Student Days

Last week were two days to celebrate the students. Tuesday we showed movies with a projector I brought back with me from Canada. You can get them here but they are much more expensive. It worked nicely projected on to one of our white boards.

Friday was a school dance. With so many students, we are going to have to move special events to another location. Insignificant issues like edible plants are easily forgotten in the excitement of the party. The students put in a few lempiras each and had the normal, anti-nutritional snack fare. I see that, thanks to the rains, most of the plants have recovered from the traffic.

We continue to measure land for our next housing project. We have, finally, established the majority of the boundary points. Four more points on one plot and it will be done. Very little official marking of boundaries has been done with a GPS. The person formerly in charge of the land office was more inclined to make up maps and give them to folks for a small consideration. Then he would, conveniently forget to input them into the office computer. This, of course, leads to difficulties when it is time to establish boundaries. We met one of our "neighbours" and are now using his map (from three years ago) as a starting point. Consequently, the need to measure again. Edgar and I were the ones able to read the maps and help the two men from the land office figure out which points went where. Sigh.

Monday, Edgar told me that he had taken a bag of Pigeon Pea seeds and planted them on his property. Hurrah. He planted over 100 seeds. it is an exciting first step in making his land productive year round with vertical sources of nutrition. He has, as well, ordered Willow cuttings to plant along the stream that bounds one side of the property. This week, as well, he gave two, standard shaped hoes a try. He found that they were faster and less painful to use than the traditional digging hoe or grub hook. He is quite excited about trying two others that we bought yesterday.

A hoe which can be used while standing upright is a great improvement. It means, as well, that the maize can be weeded earlier and more often which results in better production. Often, the tedious, painful way of weeding means that the weeds are often over a foot high before being tackled. By that time they have done serious damage to production. I need to find a Dutch hoe yet to see how it performs.

The fish are still alive and, yesterday, Edgar divided them into three tanks. We designed a small aerator using 3 toilet plungers. It seems to work quite nicely.

Another art project - a sign for Chipilin - the girl is quite pleased and so am I to see a plant being labelled so nicely.

TTYL

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Johnny modeling his art project - a scarf made using nails, a block and a crochet hook

Karin modeling her scarf.  School plants in the background.

Fish Fry

Yesterday afternoon, Edgar and I went to find some fish fry for a small experiment we are doing. On the way, we stopped at his place to look at his land and give some ideas. He has some beautiful land and, with some work, he can easily be self sufficient. It will take some work to plant but Edgar is a good worker. He is going to give some new hoes a trial today in the maize he is growing. Currently they are using a small, sickle shaped hoe to weed with and it looks positively painful to see them bent over like that. I will try and get a couple of other types of hoes in San Pedro for him to try. Being able to stand and hoe should speed up the process and keep the fields much cleaner. Having someone try them out is a benefit because I can find out which is best for the conditions here.

The "bag" floats on the tank to equalize water temperature and to accustom the fry to the new water.

We got to the fish rearing ponds and drove up to where we could buy the fry. The track got narrower and narrower with steeper and higher banks to look down. My truck is rear wheel drive and none too happy with slippery conditions so I drove quiet cautiously.

The young man and his wife who helped us live in a watchtower/house/storage room. They sleep in hammocks on the upper storey and have a large flashlight to scare away predating animals at night. People are not the major problem it seems. I think he is referring to racoons. They had a large pack of dogs - friendly, thankfully - to help with the task.

Bag open and water being added gradually to mix with the water from their home pond.

He had a roll of plastic tubing (1 m diameter) and cut off a length. Then he made two tie straps from a piece of old inner tube. His very sharp machete made it look positively easy to cut the inner tube. I know, from experience, just how sharp that machete had to have been to cut through rubber that quickly.

We went to the pond where he caught the fry with a net and counted them into the bag (filled with water). They had an oxygen tank by the pond so ran some oxygen into the water and the bag. We tied it off and set it in the back seat of the truck.

Edgar feeding Calliandra dried leaf powder - Fish are still too flighty to get person + fish in the same picture.

Less than an hour later, the fish were in their new home. We will divide them into three groups later.

This morning, Edgar fed them Calliandra leaf powder. They ate it. This is so exciting. We may have found a food source for families to grow their own protein. Leaf powder is easy to make, easy to store and costs nothing but time. In addition, the trees that can be used often fix nitrogen, provide firewood, are good for animal and human consumption and help with erosion control. The potential is awesome. We will see how it goes for now.

Note the entrance the Gimerito bees have constructed in the top corner of their hive.  They also use the entrance hole in the middle of the front panel. 

A group of three neighbours, including Lydia (fish farming stories) are using  the rest of the swampy land to grow Malanga. This week they sold several thousand shoots (hijos). That is exciting as it is a new source of income. I am quite pleased to see their industry and the success it is producing.

Two weeks into the tube experiement - Chaya cuttings (back two rows), Tephrosia and Pigeon Pea (front row) all doing well. Especially pleased with the chaya. 

TTYL

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Gimeritos

Today, Edgar transferred some Gimerito bees into a new home. They had been living in a gallon plastic jug and, hopefully, will appreciate their new digs. I was waiting a beekeeper to move the hives but Edgar said he knew how ... and he did!! In just a few minutes we had them transferred. He is off to the house where he and his mother will transfer the second hive. It was so exciting to find out that Edgar knew how to do this and was happy to give it a whirl.

 

Opening the jug - Obviously they are a hardy insect

The mass of wax, honey and bees inside the new home

Edgar putting on the cover

Hanging the hive - they do well near/by a house

Our next housing project got a boost yesterday as we acquired the maps of the land last night. The official documents are a couple weeks away but ... first step that is concrete. Hurrah. It has been a lot work and not without difficulties.

Not much else for news other than that. Enjoy the pictures.

TTYL

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