Being an uncle

I took my nephew to school today. As that statement sets in, I realize I'm getting pretty old.

Uncle Neea

We made it to Florida! After 28 long hours of travel and a night in the airport, we made it home. Got to hang out with family today and even had some donkeys come and visit us in the backyard. Judah calls Lynea "Uncle Neea" to which everyone say, "No, that's Aunt Neea." But, if my Uncle Rick taught me something growing up it was that Uncle's don't always have to be parent-like. So, when I'm alone with Judah I try to reinforce the Uncle Neea as in "Where's Uncle Neea?", cause I think it's quite hilarious. We'll see how long we can keep it going.

Other than that, it's good to be home.

Uncle Neea and Judah

Uncle Neea and Apollo

Giving thanks

The airport isn’t the ideal place to spend thanksgiving (we’ve got 12 hours in Mexico City today, and 10 hours in Dallas tomorrow). But it does give us lots of time to sit and reflect on our year. And really, our life. All the people we are thankful for and indebted to. The list is endless. Just yesterday a friend we met in Yelapa decided to put us up in a hotel for our last night in Mexico and buy us dinner. What a gift. It’s all gift. Life is a gift. May we receive it with gratitude. And in the same way that we have received, may we freely give.

Thank you to all our friends and family, who have been in our lives for years. Thanks to all our new friends that we met along the way this year. This year has truly been a gift.

Joy

Waiting for our boat this morning. Heading home.

Some photos...

Living in a fishing village/beach culture definitely has its advantages. Fresh fish is one of them.

This is a picture of what most of the roads look like in town. No cars. Only horses, mules, and 4-wheelers (and people afoot). We were walking to a friend's house to cook up this fish.

Our tent, in the garden.

Beans are growing!

Lunch at the garden. Fish + Tortillas = Fish Tacos.

Couldn't tell if this iguana was nervous and escaping the ocean waves, or if he was just chillin'. The  waves knocked him off a couple times and he climbed back up.

Lynea's happy with her spices in the kitchen.

I got some extra work clearing this land...with a machete. I've learned how to use one somewhat proficiently while living abroad. It did give me the blister pictured below, though.

We went on a little hike.

The view from the bridge.

We get to play in the dirt everyday. Hence, we are very dirty and smelly everyday. Lynea's transplanting this papaya tree.

I make tables out of bamboo and ax. Hear me roar!!

One day the ocean push the river way back and it flooded the garden. Me and this dude, Alonso, dug out a path for the river to flow back into the sea. He said it was a normal thing.

We planted stuff...

Progress

My bosses asked me to make another short update video for their company. Here's what I came up with.

Operation: Big Garden

We're in a tiny fishing village called Yelapa, helping to develop a new garden project. We've had to put up a fence to keep the iguanas out. It's been lots of hard work so far, but good. I've been digging lots of post holes, transplanting banana trees, and climbing other trees to cut down big limbs for the fence. Lynea has been doing a stellar job creating the garden beds. She was even running the tiller the other day!
We're back in our tent, but at this point it's the closest thing to a home that we have, so we're happy.

I decided to throw the pictures and videos into a little movie this time.

The Journey Continues

Last Tuesday, we left Whitt's End Farm on Mexico's Baja Peninsula and headed for Guadalajara. Stayed with some friends of friends of my dad for a night, and then bused it (again) to our next location of learning. It's a food co-op called Organic Select. They produce some of their own products, buy others from local folks, package and distribute them in the area to around 300 people. It's been a cool experience so far.

But plans are changing. This past week, we've been staying at the house which is the home base of action and business. We've had our own room and bathroom for the first time in while, which is nice. But come this Wednesday, we're heading out, way out, with Marie - the co-op's master gardener - to help develop a new property in Yelapa. We'll probably be preparing the land to plant, figuring out ways to keep iguanas out of the crops, and then planting. Yelapa is a "remote fishing village that is most easily accessed by boat." So we'll be out there, in between jungle and ocean. Should be an adventure. We'll most likely set up the tent again.

Here's some recent pictures.

Before we left the goat farm, Travis, who competes in the Baja 1000 desert race, took Lynea for a ride.

I helped make this spiral garden out back at our new place.

Lynea cutting microgreens.

These are sunflower seed microgreens. They're packed full of nutrients and tasty on salads.

We're a short bus ride from the beach

I've heard lots of speeches

I've heard lots of speeches. Lots. I've grown up in church. Went to a school that had a chapel service everyday. Went to a college that had a chapel service everyday. Taught at a school that had a chapel service everday. Played for sports teams in high school and college where we had motivational speeches from coaches and sometimes players. I still like to watch TED talks from time to time or listen to a podcast through my ear buds. Overall, I like speeches. They can challenge, inspire, remind, ground. They can be like a little energy bar or sometimes like a slap in the face, "Wake up, sleepy!" But out of the thousands of speeches I've heard, I can probably count on my 2 hands, and maybe my 2 feet, ones that I remember, or at least remember the main point of. Of course I remember instances, like the one where the guy kept taking off his clothes only to reveal more clothes. The one where the guy rollerbladed. The one where the lady talked about sex (in middle school). The one where one guy dressed up as a Jewish rapper and the other guy as Matt Foley motivational speaker from SNL (oh yeah, that was me and my buddy Travis. Don't know if anyone got it, but we had fun!). But I don't always remember the main point of the ones I do remember. For instance, the one with the guy taking his clothes off could have been about how we all have different layers, or how we try to hide our true self under lots of stuff, or how to dress warm, or how to surprise people and then say just kidding. All of these could be good, but I don't remember.

