Planting Corn

                                              Keli standing under a 2 year old breadfruit tree.

Today Oldemar started working with Freddy, and between my non-existent Spanish, and the egos involved, there has been a chaos (as Freddy put it) of communication and who is supposed to do what where, and who is supposed to listen to who.  Jim is very comfortable in uncomfortable situations and so with his ease i am eased.  But my Spanish has to improve or I'm a dead duck.

The corn patch that Oldemar made is almost finished, for the record of future inquiry, i am going to use this blog to record different things like planting times, the time it takes to do certain things and so on, so that we can refer back and have a log of information if we need it.

It took Oldemar about two days to cut and clear the brush and clean to the dirt level.   Today the third day he started adding the cal and gallinaza (organic fertalizer) to the soil.  He would have finished if he didn't start helping with the construction of Freddy's work site. That would mean that preparation and planting of say 25X25 foot area takes about two and a half days for someone who is experienced with the ways of life here.  It looks great.

Food is really much better if we can get it from the farm and it seems ridiculous to buy bananas when we must have hundreds of banana trees on the property.  It is just a matter of going and finding the bananas ready to cut down and carrying them here.  Not a simple task with out a horse and saddle.  And our saddle isn't ready yet.  And also it seems that much of the time there is not a bunch ready.  Then when they are ready fifty come ripe all at once.  Anyway we try to adhere to eating truly local food as much as possible.  Eggs are another thing.  We don't have a  chicken coop yet and the egged from the store of course are pumped with antibiotics and/or go rotten very quickly so i am asking  Oldemar and Raul to bring eggs when they have extra.  Raul's sister had eggs and today we got 18 eggs individually wrapped in torn newspaper.  It was very sweet.  We pay 100 colonies at the store for eggs.  We have been giving Raul and Oldemar a little more than that when they bring eggs from home. 

It's the afternoon.  We just had lunch and Jim is fast asleep.  I'm glad. Today he was nonstop and i just thought I'd note his day.  He got out of bed at 6:00, I'm not even sure he had a cup of tea.  It seems like such a long time ago but yes i guess he did.  I got Oldemar started on clearing the patch for the work site he was going to work with Freddy on, but soon after that Freddy and Oldemar were at the door together with conflict.  It was the beginning of a full day of going between Oldemar and Freddy until Jim just took over the job to work with Oldemar on the  new temporary wood workshop, and that way they don't have to work together. By lunch time Oldemar had stooped work for the day and was sitting with us explaining how crazy Freddy is.   Oldemar wants to work full time here.  And i am wondering if he will be able to shift his perspective to embrace all the different people he would encounter here. Both Jim and I like a wide variety of people and hold a special place in our hearts for all the eccentrics. That includes us.

By 8am, Jim met Raul and Andrea up the road to pick up the bamboo.  (The first year we were here we were offered the opportunity to buy a huge field of full grown local bamboo for forty dollars, and we have been using it for all our shade structures) They tie it piece by piece to the truck and drag it all the way here.  

Then, at the same time, the truck with the 'road rock' showed up and Jim was shoveling rock and getting the road work organized while going back and forth to check on the Freddy, Oldemar situation which needed maintenance. 

I was a  able to squeeze in a fruit smoothie for Jim at around 9:00am.  That is too much work out in the Sun with no food.  I know he loves this work and loves working hard but it's nice to see him rest. And just as i am finishing up this little story, a huge thunder bold surprises us, Jim wakes up, I'm running for the clothes line and he is going for the drying rack where our first batch of especially fermented cacao beans is drying. Then back for the rest of our much needed nap.

Awakened from a soft slumber. It's only twenty minutes since i wrote the last sentence and we are hearing in our sleep the second big truck coming for the delivery.  We forgot that there was a second delivery coming.  They have to come in small trucks so they can get down this country and often muddy road.  There is half a ton of sand that has to get shoveled off the truck, one hundred cement blocks, and many cases of tiles.   Usually the truck is arriving when we have several helpers around but now there is no one.  Jim is down there and i guess i will go help shovel just because i can't just sit here while he is doing all that work when he is stone tired.  Ahh, Freddy helped too.

Some more time has passed.  The unloading went smoothly.  The whole bathroom will be made out of cement mixed by hand since we have no grid power out here.  Both of us were amazed at the amount of cement and sand that were ordered by Carlos.

Now it is 4:30 after a little more rest, some tea.  A small diversion of capturing the beauty of this amazing moth/butterfly that was on our window.  Jim shined a flash light  on it and it has glowing blue spheres in it's wings when the light is on it, and a striking design, that looks like two open round eyes on it's wings...

And finally, music practice.  It is incredible that we will get in our music before dark today.  I actually took the second half of my practice up to the Studio and practiced there for the first time.  It was very peaceful and the view is romantic. Afterward, a nice walk down the driveway, i could hear Freddy blasting the music on the radio in the farm house with Spanish romance music, and as i went from the studio, past the farm house to the church house,while hearing the children playing up above, it actually felt like a little bubbling community out here in the middle of nowhere.

The topper for the day was the phone call we got from Jim's dad.  His sister Mary is in the hospital and was in a coma earlier.  This is big news and we are definitely waiting to hear more about what is going on with that.

We end the day with Jim doing some work on the computer and i am organizing my music lessons to go onto the computer.  It's 7:30 and ideally we should be in bed in an hour.

All this and i didn't even mention the three fantastic meals we had.  That is a whole other subject and is definitely an artistic outlet.

Yesterday a friend asked me how is it going and what i am doing and sometimes i have a difficult time answering that question. So i got inspired to try for blogging  in a day, and so... this is how the day goes by.  Every day is different.

Getting Acquainted

Freddy and his amazing traveling tool box

Yesterday was Monday and the day before was the first Sunday that we slept in and so we are getting into the schedule here on the farm little by little.  Freddy, the carpenter that will finish our house, also arrived with all of his tools. Very cute travel system, I’ll try to take a picture of his especially redesigned shopping cart with a metal locking lid. Very organized and full of things to the brim.

Last night, Willie, the only other gringo from the area, came over for dinner and Freddy joined us.  I guess it was our first party. The main topic was about the environment and the locals.   Willie speaks very good Spanish and knows a lot more about what is going on around here between the people.  The more time we spend here getting to know the politics the more we sense, and feel the different sensitive undercurrents, social behaviors, and politics that are important to understand.

Oldemar is a young man who is working for us helping to build a little greenhouse.  He is the only person we have hired from around here to do farm work who can build standard things like bamboo rain shelters (which everyone has and is part of life here) that lasts for more than three days.  He has an artist’s flare and likes to do work that interests him or else he will sneak off and go take a nap in the grass and then lie about it.  We wanted him to assist Freddy last time we were here but he wasn't around so when he showed up looking for work we were pleased. 

Well, it's late - about 6am.  I woke up and actually got out of bed at 5am just to have a few moments of quiet to myself before the bustle of the work here commences.  We are working to finish the farm house, the Yoga Studio and the new house all at the same time, to be ready for guests in the summer.

It's 12:30 now.  Oldemar did a fantastic job and finished the green house.
With the guest volunteers coming this summer it might be possible to implement some creative projects to help educate people regarding caring for their environment.  I know Willy and the realtor who sold us this property are interested in being a part of some movement to help the locals understand the necessity for change.  Although Rolando thinks the adults are too set in their ways and we will have to aim for inspiring the children.