Menguante de Mayo

Introducing the latest arrival at Reserva El Tigre! Bayron Jose, son of proud parents, Jose Parra and Marcia Porras, born on May 4th, 2009, weighing in at 3.275 kilograms and measuring 51 centimeters (no mistake: Bayron was that big!).
As with Danny, Marcia carried Bayron for 41 weeks! She delivered at the hospital but left ASAP for the healthy countryside back at El Tigre (H1-N1 infection scare at its height!).


Here’s a shot of Marcia, Danny and baby Bayron a few days after birth.
Other Reports from Costa Rica:
The generator needed to be put on for an hour or so very early this morning - the day GRAK had to return to the Labor Court, of course... What a way to start the day! Why? Because the cats had been playing on the solar panels, leaving dirty paw prints all over, thus reducing solar power to the batteries; the consequence being - no electricity… Armando was cleaning the panels just as poor, frazzled GRAK left home at 7 o’clock in a taxi (he hates mornings at the best of times) so I asked him if the cats were also scratching the panels. Certainly not, Armando answered. Nunca! Just dirty paw prints, that’s all, easy enough to hose right off! Armando will always protect the clan and take the heat himself. There is so much of GRAK in Armando, though the two will always deny it. I see GRAK mannerisms in husbands of girlfriends. Men are so alike in so many ways! But they will always deny it! “I am nothing like him at all!” We gals just nod sagely.
I have felt for a while the need to get better acquainted with the neighbors. After the forest fire fiasco here, I realized how fragile this world is and how we really need each other as a community. We might have continuous, petty disagreements, but we need to stand together for common threats - earthquake, fire, landslides, adolescent troublemakers, etc!
I realized that, apart from Margarita and the Gloors, our Swiss neighbors who are even more reclusive than we are, we didn’t really know anyone well in the neighborhood of El Rodeo. So, I decided to hold a small lunch; then one of our neighbors, Luisa, held a lovely tea for some of us girls - all lovely and fascinating women; then we organized riding and hiking mornings; and, suddenly, I am getting much better acquainted with the greater world of the hamlet of El Rodeo (employees, problems, troublemakers, etc.). And now things are beginning to happen, as people start connecting. We’ve had our first meeting on security, hosted by the Ciudad Colon police officer, Capitan Azucar (Captain Sugar…) unfortunately poorly attended (major football match on TV) but it’s definitely a start. Tonight, we attend the second attempt, to be held in the village community center. Will anybody be there? Stay tuned! A recycling center is also now being talked about. Poco a poco.
Other good news is that, at long last, I now have Permanent Residency here in Costa Rica - Libre de Condiciones - which means no more visits to Immigration until 2012. Visiting the Immigration Office here is a lot like visiting a Drivers’ License Bureau anywhere else in the world (The Driving License Office here is another thing altogether…). You get a look at people that you would not normally ever come across - a complete slice of humanity - except this is at a global level, people from all countries wading through the crowds in search of the correct queue. When Gerry and I moved here 12 years ago, his company assigned us to an immigration lawyer - Esther Rodriguez. Over the years, even after Gerry retired, Esther and husband and fellow attorney, Alfredo Bolanos, have guided us skillfully through all our legal matters in Costa Rica.
With respect to immigration, Esther loves her job and does it well - with heart and joie du vivre. It’s her attitude that is really special - with Esther, Immigration becomes the most wonderful place in the world - nodding, greeting, gliding right through, occasionally queuing up for each other, talking about all sorts of things, especially our mutual passion - gardening. Esther has a lovely garden in Ciudad Colon, where she is always experimenting: bromeliads, agaves, orchids, and many other tropical delights. Actually, we both rent the same truck guy for garden expeditions to La Garita and beyond. Someday we’ll get a pickup truck, Esther! Who will be the first? For me, only after we drive the Jeeps into the ground. After retirement, you rediscover basic survival skills - reuse everything, never say die. But, one day, I shall get that Ford Pickup Truck!
With typical, immaculate timing, I officially retired from pharmacy practice last year (placed license on inactive status, Sept.08) just as the world entered the worst economic cycle in my lifetime. Gerald retired back in 2006. I was first licensed in Michigan and, most recently, in Pennsylvania, but haven’t worked in Pharmacy since moving to Costa Rica back in 1997.
After moving to the Tropics, I shifted my focus to the study of tropical plants. However, after years of courses and fieldwork, I still just totter along as a beginner. As Tommy, a friend who owns an herb farm, says, “Plant people can’t resist getting together to talk Latin over a bottle of wine” - unless we’re all talking Spanish with Costa Ricans, of course. And then we all fall back on the common names for native trees - Jorco, Guanacaste, Targua - we all do it! Even you, Maestro!
Every new gardener to Costa Rica takes the courses and makes the rounds: Lankaster Gardens, InBio, C.A.T.I.E., Monteverde, La Selva, Wilson Gardens, Ark Herb Farm, private gardens and the national parks, both above and below sea level… But, in May, you will always find gardeners at home in their own gardens, feverishly planting during the most critical time of the year, El Menguante de Mayo. All planting/pruning is done during the menguante, the waning moon, when, according to local lore, energy is drawn down to the roots. However, if you wish to collect sap, flavor or fragrance, then you collect the plants during the creciente, the waxing moon. Have we verified this with experiments? No. Armando comes from the Huetar indigenous line, where, traditionally, lunar activity guides garden planning. And for planting, the May waning moon is THE time!
This year, the rains began late - not until the second week of May - which coincided with the menguante. This meant that we really had to hustle to get everything planted. Armando finally convinced me that we didn’t need to go to Garita to buy more plants! Everything we wanted was already growing beautifully somewhere in the forest at El Tigre. We simply needed to collect/reproduce a few of these plants to harmonize the garden with the forest. Also, it appeared that the sturdiest trees had seeded naturally, dropped by a bird - we simply needed to recognize and tag the important species that had popped up all over the place. Is that weed really a treasure? Armando is a master at recognizing valuable species that just sprout. Just as one example: we have tagged 3 species of Cedrela seedlings that have popped up: odorata, salvadorensis and… Expert botanists and good friends, Agustin Contreras and Luis Poveda, are helping us to finally nail that mysterious third species. It’s not easy…
We’ve also had a productive planting season: Zapote, Nispero, Psidium, Bread Fruit, Papaya, Cashew, Coco, Citrus, Ingas, Cacao, Chicasquil, Zorillo, Mangas, Zapotillos, Eugenias, Actinus, Ardisia, Jorco, Picramnias, Syzygiums, figs, and a few exotics from La Garita, like Averrhoas and Pitangas. And, after the horses ate all the Poro Gigante seedlings last year, this time around, Armando hid the tasty Erythrinas well inside the charral…