Me and Travis on stage in India, speaking to the high schoolers. I remember my main point. It was about perseverance. But the students probably just remember 2 crazy teachers doing funny stuff.

One of the few main points that I do remember, and even a direct quote at that, was by a lady at the school we taught at in India. It was short but somehow powerful and memorable. It was about water. We were experiencing a drought and it had come to her attention that students had been wasting water, you know, taking 30 minute showers and stuff like that. Her point to the students was that this is not acceptable. As caring citizens of the world, we must treat water as a gift. And her final line that I've never forgotten was this: Water is more precious that gold, for without it (pause for dramatic effect), we could not survive.

The whole room was silent as we let that reality set in.

I've never really been without access to water. One time on a hike I had to run back a mile to refill our bottles as we realized there was no foreseeable river to cross in the future. But that wasn't too bad. All in all, I haven't had to think about it too much. Until we lived in the desert for the past month.
In the desert we had our water delivered to us by truck. When you run out, you run out. No mas agua. And because of this, the folks we stayed with salvaged every bit they could. The laundry water went into a container. The sink water was caught in a bucket to be put on plants. When it did rain, we collected all the rainwater we could from the roof. Showers were quick: turn on to get wet, turn off and lather up, turn on to wash off. Old goat water was thrown onto the base of certain trees. In most cases, the tree and not the toilet was used for number 1. I quickly became conscious of every time water was used, every second it was running. It was a new level of awareness for me that I'm sure many people have been confronted with throughout history and even today.
So, if you're trying to conserve water, or maybe just want to cut down on the water bill, or just want to be more mindful of its use in a world that needs it to survive, here's a few things we did at our last farm. (For more tips on how to conserve water, it's hard to beat Google.)

Dishes in the container in the sink. Eventually we would water the plants with this water.

Laundry water re-routed into this barrel, which doubles as rainwater storage.

One of the many bathrooms (for numero uno)

One of the sayings we used when I went to Honduras the first time: "When it's yellow, let it mellow. When it's brown, flush it down."

So, today, as you flush the toilet, wash some dishes, take a shower, or put that glass of watery goodness into your mouth, be grateful. It's a gift. And remember: Water is more precious than gold, for without it, we could not survive.

The Whole Process: From Goat to Cheese

For those of you goat cheese lovers who have been lying awake at night wondering, "but where does it come from?" Look no further. Our previous video was a little preview, but this one is a more in depth look at what we've been experiencing each day here at the farm.

Thanks to Lynea being allergic to cow dairy...Goats!

We are officially ready to have goats. Don't know where, don't know how, but we've got the confidence after working with them everyday for 3 weeks. Here's a little video I put together to showcase some of the daily life on the farm. I hope to add more to it later explaining the process of making cheese. Enjoy!

Tent, sweet tent...

After sleeping in the same camper with our friend Dima for 10 days, we decide to reclaim our privacy and move back into the tent. When I lay in the tent looking at the stars and listening to ocean, I try to breathe it in. It's one of those moments you want to appreciate for all it's worth. If I could drink in a moment like a cup of morning coffee, that's what I would do with moments like these.

The view down the driveway. Notice the front porch and the back porch. Imagine a bathroom with no boundaries.

Our former abode. It was cozy.

Before I learned about the process of making yogurt and cheese, the only reference of "whey" that I knew was from the Little Miss Muffet rhyme. While I still don't know what a tuffet is, I am very familiar with whey now. It's the cloudy, yellow liquid on the right of the cheese. It's the by-product, or leftovers, when you strain cheese or yogurt. I used this to make pita bread and pizza dough. You can substitute whey for all kinds of stuff and it's really healthy too. I say, "Whey cool!"

Edgar is a 16 year old kid who helps on the farm. He brings the Mexican flare to the mostly gringo influence. He dropped out of school and struggles with certain subjects. Lynea has been tutoring him in her awesome way.

Me and Dima doing our nightly stretches. I guess Lynea thought it was amusing.

Day off = beach day. We've got it all to ourselves. Did I mention we're really secluded?

Cows are grazers. They eat grass. Goats are browsers. They like to eat leaves and other hard to reach greens. We see them doing all kinds of gymnastics to get to what they want, and sometimes they even climb trees.

A miniature lion likes to bring all kinds of stuff on the porch.

The solar panels that give us most of the power we need.

When we learned that walking the dogs entailed driving a 4-wheeler through a spectacular desert path, we said yes!

We have seriously been working and sweating hard! But our day off is really nice (still have to milk the goats in the morning and at night on the day off. something to consider if you're thinking about having an animal to milk.)

Welcome to our home.

Whitt's End Rancho, Cabo Del Este, Mexico

For one month we will stay at Whitt's End Rancho with Travis and Lisa Whitt. The Rancho is towards the bottom of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico (the strip of land that comes down from California). 

We are out in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours from the closest city, in a desert, on the coast of the Sea of Cortez. This rancho has goats. I'm in heaven. 

We've been here for one week and have already know how to milk and care for the goats, make lots of flavors of soft cheese, greek yogurt, and mozzarella. 

Genie and Blondie 

Gigi - one month old

Dima, our room mate, feeding Louise, Blondie, and Genie

Kyle milking Ethel (Lucy's in the pen)

Goats love to play and climb. 

View from the roof. The blue on the left is the Sea of Cortez, and the mountains on the right Sierra de Laguna. 

We start milking at 7pm so we get to see this sunrise every morning. 

After milking, the milk is stored in large bins for 2 days before making it into yogurt or cheese.

The cheese fridge. The red rounds are delicious aged cheddar.

The Soft Cheese process is actually very simple. 

Weighing the cheese

Whey dripping out of the yogurt