We're "flush" with pride!

I know that's pretty tacky, but we're

actually pretty excited. To go from our composting toilets to two flush toilets is pretty exciting stuff here at Dreamer Farm. We've toted the doodoo and put up with the bugs so the reality of flushing is really nice. We've had them build an 8' x 8' concrete septic tank and put in a single drainfield with infiltrators. This was a new concept to us, but our friend, Robin, has installed them before and had extras which we could buy. After reading about them on the internet, we felt they were by far the best solution for us. They're designed for locations that don't perk. That's not our problem here, but the marl is close to the surface, so were concerned that, in an extreme situation, we could have a drain problem. Our friend, Jane, is still here so she was able to go thru the transition with us. We've all laughed at how we can get excited about such a basic thing.

Our cistern holds a shy 10,000 gallons of water which we collect from the two roofs. We just had a pretty severe dry season and we still had over 1/2 the tank full, so water isn't an issue. Also, we have a pump and a couple of tanks, so we can go to the Mopan for water, if necessary. Yippee!

We're still not very fancy here, but at least now I'm not embarrassed to direct visitors to the bathroom.

Packing, packing, packing

No, we're not moving. Our dear friend, Jane Beard, has returned from England to spend a couple of weeks here, making sense out of the things she left in her house here and shipping her animals back to the UK. All this is much harder than it sounds. She has a whole room full of boxes that she'd never unpacked when she moved into her house. Burlars broke in recently and ransacked the room. It was someone who knew what was there as they seemed to have had a shopping list of items to take. Mostly Mayan books and memorabelia. Also, many of the boxes of books had become damp. We're having to sort and rebox. Ick!

Also, she has 3 dogs and a cat. Magic (cat) came from the UK, so is returning home. Max (dog), whom she's had the longest, must sense what's happening and decided he doesn't want any part of it. He's become aggressive and wouldn't let the vet near him. She's decided to leave him here and gave him to the nice young fellow who's been staying in the house. Even if Belize would let Max out of the country, she wouldn't be able to get him into the UK. I've tracked down two large kennels for her other two dogs and they should arrive here today. That search is a whole nother story. We bring the animals here Wed. and take them to the airport on Thursday am, EARLY.

Then it will be back to the sorting. Once we're done we will keep her boxes in our little Mennonite house until she can afford to ship them. It's so difficult to see her have to make decisions that I had to make just a few weeks ago. The economy all over the world is forcing so many of us to make tough decisions. She heads back to England on Monday and then it will be back to our projects.

They finished building the septic tank yesterday and will now do the drainfield and plumbing.

The nursery is doing fine with about 90% success with sprouting our seeds. We are having trouble with bugs, which is difficult as we're trying to be totally organic. Hope the soap, garlic and neem works. Trouble is, I spray and it then rains. Trying not to be discouraged, but being tired doesn't help. Getting to be a cranky old broad. Have to slap myself alongside the head for an attitude adjustment.

More later.

Giving up on composting toilets!

We've had it with the composting toilet thing. We paid a lot of money for a Biolet toilet and absolutely hate it. Of course, we bo't the basic model because we were concerned about our electricity useage, which may be part of the problem. But, the whole process is just too smelly and a pain to empty. In this humidity the bugs hatch really fast, so we're emptying it a lot. Whatever the reason, when I went back to Oregon and was able to actually flush I told Art that I wanted to upgrade to a water flushing toilet. Hard to get excited about something this basic, but we are.

When our family visited recently, we had trouble with the one in the guest house as the vent odors permeated the bedrooms. Ick!

We've hired Rene's sons to dig the septic and build the system. Originally we tho't we'd have to have two septics, but upon advice of an American contractor friend of ours, we moved the site to below both buildings and will drain both into the one. We could have had someone come in with a backhoe, but did that with our cistern and it made an even worse mess than we have now and cost a lot just to get them up here. The boys dug a neat hole and they really need the work. It's money better spent. They just finished the hole and will pour the floor tomorrow. Our biggest problem is getting rid of the pile of marl that's now littering our yard. Will probably have to load it in the pickup and put it on our road.

June in Belize

I had an unevenful trip back home to Belize. Long layovers proved to be a blessing as weather was delaying flights in and out of San Francisco. No worry for me, just shortened my layover time. No problem with Belize customs as residents are allowed to bring in $200 worth of goods and I only bo't a couple of small items, so breezed thru. I did ship a few boxes of "stuff" to Belize, via Houston. Nothing important, just memory things to remind us of our previous life. I'm anxiously awaiting a few books from those boxes.

