So .. into 2008 .. a year of mixed fortunes on the land and many other valuable learning experiences.

My return to The Gambia was delayed by a minor operation, a car crash and just the sheer pressure of Internet Bead Site work, until the beginning of the rainy season in late July. What was to become an ongoing battle against the various wildlife and domestic pests that are resident in the area, had started in late January, with flocks of marauding young sheep and goats finding ways of entering into the garden to gorge themselves on what is evidently one of their favourite snacks .. Cassava !!

Babucar, unable to be on guard 24 hours a days .. the usual method employed by the local farmers to combat this problem .. had somewhat prematurely given up and sold his Cassava crop, at more like the size of carrots, than if they had been left to grow to a many times larger maturity. Sadly not exactly a profitable resolution for all his hard work. Perhaps in 2008, after taking some extra preventative measures, the year's crop would have a better yield, both in crop size and his finances.

Enthusiasm for the land to look neat and tidy, taking over from adhering to my, "Please do not start any ploughing before I arrive" telephoned request .. and after the first rains, Babucar had started clearing and hand-ploughing the Cassava-less area a week before my arrival. Once again, forming the furrows up and down the land, instead of across, which I had previously explained to him would help to prevent the washing away of the topsoil down the slope and into my neighbour's garden.
Not all his efforts had been wasted, as he had removed over 100 more of the Mankanassa roots .. but some extra labours in re-directional furrowing might hopefully have improved his attentiveness !!

Luckily for Babucar, he only had to redo a smallish area to the left, which had been furrowed in haste and in error, thereafter making sure the rest was correctly furrowed in the right direction.

Hand cultivation using a traditional adze, was carried out in two sequences.
The first pass dislodges the surface weed growth and forms shallow furrows with the weeds on top of the ridges .. in the foreground of the picture above. The second pass, usually made a couple of days later, clears the dying weeds and forms deeper furrows .. seen to the right rear.

With the onset of the rains, the still sturdy but rust-brown fruit cage had been cleared to accept this season's vegetable seed planting and was sporting some interesting new conical growths. 

Having double-dug a few barrow-loads of local cow manure into the fruit cage .. with interaction from the rain .. a varied collection of quick growing mushrooms ...

... and attractive toadstools appeared as if by magic, virtually overnight.
But we decided not to risk eating them !!

The new rains had rapidly changed the area of woodland next door from a parched, brown-leafed environment into a beautiful green spectacle of fresh new growth.
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Perhaps this year, our farming crops would be much more successful .. we hoped.