Happy Holidays from the Tropics

Love to you all. Please forgive me the spell check doesn't work on my comp or blogger! Oh and my ghost writer is in Italy! Thanks for reading and all the support! We love and miss you all- especially the followers...really special friends. Editing continues... 2010 will be a great year!

Orchid Hunting

Truly an amazing day. We left early with Nicho, Limon's 70 yr old uncle and went walking. We walked for 8 hrs and saw more of Volcan than most have seen, I'm sure. Nicho took us to the laguna and the bigger lake and we crossed many rivers and herds of cattle (ganado). He has an incredible eye and would pick out orchids from across the meadow, or 30 ft up in a very obscure location. He taught us the technique- he would use his machete to chop a perfect v out of a stick and proceed to carefully rock the orchid back and forth until it came to him- the "orchid whisperer".

We found the vampiro (vampire) it looks almost like a necklace, and an orange hanging orchid with tiny flowers, a large yellow one that almost looks edible, and I actually impressed our guide finding a very rare red with yellow and a small peat moss-looking variety with the smallest flowers of all! Nicho said he'd never encountered it! He participates in the annual Fiesta de Flores in Boquete and said we would probably win for rarity and might even have discovered a new orchid! We'll see in January- just have to keep them alive until then which is not easy! We also saw two more varieties of limon- limon dolce is like a water orange- crunchy not much flavor. Our favorite hands down is Persa, its big, very limey with a hint of sweetness, lots of juice, but sadly as it is a hybrid no seeds.

Creole and madarin with orange flesh, very sweet are close seconds and we have quite of few of these types growing.

Nicho says in December there are a few weekends when everyone goes down and camps around the lake and it's very safe and tranquil. We're going to go soon so we miss the crowds. We heard the coffee farm near there, instead of killing the snakes with chemicals, rounded them all up and released them at the laguna, although we didn't even see on snake, now we're going to be very cautious.

You can fish- there's trout (trucha) and carp and a few others. There's also coffee and tons of fruits- delicious oranges. It really opened my eyes up to how wonderful Volcan is. It's a veritable playground.

Lakes and rivers and water holes, even hotsprings for swimming, mountains for hiking and foraging, long routes for biking and exploring, EVERY PLANT YOU CAN IMAGINE to use for cultivation, even the beach is only a few hours away.

Seed Saving Blog

It is so empowering and liberating to plant the seeds you have collected! Seeing them germinate, sprout and become edible wonders is the most beautiful process on earth. We have been collecting and saving our seeds since a little before we left Hawaii, many did not make it however with all of the transit, humidity and a few punctured bags...but we have almost a hundred different seeds that are growing and being prepared to plant. We will now be keeping a detailed list of our plants on the blog. Limon has set his ultimate goal at 1,000 diverse plants! Also, from every batch of seeds we dry and save, we label, date and store them in our "seed catalog" for future propagation and general data. This is very laborious and kind of a pain when all you want to do is make dinner and you get to sit there cleaning the seeds our of all the veggies for a half hour- but trust me- it's worth it.

Every seed is a challenge to sack but cucumbers, tomatoes and hot chilies are by far the worst. For these you let the pulp and seeds ferment for 3-4 days then strain them and let them dry. Most things are fine to sun dry but not these- chill dry in the shade with lots of air flow or they will start to rot. Most things germinate nicely with a wet paper towel, but I prefer to start everything in my little dirt seed-starters in the greenhouse so they can have a week to get strong before the face the wind. I cleaned about 20 chilies, a rare heirloom that's as big as

ahi chombo dulce but bright yellow and as hot as a habanero. I had no idea they were that hot and wore no gloves. I literally had pink burning skin on my fingers for a day and a half! So con

cuidado! The salsa I made it a beautiful color and the hottest thing you've ever tasted! Today I also started the globe watermelon I ate last week, perfectly round (almost personal-size) sweet and lots of seeds. Can't wait for those!

Don't be a slave to big agro! Save seeds at home with every meal- especially when you find something really delicious- shouldn't you get to eat that again? Viva semillas!

