Serenity Gardens - Lot 21

This is a short visual of my homesite in Costa Rica!

Ali and Christian standing at the top corner of our land. Behind them (and down) is a year-round creek, too!

I claim this land!

The view off the street (side of the house).

THE view.
Hopefully most of our windows will be pointing this direction.

This is Bob Crosby, checking wind measurements to see if we can use it for one of our off-the-grid energy sources.

This is the first of the community gardens.

A whole slew of trees to be planted on the properties. Each lot will get one tree in each corner.
Ours will be: a cinnamon, mango, avocado, and sour orange.

Waiting for the ride back to Osa Mountain Village ... and a beer.

Days Four and Five -- Waterfall Hiking

 Fig tree.

 We could see and hear the zip-line going above us on our hikes.

 Walking trees shoot down another root in the direction they want to "walk," pulling themselves across the jungle floor.

Dogs must always come on hikes. Especially if there's water involved.

 An older version of that walking tree we saw earlier.

The hiking is gorgeous. I loved being out in the jungle. And we actually -- though sweaty -- stayed cooler during the exercise because of the shade and elevation. And the water. That was nice, too. I liked walking through the creek. Felt good on dusty, sore feet.

**

Next post will be on our Serenity Garden tour.
Pictures of our land!!

"Spring is Here," said the bumblebees.

Right now I hear weed-eaters and lawn mowers and edgers beating up my over-grownnasty lush lawn. It's going to be BEE-YOU-TEE-FULL. I'm already so pleased. Next step, repairing lawn mower (it's already in the van to be dropped off at the shop) and renting a rototiller. 

Next Saturday would be the day I'd love to do the garden bed prep, but Ali will be flying home from California that day (job training), and that's a job I'd want help with. But we'll see. Maybe I'll get a bug up my butt and do it all by myself. If the lawn mower would fit in the back of my van, wouldn't a rototiller?

My friend Tamara is coming over Friday morning to do some garden plot planning. She wants to grow some corn here, so we'll have to find a good spot for that.

I need compost brought in to amend the soil, and a bit of wood chips (and maybe some landscape cloth) to border it. Then I'll get some metal T-bars and some chicken wire, and fence off the garden space from rambunctious doggies.

Chickens last.

Finally! Seeds.

I got a surprise day off from work yesterday. Which is great for house projects, but sucky for the bank accounts. Nevertheless, I went to BiMart for new pants for my son ('cuz he keeps growing) and found their seedling annuals section in the freaking parking lot where you can't avoid buying them. Thank goodness some of them were only 69 cents, or $2.88.

I bought about a dozen small flowering plants and planted them in my front yard's window planter box, a big terra cotta pot, and a giant stainless steel kitchen bowl that I used to use for popcorn. I am hoping that my front porch area now looks nice enough to make up for the grossly under-mown lawn. (My lawn mower's broken and my landlord took pity on me and ordered a lawn service to come out on Monday to start cleaning up. It's a multi-day job, folks!)

ALSO, I'm happy to announce that I've finally planted my tomato, peppers, and basil seeds.

We'll see if these actually grow now. It's more experiment than anything. Because, well, they are ancient, after all.

Book Giveaway! Made From Scratch by Jenna Woginrich

Because this book is so awesome, I accidentally bought two.

I felt inspired by some of the 8th graders' mentorship project speeches from last night's school function (at Aubrey's school), and went to find my books on painting.

While there, I found Made From Scratch.

I thought, "What is this doing in the animals-sustainable living-art section of the bookcase?" (A totally great spot for it, by the way.) "It should be in memoir." (Because it's also that. Sort-of. And it actually says so on the front of the cover.) I went to transfer it to the "right" shelf, and lo and behold! Another copy. HA!

This is a boon for you, of course, because someone's getting a free book. Leave a comment on this blog, and I'll do a random drawing. If you're name is drawn, I'll contact you to get your address, and I'll ship it to you. Pronto-like.

It's a super awesome book. I've apparently read it three times now. And every time I read it, I retain something more. It really is so inspiring.

Here's a quick review:

5 out of 5 stars

Summary:
A young single woman finds the bliss of self-sufficiency and urban farming while working in an office 9 to 5. She quickly gets the bug and moves to the country. It's part memoir, part how-to, and is chock full of life lessons, practical tips, and down-home humor and humility.

Review:
The really cool thing about this book -- besides the author's voice, and the fascinating content -- is the structure. I really dig the lay-out. First, the sections fall under standard themes like, Chickens: the most exciting accessory since lawn darts, and Growing Your Own Meals: I get cocky with my hoes. But also some less mainstream ones: Packing Dogs, Homemade Mountain Music, Angora Rabbits as Livestock, and Old Stuff.

Then, within those thematic sections, Jenna starts with a personal chapter -- an essay on the most private thing she learned about her process in this area, or why she made a certain decision, or just some quirky little story about her friends -- and then follows it up with a practical how-to for those of us that want to try it out ourselves.

This is pure brilliancy. How many times have I read a memoir that inspired me, but then didn't have a clue how to set myself up to start? Or the reverse is true, too. Sometimes I'll pick up a permaculture book, say, because it's an subject that interests me, but I don't end up reading it because it's all text-booky. And I want more character. More humanity.

Made From Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a handmade Life is that book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

This is my homesite!

How to Make Fresh Guava Juice

1. First, you go to a tropical location and pick them. But not from this tree. It's not a guava tree.

2. After you collect your fruta, spread them all out on the table and smile at how blessed you are. (The guavas are the small round yellow fruits at the top left of the photo.)

3. Then, peel them. I used a potato peeler because they were super-dee-duper ripe. A paring knife would've just smooshed them.

 4. Plop them all in a blender, add some water, and blend. (My juice ended up being more like nectar, or smoothie. A little on the thick side. Next time I'll add more water to make it thinner.)

(please forgive the blurriness)

5. Pour the juice through a strainer to get all the seeds out.

6. You can compost the seeds, or feed 'em to the pigs or chickens.

 7. You can drink it this way -- a refreshing tartness -- or you can add sweetener to it. In Costa Rica, you can find this sugar cane juice. Honey would work great, too. Just a little bit ...

8. Then a squeeze of lime.

Slurp!

If you want to make a breakfast smoothie out of it, dump the juice back in the blender (after rinsing out the seeds) and add a banana (and maybe an avocado!); mix.