Cake!

A few weeks ago Yari wanted to make a cake. Here it is! Our oven only gets to about 300F so we were nervous it wouldn't work, but it did!!! Yari was very excited. This was her first cake!

James in the rain forest!!!

James's Day 3: A hike through the rain forest. 

These photos speak for themselves. This is a crazy little hike we found off the side of a road that leads to this beautiful waterfall. 

Yari, James, and Carlos (Yari's cousin)

I love the background of the picture...it's totally a rain forest!!! Kyle looks pretty good too huh?!? 

James at the beach!!!!

James's Day 5-7: The Beach

We drove 2.5 hours from Volcan to Las Lajas Playa. The first night we stayed in nice, inexpensive cabañas and had a wonderful Panamanian fish dinner on the beach. 

James slept his first night outside in a hammock and woke up in the middle of the night to hundreds of crabs crawling all over the logs underneath him. 

 

Yari, James, and our little $15 cabaña

Tough guys. 

Even though the cabañas were inexpensive, we got destroyed by bugs at night time which led us to stay at the Las Lajas Beach Resort for night #2. It had inside rooms, a pool, boogie boards to rent, and great music in the evening to dance to. 

            James and a Columbian girl named Carina.  Yari and Calvin dancing salsa. Yari's really good!

This is the start to a smoothie that was grown at our house. Bananas and wild raspberries!! We were just really excited to have made one completely by us! 

James in Panama City!!!

Our dear friend James came to visit us last week and it was a whirlwind of a trip!!! We crammed in site seeing, fun, hiking, more fun, great talks, more fun all in 7 days!!! He went from Panama city to the rain forest to the beach all in one week. Here's a bunch of pictures:

Day 1: Panama City with Kyle

A ship going through the canal.

 Casco Viejo - Old City is a historic part of town that is not necessarily treated as a historic site. 

For example, the stair case you see leads to nothing. The second half of it that you can't see no longer remains. The rest of this hole in the wall is full of rubbish. 

 But you can find some pretty paintings along the way. 

 The diablo rojos (red devils) are the school buses used as public transportation that are repainted however the owner wants. Usually multi colored with a mural on the back of a seductive girl, a saint,  Jesus, or all three. 

Panama City. 

English lesson at Caña Blanca

Once a week we teach English at a school way out in the middle of nowhere. We put Fred (the white truck we get to drive) in 4 wheel drive and head out for 45 minutes on a bumpy, rocky road. It's absolutely important to be sure you have an empty bladder and empty stomach before this venture. If not, you'll be nauseous and very uncomfortable. I plan the lesson, make the posters and materials, and Kyle does the teaching. We make a great team!  Oh yea the secret ingredient...Yari...she translates and helps us keep the kids in order. 

It is a one room school house with kids from 6 to 14 years old. 

They love to help color the posters. 

The classroom.

Kyle teaching the colors. 

As a culminating activity after learning numbers, colors, and body parts in English, we played the monster game. Kyle says, "This monster has 3 red heads," and the kids have to draw 3 red heads however and wherever they want on their paper. Then, he says, "This monster has 7 blue eyes," and they put the eyes wherever they want. It started out rough, but they got the idea in the end and drew some really creative monsters. 

Can you imagine going to school with this view, no electricity, and no noise all day?

This is Julio's family and house (the house on the left only). He and his wife have 7 kids. They are from an indigenous Indian group called the Ngobe. Their little girl in the blue dressed asked us last week if she can have shoes. So we brought her shoes and she smiled from ear to ear!!!! 

Rafting

Ever wonder what else to do with that blow up mattress on camping trips? Oh yes...use it as a raft!

Finca Santa Marta

We stayed  2 days at Finca Santa Marta and learned a TON! Justin and Jenny (the current farm managers) and their friend Coco were so knowledgeable. Not just about how to grow plants or keep a garden, but about how to grow plants better! They were able to explain and teach us about nitrogen fixing plants, how to make the soil better, worm composting, permaculture, black soldier flies, how to use an inflatable mattress to go down a river, bamboo construction, contour planting, plants that help with soil erosion, mulching easier, and lots more. 

