Hello again everyone, Oh what a beautiful day in Paraguay! Woke up early feeling good (a pleasant change from the recent sickness – a bout with something parasitic me thinks…) and got to working in my garden right away. I think the only disappointment was that I didn’t get to use the neighbors two guays (oxen) to carry their cart to the school garden with a hefty load of the guay poop. That will have to wait til another day, but pictures will follow. I’m going to try to get the kids to let me drive it, thats right, the kids of 8-12 years old get to drive the ox carts and motos, but not me…
So, with this let down I was able to do a bunch of garden work and cleaning up my own place. I was starting to feel like my home and yard were an embarrassment since I wasn’t really doing anything with it and still haven’t even cleaned up the piles of trash/oven/shoes/plastics/nails/boards/bricks that were here when I moved in. I’d at least put them in piles, but finally got around to burying them. It’s either that or burning – there’s not yet a municipal waste management program for those taking offense. It’s funny how my neighbors sweep their yard every morning. They’ve mostly long since killed every piece of grass in the 30 foot radius of their house, and prefer a nice clean dirt floor swept every morning. Mine doesn’t look like that…
I also set up some abonos verdes plots in between a few orange trees, and pumpkins and squash started nearby. The abonos verdes are green manures that are intended to break up the soil, produce Nitrogen, and generally improve the soils so they’re supposed to be a demonstration plot. Next year I’ll put the squash and such where I had the abonos and we’ll see the difference (or so this is a tentative plan and hope).
In other news the trees are all delivered! Well, not necessarily all, there’s still a few to go back to for various reasons but many people have already planted them on the properties and it’s looking like it’s going to be pretty successful! In total 9,451 native trees are out there or will be shortly. An additional 8,400 eucalyptus have been requested and hopefully will be delivered in October! Say what you want about eucalyptus, it takes the pressure off of remaining natives for firewood and construction etc.
I’ve also started a great pumpkin project at the school. A friend was gracious enough to send me seeds of the ‘largest pumpkin variety in the world’. We planted two spots at the school: one with a hefty dose as recommended of manure, soil, and compost (from my garden), and the second with standard local preparation with a handful or two of manure. I’m hoping to stress the importance of soil preparation for the garden and for the farm in general. The package said 800 pounds is not uncommon – I figure a 800 pound pumpkin is going to draw some attention.
I have water in my well again after another week without. I came home from Asuncion last week and found it to be total mud again. I broke down this time and paid someone else to dig it while I hauled the mud up – it pained me to do pay for it, it feels like my battle at this point. Day three and it’s still kind of dirty water, a sign that it’s caving in again bit by bit… I’m told it’s normal for the wells to take a wile to finally settle when they’re new. I just know it’s a sad walk of shame every time I have to walk next door to fill up my buckets and carry them back the 100 yards for all of my water needs = I’m going to get that well right!
Alright, I’m runnin out of rambling ideas… well almost. I just turned 32 on Wednesday. My first birthday in Paraguay. I decided to spend it working with the kids replacing trees at the school that had been killed by the frosts of winter, and starting the pumpkin project with the sixth grade class. A good time had by me at least. A few volunteer friends came over too for a good lunch and hanging out for the afternoon. All in all a pretty good day. I keep telling myself I’m not too old to be making 200 dollars a month in Paraguay, its a great experience. It is, seriously. But it’ll be even greater when I get to drive the ox cart.
Hope you’re all well and smiling