Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Poor puppy... and other things...
Yesterday we went to a small town across the lake to purchase a bit of clay from a potter. We brought a bit of the dirt from the forest here to her to see if she thought it would be good to use for clay.
Her family was kind and everyone felt the dirt to see if it was good, and they decided it would be fine mixed with a different dirt, one that had more plasticity, and they mixed us up some to take home.
And we bought some clay from her too. She has cool bowls and plates - hand made and fired in her home, then hand painted and sold. Totally friendly family. They told us where to buy dirt in the future to make our own clay, and told us the price to expect so we won't be charged more because of our gringo-ness.
So if we have friends up for Earth day, we can make something out of the earth! I have been looking up how to pit fire stuff. Could be fun.
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Sad news last night though. We came home to find Contreras with a head the size of a basketball. She likely encountered a rattlesnake.
We went back to town today to pick up some meds for her. It surprised me that they recommended a diuretic, but because rattlesnake venom is bad for kidneys, supposedly it will help a bit. They also gave us penicillin and anti-inflammatories. She will either live or die in the next few days... unclear what the outcome will be. But right now she is calm and totally out of it, so that is good I suppose. If she lives she has learned not to pounce on rattlesnakes.
Pobrecita... =(
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We have begun planting in our anticipation of the rains! There are thousands and thousands of seeds to plant, tons of nopales to spread throughout the property, a drip irrigation system to install for our tomato garden, and many other things to do before the rains come. Pressure's on! It should be fun. We have done a garden inventory to see what we have to work with. Many of the seeds will just be planted out in the forest, good luck to them. Lots of trees this year! Hopefully cedars will begin growing here again. Many coralines, some nut trees, citrus, etc. We harvested the seeds from the maguey plant that flowered this year - thousands! Hopefully some will grow to be giant plants.
----
And I have discovered I live in a bird sanctuary! The bird-enthusiast who visited inspired us to put a bird bath to be put into use. This morning there were a gazillion different birds hanging out. And two days ago I saw my first trogan - do an image search on google. Totally cool looking bird! And it makes a sound that is similar to the honk of a pig. Strange.
It is kind of impressive how many types of birds are here. Not a bad place for them to live. Lots of bright colored flowers and water baths, tons of trees (obviously)...
----
The webpage is functional now, with some minor things to fix. We have put a listing in for wwoofers, and we hope to get a couple of long term wwoofers or volunteers this summer during the planting season. Maybe even a friend of mine from NC! Who knows... plane fair is super expensive, unfortunately. We shall see.
Her family was kind and everyone felt the dirt to see if it was good, and they decided it would be fine mixed with a different dirt, one that had more plasticity, and they mixed us up some to take home.
And we bought some clay from her too. She has cool bowls and plates - hand made and fired in her home, then hand painted and sold. Totally friendly family. They told us where to buy dirt in the future to make our own clay, and told us the price to expect so we won't be charged more because of our gringo-ness.
So if we have friends up for Earth day, we can make something out of the earth! I have been looking up how to pit fire stuff. Could be fun.
----
Sad news last night though. We came home to find Contreras with a head the size of a basketball. She likely encountered a rattlesnake.
We went back to town today to pick up some meds for her. It surprised me that they recommended a diuretic, but because rattlesnake venom is bad for kidneys, supposedly it will help a bit. They also gave us penicillin and anti-inflammatories. She will either live or die in the next few days... unclear what the outcome will be. But right now she is calm and totally out of it, so that is good I suppose. If she lives she has learned not to pounce on rattlesnakes.
Pobrecita... =(
----
We have begun planting in our anticipation of the rains! There are thousands and thousands of seeds to plant, tons of nopales to spread throughout the property, a drip irrigation system to install for our tomato garden, and many other things to do before the rains come. Pressure's on! It should be fun. We have done a garden inventory to see what we have to work with. Many of the seeds will just be planted out in the forest, good luck to them. Lots of trees this year! Hopefully cedars will begin growing here again. Many coralines, some nut trees, citrus, etc. We harvested the seeds from the maguey plant that flowered this year - thousands! Hopefully some will grow to be giant plants.
----
And I have discovered I live in a bird sanctuary! The bird-enthusiast who visited inspired us to put a bird bath to be put into use. This morning there were a gazillion different birds hanging out. And two days ago I saw my first trogan - do an image search on google. Totally cool looking bird! And it makes a sound that is similar to the honk of a pig. Strange.
