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~

Visit to a neighbor and October seedlings

Today Miguel was not feeling well and stayed home, the children decided to stay home with him

and surprised me with a very creative Halloween creation when I returned.

 I will share this project tomorrow.

I went to visit a neighbor, a mexican woman who used to be a dancer in Las Vegas, 

and who is lovingly called the papaya lady by the children.
I mention the dancing bit because I find it so interesting;
all the different walks of life found in just this little part of the jungle.

From the outside, and from the inside too really, her garden looks a bit confusing.

Everything is randomly planted in between the cracks of the rocks, but how healthy and happy all the plants look. And the variety was just amazing,
she must have a good 50 different kinds of fruits, perennial greens, nuts and herbs. 

I took many photos of trees but I cannot as of yet identify them all, far from it, many of the fruits I had never even heard of. She even has two apple trees, one pear tree and a couple of peach trees growing, 

I think they are all young trees and not yet fruiting, but she is convinced that they will, and they look healthy. I will be very excited if we can indeed grow apples and pears here.
Visiting this garden was very inspirational for me, to have such an abundance of food growing with absolutely minimal effort is amazing, it baffles me that just down the road a local family lives and they have not a single fruit tree growing, not one.
In a place such as here, meaning the tropics, it seems everyone should have all their basic fruits growing right outside their door. Some do, but far from everyone. 

 Since arriving here in Mexico I, and the children especially, have enjoyed a red drink which we make from dried red flowers boiled in water, it is called flor de Jamica, and here in this garden I saw the flowering plant, and was even  gifted a few babies to plant on the land.

Beautiful and useful too, love that!!

 These are the flowers once they fall, they are then left to dry before cooking.

(most likely they can be used fresh as well, though I imagine they rot quickly 

if not used or laid out to dry immediately.

 Here is another perennial green, I already forgot the name even though I was told several times.

I must write it down and look it up.

But it is I suspect similar to the Chaya in terms of nutrients, it does however have a very
distinct licorice scent when the leaves are rubbed between the fingers, and I was told that it is most delicious in foods, I am looking forward to try it.
We were also gifted two large seedlings of this tree/bush.

Below is a Noni fruit, I brought home several fruits to try, 

Miguel knows them but I have never had them.

I will take the seeds from the fruits and hope to start little trees from them. 

And here is an old favorite. I had two growing in my garden in North Carolina.

A beautiful Fig tree, I was so happy to actually recognize one of the many fruit trees in this garden, yes well besides the obvious ones.

And we were also gifted three seedlings from this lovely Fig.

mmmmmm, so grateful

Back at home it is becoming obvious that the seedlings are not nearly as pleased with all the rain we are having (it is still raining on and of). All of the pak choy has rotted, the tomatoes look like they are going the same route, and the salad greens the same. The only ones still looking healthy and strong are the cucumbers and zucchini.

A friend told me the other day, that each year he promises himself not to start anything tender, really any annual vegetable, between september and end of november as that is the heaviest rainy season in these parts. He told me that each year the same thing happens; 

because of the humidity with all this rain, the seedlings simply all rot. 

He even spoke of healthy arugula already in his beds about 10 cm tall, gone.

It sounds to me like good advise, 

besides this is an excellent time to focus on all the fruit trees, the trees that love all this water, 

and can really benefit from being planted now.

This spinach was so healthy a couple of days ago, and now one by one they are keeling over,

frustrating really!

~Blessings~