Glimpses of a Rancher's Life

Life on the ranch in La Lucha de la Tigra, Costa Rica and in neighboring Florencia allowed us to experience so much we had never touched or tasted before. From hitchhiking on the back of an open truck, to rainforest exhibitions by a kindly neighbor, to working on the farm to fishing to volunteering, to getting really bored... Here's a smattersborge(?) of some of that precious, crazy, new life.

Holy Cow Scared the Hell Out of Me

Our second week on the ranch, I wrote this entry:

Just about five minutes ago a cow WALKED INTO THE HOUSE. It's pitch dark outside and pouring rain. Kobi went to the store with Kendall. The kids and i are sitting at the table in the non-enclosed dining room section of the house. And..... wth, and a cow almost walks into us! Out of nowhere, there's a cow! Full-sized, as fully confused as we are I bet. We all start screaming (which didn't help the cow, I'm sure!) The girls start running for their lives. In my infinite cowgirl wisdom, I , of course, am sure it was a bull ready to charge at us. Orazi's sort of hanging out, amused, waiting to see what happens next. I grab him by the shirt, and God-help-me throw him into the room which the girls had run into screaming. We all had a good laugh, later (especially about my hysteria!)

Hitchhiking

So we got a ride to project asis while hitchhiking ON THE BACK OF A PICK UP TRUCK! It had a cage thing in it and some weird looking fruit. It's so easy to make us happy! We've also been hitchhiking rides by taking the kids without seatbelts, and putting them in our lap as the five of us stuff into two seats of trucks.Basically, everything i've never done, and never allowed my kids to even fantasize about regarding irresponsible car safety, is normal now. Very very normal and everyday acceptable. Joy.Please, keep following our other irresponsible parenting choices on the road. (All comments about our parenting choices are welcome. We deserve it! I know.) It only get better.


Male Bonding

With endless time to bond, Orazi and Kobi went fishing at a really far river. Here you see Orazi the champion fisherman working his magic. Orazi explains that in this video you actually see him catching the huuuuge fish that got away, and then his hook got caught in some water bush.

 

Makin' Music

Volunteering is this beautiful meeting in which both sides give and get so much.In this 20 seconds video see what Dahnya,  Orazi and Solai bring to the senior citizens. At Florencia there in the kitchen where we volunteer with the senior citizens, the kids discovered musical instruments. They are amazing, these three. They can make magic at any given moment.

 

Coconuts vs Pipas

 Did you know that there are coconuts and there are pipas? We didn't. The difference: coconuts you cut open and eat their hard, delcious white meat. It's dry and hard. Pipas you punch a hole in and only drink the juice. The pipa white is spongy and not as tasty. some eat it or use it for cooking but mostly pipas are for drinking.

Don Jose Ramon cuts a pipa for us to drink.Watch a cowboy with experience using his machetta.  .

Yes, he's cutting a pipa. I still can't tell the difference when they take it off the trees. I know the difference based on whether they hand it to me with a straw or to drink, or they open it and I see the thicker, hard white that I've always known.



Storm Showers

Like Alison Krauss says, "You say it best, when you say nothing at all"... I'll let the pictures tell the magical spiritual connection of our bodies with nature in our storm showers...

 

Posted in: Discovering Cool Places, Discovering Humanity, Discovering Ourselves