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.
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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)...
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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.
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