The Rainy Season Part II
10 years ago
Good Morning and welcome to Finca Mil Amores , blog page. The second half of the rainy season, kicked in with a bang and a splash. We had a good spell on sunshine for the last month and a half. Somewhere between the first week of July and ending on the 15th of August is called then Canicula , The heat wave period or the days Dog Days of Summer , It is the time of year when the heat is stronger, both in the Southern Hemisphere and in the North The duration ranged from four to seven weeks , depending on location., I know in Costa Rica and Panama we call it the second summer. It’s about 40-45 days of very little rain.
A good time to get those, tasks, done, that requires sunshine. We had a productive month, in August, here at Finca Mil Amores. There’s a lot, of. just going round, and round on a daily basis, checking every field, and every plant. We have thousands of them to be exact. Mother Nature works faster here I think. We have to keep a good eye, on what we have in the ground, and keep it healthy. Not an easy task. We are after all in located a tropical rain forest, on top of a beautiful crater lake, Nicaragua is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator.
Finca Mil Amores has gone through some extraordinary changes in the last six months, as so have I.
I was told by a wise man a long time ago, that the only permanent thing in life was change. Some say death and taxes, I am not sure those are permanent either.
We certainly have made some changes here, on this land in Nicaragua, I personally have gone through some life changing events too.
On August 19th 2013 my wife Helen gave birth to our 4th child Michele, a healthy seven pound baby girl. And sadly on August 31, 2013 , I lost my Mother .
A friend said we really never grow up until we lose a parent, I now believe this to be true.
I just spent the last ten days in California, and am very gratefully, back in my Country of choice, Nicaragua and back to my chores at Finca Mil Amores.
The Plantains are as tall as 15 feet, and to me, feels like The Garden Eden , Our Nicaraguan workers, have done such an excellent job in the caring and maintenance.
Our goal is to wean ourselves off the weed killer, like “round up” , which we used in the beginning to combat years of neglect or use, we had weeds six foot tall thought the whole farm.
All of this work of weaning, off chemicals , must be done by hand , remember we have four large valleys of Plantains consisting of more than 3000 plants. 600 Citrus Trees another 200 miscellaneous fruit trees plus more than 3000 Pitaya Vines.
This reminds me, each Plantain plant produces three to five more babies, so the process will continue for a number of years, this is a great plant for production, and is self producing.
As I was inspecting the first valley of Plantains, I couldn’t help notice the effects of the rain water rivers, had on the land, For example we have two 25,000 gallon in the first valley, water ditches, right now, just ditches , until we finish building, the soon to be cement tanks, that ,they will be , hopefully soon.
Since late May, we have had some good rains, and the tanks fill up, but, in an hour or two, the water percolates into the ground. Today, late morning both tanks were 50% full of rain water, I see this as a good thing . Why? Well without the tanks , the water and our top soil, would just flow right across Finca Mil Amores and onto the neighbors property , then, just flow, to a rain ditch on the road, causing damage to our access road.
What’s going on now, is, we are retaining volumes of water on our subsurface , we are also capturing top soil from both our neighbors properties. Thanks guys. Remember we have eight 25,000 gallon holes, retaining water on our Property , which will go a long way in helping during the upcoming six month of dry season.
This last 40 days or so, we have hand cut, acres of weeds over the whole farm, we have seen awesome growth of our Pitaya, Plantains, Lemons, Mandarins, Oranges, and Cacao,
We planted 25 Gunabana trees along the roadside, We started a plant nursery , with Pitaya, Red Hot Chile Peppers, and enough tomato seedling for ¼ acre. We have corn, grass for cattle or goats. We are experimenting by plantings squash on hillsides to prevent weeds and erosion.
We have built arbors, like the ones used for grapes, to plant Granadilla , similar to Calala and and we planted Chayote, Chayotes, also known as “vegetable pears”, are related to zucchini, cucumber, and melons, and in a way, taste like a combination of all three. They are a staple of Mexico, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, are high in vitamin C, low in calories, and are a good source of fiber. They can be eaten raw, or cooked, and like zucchini, fried, baked, broiled, sautéed, steamed, or mashed.
Like I said there are many changes, in the last 40 days both personal and at Finca Mil Amores, I wish to say thank you for your interest and help those of you who touched my life and have proven to me , that there are some great people around who not only have an interest in farming, but are, good Samaritans and have helped me to become a better person, a lover of this land and of farming.
Please subscribe to our You Tube Site “ Finca Mil Amores Nicaragua ” I will be posting lots of Videos over the next few weeks, as things are moving real fast with these rains , sun, and fertilizer .
We have a full time crew of five men with two part timers plus me.
W e are currently, accepting interns to come and share with us here at Finca Mil Amores. Graduate students or just People with an interest in Farming and Sustainability in Nicaragua, accommodations are available nearby.
Please contact me at [email protected]
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