What happened to us in 2013?.....

Well, you don't have to worry.... we didn't get swept away by a rain swollen river, trapped up in the mountains by impassable roads, or eaten by local wildlife! Instead, we decided to temporarily decamp to a friend's farm by the beach in search of a little less rain, a few home comforts (like electricity, mobile phone signal & a washing machine!) and more planting opportunities.

So we spent May - November at Lago Bay, a beautiful Panamanian beach side property with big plans for residential plots alongside boutique agriculture, situated near to the surf town of Santa Catalina on the Pacific coastline.

The view of the ocean from the house

The dogs; Reisa, Rosa & Porky getting their daily exercise on the beach

 Ethan's main project over the 6 months was building outdoor furniture with an abundance of tropical hardwood. As well as creating beautiful, individual pieces of art, the bonus for Ethan was that he had a genuine excuse for expanding his tool shop. The day he came home with his first, brand new table saw, he was a happy man!

My main projects turned out to be planting fruit trees and starting a kitchen garden (well, 3 kitchen gardens actually, but only 1 lived to tell the tale after some serious grasshopper destruction!). I think we did pretty well getting over 500 papaya, 130 avocado, 50 cacao and various citrus trees into the ground in a 3 month period. Now the challenge is preventing the leaf cutter ants, flea beetles, leaf miners and caterpillars from decimating them before they fruit!

 

As well as creating, growing and planting we've also been enjoying the beauty of living by the beach with 3 gorgeous Rottweiler puppies and 6 chickens. And yes... I have tried to train both! My chickens will now very obediently follow me to the hen house whenever I have a container in my hand (whether food-filled or otherwise). Obedience from the dogs however is sometimes a little more challenging.

So 2013 didn't turn out to be the year that we had imagined, but whilst waiting for our plans up in the mountains to come to fruition, plan B didn't turn out so badly..... We continued to enjoy the beauty and warmth of Panama, learn more Spanish, pick up a few more skills (and power tools in Ethan's case!), make new friends and plant more trees in Panamanian soil.

2014 promises to be another year of change. In January, Ethan will return to Lago Bay to assist with projects ranging from aquaponics to moringa, while I have a new job at an International School in Santiago (about a 2 hour drive from Lago Bay). It will be nice to earn money again, but I know that my heart will yearn for weekends at the beach with my plants, puppies and spade in hand. And then hopefully at some point during the year, plans for the Mountain farm will again pick up momentum and maybe.... just maybe... we'll be farm owners by this time next year! We both realise that we're extremely lucky to live in such a beautiful country with such a plethora of opportunities and whatever happens... we'll be fine because life is beautiful.

Life in the mountains



So we’re continuing our journey of discovery, finding out what life is like up here in the mountains of Panama. The word that describes it most of the time is simply.... beautiful, especially when it’s not raining!

As rain brews....

 

The view from the house where we're staying, as the rain clears.

 

We’ve been exploring less on foot (thankfully!) due to the acquisition of a new quad bike and Ethan has learned this week that a 30 minute journey downhill to the river doesn’t guarantee an equally speedy return. (We spent 6 hours winching, pushing & accepting help from our neighbours in order to get it back up the rain torn slopes!).

 

Ethan has also been working hard to chop trees (with the aid of his new chain saw), dig up roots and start to clear a path so that we can actually drive onto the part of the farm which will hopefully, someday be ours. I’d love to say that I’ve also been helping, but to be honest despite returning home with clothes covered in dirt, I don’t get much done which may be at least partially attributable to my being eternally distracted by the wildlife watching us from the surrounding forest.

 

 

 

These black dots in the trees are toucans too. Really!



Ethan found this guy in a waterfall plunge pool. He must have been at least 1m long.

 

The house where we’re staying (at the complete generosity of Aristides, one of the neighbouring farm owners) is becoming increasingly full of homely, farm sounds especially due to the acquisition of chickens. Meet our rooster, Russell (because he ‘Crowes’ a lot), Jen the Hen (front left, purely because I like the rhyme) and Tina (behind, on account of her suspect ‘80s hairdo).

Accompanied by mooing cows in the corral when Aristides brings them up from the fields, we really do feel like we’re on a farm! And I’m slowly making my small contribution as my garden grows in plastic tubes, with the tantalising promise that one day we won’t have to buy our produce from the grocery store 2 hours away.

