I was out with friends for the evening!

By 3am, the traffic was not moving...it spelled YIKES. It meant that I, yes moi....was to give the talk for Sunshines. Never did this happen. Give me a cooking demo even if I didn't know really how to cook. BUT to have technical questions thrown your way................can't say NO WAY and not show up.

Armed with a power point that was the scratch work of the present one...good it was even left in my laptop....,I introduced myself and came upfront with the prospects of listening to me. Wehehehehe, took out my nervousness as I already told them of my situation. I was the marketing person...shoot me later with questions about where and how to market. But for technicals, may we set that for Doc Rey?

I sit in during seminars, so going through the power point was easy. The participants were great. Attentive and put me at ease from the first minute. You know from the start if you are OK with your audience.

At the end, I knew I made the right decision to go on with the 3hr trip...more like 4 as I was getting lost..maybe wanting to get lost as an alibi for not showing up! Maybe I didn't satisfy their questions, but they sure understood that we are very open to going back to Cavite again :)

Thank you to Harbest for hooking us up with their projects.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Dressed In AANI FTI

We are going to secure our booth at AANI FTI Weekend Market (behind Sunshine Mall as you enter FTI compound) to include poultry supplies and equipments. Backyard farmers find it difficult to go to poultry supply stores for their needs and we want to make it easier for them.

Since we are fixing it, we have decided to look into our requests lists from customers and we will be setting up a freezer there to accommodate the dressed Sunshines clients.

Yes we still deliver...but people do want to shop around and walk :)

Greenhills Seminar

A TV network's foundation is working with a private individual's charitable livelihood and marketing of produce. The turn around for projects had been successful and now they want to make sure they are doing the proper ways before taking it to a higher level.

In this light, they want their key people to learn how to raise our Sunshines, so they may re-echo to the recipients, at the same time, they will know the product they are marketing.

We are doing a seminar for that group in an office in Greenhills, on Monday, August 10 at 3pm.

If you are interested, call me at (0917) 847-2639...I am sure I can accommodate you to join in that FREE seminar.

Coming Up

People who want to alleviate others' plights, or the ones who thirst for knowledge....do still, or actually work more harder when it is least expected.

I got two calls today for seminars in their area. One in Batangas, the other one in Nueva Ecija.

Will post schedules once finalized. Looking at August/September time tables.

Both will be FREE as they are organized by LGUs.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

I Can Hear You

We thought it will be a long day, watching the funeral of Tita Cory on TV, the strong rains wanting you to have champorado and tuyo!

I had the luxury of staying in bed and watching TV. We unexpectedly got a rush of orders for delivery of dressed chickens. Surprising number. Maybe everyone wants to have a good roast or comforting steaming chicken soup after crying their hearts out.

Saw my sister Joy yesterday and passed by Tita Pilar, best friend of mommy today. Same verdict. Mothers planning on their last days say the same things and have parallel ideals. It is universal. Moms only go when they hear that "We will be OK".

When mothers talk, listen. All mothers only want the best for you.

What touched me most was how Kris spoke about the close in security of Pres. Aquino being family. It is not much about the supposed recall of the two gentlemen...because they can afford to get private security anyway. Kris spoke about them being always there and part of their lives, even at the lowest points. They were there even when the family wanted privacy. You can sense the devotion of that salute to Pres. Aquino after her security spoke during the requiem mass.

It is when you do good to the person who thinks they don't have a place, the ones that you do not expect from....you are sincere.

Her death came at a time when we need to rethink, reassess and focus. At a time that alliances are formed and regrouped....Use what was captured by the cameras. Feel for what you want and need. Most of all, listen....shhhhh

Monday, August 03, 2009

No Power, NoEffort

Recall Jojie's Crib.

This requires no electricity. Assembles like 1 2 3. Minimal cost. Easy to maintain.

Last weekend, Zac Sarian featured it in his Agri Page of the Manila Bulletin.

Read about it here.

Plant


If you enjoyed the pictures I have taken of our fruit bearing trees in the farm....more so for me!

The photos may have fed your eyes, but the taste of the freshest produce, picked off the tree and eaten is an entirely different high.

I remember Ka Pio say once that your harvest is the sweetest ones you may eat. Its not just because of the excitement and the work that went into your farm. But reality is, the best is the freshest. You lose the taste as it ages.....yes I agree, doesn't say the same for wine :)

Now I am on a rampage to plant plant plant.

The other week, during Agri Kapihan, I got Malunggay, Abiu, Chinese Gabi and Rambutan among other things. It has travelled to Isabela already.

How do I get to harvest fast? I forget all about it and get excited everytime I go around them. Next thing is....it is harvest time.

Take A Ride, Reinvent Tools

Constant change.... No, I wasn't referring to the CD of Jose Mari Chan that carries the song he set a melody to, for the poem of Ninoy for Cory :)

I meant constant learning. It is enjoyable to work with motivated and resourceful people. The ones that contribute and question then suggest. The type of grower who reads, asks and learns also on their own...THEN asks for clarifications.

From those types of farmers....WE ALL LEARN together.

This is a nice car....movable tractor.

Bamboo slat flooring. Posts and roofing are sturdy. You may lay nipa on roofing, or best is to have it under trees for insulation. The other ones had floorings close to the ground.

But there are several of these.


I like the mezzanine height for the bamboo slat flooring. The clearance from the ground allowed additional shelter for the chickens.

Am sure the caretaker just thought about the new design after building some and observing what he may do to better the design. Makes range rotation much easier.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Reasons, Cycles & Solutions

Unusual that I didn't post for eight (8) straight days. The rounds of seminars, farm visits, branch visits...our normal work..kept us busy.

In the week that past, I also had the luxury of seeing Ria while we were both in Vigan for work. FB told me she was somewhere in Ilocos, so the moment I checked in at Vigan, I texted her and we met for lunch, antique shopping and dinner. After about 2days, when we both got back to Manila, we met friends in high school for lunch and vowed to go for dinner next week. Sounds we are getting old and have the luxury to time now wehehhehhe.

It was my mother's last days here and we planned for the 40th day to go to Mass and have a simple dinner. Since I was in Vigan, I volunteered to bring Longaniza and Bagnet. For soup....I deliberated but thought...well maybe....

We are left with "a" or a "couple" of roasted Sunnies almost every night. True we can adjust the number...but we'd rather have the problem of surplus, rather than have an empty store early in the evening.

We can't sell it the next day, so we freeze it and eat it ourselves :) Thing is, we are in and out and I had some sent frozen to Manila.

I took a couple of frozen roasted Sunnies early in the day and asked the cook to slow boil it. It wasn't about cooking it anymore...but recycling to bring out a different flavor for the already seasoned and done Sunshines. From the soup stock, you know you had a winner. I had some sotanghon prepared and dropped them. Prepared on the side were fried garlic chips and freshly minced onion leaves.

First three servings went to the boys. Doc Rey of course will adore what I prepared...given! I was scared about my brother in law Andoy's Chinese pintasero food taste and dentist bar owner Gelo's reaction. Wowoweeeee!!! They both said it was great. Winner!

Andoy and friends are thinking of opening a restaurant and asked me about the chicken. I told them what it was exactly....our surplus that we didn't know what to do with. A restaurant can and should serve it several ways.

There was a reason for my thinking of what to prepare that dinner. It lead me to think and though about my stuff in the freezer :)

The resulting chicken soup was rich in flavor, simply good and it got rid of problems...:)