Two weeks ago, Kevin and I went out for an ATV adventure with our friends Rolando and Maritza. If you remember, their ATV broke down and we had to cut the fun short. Rolando called last week to let us know that his ATV has been fixed and he was ready to give it another try. Today was the only day we could commit to since we have two sets of B&B guests staying with us starting next weekend for the week. Then my daughter, Phoenix, and her boyfriend will be visiting for a week... by mid June, the rivers may be too high to cross. Today had to be the day if we wanted to do it before November. We set out at 7 am to meet Rolando in Santa Maria at 7:30 am (Maritza couldn't join us this time). The sun was out... a great start to the day. Rolando lead us up roads between Santa Maria and San Marcos we hadn't been on. These roads by-passed having to drive through the town of San Marcos and brought us directly to the other side of town... it shaved several minutes off our journey, for sure. It's always nice to discover new ways of getting around the area. As usual, Kevin drove. And I was happily perched behind him. There's something very liberating about being a passenger: I can take it all in or zone out.... kind of. Although I don't have to focus on the road and concentrate on the next move, I do have a certain amount of responsibility still. And for those who are under the impression riding an ATV is an 'passive' sport, think again. My whole body is engaged! First, my core has to be strong and tight... THE WHOLE TIME... to help me balance, but also to alleviate the strain on my neck from my helmet (approx 1.8 kg/4 lb). I suffered a neck injury many years ago and it doesn't take much to feel the stress, so by making sure my neck isn't swinging from side to side, my core has to compensate. It's not a bad thing, just something I'm acutely aware of when I'm riding on the back. Also, when we descend, the angle of the bike causes gravity to push me forward. I have to engage my leg muscles and dig my feet into the steel foot rest to avoid crashing the front of my helmet into the back of Kevin's. Not only is it unpleasant for Kevin to be whacked in the head suddenly, but it's such an amateur things to do. (If you've ridden any kind of motor vehicle that requires a helmet and you've been a passenger, you know this is so uncool... it does happen now and then, you can't anticipate every move the driver makes, but you should be on the ball most of the time and not slam into him.) Then there's the simple act of holding on. I usually grab onto the metal frame, but the vibration of the ATV rattling around can be hard on the nerves so I tend to wrap my fingers very loosely – barely touching – the metal bar. There's also a technique to riding... you have to lean into the turns, follow the driver, never lean the opposite direction... this could be very dangerous. So, yes, being a passenger has its perks, but it's not all 'la la' and daydreaming of daisies. We reached our first river crossing.The sun was still shining and it was getting warmer as we drove down in elevation. Boy, was it ever hot and muggy! The temperature must have hit at least 30°C/86°F (at the very least). As long as we were moving, the breeze kept us cool, but we weren't moving all that fast. Kevin mentioned to Rolando that he can go faster if he wanted... we were happy to pick up the pace. Rolando looked at us and said "Really?" and we together answered, "Really!". Rolando threw us a mischievous smile and took off at full throttle across the river. We pursued Rolando and caught up to him. Now the fun had begun. They don't call it a 'joy ride' for nothing. I think our top speed was 88 km/55 mph, but it felt like we were flying at 200 km/124 mph. We were chasing the blue skies while the heavy grey clouds were chasing us. We knew it was only a matter of time before they'd catch us, but we were having too much fun... besides the views were spectacular! And what a thrill! We stumbled across an amazing waterfall... we parked our ATVs and found a path that led to it. I captured it on video... this is my first time filming a video on my camera, so there's no sound. I forgot to narrate what was going on... but it's pretty self-explanatory... the waterfall was so tall!! It was time to head back and when we did, the inevitable happened... the rain storm was waiting for us. We put on our rain gear and hoped for the best. It didn't take long for the drops to fall... even with my rain gear, I could feel the trickle of water running down the inside of my pants then into my boots. Within two minutes I was drenched. At one point, Kevin took a corner sharply and I felt the water in my boots slosh from side to side. Eventually the rain stopped, but the damage was done. As we climbed back up the mountain, the temperature dropped by at least ten degrees... not a great combination... wet and cold. I just kept my head down, leaned into the turns with Kevin and told myself how lovely a hot shower and a cup of tea would be when we get home. When we got home, I peeled off my wet clothes... expecting Kevin to do the same. He looked at me and said "I'm dry. If anything, I'm a little sweaty, but that's it." Apparently, his rain gear is much more waterproof than mine. I think I may have to invest in better gear! Oh, but how much fun would that be, really! Hot shower, lovely cup of tea... and a bit of writing. Can life get any better!
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Yesterday, Kevin and Martin drained the large pond and transferred the remaining trout into the smaller pond next to the chicken coop (and before you ask, no eggs yet from our Egnas! it's been a month since we've had them... hopefully soon). With all the preventative measures Kevin has taken (e.g. creating a gate that can close off the river water coming into the canal when the water is dirty, adding a grate to collect as many leaves as possible, installing two nets in the sediment pond to filter whatever leaves and dirt sneaked through the first gate), the large pond is relatively clean. There's always a bit of work to be done, but for the most part, Kevin is pleased with the result. It was worth implementing the changes... the aqueduct system is more efficient and requires less manual labour at the end of the day. Martin is pretty impressed, too. Last year it took three men a whole week to clean the large pond. This year, it will take the two men three days max. That's the good news.