I've been home a week and am just starting to get my balance again. It was such a difficult time in Oregon and the weather was cold and when I arrived back in Belize it was hot and humid. I've had a tough time sleeping and have just felt disoriented. It was so good tho' to get back home and find my place again. One thing that helped was that Marco bro't us 700 more cacao seeds and some bags the day after I got home. It was great to have a project and to jump right in. This time we've changed our tactics. We're pre-sprouting the seeds to be sure that they're viable. We've put them under the house on screen and are keeping them wet. As they start to sprout, we put them in the bags giving us a much better success rate. We gave Rene some seeds and have about 500 in bags. We already have about 270 seedlings growing for root stock. Now we just need budwood to start grafting.

Belize's hot spell seems to have broken and it's started raining. We're getting lots of thunder during evenings and nights and then lots of rain. This is really good for the seedlings, but the trees we hoped to get budwood from have sprouted too fast, so we're left waiting, again. We made the base for our nursery from a pile of marl we had from digging our cistern. The rain makes this slippery and it splashed up on the bags. Cacao hates marl. Marco suggested we put sand on top, but it tracks and washes away. Instead we've opted for shavings. We get them either for free in bags, or they bring us a trailer load for $20 for fuel. It's really tidied up the nursery making it easier to water and much less messy. Hope we don't find that this has an adverse affect on the plants.

My brother wrote that it sounds as tho' we're working hard and getting blisters. Instead, we work a little in fits and starts and then just watch to see if something is sprouting. All this rain makes it hard to do much else outside, so we're back to reading.

Out with the old, in with the new

I've been in Oregon for almost 3 weeks sorting possessions, having two garage sales, giving things away and doing a lot of crying. Art had to remain in Bullet Tree to take care of our place and our dear Bailey. It's very difficult to dismantle and discard pieces of our 50 years together. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not going away from, but to. We're definitely not alone in this struggle. So many are facing the same heartache. Leaving a home that you created, loved and now have to walk away from. We're lucky that we have our place in Belize. It's entirely different from our log home in Oregon, but it's a place of healing and new directions. We've been so blessed with good health and to have each other, along with our wonderful Bailey, which allows us to keep dreaming and facing new goals. It' s just so hard to once again, say goodbye to our beloved family.

It's also been very strange to leave Belize, where it's been over 100 every day for a couple of weeks, and have snow and freezing temps in the Oregon mountains. I've actually been so busy that I haven't had time to worry about it. I just put on a jacket and keep packing. Art tells me that it rained yesterday, so not sure what I'll find when I return.

When I get back to Belize I'll update what's happening with our Cacao nursery. I'm taking back grafting knives and tape, so will be jumping into the next phase of our growing.

I'm so grateful for the internet. It can be such a pain, but it allows us to remain connected, even in remote corners. More to come soon. Blessings!

cacao nursery

After our loss of the seeds from Toledo, we decided to rearrange our nursery. Rene had taken note when he was in San Jose, that they put the bags in 2 rows to allow air space between. We used some of our pile of marl to level the floor and then Rene put up a little palapa to protect our new nursery from the direct sun. It's fantastic to watch him take material from the bush and build this very serviceable structure. As the cohune fronds dry, they'll let in more light. If it's too much he'll just add another layer. So clever.

We've been filling bags like crazy, getting ready for seeds. Hoping to get replacements for the previous failure and then additional. We're hoping to have 500 - 600 grafted plants to put in the ground later this year. That might be too optimistic, but it's our goal.

The photo of the little plants shows the 38 that have come up from our initial planting of 41. A small success.

I'll be heading for Oregon next week and hope to pick up grafting supplies up there. Wow, my learning curve is getting a little intense, but fun.

I Hate to complain~

It seems horrible to complain about the heat when so much of the U.S. is suffering from such a long, miserable winter, but we're still in the throws of a very long hot spell. Today was the most miserable yet with a temp of over 100 a good share of the day. What makes it almost intolerable is that the farmers think that they HAVE to burn their milpa at this time. The humid, horribly hot air is also so smoky you can hardly breath. Thank goodness we're on the top of a ridge where we usually get a lovely breeze. It's been over two months of dry with about 10 minutes of rain a week ago.

It's hard to get up the energy to do a lot but tend to our new nursery. We've had some success and a big failure, but that's to be expected. The 41 bags we planted directly from a pod are doing great. Right now we have 38 plants up. Hoping the 3 pop up too. The frustrating thing is that the 107 seeds we bo't from the south aren't sprouting. We're not sure if it's the seeds or something we did wrong in the planting. Seems strange that we don't even have one plant showing. We planted them the day after the 41.