 

We do have amazingly kind neighbours though, who constantly bring us food.... whether it’s eggs from their chickens, pineapples from their gardens, cheese from their cows, mangoes because they genuinely can’t keep up with their tree’s productivity or avocados because that seems to be the going currency right now. People are also tremendously patient with us and our Spanish and as we chat more, we realize how hardy and amazing they are. Many of these families came up to these hills 20-30 years ago to claim land, fell some trees, clear some pasture for cattle and make a life for themselves and their families. That’s no mean feat when your mode of transport is a horse and the nearest town, grocery store or medical centre is a 4 hour horse ride away.

As rainy season fast approaches life here gets a little tougher too.... our neighbour (a mere 2 hours walk away) was telling us about the year that it rained so much that the river became strong enough to carry cows out to the ocean and roads became completely impassable. Apparently that was a rare occurrence though. I hope they"re right! We're not as tough as these people... not yet, anyway!

The Promise of Panama

 

I know, we've been missing in action for some time now. I won't bore you with all of the details, but aside from both spending some time at home with our families, we've been 'very busy waiting' and have spent far more time than is desirable in lawyers meetings and hotel rooms.

 

But there is progress.... we think we've found 'the farm for us' and hopefully day by day we creep a little closer to actually owning it! The farm is in the Azuero Peninsula of Panama, nestled in mountain folds between a National Park and a Reserve and from the ridgeline you can see the Pacific coastline. It truely is beautiful and these pictures don't do it justice.

 

Despite not owning the farm yet, the sellers have very kindly let us visit and stay on the farm several times. Over Easter weekend we went up for 5 nights and for the first time, we took our own vehicle. We can report that she did very well, expecially after we discovered (on the 3rd dy of being up there!) that the shiny after market hub caps were covering the wheel locks that actually allow you to put the car into 4x4! The word 'relief' doesn't even come close to how we felt!

 

She's certainly not this shiny anymore!



Our main reason for going up this last time to the farm was to investigate the housing situation. After about an hour of me sliding downslope after the ever more agile and sure-footed Ethan, plus a short trek through the forest, we found one of the houses. The site is beautiful.... in the shade of citrus, mango, cashew and avocado trees, right next to the river which has gorgeous swimming holes and apparrently gold! It's just a shame it's only accessible on foot or by horseback!



Ethan on the hike down to the house

Our future home?

Cashews growing just outside the front door

All the modern cooking facilities a girl could ever want!

 So the plan is that while we wait, we're going to take our neighbour-to-be up on his very kind offer of using his shack up in the mountains. It's within easy driving distance of the farm and it luxuriously has a tin roof that doesn't leak, running water that's pumped up from the spring below, cell phone signal a short hike away and best of all, this gorgeous view over the Ocean as the sun sets everyday.

This farm certainly isn't easy... we're going to have to improve access and build a house with off the grid infrastructure, all before we tackle the farm itself and actually put things in the ground! In some ways though, the challenge is the charm.... however this farm grows over the coming years, it should be the product of the hard work, thought and determination of ourselves and all of the amazing people that we have to help us. And we can't really complain when we have this vista to look at every day!

Adios Finca Quijote!

So somehow blogging has managed to evade my attention for quite some time and now we find ourselves saying 'adios' to the farm that has been our home for the last 5 months.

We're saying goodbye to some fantastic people who have endured our awful pigeon spanish and worked hard to improve it. Through various embarrassing incidents we now know the difference between 'We'll be waiting in our house (casa)' and 'We'll be waiting in our bed (cama)', along with the difference between drunk (emborracho) and pregnant (emborazada). Along with everyone else, we'll miss the awesome kids in Esperanza, who have played goodness knows how many games of checkers, snakes and ladders and cards with us and now insist on wearing plastic bags hats for the journey across the street when it's raining (all from my one time suggestion!). We're extremely grateful to people for adopting us and including us in their families, despite our communication difficulties.




Ready for the walk across the street after playing checkers.

 

I'm sure that I'll be remembered as the apologetic English girl who still can't work out how full a wheelbarrow can get before she's completely unable to control it and bizarrely wishes for a weed free garden. While Ethan will be remembered for being able to knock together stunning pieces of wooden furniture, even if he does insist on wearing impressive '70s safety glasses whilst doing it.

Cool? Me? No.... this is natural!

 

We're also saying goodbye to some of the most character-filled dogs I've ever encountered... the hobbling guard that is Chica (all 4 feet and legs work but she prefers 3!), the diplomatic temptress that is Barbie and the cutest, most playful puppy ever to have been rescued from fleas and abandonment.

 

Barbie

Puppy


 I personally, have had a fantastically varied experience here... from creating a green house garden from scratch, to making humanure, to trying my hand at carpentary for the new improved chicken coop, butchering a cow and making whatever we can from garden produce (juice, marmalade, chutney, salsa, thai curry paste, cake...). It's been a pleasant mix of daily routines and new challenges and at every turn we've learned something- whether it's a new fact or technique or just patience.

