Our Farm, Coffee, and land for the Youth Center

Our Farm

I couldn't move this picture so I am leaving it here.

In this picure, Giovanni is measuring a cajuela of coffee. (About 15 lbs of beans) Those who pick coffee get paid $2.00 for each cajuela of coffee picked. Once the bean is picked it must get to the processor within 24 to 48 hrs.

The coffee ripens over a four to five month period of time and is picked as it ripens. We will pick the coffee and then wait a couple days before more coffee ripens. The coffee started with a trickle and last week we sold over 70 cajuelas of coffee. Our pickers will start up again next week.

Here is a picture of our Coffee and Banana Farm. The banana helps provide shade for the coffee and restores nutrients to the soil that is depleted by the coffee plants.

Praise God for our new driveway. It took a couple of months to build due to road construction to fix a corner that was eroding. Equipment needed to bring gravel up to our driveway would not make the corner until it was fixed. We are very thankful for the wonderful scenary of God's amazing creation we get to enjoy on every part of our property.

Another picture of our banana, coffee and new driveway.

Morning dew on one of our banana plants.

This is the little corner to our farm. You can see the mixture of banana and coffee throughout the hillside. You can also see part of our new property, the portion closest to the viewer. The brown stuff in the middle of the picture is where the dirt that was moved to make the driveway. Eventually we will replace the coffee plants that were destroyed during the construction.

Charlie enjoying her freedom on our new property. She doesn't

mind the wild flowers that grow along the hillside.

Coffee Time!!!

It is Coffee Time in the Turrialba Valley

Ripening coffee on our coffee plants.

1

Our pickers waiting for the coffee truck to arrive.

This was the day the coffee man picked up 32 cajuelas.

Our New Property

Here is a picture from on top of our new property. It has a fantastic view of the Pacuare Valley. We knew this property was bigger than our first property but it is finally sinking in. There are a lot of banana on this farm but it has been neglected. It will take some work to get this place cleaned up. We are very excited about the possibilities of this property and what God will do.

Here is the property from the street view. Who knows, someday we hope to put some coffee on this property as well. The very top of the property is woods. Dustin has already made a path to walk through the woods to our original property.

The owner of the place put up this little shack to increase the value of the land. We will use the house materials to build a storage shed for Juan Carlos, our farm manager. If you notice the writing on the wall, the owner was asking 14 million colones for the property. Praise God we did not pay that price.

Languageses>en YahooCE

Pic 08

Pack Mules

Yesterday we helped a team get prepared to build a foot/horse bridge across a river in an area within the reservation called Nimari. We were pack mules for the day. We had to carry supplies to the health outpost where the team is staying for the week. Due to a collapsed bridge we couldn't drive as close to the location as normal. We carried supplies 40 minutes down the road/trail. We did this track a few times until we were worn out. It was a very hot day! We left around 1:00 to go home, get in the cool river and eat lunch. Well, our car had other plans. On our way out our car, Miss Daisy, started making an awful noise so instead of heading home we turned the other direction into town. We waited a few hours in our stinky, sweaty clothes while the mechanic fixed our car. It's an hour drive from town to home. We finally made it home at 7:00.

I could have been upset by our afternoon not going as planned but God reminded me that he knew how the day was going to be. I was able to rest in his plan for me that day. I need that reminder more often!

Scenes from our day:

The collapsed bridge. Notice anything missing... like maybe some rebar.

Cocoa plants.

It is amazing how much weight the Cabecar Indians can carry. They carried the columns and platforms for the bridge along with other very heavy equipment, including a generator. The horse did it's part too.

The health outpost where the team is staying.

Columns and cable already at the bridge site.

Platforms still needing to be carried to the bridge site.

On our way out we encountered this truck broken down in the middle of the road. We were grateful that our car isn't any wider. We wouldn't have gotten around it. We had no room to spare.

Our car at the doctors.

Things are a little different here

We've owned property for three months now. Before we start building our house we need electricity and water. Here it's not as easy as making a phone call to start the service. After three trips to the electric company it was finally explained to us that we cannot get electricity because we do not have residency in Costa Rica yet. We can buy land but can't have electricity. Hmmm. But, God has blessed us with good friends that will put our electricity in their name. Water, we haven't quite figured out yet. We know it's going to involve lots of hose and PVC pipes.

We also had to get our car inspected for the year. The closest place to get our car inspected is about two hours away and you have to make an appointment to get it inspected. We thought the easiest thing would be to have our mechanic take the car in for inspection that way they could check out the car first to make sure it would pass. They couldn't get an appointment until the following day so we decided to spend the night in Turrialba (our closest big town where our mechanic is located). Well, after two days in Turrialba our car failed inspection. Our car (Miss Daisey) is a smoker. We had to do the process all over again this week.

The blessings that has come from struggles:

Dan and I got to spend four days in Turrialba praying, reading, and spending quality time together while waiting for our car. The time alone was wonderful. We also got to learn more about Turrialba. I also got to see a comical scene of two men on a motorcycle, the second guy holding a calf (wrapped in a bag with only its head sticking out) behind his back.

While seeking a water source for our farm we've been able to meet new people in a different community.

Waiting at the electric company office in Turrialba gave us a rare gift of air conditioning (it's hot in Turrialba) and more time to read.

Things are a little different here but we love it!