Rain
After such a long dry season, I was glad to see some rain. However, the last 4 days have been too much rain!

The first 2 pictures are the ditches that we cleaned out by our house to let the rain flow under our driveway. We got them ready just in time!

The next 3 pictures are of the road to our house. 5 months ago we had road work done, but there were a few sections without any gravel. They started working on putting the gravel down 2 days ago, but ran out of gravel and were going to start again today. I do not think they did anything today though. What a mess!!!!

The last picture is how much rain they are getting off of the hill and in some places it is going over the roads. The rain storm has lasted 2 hours now and it appears to be getting a little better now.

Bugs
I sent these 2 bug pictures to Sarah, who really likes bugs, and here is what she said:

"Cutest little beetle! And a colorful stink bug"
"If you boil them in water the stink bug water will protect you from mosquitos!"
"....and then you can eat the leftover carcasses"

Ummm...I am not going to be eating stink bugs, don't worry!

Bugs
Starting with the creepy crawlies first today.

The first 2 pictures are of the same bug. It was a cool color, most of them are just brown. These are the ones that keep bumping into the walls and windows until they die.

The 3rd picture is of one of the top 5 most dangerous/poisonous items in Panama. It is the white caterpillar that sends people to the hospital for days.

The last is another random bug on the wall outside.

Mushrooms?
​Some sort of gooey mushroom looking stuff growing just in one area.

Produce
Here is what you get for $12 at the fruit/veggie stand. Tomatoes, watermelon, pineapple, apples, bananas, passion fruit, onions, cucumbers, zucchini, leeks and bell peppers. I am set for the week. :) 

Everything is turning really green. The trees are very happy about the few days of rain each week. :) Oh yeah, we also got 6 more items crossed off the to-do list!

To-do List
It is now the slow season for us. Harvest is a few months away and the rain is here a few afternoons a week now. So, while we were not super busy with everything else, we sat down yesterday and made our to-do list. It was 2 pages long and I think we both were too sad at how much there was on it to continue adding things.

Last night we signed up for the workaway program. It is a way for people to travel around the world and learn new things and meet new people along the way for cheap. We provide food and lodging and our wonderful sense of humor (okay, so it is supposed to be adding cultural experience and not so much my sense of humor, but hey!) and someone travelling through helps us out for a few hours a day. I will let you know how it goes, but I am feeling very hopeful after the depression of seeing our huge list of stuff. :)

Today, Rick and I accomplished 2 items off of the list. I was the lucky one. I just had to refinish some wood in the outdoor kitchen. I forgot to take a before picture, but the first picture is when I was halfway done sanding it.

This area used to be exposed to the elements outside and the wood started getting black and pretty gross. Now that it is under a roof, it was time to spruce it up. I am not a wood-working kind of person, so I think I did a pretty good job.

Rick's Job
One of the cameras went offline this week. While trouble-shooting it, another one went down too. One of the issues that we found is that waterproof items made for places other than Panama and not-so-waterproof. The box that houses the wires was full of water from the last huge downpour. Then we found out that the wire that is buried underground got water too. Which might not be so bad, if it had not been the fake CAT 5 wire we had purchased our first year. So, he had to dig up some of the pipes, try and take out the old wire (1 of them broke inside) and then get new wire through the underground pipes. Then he had to get it through all of the pipes into the house where all of the magic happens...haha. Here are a few pictures of the mess. He fixed it and still had time to fit in something that was not even on our list and 1 other item that was!

Mowing the Lawn
We normally use our neighbors mower, but it was sadly not available today. So, Rick mowed our lawn with a weed-eater. The lawn was getting a little out of control...maybe not the lawn, but the weeds growing in the lawn were!

Recycling Milk Jugs
Since we have learned that waterproof does not really mean waterproof for Panama, this year Rick is putting shields over the cameras. I cannot tell you how many outdoor, waterproof cameras we have had flood with water. Maybe his milk jug hoods will help save a few of them this year. I took a picture of my sweet husband fixing the hoods over the cameras from the live-feed camera app on my phone. Maybe he won't read this post and won't see this picture...haha.

Bugs
We had a coffee tour with a person that actually is doing the workaway program. Talking to her actually helped us decide to try the program out. Anyways, she was a Entomologist and really, really likes bugs....

