Water for Talapia!

Sunday we took a ride to our neighbor, Meli's, house to deliver a chain we had purchased to lock up her gate.  Meli and Jim live at the bottom of the road that circles our property.  It's a big circle!!

Here you can see the work that has been done on the road which was very much in need of repair.  This part of the road is below where we need to travel to reach our casa or our coffee. The trip to Meli's house, although still not smooth or easy, was much improved over our previous visits.

There is still much work to be done and they haven't even started on the public road down to our house or the main road.  We take an optomistic wait and see attitude on most things here and it seems to keep us somewhat sane dealing with the "poco poco" progress of events.  Today Don and Roberto are in San Ramon applying for permits to allow us to improve our private road and bring electricity to our casa once it is available on the public road.  I am home waiting for friends, Steve and Jennifer, to come for a visit and doing the ever mounting paperwork.  Don has returned and, of course, is missing one important piece of paper that we didn't know we needed!  So goes life in CR!

 

 

Here the road has been  widened in front of their casa and is great for parking our "New Old" vehicle which is still leaking some oil and needs a bit of TLC.

When we arrived at Meli's house she was having problems with her water.  Not an uncommon occurance here in Costa Rica.  We are very fortunate to have municipal water.  Anyway, we offered to help and headed to the woods.  There I am heading to the problem that we hope we can fix.

 

As you can see there are water line just coming down the hill resting on whatever is available.  The blue is the water line and we follow it up the hill through the dense growth until we reach the part of the trail where we need to climb a steep cliff with nothing to grab except the root you can see in the photo below.

 

 

 

 

 

Being the sensible one of the group I decided to remain at the bottom of this "cliff" in case rescue was needed.  Believe me the photo does not do justice to the difficulty of climbing this part of the slope.

While Don and Meli were risking their lives to bring water to the much loved Talapia, I enjoyed the beautiful pool full of floating leaves and the other incredible scenes all around me!

They survived the trip up and back, beat on the pipes, shook them and with hope in our hearts we headed back to Meli's house and the Talipia ponds which are in constant need of running water. The fish had water, however, just as we were leaving the hose for watering Meli's flowers stopped running!! Meli headed back up the hill and we headed home!

 Returning to Meli's we played a bit more with the water pipes and caught 3 Talapia for us to take home for dinner!  YUM, YUM!

With a little help from "Flat Mistaya" Don cleaned the wonderful Talapia which we enjoyed for dinner.

We

Thank you Meli for an adventure and a wonderful meal!!  Well friends and family that's it for adventures in Costa Rica today, however, I want to leave you with this beautiful scene I viewed in the middle of the night of a full moon and a spectacular view from my livingroom window! 

 

"Flat Mistaya" Comes to Visit!

While visiting our Daughter and her family in CO our Granddaughter, Mistaya, sent "Flat Mistaya" to Sharon to learn about Costa Rica.  "Flat Mistaya" has gone with me since I returned and we are sharing our Costa Rica experience with her.

Before we share what we've been doing with "Flat Mistaya", we want to introduce you to our "New Old" vehicle that has been so long in coming.  She is a 1995 Hyundai Galloper with 4 wheel drive, diesel engine, Turbo and "all the extra's."  She seats 7 and, so far, has not found the road she cannot navigate!

Although not glamorous, she is in pretty good shape for her age and getting all the necessary equipment to the finca is now possible. 

Speaking of equipment for the finca, here "Flat Mistaya "  is hitching a ride with Don on the Bomba that is used to spray the coffee.  Don and Roberto have been spraying the weeds since I returned home from CO and even before.  That process is completed until the rainy season starts and we will have to spray for fungus.   Now we are pruning, picking berries that have been left behind and cleaning up all the debris that has collected over the years.  There is no shortage of work and the 3 of us just plug along.

Can you see "Flat Mistaya" on the Bomba?

These are the new "steps" up to the cistern where our water is located.