The bad news is we have 110 trout left... and they're big, too! From our calculations, it appears we've lost approximately 240-ish fish to Mother Nature. That's a 1/3 of what we started out with! As soon as we realized the Blue Heron was helping itself to dinner, Kevin added a fishing line barrier, which I'm sure has helped reduce the amount of lost fish. However, it took some time for us to realize that the otters, the gluttons, were taking several trips up to the all-you-can-eat buffet. Kevin has installed an electric fence, which we turn on only at dusk and turn off in the morning. It's enough to shock the little critters, but not kill them. Martin says losing a 1/3 of any crop as a farmer is normal. 1/3 for customers. 1/3 for our own consumption. 1/3 to Mother Nature. We don't mind sharing, and we're not so naive to think we won't lose a few, but a 1/3 of a large number has a much bigger impact on our bottom line. And in a few days, once the big pond is clean, we'll be transferring the baby trout... 1,500 of them... into it. Kevin's wheels are turning... thinking of other ways to secure the ponds. While Martin and Kevin were draining the big pond, we were also catching fish for our neighbour, Roberto. They caught a 1.8 kilo (almost 4 lb). She was a beauty! We kept her for ourselves and Kevin is smoking her right now... If we were to buy just one smoked filet, it would cost at least $20... there are some perks to this gig. Can't wait for lunch! Now for those of you who have been following my blog for some time, and you have read my book (thank you, by the way!) you know we've had the pleasure of having high(ish) speed internet for over 18 months. Long are the days that we had to search for a signal up on the mountain, behind the one-room school or down in Copey. Seems like a distant memory now. I received an email from my best friend telling me she's having huge issues with her internet connection and she lives just outside Ottawa (Canada)... so, yes, living in the Costa Rican cloud forest, is awesome, but the internet kinda makes it heavenly.
However, I never ever want to take it for granted, especially on a day like today when I can Skype my mother, see her face and tell her how much I lover her. And for my kids to Skype me... to see their faces... there is no greater gift! I went onto Facebook this morning and the outpouring of love from mothers, to mothers, to women who are nurturers... it's very uplifting. And there's a very good chance at some point today I'll be chatting with one or two of my friends on one of the social media outlets. And the opportunity to write my blog posts and have so many people stay in touch with our adventure... sometimes silently, but I know you're there... keeps my world go round. So yes, I am grateful today and everyday for the gift of connectivity. I don't think Kevin and I can call ourselves lazy people. We don't always want to do our chores, but for the most part we enjoy our daily tasks and God knows we create more than enough projects for ourselves. It's part of our creative process for sure. However, not everything gets done quite as promptly as we plan. For instance, over a year ago now, we had Martin cut down a large hollow tree. It had several wasps nests inside, which was its own brand of danger, but mostly, we didn't want it to fall on anybody or damage our greenhouse. Martin cut the large trunk in several pieces and they've been left in the river all this time. I had all kinds of ideas of what to do with the trunks, but they're incredibly heavy to move so it was a case of 'mañana...mañana', then we got busy with other stuff and honestly we just kind of forgot about them. They quickly dropped off our priority list. Well, today, Martin and Kevin decided they would bring one of the pieces up. Our ideas was to use a hollow trunk and cover the casita's septic tank pipe. A green plastic pipe sticks out of the ground in the middle the green space, between the guesthouse and the river. Kevin and I scowl every time we look at it. The question was how would we (hahaha... I mean Kevin and Martin) drag the hollow trunk out of the riverbed. It's hollow, but still incredibly heavy. So, this is how it was done: I sat on our ATV, the winch cable was wrapped around the trunk and while I pressed the 'winch' button (that was pretty easy, actually) Kevin and Martin were supporting and guiding the trunk up the steep hill (a little less easy). Check out the slideshow... I sprayed the trees with organic insecticide, cleaned the chicken house (by the way, our Egnas have yet to lay any eggs... we've had them nearly a month... we love them, but com'on), and washed the rest of the railing on our front terrace, ready to finish painting. Kevin spent the whole day installing the rails for the sliding doors for the carport... which meant, since everything is so wonky, that he had to smooth out some cement to keep everything level. It looks fantastic! It's hard to believe he's never done this sort of thing before... stay tuned for some pictures soon!
It was a good and productive day! Nice. As always on Mondays, we fish. We catch between 30 and 35 trout and sell them to our friend, Roberto. It's starting to get harder and harder to catch these smart girls. And each week, there are less fish in the pond, leaving them more room to evade the bait. Most of the fish weigh almost 1 kg... but this girl weighed in at 1.5 kg! The biggest fish we've ever caught in our pond. Next week, we'll be transferring the big girls to a smaller pond and transferring the 1,500 baby trout, which are getting quite big, in the large pond. And so the cycle continues. |
EASY
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