It's hard to believe it's February 28th. We've been open 8 weeks now and we've had several paying guests already. We are hosting two couples tonight and another couple on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Our guests elected to fish for their dinner. One of the women caught a large fish and broke the rod. Kevin and I have decided we need to resort to putting fishing line on a block of wood and then wind the line around the block.. That's what Martin uses and now we understand why.
The weather lately has been beautiful in the mornings, but cloudy in the afternoons. We haven't had rain in quite some time and we can really use some. We have large water tanks up the hill in the pasture, but if the springs dry up, then we could be in trouble. Kevin is devising a bio sands filter that could take the water out of the ponds and creates 100% pure, clean water. It's always so hard to say goodbye, especially when it's been such a short visit. Kevin's mum, Mary, and his sister, Karen, were great company for the past week. We went on a few hikes and ATV rides. We went to San Gerardo and went on a coffee processing plant tour. Mary taught me the names of some of the garden flowers, which I've forgotten already. I'm hopeless when it comes to flower names, just hopeless, but I appreciated her sharing the knowledge she's gained over the years. And Karen gave us a hand on Tuesday, helping me gather all the wood chips left by the chainsaw when the men were chopping our trees. While I was gathering all the dry chips on the river bank, Karen was standing precariously on slick rocks and shovelling wet chips into bags. Dry chips are light. Wet chips are heavy.... and, well, wet! But Karen is a trooper. She's always ready to get her hands dirty and never complains and won't stop till the job is done. She's incredibly strong, too. Then we carried the large bags over our shoulder to higher ground, where Kevin would later take them away in the ATV's trailer. We did work hard that one morning, but we also had lots of time to relax and enjoy each other's company throughout the week, which was really nice. I know Kevin was very happy to have the opportunity to spend time with them both. No time to wallow, however, as we have guests arriving tomorrow afternoon. The show must go on. 7 am: 11°C/51°F
Feels like: 10°C/50°F Blue skies 1 pm: 22°C/72°F Feels like: 24°C/75°F Cloudy Rainfall: 0 Well, it's been a week already and today is Mary and Karen's last day at Hush Valley Lodge. Boy, has it ever gone quickly! It was so nice to see both of them. Today, we stayed close to home and had a lazy day. Mary and Karen packed their luggage while we did our daily chores. I made banana bread this morning and for lunch, I made some pizza. We chatted while Karen printed out their boarding passes. I also prepared my class for tonight. It was a good day.
7 am: 12°C/54°F
Feels like: 12°C/54°F Blue skies 1 pm: 22°C/72°F Feels like: 24°C/75°F Cloudy Rainfall: 0 Today, Mary, Karen and I went on a coffee plantation tour in Santa Maria. The Coopedota is the first world's carbon neutral coffee processing plant. The tour was very interesting. The picture here shows the outside drying stage. And this is the roasting station. After the tour, we had a taste of this medium roasted coffee. It was really delicious! Mary told us that she saw a quetzal this morning. She described the long, green tale and said it flew overheard and into a tree. She was so excited... I can't believe we missed it! We know they are on our property, and we've heard them, but Kevin and I have yet to actually see one. Lucky Mary!
Later, as I was coming back from putting the hens away, I looked up and saw a coyote in our pasture. He was strolling on the paths that Paloma has created. I ran to the house to get Kevin. Kevin quickly came out, but in the meantime, the coyote was startled and ran up the hill. Kevin got a glimpse of it just before it reached the top and disappeared into the brush. A good reminder of why we have to make sure the hen house is secure and well locked every night. Coyote's are more afraid of us then we are of them, like so many animals. Although they coexist in packs of six adults and their young, they usually only hunt in pairs. It's rare that we would see the whole pack at once, unless very close to their den. They also travel up to 20 kms in diameter of their den. 7 am: 12°C/54°F
Feels like: 12°C/54°F Blue skies 1 pm: 24°C/75°F Feels like: 25°C/77°F Sun with clouds Rainfall: 0 As part of my adult English class, I suggested that we could organize an outing once a month to practice speaking English outside of a classroom environment. The class was quite excited with this idea so we decided to hike up the old road to Santa Maria. Kevin and I had heard that this road is beautiful so we were both keen to explore it. We had planned to meet at 8 am at the Copey Learning Center. I really had no idea whether anyone would actually participate, so I was pleasantly surprised when six students showed up. The sun was quite hot, even at that early hour. We walked on the flat, paved road for about a half hour until we reached a fork in the road that lead up to the old road. This dirt road was quite steep for quite a long way, so we were definitely getting our exercise. It was amazing to watch Roger's young son, Brian, move like he was walking on air. No huffing or puffing... I have to admit I was a bit envious with the ease with which he seemed to climb the vertical slope. We walked a little over an hour in one direction and then turned around and headed back. During the whole hike, everyone spoke English. I thought they might fall into speaking Spanish to each other, but they didn't. It was great how they would ask how to say this or that. They asked questions in English and did their very best to answer each other in their second language. I was really happy (and proud) with the success of this event. Everyone agreed that having the opportunity to practice English outside of the classroom, doing an enjoyable activity, was a lot of fun and they said they look forward to the next outing.
The sun was beating down on us for much of the walk so we made sure to stop and drink water. Thank goodness Kevin wore his hat! Poor Frankie hasn't gone on a walk like this in a very long time, so she was completely exhausted by the end of it. Bless her. I, too, felt completely drained for the rest of the day. Later, we took Mary and Karen over to Martin and Clara's restaurant for lunch where we all caught our own trout. A very enjoyable Sunday! |
EASY
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