This is the water faucet where Don and Roberto fill the Bomba's to create the right mix for spraying. You will notice that Sharon doesn't seem to be doing any spraying!   Well.....those Bombas full of water are very heavy and there are many other things for me to do.

"Flat Mistaya" is checking out the inside of the old cistern.  At one time we were going to recement it but have decided not to--at the moment.

"Flat Mistaya" met our Employee, Roberto, and is hitching a ride.

This is the Cana Plant which is used for windbreak and natural fencing in the coffee fields.

"Flat Mistaya" is hiding in the Cana leaves can you find her!

It wouldn't be a day at the finca without checking out the bananas. They are looking good! Not ready for picking but filling out.

"Flat Mistaya" said she really liked bananas!  She loved sitting there and didn't want to get down! Can't blame her we love bananas too!

Here we are introducing "Flat Mistaya" to our Mango tree. Unfortunately, they are just in the flowering stage so we have no fruit to see or eat.  From June on is Mango season and I can hardly wait!  

When Don was here  2/3 years ago he planted 3 mango trees in among our coffee plants and this is one of them.  They are all about the same size and are covered in booms!  We have never seen a Mango on a tree and are looking forward to seeing how well our trees produce!

Two Weeks in Denver!

As many of you may know I, Sharon, have just spent 2 weeks in Denver with our daughter, Kristin, and her husband, Paul, helping with our new granddaughter, Madeline Grace.  The precious little bundle arrived January 6th at about 5:30 p.m. at 8# and 21".  She's perfect, no bias here, and Mother and daughter are doing well.

This post is light on pictures, sorry, but we still have lots to share.  My trip went well and I returned with a number of items we were craving--peanut butter, chocolate, etc., and a few things for friends.  Shopping was a treat and both Kristin and I had a great time on New Year's Day at the local Thrift Store's 1/2 price sale!  Madeline was very happy inside so Kristin and I were successful getting all the items on our list while we waited for her birth!

While I was gone things really happened here!  Don bought our "New Old" vehicle and has had a window and a minor oil leak in the diesel somewhere repaired!  The vehicle is a  "95 Hyundai Galloper, standard, diesel, 4 wheel drive. 7 passenger, silver and blue and, although not glamorous by any stretch,  the interior is in good condition for the age and we are thrilled to have wheels!
Since the arrival of our "New Old" vehicle, Don has had a few scary moments with the local fog that resembles pea soup at times.  It seems fog lights are soon to be added to our "New Old" vehicle.

Don and Roberto were very busy in my absence and both ended up with minor injuries!!  Roberto fell off an edge while raking and got some nasty bruises and a sore ankle.  Don ended up with cut up hands and one hand that is quite swollen after a slight mishap! Paul and Kristin sent home a number of gloves as a Christmas gift for Don!  Hopefully these small incidents will make us all a little more careful working in the Coffee fields that are full of hills and things to trip over not to mention the critters Mother Nature provides.  In spite of their injuries, Roberto and Don pulled many weeds and vines and managed to do some much needed spraying of the coffee plants.  Remember the weeds??  They have been gathered and burned but there are always more to tackle and eliminate!  The hillsides around our homesite look great and I promise photos on the next blog.  So much of the area around the Coffee plants is overgrown and the Cana Plants that are used for natural fencing and wind break are all in need of cutting back.  Plenty of work for all of us and once I'm done catching up here, I'll be pitching in.

We have been told that work has started on the roads near our property!  There are rumors that the road to our property is possibly going to be improved as well.  Believe me, it can use a little improvement!

As for electricity, we are hopeful that things are moving forward, although we have seen no activity in that area.  ICE has been out to check our property and advised us that they are willing and able to give us electricity, however, there are some hoops we need to jump through including hiring an authorized electrician to do the work.  Hopefully, our next post will have something more definite to report.