We've ordered 400 more seeds and Rene is putting up a shade palapa for the new nursery area. He came back from the south with ideas for an improved growing area. Marco came up on Saturday, looked at our six grafted plants and was very pleased with their growth. We're hand carrying water to them and giving them lots of love and attention. They're our hope for good budwood stock in the future. We're shooting for 500 to 600 grafted plants in the ground by the end of 2011. Go Dreamer Farm!

Rene's trip

I picked Rene up at the bus stop in San Ignacio yesterday (Wednesday). He was tired, but seemed pleased about his trip and what he'd learned. The trip sounded difficult as it's long, without breaks. Rene, Javier and Henry took the bus from S.I. to Belmopan at 7am. It was a one hour trip. They had to wait until 11am for a bus south as there is now a rule that no one can stand up on a bus, so the full buses passed them by. It was then a 5 hour trip, without a stop to PG (Punta Gorda). They went to the Cacao office where they were waiting for them. They had a quick trip to the chocolate factory and then were driven to the farm in San Jose, getting there at 7pm. What a long day. Coming back they got up at 3:30am to catch a bus from San Jose to PG, but all were full. After two hours they had to pay someone to drive them to catch a bus back. I'm sure Rene's calmness helped them make it back.

I was pleased that Rene could travel with Beth's fellows as he's been all over Belize, is very friendly and not afraid to ask questions. He thinks that neither of the other fellows had done any traveling and were a little unsure what to do. Rene is a gem. On the way back to Bullet Tree he told me a little about the trip, sounding quite excited about what he'd learned. He decided to rest up Thursday and come to our farm on friday to pick up the Trooper and we'll sit down and discuss our project. We're moving forward.

Cacao-grafted plants

Marco is enthusiastic about finding growers in Cayo, so isn't letting any grass grow under his feet. Another friend of ours contacted the Toledo Growers about cacao and Marco is assisted her to get started. She has some old trees, but we've found that they aren't of the preferred variety, so she'll be starting fresh too. She has lots of good land along the river, so some of her issues will be different from ours. It's nice to feel we can work together, learning as we go. Yesterday we met again at Marco's place where he had some grafted plants for each of us. We're buying all our stock, but as members of TCGA the costs are certainly reasonable. Once again, we dashed home to get our very special little plants in the ground. These 6 are each a different variety, so we'll label, give them special attention and track their growth and performance. These will eventually furnish our budwood for grafting. (see I'm learning new terms already).

We've been sharing our discussions with Rene and he seems excited about this too. Marco has arranged for us to send Rene and our friend Beth to send two fellows to the Toledo District to learn more about cacao, pruning and grafting. Because of the hot weather and schedules we decided to do this right away, so they will travel tomorrow by bus to Punta Gorda and then to a farm in San Jose. It's a long trip, but the only way we/they can get the training.

Cacao

We've jumped in with both feet in raising cacao. There's quite a learning curve, as with all new things, but is interesting and hopefully will be rewarding. We met with Marco a week ago, toured his place here and picked up the seeds he bro't up from Punta Gorda. He had a few pods on his trees, but the woodpeckers had destroyed all but one. He broke that one open to show us the seeds and then gave it to us to bring home and plant. The problem was that it's still very hot out and the minute the pod was broken open the seeds start to ferment, which will kill them. We stopped for a few minutes at the Saturday market in San Ignacio for some veggies and then headed home. By the time we got here we could already smell the fermentation. We had bags and got 41 seeds from the pod, which we planted immediately. We bo't seeds from P.G. and planted that 100 the next day. We now have a little nursery in the shade with our 140 seeds. It doesn't look like much, but hey, it's a start. Chocolate in our future! Yum!

Our log home in Oregon

I'm taking this time to digress from the farm to share a little of our distress and upset about our previous home in Bend, Oregon. It's actually a couple of miles outside the resort area of Sunriver, Oregon. The area draws folks because of the Deschutes River, lots of lakes, golf courses galore and less than a 1/2 hour drive to the Mt. Bachelor ski area.

