Trees, St. Maarten and lots of Work

New Trees
One of our favorite Navel Orange trees has been going downhill all year. The branches have been dying off and the poor oranges were small if they existed at all. We finally took the tree down and found these grub-like icky things eating the root way beneath the ground. 
We did plant new trees to compensate taking this one down. We planted: Cacao, Pear, Lemon, Lychee and 2 others, but I forgot what they were. Hopefully, they all live and I will get to find out what the other 2 trees were!

St. Maarten
My neighbor Hector has family that lives in St. Maarten. As many of you know, the hurricane Irma recently hit the island and demolished many of the buildings and has devastated the lives of many. Hector's family is safe, but they lost their businesses and home. As I watch this family start to accept what has happened and work through the process of grieving for their old life and having to figure out next steps, I am in awe of their compassion and selflessness. They started a GoFundMe page, not for themselves, but for their employees that lost everything too and no longer have jobs or the family support that they themselves have. Below is a picture of their Zee Best Bakeshop and some other pictures around the island. They are trying to raise a little money to help each employee, so if you can afford a few dollars, I hope you consider helping all of these families out. Thanks!

Roasting and Coffee Tours
This week has been busy with coffee tours and sorting the coffee beans that were just roasted. I really enjoy the coffee tours, we get to meet people from all over and it is just fun!

I used to love the smell of freshly roasted coffee beans, but this week has been so hectic, that the smell just reminds me how much work I still had to do before the beans were bagged. I finished last night, so maybe in a couple days I will like the smell again!!!

Coffee Soap
Rick and I decided to use the chipped and cracked coffee beans and make things out of them. Like most things, I went into making coffee-soap thinking "how hard can it really be?" Apparently, it can be difficult as you can see from my first picture below. After many failed batches and lots of educational experiences...we finally got the hang of it!!!! Finding the correct supplies here (no crafts stores) has been like chasing after the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  :)