A Personal Note

The newest member of the Borders family arrived on July 3, 2008. Michael Jacob arrived after only 6 hours of labor, got to be a first for a first baby. I was expecting a normal 24 hours of labor, being called every name in the dirty name book, screams, shouts, swearing, etc, but things went quickly and Jen never once called me a bad name. After 1 month now, things are going fine and Michael is progressing nicely. The nightly feeding at 12, 2 and 5 are getting a little tiring, but we know that will soon give way to a restful night of sleep, for us too.
Things are going slowly for some of our projects. We want everyone to know that the overall project is comprehensive and will take time to complete, well not really complete because it will be ongoing. The Mini-Sawmill will be operational in a week or two, and then we get the Farmers Association started making organic fertilizer from the sawdust, after we get a pig farm started. Fr. Vic and I have discussed locations for all the future components of the fertilizer process, but have not come to any conclusions yet. The gas station is approved, and now we need to start the process of filling to road level the area where the pumps will go. That will take a while, since we’ve estimated a need of 9000 cubic meters of fill.
With the new baby, I don’t get a chance to add to this blog as often as I should, and I hope that everyone will be patient and keep checking back for additions.

A Vision for the Future

One of the last things that Jen and I expected to open was a saw mill, but as we write this post a mini-sawmill is indeed in the near future for St. Christine. After much consideration and reflection we have decided that a saw mill is needed here for the benefit of the area. We have talked to many who believe a sawmill will promote development here, such as housing, furniture shops, and boat building. Sometimes it’s so hard to decide what is best when your heart is set on a future of development. We really want things to improve in our community and from what many have said, a saw mill will help. The saw mill will be located along Coastway road near the fishponds and will employ several contractual workers as the need develops. We hope that this will help a few of our residents to earn a decent living while supplying lumber for the various needs of the community. We plan to integrate this operation with the Farmers Association by using the waste products as organic fertilizer for planting operations that they will be conducting in the near future.

Coming Soon

Help is on the way for our fishermen in the Lianga area. For several months Jen and I have pursued a franchise with Phoenix Petroleum to place a gas station in St. Christine, including gas pumps on a floating dock on Diatagon River. It is our hopes that this will reduce the expense to the fishermen as well as reduce the time it takes them to refuel their boats. We are nearing the last steps before construction and we hope to be open this year. We are dedicated to helping our community grow and develop and we hope that this will be a sign to others to do the same.
Mark and Merejen