We discovered a log home being dismantled near Seattle in 1999. After a year of assessing and planning we bro't the logs down to Oregon and started rebuilding the home. We had to put the huge logs back in the same way they came apart, which was no mean feat. The original house was 2-story, but the top floor was covered by the roof with dormers. We wanted the view of Mt. Bachelor and more light, so we built an exposed 2nd story. We attempted to use as many salvaged products as possible. We were lucky to find oak kitchen cabinets that had been torn from a vacation home. They were like new. We installed an antique door at the side with most of it's original thumb print glass. When we located a party tearing out two, like new, clawfoot tubs, we couldn't make up our minds between the short or long one, so bo't them both. A really difficult task was accumulating downed poles and posts from neighboring woodlots for our loft and stair railings. Doing all the cleaning & shaping by hand made it a real struggle, but we did it. I spent one winter, carving a cougar on the outside of the front door. We were often visited by deer, so I carved two does on the inside of the door. There are lots of handcarved accents thruout the house.

Our crazy project was written about in "Log & Timber Style" magazine and later we were given a huge writeup in the Bend Bulletin. I'm only sharing all of this to give some insight into the anguish and sadness that we're going thru right now. We've tried to sell the house since first deciding that we wanted to make our home in Belize, but have been haunted by the rapid downturn in the housing market. We've supported the house for a long time, but now that must come to an end. I'm traveling back to Oregon in May to sell all the furnishings, salvaging as much from it as I can and then we'll let the house go. This horrible decision is coupled with some extreme family problems that are tearing us apart.

We'd placed both the Oregon house and Dreamer Farm on the market for sale, but, at least for now, Dreamer has truly become our refuge. It's so peaceful and beautiful and is giving us a positive direction for the future. We're going to stay here, grow cacao and renew our efforts to create a refuge for family & friends here in Belize.

A new direction

The weather here continues to be very hot. We woke this am to lots of morning mist, but by 8:30 it was rising and the sun started beating down. Rene came at sunrise so that he could work before it got really hot. He's become obsessed by a hole he is digging in the back, where he's sure we'll hit water. Things have slowed down their growing and the hole is in the shade in the morning so we told him to go ahead. This starter hole is only about 4' across so I stayed with him to help by hauling up the bucket of dirt and to sure that he's ok. He's mostly into a sticky grey clay which is very wet. He finally stopped at about 8' deep today. We were both hot and tired, but he hates to stop. I hope we'll be able to get him some help to make the hole bigger and deeper.

Now for the really interesting part. You know when you get an idea it wanders around in your head and you can't even remember where it came from? That happened to me with cacao. Maybe it was the article in the Belize Ag Report, I'm not sure. I knew that chocolate came from a bean, but always got cacao and coca mixed up. I google cacao and wow, what a cool plant. Most cacao is grown in Africa, Central and South America, fairly close to the equator. Here in Belize it's in the Toledo District. I sent an email to the Toledo Cacao Grower's Assoc. TCGA for information and got an almost immediate reply. Their consultant lives in San Ignacio and could visit our place on Monday. That's definitely not "Belize Time."

Early monday morning Marco Figueroa came up. What a great guy. He's extremely knowledgeable about growing cacao and was pleased about our interest. He's anxious to get growers here in Cayo, but interest has been minimal. Rene was here so helped by digging test holes and we included him in the discussions. We found that cacao needs to grow in shade and doesn't like marl. In places here the white marl is fairly close to the surface here, but behind and below the buildings would be great areas. It's possible to grow plants from seeds in bags and then plant the seedlings in the ground. This will take about 5 years and then, the cacao plants are notoriously unreliable and many won't bear fruit. Bummer!

Thank goodness Marco had an alternative. We can plant the seeds in bags. At three months we buy buds from proven plants and graft them onto the seedlings. After four more months we plant them. Grafted plants usually produce in about 2 1/2 years. That's sounds much better and more reliable. Wow, we were starting to get really excited. We can send Rene to Punta Gorda to learn more about growing and grafting. He's excited about the project too. Art may decide to go down too. We feel if we can get started, Dreamer Farm will not only be a real farm, but could be an information and education site for local farmers.

The beauty of cacao in Belize is that the TCGA has a contract to furnish organic product to a very large company. Currently they can't begin to supply the desired quantity. The local farmers have been promised so much in the past. If they grow a certain crop, there'll be a market, which never materializes. By growing cacao, working to maintaining the plants (watering, composting, pruning & growing new plants) a couple of acres of cacao should be able to support a family here.

We're meeting Marco in San Ignacio on Saturday to visit his little place to see plants, to get grow bags and to join the TCGA. We'll be on our way. As we progress (I hope) I'll keep you posted. These old dogs are having fun learning new tricks.