It has been raining a lot, but the green colors are more green than ever. And lots of birds are around. It is really special to be sitting in the Posada Rustica and drinking organic coffee from Finca Rio Perla. We have planted about 700 coffee trees, half of them from seedlings we produced from the last remaining coffee tree in La Perla. The coffee, too is from that last remaining coffee tree. Vivian and Sandra have been producing the seedlings and maintaining a smalll nursery. We are planting coffee at out highest altitudes of about 750 feet (about 2,300 feet). It is a beautiful view of the Caribbean. At the bottom of the farm at about 350 meters (about 1,100 feet) we just planted some cacao, that we need to clean up and continue to plant other trees/shrubs/crops for shade and ground cover.
It has been great to go horseback riding with Efrain and Hannah and the guests and visitors and neighbors. We have taken a couple of rides to the neighboring village San Bosco for ice cream. We were joined by our neighbors Wilfredo and his daughter Estephania, who is in Hannah's grade at school. David, and also Melanie and her kids Kai and Alani. It was also nice to ride up the mountain from the new horse stable by the Posada Rustica past the macadamia farm way up the mountain to more than 900 meters (about 2,800 feet). Going up and up the mountain was refreshing, and the views coming down were amazing. Then we walked to the lookout to the big 100 foot waterfall and walked up to the smaller about 30 foot waterfall. The water was really rushing from all the rains. Hannah is comfortable with TeddyFreda. it has been nice trying different horses. Zeus is really a smooth ride, he is so big and gentle. Valentino is our oldest home born-raised pony and he is 4 years old and riding for a year. My first ride on ChayaDov was incredible. She just wants to run, and has a beautiful gallop. Hannah has managed to keep up and we need to always wait for Efrain and the others. It has been good to use the new horse arena for training and practice.
We are still trying to expand and stabilize our outlet markets for goat milk and cheese, and cow cheeses, and eggs so that we can have more incentives for being more efficient and producing more. The smoked goat cheeses are getting better and better as we experiment, and the plain goat cheeses are great. We are also growing more and more products used as feed for the chickens for egg laying, and the eggs are so delicious.
Miguel and Esteban have been busy cutting pasture grasses up in the macadamia farm and bringing them down to the new horse stables. Together with Efrain and Roger they weaved netted hay bags from rope to hold the pasture grasses in the horse stalls. These pasture grass feeders might be temporary and will be replaced by wooden hay racks. But, for the moment it seems to be a good technique if we hang the net hay bags high enough, so horses can not step into them. We are still working on getting our feeding and clean-up routines efficient in the horse stables. Oops, gotta run. Dr. Paulo
It has been great to go horseback riding with Efrain and Hannah and the guests and visitors and neighbors. We have taken a couple of rides to the neighboring village San Bosco for ice cream. We were joined by our neighbors Wilfredo and his daughter Estephania, who is in Hannah's grade at school. David, and also Melanie and her kids Kai and Alani. It was also nice to ride up the mountain from the new horse stable by the Posada Rustica past the macadamia farm way up the mountain to more than 900 meters (about 2,800 feet). Going up and up the mountain was refreshing, and the views coming down were amazing. Then we walked to the lookout to the big 100 foot waterfall and walked up to the smaller about 30 foot waterfall. The water was really rushing from all the rains. Hannah is comfortable with TeddyFreda. it has been nice trying different horses. Zeus is really a smooth ride, he is so big and gentle. Valentino is our oldest home born-raised pony and he is 4 years old and riding for a year. My first ride on ChayaDov was incredible. She just wants to run, and has a beautiful gallop. Hannah has managed to keep up and we need to always wait for Efrain and the others. It has been good to use the new horse arena for training and practice.
We are still trying to expand and stabilize our outlet markets for goat milk and cheese, and cow cheeses, and eggs so that we can have more incentives for being more efficient and producing more. The smoked goat cheeses are getting better and better as we experiment, and the plain goat cheeses are great. We are also growing more and more products used as feed for the chickens for egg laying, and the eggs are so delicious.
Miguel and Esteban have been busy cutting pasture grasses up in the macadamia farm and bringing them down to the new horse stables. Together with Efrain and Roger they weaved netted hay bags from rope to hold the pasture grasses in the horse stalls. These pasture grass feeders might be temporary and will be replaced by wooden hay racks. But, for the moment it seems to be a good technique if we hang the net hay bags high enough, so horses can not step into them. We are still working on getting our feeding and clean-up routines efficient in the horse stables. Oops, gotta run. Dr. Paulo