Limon:

"Where am I going to sleep tonight? Who cares! What is the world doing? Have new gods been discovered, new laws, new freedoms? Who cares! But up here the primrose is blossoming and bearing silver fuzz on it's leaves, and the light sweet wind is singing below me in poplars, and between my eyes and heaven a dark golden bee is hovering and humming- I care about that. It is humming the song of happiness, humming the song of eternity. Its song is my history of the world." - Wandering, Hesse

The Big Fast

So wow. We have been in the yellow house for almost 2 weeks now. Our rental options faulted by a week and we camped on the land in our greenhouse for a week- it was rough but we made it-

and honestly it was very peaceful and we got a lot of work done. Shiva is in heat for the first time and attracting every dirty, mangy mut in a 5 mi radius! It really tested our fence and we found all the holes after a few nights. One night i left a pot of chicken soup boiling on the fire for the morning and Shiva and a friend up-sided my soup, stole the pechugas of chicken and I can only imagine proceeded to have a rowdy chicken eating-dog sex party all night. We're praying she's not preggers and are going to take her to be neutered.

So once we moved in next door (so cool) we started detox and fasting, I made it 7 days this time. Wow. Once you set your mind to it it's not impossible and if you're in tune with your body you know when it's ready, or when it's begging! My body was so ready so it was an easier transition. The first couple days are always hard and at the end when you start to get your hunger back and you have to ease back into it with straight teas, raw and fresh juices and then finally vegan meals. Yesterday I made eggplant parmigianno and we celebrated our return to the world of cheese!

So for the first days I eased myself down with lime juice, honey with propoleos (polen etc.), teas of lemongrass, lime leaves, ginger, and garlic, cayenne, and flax. We made purees of water, beet,

carrot, celery, spinach etc. We ate raw garlic- try this! whew.... and ginger and drank a lot of water, green tea, red rooibos tea (thanks Rob!), black lychee tea and lots of sage tea. Limon also got a plant that grows like a weed here, they say it cleans your blood- and much more- but it tastes terrible, lots of that too.

Once you peel away the layers its so refreshing, you feel so clean. The first hardest thing is the carbs- refined white flour, rice whatever. After this maybe you crave some fat, any kind, animal fat... a glass of wine...something...but then the worst darkest hardest thing to cut- SUGAR. You would kill for sugar- just a spoonful of honey, a flake of dark chocolate, a glass of agua de pipa

(coconut water) anything, but you persevere and after that last cruel day you're free. You crave nothing. It's total liberation. You don't need or want a thing. The next 4 days of my fast we amazing, I meditated, watched a lot of movies, read, walked, gardened. It was amazing. Once I started to feel weak I started introducing calories again slowly, just raw veggie juice, lime and teas, no honey at first, then with time, fruit juices, pinapple, watermelon, orange, avocado, and then finally whole foods again. What a wild ride. You need a peaceful environment, time and the right state of mind- and this is truly a gift everyone should give themselves. Fasting can save your life- and if you'd like more info there's a book by this name- check it out! Not to mention- you loose an average of 2lbs per day!

Fence con't

The fence is just gorgeous. Seeing the way the light changes during the hours of the day is inspiring. It creates its own shade but let's the breeze through. My beans have all sprouted successfully and are about 3" after a week. I built 2' beds with river rocks and the topsoil from the fence digging all around the perimeter (well i'm halfway through...) for the beans, other vines: squash, watermelon,

chayote, chilies hot and sweet and various local flowers. Of course Shiva's favorite place to sleep! The greenhouse is amazing for germination and sprouting- we had a slight ventilation problem, although the mesh does breathe- it's not enough so we opened up another door on the opposite side for cross-ventilation. Hopefully the breeze will keep the flow and we won't need to install fans. Our Paiu plant had a small fungus infection but we moved it outside near the coffee and it's doing great.

We are waiting for our reclaimed felled teak, eucalyptus and ceder to come in December before we can start the cabin. It's being certified reclaimed so the paper work is taking some time. It's a really good thing however, the gov. makes sure all wood cutting is legit and no wood is cut from the many reserves and forests. It's tempting for the indigenous people to sell their trees but this keeps black-

market wood sales in check and promotes recovery of fallen trees. They literally pull over all trucks carrying wood, a small victory for the pathetic panamanian government. We had another lead on some felled pine from our friend Jose, so Limon is taking a trip down to the Frontera to settle up- it looks like we can just pay to load the wood and transport it back to the land (roughly $300-400 for 3,000+').

Usually wood goes for between $1-2 per foot so a real steal!

