One of the first jobs that Roberto did for us was to chop down all the King Grass which is a weed that grows 8 - 10 feet high and is very invasive. The weeds surrounded the area where we are planning to build and needed to be removed so we can terrace and plant another type of grass that grows only a foot or so high but has very long roots. These plants help to prevent erosion which can be a problem here in the rainy season. Once Roberto had cut down the weeds with his machete, Don & I pulled them to the top to create a pile for burning. Can you see him way down the steep hill? He is tying--much too large--bunches of weeds together so I can pull---or at least try to pull---them to the top of the hill. I also did some tying but my piles were smaller and easier to haul up!! By the end of the day we were both very pooped and ready for a shower!
I'm not sure which job was more difficult. The hill side is so steep it is almost impossible to stand there without feeling like you are going to topple over. On the other hand, pulling the huge piles of weeds to the top is exhausting! The bright side of the whole project is it works on those flabby underarms we seem to have as we get older!!
Finally the weeds are all gone on this hillside.
And.....this is the pile of weeds for that day. The pile has since grown and we were supposed to burn today but I haven't heard from Don since he left for the property at about 5:45 a.m. I had a number of things to do before leaving for Denver on Friday so I stayed home and planned to walk down when the burning was to begin! The wind has picked up a little and burning may be another day.
Fortunately, no one has decided to pick our bananas because we are not there!!
They are growing and we check them every time we go to the property. Sorry about the sideways shot but it is still a pretty good view of how they look.
We are waiting for them to fatten up a little more so we can pick them. Hopefully they will wait until I return!!
We wish the picture was a little better! The man who has the coffee farm next to us and is also our neighbor where we are renting is loading his vehicle with bags of coffee and, if you look closely, you can see a beautiful bunch of bananas on the top. A couple of his pickers a waiting for him to leave and then will head down through the coffee to their home on foot. The day we watched he put over a dozen huge bags of coffee in the back of that Toyota Land Cruiser!
One of the first jobs that Roberto did for us was to chop down all the King Grass which is a weed that grows 8 - 10 feet high and is very invasive. The weeds surrounded the area where we are planning to build and needed to be removed so we can terrace and plant another type of grass that grows only a foot or so high but has very long roots. These plants help to prevent erosion which can be a problem here in the rainy season. Once Roberto had cut down the weeds with his machete, Don & I pulled them to the top to create a pile for burning. Can you see him way down the steep hill? He is tying--much too large--bunches of weeds together so I can pull---or at least try to pull---them to the top of the hill. I also did some tying but my piles were smaller and easier to haul up!! By the end of the day we were both very pooped and ready for a shower!
I'm not sure which job was more difficult. The hill side is so steep it is almost impossible to stand there without feeling like you are going to topple over. On the other hand, pulling the huge piles of weeds to the top is exhausting! The bright side of the whole project is it works on those flabby underarms we seem to have as we get older!!
Finally the weeds are all gone on this hillside.
And.....this is the pile of weeds for that day. The pile has since grown and we were supposed to burn today but I haven't heard from Don since he left for the property at about 5:45 a.m. I had a number of things to do before leaving for Denver on Friday so I stayed home and planned to walk down when the burning was to begin! The wind has picked up a little and burning may be another day.
Fortunately, no one has decided to pick our bananas because we are not there!!
They are growing and we check them every time we go to the property. Sorry about the sideways shot but it is still a pretty good view of how they look.
We are waiting for them to fatten up a little more so we can pick them. Hopefully they will wait until I return!!
We wish the picture was a little better! The man who has the coffee farm next to us and is also our neighbor where we are renting is loading his vehicle with bags of coffee and, if you look closely, you can see a beautiful bunch of bananas on the top. A couple of his pickers a waiting for him to leave and then will head down through the coffee to their home on foot. The day we watched he put over a dozen huge bags of coffee in the back of that Toyota Land Cruiser!
3 comments:
What are you going to do when all those bananas get ripe at the same time? Joyce
Your new life looks like a lot of hard work but it also seems exciting. Take it one day at a time and enjoy it all. Joyce
We're going to eat lots of bananas!!
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