I have had numerous discussions with my husband about his attempted "new" look since moving to Panama. He is very sure that there is a good hat out there made just for him in his new career. In the meantime, we have to suffer through his hat choices. So....I am going to ask everyone reading this to fill out the survey below. The boy and I are sure that they should all be burned, but I am giving him this one opportunity to get people on his side. To be fair, I made him wear the same shirt and all of the pictures were taken in the same location with the same lighting.

Poll was closed due to my husband cheating. :)

Now, assuming that you did the survey before you got to this paragraph.....if not, go back and do the survey before continuing. It is completely anonymous, but if I get 100 answers back saying he should keep them all, I will know my husband was busy filling out the survey all day. :)

I do not want to influence anyone, but here are just a few stories on hat #9.

1. We were on a Caribbean island and he was wearing that hat. We went into one of the stores on the main strip and the clerk started giggling. When we went over to talk to her, she said she would like to keep the hat. Rick objected to selling it to her and gosh forbid he give it to her for free! The lady did not want to re-sell the hat, she just thought it would be funny to have in her store.

2. He wore that same once again when we went to the Pacific-side beach. We were camping at Nelly's Beach Bar and 2 Swedish girls were sitting next to us in the restaurant. The 2 girls wanted Rick to give them his hat. When we asked why, they explained that there is a show in Sweden where a guy named Bobo goes and does dumb things. Some examples were: Bobo getting sick on TV eating one of the world's hottest peppers, Bobo riding a bike and getting hit by a car or bus.....things like that. They said if we gave them the hat, they would send it to Bobo, so he could wear it in another episode. They were laughing so hard that tears were streaming down their faces as they made their case for Rick to give up the hat. As you can see, we still have the hat.

I personally think that hat 3 and 4 make him look like Pinocchio. :) 

Alex and Ashley
We had 2 wonderful Workawayers stay with us for a week. They even made a little herb garden for us! They continued the trend of being great in the kitchen and making lunches for us all. They were very busy with projects on the farm and with their own online business, I am not sure how they did it all! These 2 California surfers were fun to have around and we hope we hear how their adventures on the rest of their trip goes.

Bugs
​We have our fuzzy caterpillar, our interesting moth and a beetle that really wants to be a ladybug on the first row. The second row starts out with what happens when someone leaves food on the floor for 1 day. Our guest house had been invaded with ants and I could not get rid of them fast enough! I finally found some ant bait and within minutes they swarmed the 2 drops of bait! The ants here all bite, so watching this was both a little frightening and fascinating. I could just imagine what it would feel like if they swarmed me like they did the bait....yikes!

The last two pictures are of a moth or butterfly. I cannot always tell which is which here. The black, red and white picture is what it looks like on top and the blue and black is what it looks like underneath. These must have just hatched because there are many of them floating around.

Chocolate and Coffee
We had a customer who wanted coffee and chocolate shipped to him. Sounds easy enough...right? The Citizens of Chocolate company sent their chocolate to me from Bocas, Panama, which took 2 couriers. I roasted the coffee and we packaged the chocolate and coffee together. My husband went to the post office to find out what the shipping cost would be, but that day the post office was pretty sure that the country we were shipping to did not really exist. They could not find the country name in their old book of places and therefore, the country is not there....sigh.

​A few days later, my husband takes the package with him and paperwork showing that we have shipped to that country before. The package is now off to be delivered, but it took over 50 postage stickers and multiple forms all over the package. But first, he had to finish gluing the brown paper to the box after they inspected the contents.....shipping is so not easy here!!!!

Benches
There are not many pictures of the work that I do around here and there are a few reasons for that.

1. I am not the neat, pretty worker that some people seem to be. My hair is always a mess, my clothes normally have paint all over them and my work area looks like chaos most of the time.
   
2. I cannot take pictures of myself working and make it look legit. :)

I am also not one of those graceful people. If I fall, it is not poetry in motion, it is more like a train wreck coming right towards you. When I cook, there is normally smoke and ingredients plastered all over, these are just a few examples. :)

However, I am posting this one where Rick took a picture. You cannot see the green paint all over my legs and feet and my work area still looks fairly clean. :) 

We had 2 wooden pallet benches made by a friend in Panama City that he overnighted to us here in Boquete. Since the bugs and humidity here ruin wood quickly, I had to treat the benches and then paint them really well to help preserve the wood. Job done and now the benches live in our coffee tour area. :)

Husbands
This week we pressured-washed the outside of the house. I am not sure what was laying eggs all over the house, but the walls were covered with these small little cocoons. I could just picture myself coming home one day and a million tiny spiders hatching all over the house. Thankfully, the walls are clean again! 

My husband is also very funny, not just his hats. He had to make our son food one night while I was busy working with the roaster. Here is his version of how a dinner sandwich plate should be made. :)

With that, I am going back to work now, but will update everyone again soon!