We saw a nice wood cabin nearby that used the rounded outer edges of the trees which is a large part of what we'll be getting, it's beautifully rustic. We figure we can build the first 2-3' of the foundation and walls with all the river rocks we have and minimal cement- we've seen quite a few examples around we like. And the roof is going to be a living sod roof with self-irrigation and water-catching. We're going to install a small solar shower and a compost toilet off of the back of the cabin, both of which we have already practiced (a couple prototypes...) and are comfortable constructing.

It's so funny when you walk up to the land now it looks like an old Spanish fort, with the huge Panamanian flag dead center on a 25' bamboo pole and the impenetrable bamboo circa. It's quite formidable and impressive.

Greenhouse and Bamboo Fence

A very proud day indeed! We constructed our greenhouse. It only took two weeks days, 20 pieces of bamboo, hours and hours of hoeing and digging and a whole lot of mesh- but we did it! Sourcing the bamboo was a challenge but we had 15 pieces donated by Iris (cousin) and found our neighbor sells both green and dry. And to think we were looking as far away as Bocas! when all the while it's right in our backyard. Buena suerte! We used a model we found locally and fit it to our specifications 20 x 30 with overhangs for herbs. We already have thyme, mint (yerba buena), basil (albaca), culantro (cilantro's cousin), coffee, sweet and hot peppers, mountain tomato, onion, garlic, ginger and green onion. We hope to transplant the avocados, citrus, papayas and mangos we have inside to save them from the torrential downpours and fierce winds that come in February. I hope to have much more planted in the near future!

We used the excess bamboo to set up a shelter with our tarp and bamboo mats and now we have a nice little tent to sit out the rain or take a break from the sun. We also built an underground storage compartment for our tools etc so we don't have to transport stuff everyday with our bikes. The grass is as tall as the trees Augustine planted, over a hundred, and they're all about knee high- some are taller than both of us. The grass that took over in his absence is fierce and

eradicating it is some of the hardest work I've ever done. One shovel or hoe full at a time. But I've cleared the entire area for the greenhouse so we can build our raised beds and make paths.

The first night we left the greenhouse the wind was so fierce it ripped the roof plastic and caught on the ends of the bamboo. We had to spend the whole next day lowering the wind-bearing side by a foot to help with rain pooling and wind. Now it's stronger than ever and we have a double layer on the worst parts. The mesh works well as a wall and allows breeze and water to trickle down and water the herbs inside. Shiva is the worst gardener ever and crushed my tomato seedlings...so we attached the bottom of the walls to bamboo posts and now no humans or dogs or birds can sneak in.

With our new structure we started camping on the land during the week to build the fence as much as possible. up with the sun at 6- sunrise on the volcano is amazing...start digging, cutting etc usually the rain comes afternoon or by 4 everyday.

The fence is almost finished and although we had a few minor setbacks- mainly the rain...but we built the whole damn thing ourselves. We went with the more labor intensive method and refused to cave in and hire someone to build it. I think I filled the wheelbarrow with sand and rocks a thousand times. We cut our 25' long pieces of green bamboo into 9' lengths and dug

out a 2' trench all the way around underneath the existing fence. We stood up all the bamboo and used u-shaped nails to attach it to the existing barbed wire. We used "ripio" gravel and pounded it down level to compact it and make it structurally sound. We layered river rocks throughout and capped the bottom of the circa on both sides. Many people walking by have said it's very beautiful and it's the only fence like it in all of Panama. Not a single bag of concrete used, no carbon emitted and it will serve as a living trellis for us to grown beans, squash, berries and floral vines. Shiva is just loving the land- a true wolf at home and seeing progress is the greatest thing since pie! Any ideas why my eucalyptus have brown spots on the leaves?

The best news however is we made friends with our neighbors, a young couple who lives in the city, and they need someone to live in and watch their house for them- so starting next month

we'll have our own little house right next door to our property.

People have asked how we prepare for projects. Kent does a lot of math and I make a lot of lists- We both sketch and change our minds a lot. Pretty much as organic as it gets.

Comenciamos!

We continue to fight an uphill battle against ignorance and opposition- but this just makes us more determined!

9/23/09

we are struggling with the crazy ass grass! but we had a break-through today- IRIS offered us her old green house- so we deconstructed it. and tommorrow we'll take it to the land. this get's us so much closer to constructing the green house which we at one point priced out at $1,000. we've got to be able to forage for bamboo and something besides plastic! so we're almost there and the truck full of 25' pieces of green bamboo from the border comes on fri. to begin the fence. We're really rolling and it feels so good.