The nearly weed free greenhouse. Just look at how much it's grown!
We've enjoyed all of the leaves, tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs it's produced.

 

Chickens happily feasting on their daily rations of leaves and windfall guavas.

Ethan putting in poles for the improved chicken runs,
which now features 6 runs each planted with a chicken feast.

Philip and I working on the first leg of the cow.
Who knew that scissors are the best tool for butchering?!

Making curd, marmalade and juice from the
mountain of oranges the guys harvested.

So we're heading out again to go romping around other people's farms in the hope that one of them will fulfill our ever-growing list of criteria. Both of us are excited and feel better equipped... we know more Spanish, we have more practical knowledge of agriculture in the tropics, we know more about people here and the way things work. I also think we know now, more than ever before, that we're both committed to being here for the long haul and creating a farm that we can be proud of. That's a good feeling to go farm hunting with......

This is my first actual blog post on this blog.  I am doing so after numerous requests.  I am not the writer Claire is so I have been hesitant to write anything.  But understandably I look at our stay here in Costa Rica through different eyes.  As a start I am seen here more as farm repair man than a gardener, it’s not a title that I dislike but not what I expected when I first arrived.  I expected to do a lot of digging and planting of trees and taking walks in the forest clearing trails.  In actuality I have made multiple sets of shelves for workers quarters, framed in new windows, made bunk-beds, replaced termite infested walls, built a greenhouse, new chicken runs, etc.  The nice part is I get to play in a fully stocked shop with some of the most beautiful wood on the planet which was cut on the farm and transported to almost our doorstep by the power of nature. 

The other day I went on an all day excursion to the edges of the farm to clear the boundary but to also look for illegal squatters. (Costa Rica and most of central America have a legal tradition of allowing squatters to claim land for ownership if it is “not in use” under the current owner.  This leaves the necessity to carve out the boundary every 6 months and check for squatter or pecaristas.)  During the walk, up muddy near vertical slopes next to 30 foot drops on to jagged stone riverbeds, we found multiple landslides due to the heavy rains in this part of the world on top of slick clay soil and shallow rooted trees.  The grade of the slops and soil limits the size the trees can get but also allows for some primeval wood to be scavenged for.  We found downed logs of trees easily over 100yrs old and to my eye very rare woods such as mahogany.  The farm manager here has developed a clever method of sending these trees downhill a number of kilometres by bucking them into manageable sizes and winching them into the nearest stream.  Though the stream on a normal day will only flow a few hundred gallons a minute, during a storm event these streams become rivers and carry 400 lb logs over the cataracts and waterfalls down to the farm houses.  This can sometimes take a year to achieve but the end result if patient is the ability to make a mahogany bed for the cost of old pallets at the docks.

Though the rains are consistent and we get rain every afternoon the trees that are adapted are amazingly resistant.  Though covered in lichens, epiphytes and parasites we recently had a orange harvest from the 3-4 trees growing by the house.  This harvest gave 6, 50 lb sacks of fruit to be distributed, after they had been harvested multiple times previously.  The result has been a glut of fresh orange juice every meal.  It is a real struggle to live in poverty! 

The downside to all this is we still have yet to find a farm for our own.  Though we have learned from our experiences that you can't rush these things it is frustrating working for someone else when you would rather be doing it for yourself.   Besides the frustration it is good however to learn the inner workings of a farm before we are thrown in the deep end.  In any  new country there are obviously new cultural dimensions, and though the difference between Latin America and the US/England is very minor compared to much of Africa it is good to take it all in while the failures won’t come back to haunt you.  It is nice to have the growing pains of learning a new language on this farm rather than on our own and it is nice to allow someone else to be pegged as the rich foolish gringo and learn from it before we are in the same boat. 

Until we get a farm and are allowed to apply for residency we have to make a quarterly border crossing to restart our visas.  A few weeks back we crossed into Nicaragua to do this but we also had the chance to visit former co-workers of mine in Nicaragua.  We had a nice time staying at the lodge which I lived at for 2 months last year.  This time there were a few new residents to the area that I had never noticed though. 

