Scorpions, spiders, ants, birds - and us

Poisonous Caterpillar

Keli just brushed against this lovely bug and had a painful reaction - even beauty in the tropics can be dangerous.

We awoke this morning to a family of pigs - mother, father, uncle and 8 little piglets - rooting around in our front yard, attracted by a bunch of ripe bananas and leftover coconut shells. 

So much is going on every day and no different than home: time is limited. Blogging is getting squeezed in.  The business is very different.  Thanks to the early risers around here that have been cultivating the vibration for getting an early start for generations and the coolness of the morning air, and... the beauty that shouldn't be missed just before the sun comes up, is the inspiration to arise early.  This is why though it is 8pm, it is also my bed time.

The solar power has not been working well and yesterday we had to light candles.  This is very nice and romantic at night, if you don't need to do much of anything, but during the day I rely on it for the laundry and a few other things we have etched out as necessary for living comfortably.

Yesterday was my day to really get organized and finally unpack all our suitcases, and this was great timing because herds of large ants carrying eggs had been nesting under every article possible.  So the whole day was spent taking everything out from top to bottom, we got everything in just before dark.  Unfortunately I had to use the vacuum on the ants as sweeping them was absolutely useless.  The vacuum uses power so I pushed ON as quickly as possible chased the necessary suspects and pushed OFF.  Then organize, and move the next article.  This was my day.

The mushroom spores are starting to grow and I can see the little round things growing, so qute.  
There have been many animals that are trying to share our home. Today the two birds which obviously have a home very near by decided to come on in.  I let them out through the opposite window, they didn't want to retrace their tracks.

In continuing to organize I decided that the cloths, work shirts and bags hanging by the back door should get a look through, just a hunch and I did find a big mama scorpion inside one of the shirts.  There were at least twenty-five babies on it's back. I left it there till Jim got home from town, then we took a few pictures and shook it into a bucket.  This is always a great source of entertainment around here.  We noticed several babies had been thrown off in the raucous so we watched and helped them get back to mama and carried it down the road away, far away from the house to find a new home.  When we got back there was a huge (palm size) fuzzy spider in the middle of the room.  He had to go too. 

I reflected on all this realizing it will sound gruesome and while I don't intend to deter people from coming it is part of life in the tropics and for all the scorpions I’ve seen, I’ve never been stung.  But I do maintain more alertness then I do when I’m in Sonoma.

The floors of the house and Yoga Studio are getting finished by Freddy our new prize winning carpenter who says he's 60 years old.  The floors are so beautiful, we are talking to him about fixing a few things in the farm house so guests will feel comfortable there.  It's all still a bit rough but "poco a poco" we are inching our way toward at least a nice dwelling for friends.