A trip to the finca on Sunday netted me some new pictures and lots of good feelings as I looked around my soon-to-be new home. My husband's been working hard lately and it definitely shows! We were up to 6 workers again for a little while (half quit this week) and while they were busy digging ditches for water, power and sewer and hauling sand, Roger has been watering the landscaping we've put in and plumbing the buildings.
We've hired another builder (this is our fourth!
) and he starts today with the floor in Roger's laboratory. This is the room in the bar building that my fella will use for herbal medicines and his beer projects. Next on the list is the floor for my outdoor kitchen.
The workers have hauled sand, one wheel barrow at a time across much of the yard, to ready my playroom for cement. We figure to have the builder pour all the floors, then begin on the rooves. My kitchen won't take any time at all as there are no walls to go up, and Roger and I plan to install the tile floor and build the brick kitchen ourselves during this upcoming rainy season.
From the first day I set foot on our little piece of heaven, I had to tread carefully. Gumbo mud that's been tromped on by cattle during rainy season then baked into cement in the dry season can be hard to walk on, and I didn't dare not watch where I set each foot. Too easy to turn an ankle. I had been wondering just what I would do about this. I got a wonderful surprise this last visit when I realized that the workers had spread sand along their path to the buildings to ease the wheel barrow's progress. I was actually able to walk around the finca in flip flops, on smooth sand paths, and look around without worrying about falling into some underground parking! It was awesome! 
Not sure what the rains will do to these impromptu paths, but it's a start.
The workers are also inadvertently setting up some of my landscaping for me. The paths they are taking to each building with loads of sand are giving me ideas of where to place what plants, and I can begin more landscaping without the worry of them trampling on things. I can already see this triangle by the kitchen filled to the brim with culinary herbs!
Our finca garden is small for now but it shouldn't take long to get out of hand. For now, we've got two kinds of amaranth, cayenne peppers, another type of hot pepper, bush beans, mirlitons, and pineapples.
I've been getting plants started in sleeves here at the rental and, as soon as we can, we'll transplant the homestead tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, more cayenne and the okra that are happy and healthy seedlings out onto the finca, where my fingers are crossed that they'll do just as well. Still have lots of perrote trees to plant yet, as well. Goodness, I think I'm actually looking forward to the season's rains!
After several years of trying everything we could think of to combat the insects in this part of the world, we've finally got a handle on things and all the plants are growing fast and furious. Last night, rabbits ate of most of the bush beans but I'm not worried about that critter in my finca garden. Once we move, our dogs should have lots of fun with the local rabbit population!