For those of us who grew up in Ohio, we never knew how pineapples grew. Here you go!

Justin explaining the worm composting. Basically, the worms eat the garbage (your food scraps) and their stomachs multiply the nutrients. Their castings are then soooo rich and can be spread around your plants. 

We planted 40 trees in their orchard: avocado, moringa, and 6 others I can't remember. Fun, but so tiring! Yari was having a blast. 

Here is the end product. The little tree with organic material around it to decompose into mulch. The stick is actually part of the living posts trees and will grow into a tree itself providing shade for the little tree, more organic material to be cut and placed at the base, and it's also a nitrogen fixer. 

The cardboard has a few purposes...mark where the tree was planted so it doesn't get weed whacked, smother the weeds and grass around the tree so it doesn't fight for water and nutrients, and eventually it will decompose as mulch. 

One of their greenhouses. 

A really cool tree. 

They sell meat chickens and harvest about 15 a week. They raise them in groups. You can see the little guys in the middle, older ones in the back, and even older ones in the front. 

Me, Justin, Jenny, Coco, Yari

Again, we have cool videos, but blogger is being dumb right now and won't let us upload them. Sorry. 

Trying...Please forgive us.

I'm been working on a post for 6 days now. It's done, except I can't get the videos to upload and those are the best part. I'm working on it. I promise we are not slackers.

Randomness in Volcan

We have lots of banana trees on our property. When the bananas fall, you have to put the whole bushel in a bag and hang it up for a week or two until they ripen. Looks like we'll be making banana bread and lots of smoothies in a week!!! 

We met some new friends, Ryan, Kelly and their beautiful children Anna, Nora, and Jake, that work for OM (Operation Mobilization) here in town. They are great and we've had loads of fun getting to know them (sharing meals, running together, playing ultimate, etc). They hooked us up with a man named Renee from their church who has a farm up in the hills. He graciously took us there one day to plant onions and see his land. There is a great video of Yari explaining what he taught us that I will post as soon as blogger lets me. (ugh, I can't post videos right now!)

We were driving to visit a small scale dairy farm one day (45 cows) and found a tarantula. Yes, a tarantula. Not a spider or a big spider. A HUGE spider the size of Yari's hand. Yuk! 

Yari's uncle runs the dairy farm and invited us to watch him milk. Kyle and I learned how to milk and care for cows while in Florida last year with Charlie, but that was only 3 cows and a few calves. This was 45 cows staring you in the face. Cute, but smelly. 

His set up is pretty cool. He's able to stand lower than the cows so he doesn't have to sit to milk them. He also has milking machine that hooks up to each utter and pumps the milk into a large container. Again, we are working on uploading the videos for this. 

We were able to take home some raw milk (no mom, I didn't have any) for Kyle and Yari to enjoy. Kyle made yogurt and used the whey to make sauerkraut.  He also made spinach dip. (yes mom, I did have some of that and boy was it worth it!!!!)

Five days ago Lynea and I celebrated our 4-year anniversary. She said made a delicious beet and bacon soup and we had a picnic on an old airplane runway in our town. As has become our tradition, we reminisced on our relationship throughout the day, looking at old photographs and watching wedding videos. My first mistake as a husband came shortly after the vows as I demolished her face with cake after we agreed not to (I swear it was just a reaction). The second one came about 2 weeks later when I washed all of our laundry...in the same load...new red towels and white dresses and all. Red towels and white dresses make pink dresses (an equation I never learned in math).
While looking through all the pictures, I couldn't help but notice all the great people we've come to know along our short journey. Wish I could send everyone a note saying thanks for being a part of our lives, but if you're reading this you're probably one of those people..so, thank you for enriching our lives. We are very blessed.

And I'm most grateful for Lynea, and for these 4 years of growing, changing, learning, and exploring together. As an old proverb goes:

You who are young, make the most of your youth.

Relish your youthful vigor.

Follow the impulses of your heart. If something looks good to you, pursue it.

May we continue to do that together, and also be surrounded by the kind of people that we've come to know and love these past 4 years.