Tomorrow will be our first private Spanish lesson.  Jorge, the mechanic who has helped us with our  vehicle, has a sweet wife named Gretel who teaches Spanish and has agreed to take us on as students.  She must really enjoy a challenge, because we seem to be pretty slow at picking up the language here!!  We are hopeful, however, and look forward to working with her.

There is probably lots more to report but my brain feels empty at the moment so I will end here until next time!

Good Bye Weeds and Banana Update!

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!

Bits of Berlin!

At one time we had thought of purchasing this pickers shack along with enough property to traverse with our power lines.  At this point we feel the asking price is far more that the advantage we would receive.  We had even considered fixing up the building and living in it while our home was being built.  

We have recently talked with a builder and are going to build our garage and studio first and live there.  On the 3rd of January Don is meeting with an architect to discuss the plans we have created and get bids from both he and the builder.  We are also going to look for other bids and other people before we make our final decision on who will be doing the work.  Also, we need to hire a backhoe to move some earth and work on our driveway.  Once that is done, we will put 2 strips of concrete with gravel in between to create a road that the large vehicles required in the building process will be able to travel.  For this job we are also getting bids which is a slow process when most of the people you need to do the work speak only Spanish!  Although, we are working on our Spanish, that too is a very slow process!

Elian and his Uncle Dario came to the property with us one day last week to meet with ICE.  Dario was going to translate, however, we never actually saw ICE.  After waiting a number of hours we left for home but, it is our understanding that ICE did show up to look at our situation.  Elian is pushing the machete down into the ground where we have a little problem with the ground not being solid on the edge of where it was graded.  Just to the left of Elian are our Banana Trees which are still growing!

Machetes are so common here.  Everyone has at least one.  Since arriving we have purchased two--one for us and one for Roberto.  Roberto is much more talented with his!!

Rolando is a friend we met when we stayed here last time with Chavarria's.  He is quite a worker for a number of people around town and walks everywhere, including to the near by towns.  

He and Don have a "special" relationship and when Rolando walks by he will stop looking for a meal and lots of coffee with mounds of sugar!

The dog's name is Perro which means dog in Spanish.  She is very sweet and always comes out to greet us when we walk by.  There are dogs everywhere here and many of them are shy of strangers.  Our least favorite are the ones that bark when we want to sleep!

The sunsets here are spectacular and we only wish we could capture the beauty in our photographs!  We will keep trying!

Municipal Water and ICE the Power Company of Costa Rica

Not too far from our property is this new Municipal well where our water comes from.

The President of Costa Rica came to Berlin to dedicate this well to the people of Berlin,

Meet ICE the Government Power Company!

While in San Ramon the other day we topped to watch ICE working at a new business in town.  This is ICE.  You've heard us talking about our need to get electricity on our property and ICE is the government electric company which has the power to say  "nay" or "yay"!  After a number of trips to ICE and officially presenting a letter of request for service with the help of our friend Josee, we have finally received notice that ICE is willing and able to bring power to our property!  And....the letters were sent in both English and Spanish which was greatly appreciated!

It seems we should be thrilled, right!  Unfortunately, we still have no idea the cost of this precious commodity.  The letter advises us to find qualified people to put in the poles and wire and something about an environmental study.  The one bid we have received was to use an easement across our neighbors property.  At one time Gilberto, our neighbor, was agreeable, however, the law has changed and now that ICE will own 11 feet each side of the line the offer is no longer available!  So...we now are in the process of finding how much it will cost to go down the road to our property but do not expect to accomplish too much in the next couple weeks.  Christmas is a holiday for just about everyone here and it's not just Christmas day.  The day before and Christmas day are official paid holidays and many businesses shut down for two weeks!!  

Thanks to many hours of digging trenches and burying pipe by Don and Roberto, our employee, we now have water to the Cistern on our property.  This has allowed us to spray the weeds---and hopefully kill them!  Don is now at the property and I'm waiting for a call to go down to burn all the weeds we have dragged up the hills and piled at our homesite.