Amphibious Excavator

An amphibious excavator is specifically designed to maneuvers in marshy, swampy and soft terrain.   It can also float on water like a boat and work on rivers, ponds and lakes.   Thus ideal for swap land clearing, river deepening, pond desilting, etc.

Amphibious excavator is specially designed with :

1. super long boom for maximum reach.

2. floatables pontoons with isolated water-tight compartments sealed with individual service manhole.

3. optional extendable pontoons to allow each pontoon to retract or extend outward hydraulically.

Nevertheless, its components are commonly available off the shelf from most excavator manufactures, i.e. Carterpillar, Hitachi, Komatsu, Kobelco, Mitsubishi etc.  

Brass Nozzle Sprayer

To blanket spray an open space or a drain, a bigger nozzle is required.  Brass nozzle for garden hose seems to be the best candidate.   

First, the nozzle is fitted into a rubber hose, of which is fitted into a 20mm polypipe.  The polypipe is finally fitted into a 30mm reinforced PVC pipe.   To hold the pipes together, a rubber strip from used tube is used to strapped the hose combination.

Albizia saman - Rain Tree

Rain tree is Albizia saman, more fondly known as its obsolete name Samanae saman, a tree originated from the Neotropics, range from Mexico to Peru and Brazil.  However, it is widely introduced to South and SE Asia, as well as the Pacific Islands.

The generic name Albizia is to honor an Italian nobleman Filippo degli Albizzi, who introduced Albizia julibrissin to the Europe in the mid-18^th century.  The specific name saman is from the Spanish word originated from South American aboriginal name zamang.

The name ‘rain tree’ was coined in India, due to the possible excreta of cicada inhabiting the trees.    It Hawaii, its known as ‘monkeypod’.   Its common name varies in different regions and different languages.

Albizia saman F.Muell. was known as by numerous synonyms :

·Acacia propinqua A.Rich.

·Albizzia saman (Jacq.) Merr. (orth.var)

·Calliandra saman (Jacq.) Griseb.

·Enterolobium saman (Jacq.) Prain

·Feuilleea saman (Jacq.) Kuntze

·Inga cinerea Willd.

·Inga salutaris Kunth

·Inga saman (Jacq.) Willd.

·Mimosa pubifera Poir.

·Mimosa saman Jacq.

·Pithecellobium cinereum Benth.

·Pithecellobium saman (Jacq.) Benth.

·Pithecellobium saman var. saman (Jacq.) Benth.

·Pithecolobium saman (Jacq.) Benth.

·Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr.

·Zygia saman (Jacq.) A.Lyons

Albizia saman is a wide canopied tree with a large symmetrical crown of up to 20m in diameter.  It can reach a height of 25m and trunk diameter of 40cm. The bark is gray, rough, thick, furrowed.  Its leaves are alternate, bipinnate with diamond-shaped leaflets.  Flowers are in clusters, pink to yellow, depending on its lineage.   Seed pods are long, 10-20cm long.  Seeds oblong, reddish brown.

The large crown provides a nice canopy, thus often planted in parks.  It can also planted in row along road shoulders.  Yet, the large branches tend to break off.  The vast root system also often found damaging roads, drains, pedestrian walkway and buildings.

Bananas of Johan Setia & Kg Jalan Kebun

Johan Setia and Kg Jalan Kebun are 2 Malay kampungs south of Klang.  The main economic activity is still non-other-than agriculture.  Almost every household plants something at their backyard.  There are some smallholders planting oilpalm, pineapple, vegetables, fruit trees and other cash crops.

Banana are widely planted as cash crops.  A wide variety of banana can be found in makeshift stall along Jalan Johan Setia and Jalan Kebun selling fruits.

 

Phyllanthus acidus - Cermai

Cermai is the fruit of Phyllanthus acidus, also known as Malay gooseberry, is an exotic local fruit of the tropical Asia.  

A cermai tree can grow up to 10 meter in height.  The leaves are ovate, alternates, light green in colour.  The flowers can be male, female or hermaphrodite, small and pinkish in clusters on the branches.  The fruits are pale yellow, waxy, crisp and juicy, with 4 – 6 seeds.

Cermai is cultivated mainly for its fruit, which is very sour, thus seldom consumed fresh.  The cermai fruit is mostly used in cooking, pickled in salt, sweetened and made into syrup.  It is also consumed raw mixed in rojak buah, or pounded with sambal belacan and eaten with rice.    The young leaves can also be eaten as greens