For the love of frogs, mud and bunnies.

The children have for as long as I can remember had a very special love for frogs.

There has always been the awareness of their singing at dusk, their spring time mating in our ponds or blow-up pools and there has always been the catching of them followed by their release back into the wild. We usually always keep an observatory for all the little creatures that the children find, much love and attention goes into the keeping of the observy, as we lovingly call it, and it changes frequently between earthen, dessert and watery world.

When I arrived back from Denmark it was an earthen home and housed a baby tarantula and a lizard, the children would catch and bring bugs to the little creatures for as long as they kept them in captivity.

The frog in these pictures is called Camelia, and from what the children tell me she keeps coming back, they release her and she finds her way back to them within a few days. The observatory was changed into a watery world filled with rocks for Camelia and her friend another tree frog, who quickly escaped.

After a day in captivity Camelia was released back into the cenote. 

 The observatory before it was changed for Camelia.

Cleaning the cenote, as is currently happening,  has the added benefit for the children that as a last step in the process a big pump is used to vacuum mud and sediments from the cenote floor onto the gardening area, and is there anything nicer on a hot day than to submerge 

yourself into the slimyness of mud, and then to jump into the cool cenote water to rinse off?

Finally we had yet another burial, this time of a bunny.

Keenan's favorite bunny who he had called Black Beauty escaped from the bunny corral at the beginning of last week, he was extremely touched by the escape and feared for the bunny's life in the wild. His grief was intense for about half an hour then he let it go.

5 days later he found Black Beauty outside the fence of the bunny corral exhausted, he died in Keenan's arms a few minutes later, and Keenan went through the grief all over again,

heartfelt tears for the loss of the little bunny's life.

We buried him in the garden next to Vampira, a bat the children had found wounded while I was away, and had not succeeded in bringing back to health.

I love to observe the children and their honest emotions; their grief so intense, their compassion so real

and yet they naturally allow the feelings to pass through them, feel them fully and then release them.

~Blessings~

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~