It is kind of impressive how many types of birds are here. Not a bad place for them to live. Lots of bright colored flowers and water baths, tons of trees (obviously)...
----
The webpage is functional now, with some minor things to fix. We have put a listing in for wwoofers, and we hope to get a couple of long term wwoofers or volunteers this summer during the planting season. Maybe even a friend of mine from NC! Who knows... plane fair is super expensive, unfortunately. We shall see.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Spring!
Wow. It has been awhile!
We have been busy busy.
Our first event happened! It was perfect. All the attendees were wonderful people who contributed much. I did all the meals, with much help from my kitchen team:
We did well with buying about the right amount of food for the amount of people we expected... but only half our RSVPs showed up. Oops. Oh well, lots of food leftover to give away to people who live nearby.
And so with all the build up to the event, the event itself, and decompressing afterwards, life had been a bit hectic.
Back to normal! I will continue working on making the website great, and we will begin planning for the next few events.
-----
We went to explore the Malpais (bad lands) on Tuesday. The malpais is an area very close by with lots of volcanic rocks, and therefore a different sort of ecology then here in the forest. The goal is to map the area a bit so that it is more easily explorable by visitors to the lake area. The entire place is covered in windy trails, and there is a spirit who tries to make you walk around in circles and get lost (or so they say...). Had we not had a GPS... well, it is very smart to go there with a GPS or a map, or a *very* good sense of direction, which I do not possess. It was very pretty and different! And made for a nice hike. We discovered a grove of Eucalyptus trees, and tons of magueys everywhere and bromiliads hanging in the trees and other cool plants. I brought my camera and an extra battery, but no memory card, so no photos.
-----
Yesterday we had a couple of birder visitors. "Birders" is apparently the term for obsessive birdwatchers - they were very impressive! One woman knew the name of every single bird she saw, and she probably identified over 20 birds that she saw in the short time she was here. One was even a "life list" bird for her, which means she had never seen it before and will now add it to her (likely very long) list of birds she has sighted. Good news for this forest! It is a natural bird sanctuary, and probably a great place for birdwatchers to come visit. Kind of a fun hobby... I am not sure that I care about the names of all the birds, but it is cool to watch them through good binoculars. And easy, too. Most of the birds we saw were spotted from the terraza while we were eating dinner.
-----
And today we have another visitor coming up. And lots more around Earth Day, hopefully. Things begin to come together.
We have been busy busy.
Our first event happened! It was perfect. All the attendees were wonderful people who contributed much. I did all the meals, with much help from my kitchen team:
We did well with buying about the right amount of food for the amount of people we expected... but only half our RSVPs showed up. Oops. Oh well, lots of food leftover to give away to people who live nearby.
And so with all the build up to the event, the event itself, and decompressing afterwards, life had been a bit hectic.
Back to normal! I will continue working on making the website great, and we will begin planning for the next few events.
-----
We went to explore the Malpais (bad lands) on Tuesday. The malpais is an area very close by with lots of volcanic rocks, and therefore a different sort of ecology then here in the forest. The goal is to map the area a bit so that it is more easily explorable by visitors to the lake area. The entire place is covered in windy trails, and there is a spirit who tries to make you walk around in circles and get lost (or so they say...). Had we not had a GPS... well, it is very smart to go there with a GPS or a map, or a *very* good sense of direction, which I do not possess. It was very pretty and different! And made for a nice hike. We discovered a grove of Eucalyptus trees, and tons of magueys everywhere and bromiliads hanging in the trees and other cool plants. I brought my camera and an extra battery, but no memory card, so no photos.
-----
Yesterday we had a couple of birder visitors. "Birders" is apparently the term for obsessive birdwatchers - they were very impressive! One woman knew the name of every single bird she saw, and she probably identified over 20 birds that she saw in the short time she was here. One was even a "life list" bird for her, which means she had never seen it before and will now add it to her (likely very long) list of birds she has sighted. Good news for this forest! It is a natural bird sanctuary, and probably a great place for birdwatchers to come visit. Kind of a fun hobby... I am not sure that I care about the names of all the birds, but it is cool to watch them through good binoculars. And easy, too. Most of the birds we saw were spotted from the terraza while we were eating dinner.
-----
And today we have another visitor coming up. And lots more around Earth Day, hopefully. Things begin to come together.
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