Finca Quijote guys chilling in one of our waterfalls.

Waterfalls on the farm

It is hard to believe that all of this exists on our property. Breathtakingly beautiful, but not easy to get to. Our caretaker, Phil, Jeff, Ryan, Ethan, our dog Chikka, and caretaker dog Palooza all went on today's hike. Phil went diving in the pools and everyone swam including the dogs. It was a very cold, refreshing swim, perfect for a warm days hike.

Phil and friends hiked up to waterfalls on our land today that we have not yet been to. The pools at the base of each fall is carved out of solid rock, crystal clear and about 8 foot deep. Our new friend Ethan took these photos. This fall has three flows of water entering the pool.

Phil, our caretaker Marcus, and our neighbor and engineer Gonzalo, went up to the falls on our land and I wanted to share them with you. They are breathtaking. Getting to the falls is not so easy. We are working on building trails to them, but the terrain is a challenge.are them with you. We have 20 waterfalls. This particular body of water will produce enough electricity for 5 houses. We are going to look at hydro electric generators from Columbia where they build state of the art power plants.

Life on the rural farm land of Costa Rica is a never ending list of duties. My wifely duties include whole grain bread making every other day. I grind my grains (oatmeal and flax seed) and add them to the whole wheat flour for more nutrition. I am thankful for my Kitchenaid pro as it lightens the job immensely. My son made about 6 pizzas last night for our dinner guests. We ground pork and made Italian sausage earlier in the day to top the pizza. The different availability and quality of products made duplicating my recipes a challenge the first few times. Sometimes what you thought was in the package, is different than your use to. For instance the coconut milk I used today for my Thai red curry lentils. It was sweet. I do not see anywhere that it was sweetened, and sweet is not what I traditionally use. So I have a sweet lentil dish instead. Who knew? Well the bread will be good, I have that mastered.

The sky is clear and blue today, no sweatshirt needed. Nice and pleasantly warm.

We hired a housekeeper, Carmen, Oh thank you Lord. I just could not get everything done everyday and we are still unpacking. With no dishwasher and farm style cooking I was not able to get ahead of the work. We have had company for dinner and or breakfast and lunch nearly everyday. My husband and son have been great at pitching in and washing dishes.

Everyone is up the mountain at the farm today. We are moving another horse up to Esperanza I expect they will be home for lunch and starving because other than last nights homemade oatmeal cookies no one has eaten. No fast food out here.

I am preparing to make (cure) bacon today. One batch will be with apple cider and the other with honey. I bought a whole pork belly at the carniceria. I will let you know how it turns out. Everything tastes better with bacon, even too sweet lentils.

We have vampire bats on the mountain at night. They scratch animals and lick the blood. So we are protecting the horses by screening in their stalls with nursery cloth and putting them up at night. We have fruit bats and bug eaters at the house and come dusk they start swooping along with the night hawks and wills. We call it the bat show and watch with our lights off while sitting in the glass enclosed living room.

I think about TV and our lack of it, but when would I have the time to watch? The internet is my source of news and perhaps we are better off not knowing the really horrible stuff. We came here to get away from violence and what we see as the dumbing down of America. Our concerns have been redirected to hungry children who want to go to school but can not afford to do so. A kind and generous neighbor has offered to let us use his house as a library and classroom. I would like a teacher to volunteer to come for a year and live with us while working with the local students. If you know of a candidate please tell them about us and ask them to email me Ginnee@gmail.com

Kristofer and 3 friends hiked up to some of our waterfalls today. Through the river, waist deep in water at times, crisscrossing back and forth in order to climb up the mountain. Their rubber boots filled up with water and the knee high waterproof snake boots were good until you were up to your waist in the river and then they weighed an extra 2 kilos each. Good quality river shoes with great traction ability is the answer. You should bring a waterproof camera, perhaps a disposable water proof camera.

This view was taken looking down across our farm in Esperanza, Costa Rica. The farm consists of 1,270 acres with about 20 waterfalls. We have primary forest with old growth trees and beautiful fresh water. The buildings are the caretaker's house and out buildings. In the distance is the volcano.

Our terrain is that of a mountain, so I bought a Yamaha Rhino http://atv.off-road.com/atv/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=257279 4 x 4 to help me get to areas that may be off limits to me physically.

It is about the size of a VW beetle but taller with the roll bars. I hope to never roll it or I will probably fall off the mountain. I chose this vehicle above all others for several reasons. First, there is a dealer in Turrialba. How important might that be? It also has the highest ground clearance of all the utility vehicles that I reviewed. I gave serious consideration to a diesel vehicle but with no service center, and low ground clearance, I ruled the others out.

I decided to invest a bit more and have the dump bed treated and protected with a Rhino liner. http://www.rhinolinings.com/RL/main/ This Rhino treatment is no relation to the Yamaha Rhino. It is a tough coating developed in South Africa. I think it will keep my fun and functional vehicle working hard for a long time to come in the rainforest.

Next week we pack up the second container and ship the truck. I look forward to this shipment going as smoothly as the previous.

I read an alarming article today from our friends at http://www.welovecostarica.com/ You should log on and read the article. I would post it but have not asked for permission, so go take a look for yourself. On January 14th 2007, all airlines and cruise lines will be required to submit the names of all passengers to Homeland Security prior to departure and to obtain permission from Homeland Security to board those passengers. What does this mean to American citizens? http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=40035&dbname=2006_register Perhaps you can cut and paste the link and read for yourself. Is this about keeping the terrorists out? We don’t seem to have control of any of our borders. So why does my government want to keep you and me in? Other than taking our freedom away bit by bit, what is this about? Hmmmmmm.