The Deluge

The deluge has stopped. Took us 90 days to do 10 days of construction on the bathroom and outdoor shower and driveway cement work. Other work continued during the rain on fencing and planting and selective clearing. Some papaya were lost. The four hundred trees we have planted are fine. The sixty or so chickens continue to thrive. Leal the white dog is now living at the beach and at the farm because he was eating all the egg production. He can't be left at the farm when i'm not there. We have added a new mare and foal. One of our best horses was kicked by our stallion months ago and is almost ready to be back in service. The fencing for the horse paddock at the micro house is complete and now we need to make a small shelter for the saddles and tack.The ten cows and Bull are happy. The cows like to hang out in the orange grove which has now been cleared by cassimiro the caretaker. The clearing will allow added sunlight for the trees and we hope will improve production. We harvested 7000 oranges last March. We expect 6 newborn calfs in Jan or Feb. I have hired a certified permaculture designer to do a master plan for the farm. That should be complete in the next few months. This will give us a blue print moving forward as we think about Key Line Design for harvesting the rain and all other aspects of permanent agriculture. Issac, Lane and Paola who surf with us at Encuentro have decided to try their hands at Permaculture and have selected a site on the farm to work. They will leave half of what they produce for the community. They are wonderful young people who love the idea of sustainable living. Pictures of their work will follow as they progress. They purchased a heavy duty motorcycle for the arduous road conditions to the farm. The Sacha Inchi project is progressing. If the government we are negotiating with here will not allow the import of the 5000 seeds we have requested. We will produce the seeds ourselves from the dozen germinated seeds we have already planted. That will take a year. Adolfo has begun germinating Cacao seeds and is enthusiastic about the potential as we have plenty of shade and water for the project. The Christimas Sale and roast of 7 of our pigs was successful. Customers were happy and Im told extremely happy with the taste. The sale allows us to continue our modest production. Looking forward to integrating our Pig waste and Cow manure into our permaculture master plan. A team of 5 helped visitors on xmas day helped design and install our first rope swing for the river below the micro house. The tire was found on the side of the road. It requires total commitment to use as you have to nail the take off, the same commitment i have found necessary to "make the drop" at Encuentro. Please come visit us anytime and plant something of your own. Love Jk and Lynn