Durian season.
(Durian Tang: in Hokkien)
I sent some workers to the orchard on Sunday and started to trim all the wild bushes at the outer areas. There were some durians on the ground. After checking with the neighbouring caretaker, Ah Khoon, the durian season for this time will be late. Luckily for me the trimming work will take a few Sundays ( I am only free on Sunday, no work) On the 5th Sunday, we started to collect a few durians from a particular tree. This tree is named ,Ho wah Chen, as named by my second brother, Phee Ho, when my father was around.
The durian collection were in two sessions, one in the morning 6.45am and and another at 6.00pm. My wife and I would start from our house at 6.45am in the morning and after collecting all the durians we will rush back to the house by 7.45am. We will sort out the big and small ones and then we would to work immediately. The daily collection in the morning was from 20 to 100 during the peak time and in the evening almost 100 no or more for we have all the time to search for them until 7.30pm. My wife will not cook dinner when we go back late. Fortunately, my eldest son, Pei Yi was around due to the semester break. He is presently studying Civil Engineering in Kulim Polytechnic. He helped us to carry all the durians to the car. He commented on the toughness of this work. On one of his rounds, I could not reach home on time due to a meeting and he had to go with my wife and during this time he had to go up to the top of the hill and search among the terrain which had not been trimmed at all. He slipped a few times but was lucky for slight bruises only. Good training for him.
On one of the mornings after having completed collecting the durians back to the car, my wife and I decided to walk back to the end of the Orchard and to our surprise, we saw a guy collecting the balance of durians that we had missed. We shouted at him and he escaped fast into the bushes. When I returned to the orchard in the afternoon I found that he had a secret path among the untrimmed terrain. From now onwards, whenever we heard some movement in the hill, I would shout Leslie ( Name of the dog show on TV) hoping that he would understand my dog was around. Fortunately, we no longer hear the movements anymore.This means that he has left! or could be hiding among the unexplored hill top. My wife feels he can eat whatever he wants there.
A few days later, both of us felt the fatique and tiredness of collecting durians. Just imagine both of us office staff ( not so bad for me for I am in the construction industry) doing this. I would tell my wife to treat it as exercising,twice a day. Our hands started to get rough like those general workers, "Coolie" A few days ago I went to the EPF and was quite worried that the finger print scanner could not detect my thumb but luckily it did. The officer in charge was surprised and even asked what happened to both my thumbs
(Durian Tang: in Hokkien)
I sent some workers to the orchard on Sunday and started to trim all the wild bushes at the outer areas. There were some durians on the ground. After checking with the neighbouring caretaker, Ah Khoon, the durian season for this time will be late. Luckily for me the trimming work will take a few Sundays ( I am only free on Sunday, no work) On the 5th Sunday, we started to collect a few durians from a particular tree. This tree is named ,Ho wah Chen, as named by my second brother, Phee Ho, when my father was around.
The durian collection were in two sessions, one in the morning 6.45am and and another at 6.00pm. My wife and I would start from our house at 6.45am in the morning and after collecting all the durians we will rush back to the house by 7.45am. We will sort out the big and small ones and then we would to work immediately. The daily collection in the morning was from 20 to 100 during the peak time and in the evening almost 100 no or more for we have all the time to search for them until 7.30pm. My wife will not cook dinner when we go back late. Fortunately, my eldest son, Pei Yi was around due to the semester break. He is presently studying Civil Engineering in Kulim Polytechnic. He helped us to carry all the durians to the car. He commented on the toughness of this work. On one of his rounds, I could not reach home on time due to a meeting and he had to go with my wife and during this time he had to go up to the top of the hill and search among the terrain which had not been trimmed at all. He slipped a few times but was lucky for slight bruises only. Good training for him.
On one of the mornings after having completed collecting the durians back to the car, my wife and I decided to walk back to the end of the Orchard and to our surprise, we saw a guy collecting the balance of durians that we had missed. We shouted at him and he escaped fast into the bushes. When I returned to the orchard in the afternoon I found that he had a secret path among the untrimmed terrain. From now onwards, whenever we heard some movement in the hill, I would shout Leslie ( Name of the dog show on TV) hoping that he would understand my dog was around. Fortunately, we no longer hear the movements anymore.This means that he has left! or could be hiding among the unexplored hill top. My wife feels he can eat whatever he wants there.
A few days later, both of us felt the fatique and tiredness of collecting durians. Just imagine both of us office staff ( not so bad for me for I am in the construction industry) doing this. I would tell my wife to treat it as exercising,twice a day. Our hands started to get rough like those general workers, "Coolie" A few days ago I went to the EPF and was quite worried that the finger print scanner could not detect my thumb but luckily it did. The officer in charge was surprised and even asked what happened to both my thumbs
Tools to open durians
What fun with durians
On one of the nights, I gave some durians to my neigbour and suddenly his dog, rottweiler, snatched his durian and went back to his cage.Luckily, he took the durian back from him without any problem.
Accident in the Orchard
Luckily for me this season, I slipped only twice. Otherwise , I would have to go to the Kung Fu master for a massage. After the massage, I would be back to normal. The pain during the massage was very painful. I had to shout out loudly to during the sessions.
On one occasion, our Toyota LE got stuck in the mud and we managed to get it out.
End of the Durian Season
The number of durians collected for today is down to 20 only. My wife and I are very happy that it is almost finishing and the balance left is only the rambutans.Why do we collect the durians? Well, to give relatives,friends and also to show to the durian thief that we are collecting them and that the durians are not for them. In spite of the our daily presence in the Orchard, they still steal the durians but only those up in the hill.
Donation to the Homes
Last week, we donated some durians to the Salvation Army and also to an orphanage. The question they asked was from whomwere they from. The answer, of course,the Kang Family.
Other fruits
The mangosteen and jackfruits are also available during this season.will post some pictures later.
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