This was about 6 years ago. Ah, to be young again!

It rains kinda a lot...

We get a pretty hard rain almost every afternoon here during the rainy season.

Nelly Y Los Puercos...A short Story.

The teacher in Kyle came out today. He said I should write a short story using all the words I know so far. I actually did it and want to share it with you. I only needed help with words fly and sit. If you speak Spanish, please have mercy on me. This story is about our goat, 2 pigs, and the Dalmatians - Penny and Sally.

Español:

Un día, Nelly (una cabra), dijo a Puerco#1, "Yo necesito ser libre."

Puerco #1 dijo, "No sales!"

Nelly dijo, "Yo tengo que ir! Lo siento. Hasta luego Puerco#!."

Puerco #1 dijo, "Puedo venir también? Por favor?"

Nelly dijo,"Ok, esta bien. Yo debo volar sobre la casa, atravieso las nubes, y sentarse encima de Volcán Baru esperar Dios."

Puerco #1 dijo, "Wow! Buen idea!" Yo puedo correr medio las puertas, alrededor de casa y lejos de Penny y Sally. yo busco tu a encima. Debo llevar Puerco #2? Dios le gusta también!"

Nelly dijo, "Si, pero nosotros bastamos! No mas animales. Solo nosotros tres."

Puerco #1 dijo, "Voy a pedir a Dios hacer me bonita como Miss Piggy. Y tu? Que vas a pedir?"

Nelly dijo, "Voy a pedir a Dios escuchar me corazon. El sabes que yo quiero hacer."

Salen casa de Joy. Treinta minutos mas tarde, llegan sobre Volcán Baru. Dios dijo, " Son rápidos!"

A FINAL (the end)

Now in English: 

One day, Nelly the goat was sad. She said to Pig #1, "I need to be free."

Pig #1 said, "No, don't leave!"

Nelly said, "I have to go!! I'm sorry. See you later Pig #1."

Pig #1 said, "Please can I come too?"

Nelly said, "Ok, that's fine. I should fly over the house, go through the clouds, and sit on top of Baru Volcano to wait for God."

Pig #1 said, "Wow! That's a great idea! I can run through the gates, around the house and far from Penny and Sally. I will look for you at the top. Should I take Pig #2? God likes her too."

Nelly said, "Yes, but we are enough! No more animals. Only us 3."

Pig #1 said, "I am going to ask God to make me beautiful like Miss Piggy. And you? What are you going to ask for?"

Nelly said, "I am going to ask God to listen to my heart. He knows what I want to do."

They left Joy's house. 30 mintues later they arrive on Baru Volcano. God said, "You three are fast!"

THE END

Costa Rica

Not gonna lie; a great thing about being in Central America is that you're almost always close to a tropical beach. And for us, the beach is the epitome of relaxing.

You know those plans you make with people like, "ya, we should really hang out sometime...or meet up here or there." More often that not, they don't really happen. But thankfully, the desire was realized this time, and we got hang out with friends from Vermont in none other than Costa Rica. The trip consisted of 2 buses, a border crossing, another bus, a 40 minute boat taxi across a gulf, and finally a 4-wheel drive truck 30 minutes into the middle-of-nowhere-paradise. Definitely worth it though, as we got to hang out with Kathy, Robert, and Luc, and Robert sisters' family - Andrea, Karl, and Alli. Lots of hiking, swimming, surfing, animal/plant observing, relaxing. Great to see friends again and catch up on everything that's going on. We lived with these spectacular people for 4 months back in 2011 (almost exactly a year ago), and learned a ton while there. Click here for a few old posts from May of last year at their place. Thanks guys for an awesome time in Costa!

Anyway, some pics from Cabo Matapalo, Costa Rica.

Not quite our anniversary, but with only a week away, why not celebrate early by going to Costa Rica!

Note the Costa Rican family with the little guy; they said we could come stay and work on their farm anytime. Definitely on the "to do" list.

Sunrise (or if you prefer, earth rotation)

Kids taking a siesta

Our boat ride across the gulf