What we have been up to...

Life on the land has been intense in every way.

There are beautiful sunsets, unbelievable starry skies, amazing silence and such peacefulness.

Of course there is also ridiculous amounts of mosquitos and black flies (that bite even worse),

unending amounts of dust in the house, and all the inconveniences that come along with living

without a toilet, electricity and hot water.

There are moments when I want to scream out of frustration, (plenty of times I actually do scream); from the constant mess, the dirt, the food floating around wet in the cooler, the constant itching from bites and so forth. I remind myself, and the children that it is temporary and keep on going...

But I can honestly say that overall, even with all the little inconveniences,

life on the land is wonderful. 

It is so rich, so alive, so full of "real" work.

The days never seem long enough, so much to do, so much to create.

It is a canvas, a blank canvas, with unending amounts of possibilities, 

and we all love it for this. 

Living so in the middle of the raw nature, it absorbs me and full fills me so wonderfully.

This week we created a new bed. 

Nothing here is just like that, first finding the spot, the removing all rocks and roots.

 Then finding large rocks and building the walls around.

 Creating the pathways around the beds.

 Then adding the soil. We used a few different composts and some of our Bokashi ferment.

 I planted tomato seedligns that were ready for their permanent location, as well as some Kale and Basil.

 Keenan was a great help as usual...

 We harvested lettuce greens from the garden and made a yummy salad...

 with dates, onion, mango and cranberries.

The dressing was olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, some juice from an orange and crushed garlic.

It was very delicious!!

 In a random space created by the making of a path and the roots of an old tree I planted some 

radish seedlings looking for a home.

 Kaleena enjoys helping with the watering...

Look a those broccoli plants..

 Repositioning our seedlings and tree cuttings to a more sunny spot.

I see a nursery in our future...

 The children were determined that we should have a christmas tree.

We found a last one a the local super market, so extremely dry that Keenan could easily carry it all on his own, and very proud to do so.

 And Sunday we finally had the house "clean" enough to bring it in and decorate it.

We will have Christmas in this house even if the dinner is on the floor, with the mosquitos and the dust

and no light :)

 Will you look at this spider eating a dragon fly for breakfast right outside our door,

no not door of course, because we don't have any doors, but the door opening.

 And of course I must have a few banana palm pictures too

 and the other day while watering, it started drizzling and this gorgeous rainbow grazed me with

its presence...beauty, beauty, beauty....

It really makes all the difference when everything else can seem momentarily overwhelming!

~Blessings~

Around the Land

~Blessings~

A crocodile rescue

When Miguel arrived at the land yesterday this is what he found in one of the cisterns of the house.

We had not agreed to set a trap for the crocodile yet the guys wanting to help,  took it upon themselves to do so, and so we ended up with a crocodile in a cage and no where to take him.

It was really very sad, the poor guy, scared and trapped, yet very calm.

This past week I had talked to another organic farmer who said that in his experience this kind of crocodile is not aggressive, in fact locals around his farm in Belize generally do not hesitate to swim in rivers where these crocs live. The kinds of crocodiles native to these parts are the American crocodile, which is a saltwater crocodile and this kind is considered quite aggressive and reports of human attacks are not rare, these guys are not found as far inland as where we are, rather closer to the oceans where fresh and salt water mix. What we have here is the Morelet's crocodile, these guys live in swampy areas

such as ours and are not considered very dangerous, although reports of human attacks have occurred.

 This crocodile was a juvenile, about a year old we guessed, and besides one time making a quick jerk of his head and snapping at us, remained very calm throughout the entire ordeal.

I felt an immense sense of compassion for this creature, there he was trapped and scared, you could see his chest moving with his heartbeat, and when looking into his eyes it was so obvious that he was just like us, wanting to live and be left in peace. Just another living being.

He definitely felt threatened and once out of the cistern his mouth opened, showing us his teeth ready to attack I am guessing, and yet at his young age not able to do much harm.

I love this picture, creature to creature connecting through a simple touch of the hands.

 The children were obviously fascinated, they got to touch a real wild crocodile, and found his skin surprisingly soft not at all tough as it appears.

 Off we went, we decided that rather than to leave him trapped for days while we find someone who can move him (being that he was trapped before we had arranged all the details) we simply moved him a couple of miles into the jungle where no one lives and where there is also water.

 Of course nothing is as simple as just that here, and in the pouring rain, 

(it has been a constant downpour here for three days now), 

the boys had to push start the truck to get it running.

 Keenan was very proud to be helping release the crocodile back into the wild, 

his kind is after all an endangered species and we were happy to be able to help save him rather than the crew frying him up on the BBQ, which they would have liked to.

 At this point the picture quality seriously diminishes as the rain had reached the point of torrential downpour and the wind was picking up, still our spirits were high as we set him down and watched him  gratefully slip back into his natural habitat.

Even the guys, who without our interference would have eaten him, 

couldn't help but feel that we were doing the very best and right thing.

It was a special moment and I am proud to have taken part in it.

I only wish that he might live a long healthy life, being harmed by no one and harming no one in return.

~Blessings~