The last few days, we’ve been having a bit of car trouble; we were driving back home and the fuel warning light came up.  Of course, we didn’t know what that meant so Gnome had to phone up the Toyota dealership to ask them about the light.  This is what he was told over the phone: get a new fuel filter, get a car mechanic to install the fuel filter and then get the mechanic to re-set the warning light.  This is what Gnome did: get a fuel filter, do a Google search on “how to install a fuel filter” and “how to reset a warning light.”

There was enough information on the Internet for a Gnome, without any car mechanic skills whatsoever, to install the fuel filter.  We would ordinarily have just paid to get it done but this time Gnome said to me,

“…wait a minute…between the messing around with a mechanic and paying for it, maybe it’s just easier if I have a go at doing it myself.”

And so he did.  His conclusion was that generally car stuff is quite simple and straight forward and if you actually take the time to read up instructions on the Internet, you can generally get it done yourself.  He did say as an after thought:

“…I’m talking about car stuff…not medical stuff…there are too many people who get on the Internet to make a self diagnosis and get it wrong.”

That for true, I can vouch for that!!  Too many people using Dr Google!!

Anyway, with the car thing, I am really glad that Gnome works with the philosophy of self-reliance and he’s not afraid to learn new things all the time.

Okay, so what’s happening on the farm?  Well, we have some new harvests.  This is suriname cherry which has a lovely resinous taste.  I have taken a picture of one pristine cherry because we seem to have something that is biting holes in all of them.  I can’t spot what is causing it but I think that we have a problem with ants.

Some nice cayenne chilli  peppers.  Gnome has strung these on a string in the kitchen to dry.

Oh, and these are canistel.  They taste like sweet potato; we actually eat this with our meals as a carbohydrate substitute.  Our tree is loaded this year! Yay!!

Ooooh…it is really punishingly hot right now!!  Try to keep cool everyone!!

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