1 Year Anniversary

Well, it was just a year ago that we took posession of the place and started our new life in the jungle. It is amazing how fast time goes by, and yet how much can also happen in that time. We have seen, heard, and learned so many things this year-in addition to the things we already knew. Here’s a list of what I can think of now.

We’ve seen – and not at the zoo:
Toucans, iguanas, lizards (4 kinds), geckos (one lives in our house), bats (brown and fruit), frogs, toads, snails, fish, gibnuts, coatimundi, pecarri, boa constrictor, parrots, vultures, cranes, motmots, butterflies (blue morphos), hummingbirds, preying mantis, giant cockroach, tarantula, scorpions, beetles, spiders, termites, ants (6 types), centipedes, jaguarundi (small jaguar), lightening on a cloudless night and thunder that lasts for 10 minutes, and lots more I can’t think of right now

We’ve eaten fresh fruits right from our orchard or within 10 miles of it
Pineapples, bananas, oranges (7 types), apples (4 types), lemon & limes, mango (5 types), papaya, petaya, jackfruit, mamay, coconut, sapodilla, Surinam cherries, monster fruit, black sapote (like chocolate pudding), rollinya (like lemon pie filling), watermelon, cantelope, avocado, sweet corn, Ginger, cacao (100% pure!), lemon grass, allspice, cinnamon, tomatos, peppers, sweet potatos, rice, beans, Chaya, ackee, star apples, breadfruit, starfruit, mulberries, strawberry fruit (these are berries off a tree that taste like those cookies with a jelly and creme filling), black raspberry, spinach, eggs from Aggie and more.

We’ve heard all kinds of new bird calls, howler monkeys, gibnuts, pecaris, and maybe a tapir!

We’ve learned:
To use a machete
To identify, remove and treat ticks
To look after a chicken
To nurse a baby owl to health
To catch and kill fish with our bare hands
To open a coconut
To harvest bunches of bananas
To cook plantains
To make food with breadfruit
To make traditional beans & rice
To make tres puntas tea
To make a poultice out of red head
To recognize the Mosquitos that carry dengue fever and malaria
How to fix a sunburn fast
How to use a Mennonite washing machine
What a Mennonite auction is like
Where tapioca comes from (a cassava plant-which we have growing out back)
To make tortillas from scratch
To make awesome salsa and guacamole
To make super granola
Banana cream pie
The best way to catch spiders and put them outside
How to pop out beefworms
What tick fever is like (always bring a roll of tape on walks)
What having Amoebas is like
What dengue fever is like
Not to saw sapodilla wood in short sleeves
The different gardening seasons
How to fix an old tractor so it will mow just one more time
Where the best bathrooms are in the main towns we visit
Where to find the groceries and supplies we need and who has the best prices
Where the smooth parts of the road are
Where to go sailing in the Caribbean
Which post office to use for mailing letters
How to use skype to phone people

The big projects we’ve done this year was to put in a new toilet, add another water tank behind the cabana, build a garden space behind the house, do lots of planting around the front and side yard, build a bugproof sundeck off the bedroom, moved the satellite dish to the house and for me to go up to Canada to get my car and drive it down here.

So that’s a good list, as you can tell we’ve been keeping pretty busy. we already have a bunch of things on our list for the coming year. I have a couple of web projects I am working on that I will be sharing in the next couple of months that I hope you will like.

So that’s it for today – time to start the laundry!