Hello from Surigao City, Philippines

[Guest jamesmusslewhite]

I retired at age 50 and moved with my family to Surigao City which is on the Northern point of the big Island of Mindanao in the Philippines. Our son was accepted to 1st year Caraga Regional Science High School in Surigao City. It is one of the top High Schools in the Philippines. My wife is the Grand-niece of President Carlos P. Garcia and my son is his Great grand-nephew. We have lived in the Us for over 24 years and moved just before my son's 14th birthday. We wanted him to attend school here and learn about the Pinoy culture. My wife and son are both Dual-citizens, and we wanted to be able to enjoy the last few years before he is off to college. It is a good life here. We are blessed

We live in Sabang 3 just outside of Surigao City in a small but nice upper-floor new concrete construction house just 40 meters from the ocean. We see the ocean out the bedroom windows and mountains out the living room windows. We are accepted and feel very safe with the locals here. It is a nice safe small city with very friendly locals. It is only a 45 minute boat ride to Dinagat Island where the bulk of our businesses are located.

I am a retired Horticulturist/ Agriculturist, Texas Master Gardener, Master Propagator, and Certified Texas Horticulturist; and have been in this field for over 30 years in the Texas Gulf coast region. I also have A+ Hardware Certification, Novel CNE, and am working on my MSCE. I volunteer consulting work with the local Agricultural department and authorities in coconut, fruit, and vegetable crop production. To help introduce organic compost, planting and fertilization techniques to the local farmers. I will also produce natural fertilizers. This will allow local farmers to increase yields and minimize the fertilizer toxicity of their environment. To help minimize the impact on land, rivers, and mangroves fish breeding grounds.. It is a green, green business. We also plan to begin a small facilities for Saltwater and fresh water fish production. We will maintain our stocks and release our surplus fingerlings back into the ecology, which will help the local fishing communities.

We own a 6-1/2 hector (aprox. 18 acres) coconut and rice farm (1,200 Mature Coconut Trees and 2 hectors Rice and Caladium fields) on Dinagat Island which is 45 minutes by boat from Surigao City. The farm has three different fresh water sources, and is very fertile land. It produces 3 copra harvest and 3 rice harvest a year. We also have Mango, papaya, avocado, jack fruit, banana, calamandin, pineapple, sweet potato, cassava, and guava. There are several other varieties of fruits and vegetables. I am trying to fully convert to Organic fertilizer and natural compost, plus I am implementing square foot gardening techniques. I am consulting with the Philippines Agriculture Department here in Surigao Del Norte on the applications of these techniques.. I am well acquainted with Square Foot Gardening, having first seen it in Okinawa in 1984. I have designed, built, and maintained these types of gardens for most of my career.

I am designing and plan to build a facility to process quality virgin coconut oil and organic food production on Dinagat Island. I am organizing a small farm Co-Op of growers. It will maintain an easy controllable operation. I will be marketing coconut oil, and organic food products through a commercial internet site which I am presently needing to design. I have several different style commercial websites that I will be designing in the next year. I hope if I have technical questions about web design that I can get assistance from knowledgeable members on this forum.

[mudmanc4]

First off welcome to testmy.net, I am certain that i speak for the rest of this community in welcoming you.

Sounds as if you have lead a rich and copious life this far, along with giving to whichever community that you reside in. I light of that, you have found a place in which could be considered one of the most versatile internet communities, with topics that range from deep technical issues along the lines of coding, to the other end of the spectrum life elsewhere, and most everything in between. I'm sure you will be as much if not more if an asset to this community as the resources herein.

[Guest jamesmusslewhite]

Thank you for the warm welcome. I hope I will be a positive influence as well as be able to contribute to this community.