In Search of Soap Nuts

We're not far from where we live although we would be lost if we didn't have our guides.

Look at this road. People travel this road daily to get goods to the market, etc.

Here's the famous tree. I'll show you soap nuts next. We are harvesting this week.

Heavy traffic & stops on the way home

We were behind this horse and carriage in traffic in Masaya. It's these silly simple things that happen every day all day! You'll also hear the girls correct their dad's English pronunciation.

Here's a restaurant where we stopped for rice and beans. And the second one I would have never found on my own. Gerardo saw the "sign" and stopped for tortillas.

Medieval Machine

I was waiting for Gerardo in the car at a sawmill and could not resist recording daily life at a sawmill for you! Now we know how the pyramids were built!

Turkey in the tree

Every day around 5 pm we catch the turkey and put him in a little house to keep him safe and to keep him from the front door gobbling for food at 5am! But not this night! While we were trying to get him, which takes 3 people, he surprised us with the vertical leap to the tree.

Harvest

A tour of the harvest.

Bus entertainment

This boy is probably 10 or 11 years old. He travels from bus to bus playing guitar and singing by himself. When he's done he collects coins and gets off at the next stop. There are many children working like this. There are young children standing in traffic washing windshields are selling food as the cars stop at stop lights. :(

Tour of Granada

We're on a carriage tour through Granada's cobble stone streets. There are several videos taking us through town and passed the antique train.

 More from our tour.

 

Meet Sr. Turkey

Here is our Turkey that we couldn't have for Thanksgiving. He got to stick around another month. He was tied up here but we let him loose and he walked around the property. Also, we noticed that while free range he spread his wings and feathers like you see all the pictures of Turkeys.

The Pipa tree

This is Alex. He works for us here along with Carlos.

They often climb these trees barefoot.

Sorry about the quality. Almost all the pictures and videos are from my cell phone. Alex is at the top.

All you coconut water fans, this is where it all starts.

He cuts a branch of the young coconuts and drops them down using a rope.

These are called pipas in Costa Rica.

He's sliding down.

Look at that, he's almost not holding on! These people are so strong.

Remodeling the kitchen & the washing machine

This was the kitchen from the outside. We broke down some of the window that was there to get more air and light.

We also cut this window into the wall.

Then they took the roof off to raise it.

The view from the rest of the house.

It took them forever to get this done. Thankfully it didn't rain much!

Here's the view from the kitchen. We added a bathroom at the end of the house. That's a new wall going up.

Here's our washing machine. Poor Maria. Someone asked if we missed our washer and dryer. I don't  miss them at all. But Maria sure does! We have to get the electricity fixed before a washer will work. :(

Daily traffic

As we're walking down the street to our house we're passed by an oxen and his owner on a bike. It's just not every day you get traffic like that at home.

The girls are adjusting amazingly well. They've been all over the world, in Five Star hotels, ships, etc. and now they're here. They've learned that it's all good. And it has made them extremely grateful for the modern day comforts we ALL take for granted.

The FOULEST fruit possible

This is our noni tree.

since everyone can climb trees here, the girls have it as one of their goals to do the same.

Not too bad for a rookey.

If you look to the right almost half way down, you'll see a noni. It is the most abundant giving tree here, of course. There's fruit all over the ground all the time. None of us, including Gerardo, can bare to touch, cut or eat it. Unreal how foul smelling and tasting this stuff is. You just can't imagine. But it's a nice tree for climbing. Pretty leaves.

Our first farm animals

Look how cute! This hen and chicks were a gift from our caretaker. She was accustomed to living in their house. It took us weeks to train her that she wasn't allowed in our house. Then it took a couple more weeks to get her settled on where to lay her eggs. We found out that Carlos used to let her lay her eggs on their bed! This is one spoiled hen!

Our first hen was given to us by the caretaker, Carlos.

She has six chicks.

Just a few days before this all the chicks fit inside her wings without seeing anything at all.

This was supposed to be our Thanksgiving dinner.

He was spared an extra month. There was no way we could pull off Thanksgiving dinner! We're all really learning to appreciate our food. He sacrificed for our Christmas dinner. This was a real free range turkey. This bird was very lean and very boney. It was enough for 5 people for one meal, no left overs.

The local pottery factory

Tati is absolutely fascinated with it. We now have a huge bag of clay outside the door for her to work on projects at home as well.

This gentleman is a deaf man who makes pottery of all kinds. This is where the girls are now taking pottery lessons.

bowls in the making

young kids using a large seed from a fruit here to rub the pottery to smooth it out. It's quite tedious.

Gerardo standing near the oven in their back yard

They burn all night, remove the coals, fill it up and then leave it 24 hours. The next morning, they're done.

It's amazing how they pile so much in the oven at once. You can see in the back how they piled it. They've already removed a ton.

The house I never saw

We were supposed to have rented this house.

It was a 4,000 sq. foot castle like house on 4 acres with a playground.

But the owner backed out just days before we were to move! We had several people looking for another house and nothing.

That's why we ended up just staying on our property. It's probably for the best. When you're building you HAVE to be there. Even then, it's a little sketchy.

This fountain is enormous and is in the center of the house.

Right out of the movies.

Seriously. Look at the iron.

I think that's an antique piano.