Saturday, May 3, 2008

Time To Plant

The past week was rainy. We had some rain every day, and the temperatures were in the upper 50's most of the time. It was nice, but it is pretty muddy here around camp. Most of the week's laundry is stilling hanging on the line, and any other available spot. Little Joseph has had to spend most of his time playing on the table or on the wood pile because there really is no place for a baby to go when its pouring rain and you live in a tent with a dirt (or mud) floor. These things aside, we are very thankful for the rain, specifically since it is time to plant.


Mud, mud, and more mud.



We woke up to some frost the other morning as you can see on the truck bed.




Elisabeth was very excited to find this frog one night before we went to bed. It quickly escaped, but we did manage to get some pictures of it first, so that she could show her brothers and sisters, who were already sleeping, the next morning.



A couple of months ago Dane bought the yerba mate nursery of one our neighbors because the neighbor had moved to town and was not able to care for the seedlings anymore. There are about 10,000 little trees in the nursery that have to be transplanted to another location, so this past week, Dane, Javier, Andres, and Pascual started the process of moving the trees from there to here so that they can be planted on our farm, the Sosa's, and on Jim's farm. They managed to get 2,000 trees out of the ground and over here. After each load, we moved the trees out of the crates and into our garden to be planted later. Yerba mate is an evergreen holly and is the largest cash crop of this area. The leaves of the tree are harvested and dried for an herbal tea that is very popular in South America. It is slowly becoming popular in the U.S. as well. I haven't seen a farm in our area, that did not have yerba trees. Black tea is also an important crop here, but many farmers have abandoned their tea trees because of the low tea prices. We have several acres of old black tea trees on our farm, but they are overgrown to the point that eventually Dane will probably cut them down to the ground. We have been told by several people that once cut, they will regrow.


Here is a picture of Elisabeth and David helping to take the seedlings out of the crates.




This is a black tea flower off of one of our trees. The children brought me this one as a gift. The flowers smell very nice.





We worked in the garden some this week when the weather allowed. After the needed moisture and an addition of fertilizer, we are replanting some of the things that we planted a few weeks ago that never sprouted (lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cabbage). We pray the Lord's blessings on our garden, so that we can become more dependent on the produce of our own land instead of that of others.

Here is a picture of Susana and Abby working in the garden one afternoon.



Dane replaced the upper A-arm bushing in the Toyota this week. The rough roads are hard on the vehicles, so it certainly is a blessing that Dane is a good mechanic.






The children and I went to the Sosa's yesterday to pick mandarin oranges. They have a ton of orange trees and most of the fruit goes to waste, so we brought home three large bags. We are enjoying the fresh fruit. Isabel Sosa told me that most of their trees were started from seeds that they collected from oranges they bought to eat. I didn't know that you could start orange trees from seed, but it sure is worth a try. So I intend, Lord willing, to plant some of the seeds from the fruit this week as well.


Well, lunch is calling now.


Until the next post,


Jessica

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