Workawayers
Our 2nd group of Workawayers just ended. We have enjoyed getting to know them and learning from each other. Having a french cook here for awhile was not bad either! I have been spoiled for weeks now with both groups having an awesome cook/chef, I am not sure how I can go back to eating my own meals. The Workaway Program has been very good for us, not only are we eating well, we are getting a ton of stuff done on the farm and having fun while doing it.​

Bugs and Creepy Crawlies
Lots of caterpillars this month! 

Moving Forward
Our next group begins on Tuesday. We still have a lot to do before the harvest, but I think we are still on schedule. Tonight we are going to have a family movie night and enjoy some popcorn before we start a new week of work.

Floods
I thought the rain was bad here in Panama! I was in Oklahoma for the week and one of the days that I was there, the phone kept beeping with messages. Flash floods in the area and warnings to avoid those areas. Not quite sure what the actual flood areas are, but I stayed in that day. :)  The 2nd picture was posted by one of the news channels. I guess they were pretty serious about the floods. Some people ditched their cars in the middle of streets to wade through the water to safer areas....

Coming Home
I came home and was surprised at how much the coffee cherries grew in just the 10 days that I was gone. I am starting to get excited for harvest time, but still a little nervous. We have so much more work to finish before we are ready for the harvest this year.

Work that was done
While I was gone, my husband and Melvin got some more work done. As you can see from the picture below, the dog was not helpful. We have many more gravel areas this year, we have learned from the past rainy seasons, that the ground gets very muddy this time of year. Hopefully, the new pathways and covered areas will make it more pleasant.

When Dad makes Lunch
This is what happens when I leave Rick to make our son's lunch. Sandwich, Doritos and a banana....

Bug of the Week
No clue what bug this is, but it has a cool pattern to him.

We tried the workaway program and we met some great people!!!! Braden, Martin and Flor were awesome. Our to-do list is now half the size it was. :) Not only were these people very helpful, they were fun and great in the kitchen! We not only ate good food with them, but we even have food in our freezer for later now......I am so going to miss them.

List of projects we could mark off of the list after 1 week:

• Clean and prep area for the new solar drying house.
• Install drain pipe underground around the property to reduce the rivers of water that were flowing and eroding the ground.
• Paint the pillars that housed the wires for the coffee cameras.
• Create new gravel pathways in the areas that were muddy.
• Plant some Geisha coffee trees.
• The list just keeps going.....

I just had to show a before and after picture together. The before picture is the area where we had old roofing material and other stuff. We now know where the dump is and we have organized all of the stuff that we still might be able to use later. But more importantly, we have a clear area for the solar drying house to process all of the coffee in the next harvest.

Cedulas
Rick and I had given up on getting our cedulas. We have resident cards and the cedula cards are just another form of identification. The process to get them seemed daunting and the only benefit of having them is that they are an official form of identification and would allow us to not carry our passports and resident cards all of the time. However, to get them, it was more bureaucratic paperwork, more money and a day in Panama City (7 hour car drive to get there.) Our attorney had never provided us with the paperwork to actually get the cedulas and there is a time-frame of 1 year from the date of your resident card. 

So, Rick and I decided we just would not get them. Then, 2 weeks before the deadline to get the cedulas, we magically got the paperwork from a friend of our old attorney. We then hired a person in Panama City that provides a service of getting everything together and making the cedula process quick. Deciding to get it done quick and painless, we flew up and back to Panama City in 1 day....It turns out that the service we paid for was worth it. We flew in and 45 minutes later everything was done. However, our plane back to our side of the country was still 7 hours away. So, Rick and I spent the day at the mall. :)

We spent a little time in the casino at the mall. Just enough time for Rick to see his 1st vending machine that holds beer and for me to see that they tax you on all money put into the slot machines. Not on just the money you win, but also on the money you put into the machine. My $20 in the machine, even after the tax at least paid for a sushi lunch. :)

Oklahoma
It is now semester break for kids in school. My son and I flew to Oklahoma for the week and left my husband to keep working on the farm. I was excited to have some good bar-b-que ribs last night and pick up some online shopping orders. This week is going to go fast, so trying to fit everything in. :)