I have asked her to go through the blog and add comments on any of the bugs that she knows the names of - if she has time. I am hoping she does! We were talking about the Whip Spider that day and she was hoping to see one while she was down in this area. Of course after she left, that night we see a Whip Spider! I sent her the picture, but no more talking about creepy bugs or spiders with people for me....just rainbows and butterflies from now on!

Coffee Trees
I was responding to someone's email this morning and took these pictures to better show what I was talking about. The first picture below is a different coffee farm's trees and the second picture is a picture of some of our trees. After putting the 2 pictures close together, it reminds me of what all of the hard work is for and how healthy our trees are. 

One of my dearest and best friends just sent me a picture of what arrived for me in the mail today. I will be seeing her in a few weeks and had my new tub sent to her house!!!! YAY!!!!!

Some may still think that my blow-up bathtub is just silly, but I will take silly over no bathtub any day. :)

For those that have read this blog from the beginning, you might remember how excited I was about my inflatable bathtub. I am sad to say that this picture is after we found a hole in it and fixed it. I am afraid the tub is done for, but there is good news for me. The price for a replacement has gone down, so bathtub #2 is on its way.

Living in a place with 3 showers and no bathtubs is just not right! Actually, we have 4 showers on the property, but yesterday I converted one into a storage area for me. I figure if my husband gets to have a shop and 3 sheds, I can use a shower area that is no longer used. :)

Mail
The mail system here is very slow. My son just received his Easter card from his grandmother that was sent 1.5 months ago. At least it finally showed up at the post office though and was not lost in never-never land.

This is about how long it takes when you do not use a freight forwarder. The entire envelope (front and back) has stamps all over it, and it is kind of impressive. If we would have used the freight forwarder to get this letter, it would have only cost $3. But, when you add that up for each envelope a person gets in his mailbox in a day, it starts to get expensive.

Bugs
Below are pictures of a stick bug and a moth. It amazes me how camouflaged creatures can be. The moth picture is a little blurry, but it was hiding out on the side of our house by the roof-line and my phone just would not focus on just the moth. :(

​My phone is only 4 models behind....haha

Fires
One of the frustrating things here is that property owners that do not mow or cut down their empty fields, tend to set them on fire to remove all of the brush and weeds. Sometimes these fires get out of control and melt the pvc water lines, burn through internet/cable wires, extend to other properties...the list goes on. The fire department here is not like that in the States. There was one truck that did show up, but I am not sure if they had water in their truck. The fire ended up going through acres and acres of land.

This one was a fire on Friday that was just across the street from my son's school and was not one of the bigger ones that we have seen, but it still surprises me when I come across one. Now that the rainy season is almost here, we should not see any more until next year.

During the rainy season it is even hard to start a fire using paper and twigs, so wet fields would take a ton of gasoline.

Rings Around the Moon
A few nights ago the night sky was amazing. There was this beautiful ring around the moon and the sky was so clear! The first two pictures below are from my phone and it did not capture the ring. The 3rd picture is from an actual camera and you can barely see the ring. :(

Below are images from the web that look similar to what we saw that night.

Caterpillar and Moths
Here are the bugs for the week. The large moth was over 3 inches and had a cool camo-look going on. :)​​

Dog Picture
The dog can make anything a pillow!

Mat's Birthday
We went to see the monkeys and sloths in Volcan. There is lady there that treats orphaned and injured animals and exotic animals that people had kept as pets at one time. (The sloths love to be fed almonds!) She even has a hyperbaric chamber that was used to help one of the sloths recover from an eye injury.

The trip started off with a drive that was a little over an hour and would have been a little quicker if some cows had not decided to block the road that day. :)

Bar-b-que Fest
After our outing to see the animals, we went the Boquete Bar-b-que Fest. They were having a competition for the best bar-b-qued hamburgers, chicken, brisket and ribs. Live music and wafer cookies filled with caramel. Mat decided the cookies were pretty good.

We were rooting for one of our guests in the Coffee Can to win the competition, who sadly did not win the competition, but he still had fun.

Coming up soon
We almost have the new shed done and then it will be on to the solar drying area. In between those projects, we have some tile work to finish and flashing for some new gutters. Our to-do list does not seem to be getting smaller.....