First there is big talk of the new canal going through Nicaragua and I assume it will completely change southern Nicaragua and destroy much of the wildlife, forests and sport fishing of the Rio San Juan unless a big part of the money goes to policing the area against illegal loggers.  One thing that will hopefully change though is the growing prevalence of drug runner in the area.  The local lodge owner pointed out a number of new houses in the middle of no where with owners that had no jobs.  It brings to reality the problems of the American drug policy and how our war on drugs is doing nothing but wasting tax payers money and making the minority of drug runners rich while preying on the poor rural farmers with more land than education.  (make it all legal and put the profits to educate people and we would be much better off)

The most interested new inhabitant of the lodge however is there new adult Cayman that has taken up residency next to the dock.  Only being about 3.5 feet long I figured I could get pretty close to get a real action shot.  I wasn’t disappointed (except for the fact that I didn’t have the camera ready)  I had a Cayman leap out of the water when my head was down checking my footing.  I looked up to see the jaws of a the reptile snap but a foot from my face and fall back into the water, thankfully without my nose.   Trying to get the shot again I repeated the process the next morning with Claire as the photographer and witness only to be disappointed in the rapid fire option on the camera and the rotted riverbank that separated me from a teenage Cayman full of piss and vinegar.   Not quite as powerful as former encounters with Great Whites or 800lb gorillas but I will admit having the snapping jaws of a reptile almost my size close enough to my face to see his cavities did give me the incentive to not be as adventurous the second time around. 

Having left Nicaragua it was official that Claire has now visited more countries than me. (F****** B****.  I need to leave her behind more often, can you believe it she is at 32 countries!, its because Europe is full of pseudo countries like Wales, who counts Wales!)

After we left Nicaragua we stayed at a farm/lodge on our way  back home.  We were lucky enough to have it paid for by the farm owners we work for so that we can gather info and techniques to bring back to the farm.  It was a very nice place and I would recommend it to any one in Visiting Costa Rica that is interested in sustainable agriculture, its called Luna Nueva.  On our way back I also decided to break our rule and purchase a motorcycle, this hog gets over a hundred miles to the gallon!  I dare anyone to find another motorcycle that came with a speedy Gonzalas decal on it!

The final things of interest that I have to write about, (this will hopefully fulfil my quota for this year) are the earthquakes and my murderous ways.  We have had a few earthquakes the last few months that have been noticeable.  The first almost dropped a pile of lumber on my head but they are nothing like the news makes them out to be.  And finally I shot a cow in the head and cut it up for dinner.  (Claire said its interesting and I should write about it)

I apologize for my ramble but to those like my mother I am sure you like knowing something about what my life is like these days.  I assure everyone that I am fine and healthy and that there is nothing as dangerous here as the smog and poison food in the US and England. 

 

Ethan

 

A garden update

Since we’ve been at Phil and Ginnee’s farm for over 2 months now, I thought you might like to see how the garden under the green house is going. It’s certainly come a long way from its brown beginnings in July.....

 

 

In the foreground of the picture, our herb spiral is becoming more fragrant with an abundance of lemon basil accompanied by purple basil, chives, mint and parsley. I’m also delighted that some lavender germinated after the seeds spent a month in our refrigerator and the culantro (similar to coriander) that was growing wild in our garden seems to like its new situation. This week’s landmark event was that we ate our first root vegetable from the garden... a rather powerful, white radish proudly stretching an entire 20cm! You can just about see the radish tops (which are tasty salad greens too) behind the seed tray table. Now we are avidly waiting on the tomatoes and the tomatillos, which are now displaying tantalizing green lanterns. Other plants that are doing well are okra, sweet peppers (which are wearing tetra pack collars to protect them from nibbling mice), eggplants, carrots and an array of different leafy greens. The kale did survive aphid attacks with the assistance of garlic, chilli and onion spray and the broccoli is recuperating after being accosted by the leaf cutter ants.

 

Dowsing the ant nest with blended citrus peel for about a week, seems to have held the ants at bay for the time being. It certainly didn’t kill them off, but they at least got frustrated at having to excavate their thoroughfare each day and have opted for a different nest opening, the other side of the garden.

We are also praising the virtues of compost tea, which I’m sure has given the plants a significant nutritional boost and helped to deter pests as well as bacterial and fungal infections. For anyone who hasn’t made compost tea (and I hadn’t before I came here!), you submerge a net sack of fresh compost in a weak solution of molasses and water. You then aerate it all in a large bin, using a fish tank pump, for 24-48 hours. This creates an exponential growth of friendly bacteria as well as releasing soluble nutrients, which you apply to the leaves and roots of the plants using the good old fashion watering can method. For anyone interesting in making compost tea, check out an interesting article by a Faye Ingram or this YouTube video by the ‘Dirt Doctor’. I'd love to hear if anyone else tries it out... it could be a great way of keeping UK lawns nice and green as well as boosting greenhouse crops.