Here’s a shot of Armando leading the way inside the charral to one of the Poro hiding spots.
We also planted several first-year Ceiba pentandras, second-year Ceibo verde (Pseudobombax septenatum), third-year Jabillo (Hura crepitans) and many other plants down in the charral.
We are now into June, and are ending this menguante de Junio with herbs and vegetables in the garden, and sugar cane in the pastures for the horses and - cows… Take a look at our new bovines!

Lola La Vaca and her 3-month-old calf.
Marcia has been craving fresh milk, and now we can also make cheese and yoghurt. Pharmacy is most fun in the kitchen! Lola is a small (perfect for mountain living), young, Jersey-mix, milk cow. She came home to El Tigre with her first calf, and carrying her second. Jose built a byre for them, reusing materials from the house reconstruction. As with all the other household animals, we secure them at night.
We learned early and well, that native (criollo) is best for all flora and fauna! Locally bred animals - hens, horses, dogs, cats and cows - are already well adapted to tropical living and rarely get sick if you maintain parasite/hygiene control. They won’t let insects alight on them, much less bite them. In fact, the dogs and cats eat, with great gusto, anything that buzzes too close to them. Here, all creatures must adapt to the ubiquitous insects. And with the late start to the rainy season, the bug season has been much more intense than usual.
We have all sorts of organic techniques for breaking the insect cycle, and are very old school in our approach, using the food chain where possible to keep everything in balance. Criollo chickens are the best for feasting on larvae around the stableyard. The horses get lots of help from the birds, especially the Anis, flocking around them in the pastures, feasting on insects that the grazing horses disturb. Matchi often walks around with an Ani perched on his back. It’s a symbiotic, truly natural scene to observe. I have learned to use repellents sparingly, and then only plant-based whenever possible. I have found citronella by itself too short-acting, so am still working on finding the perfect safe/effective repellent, experimenting with mixtures of citronella, lemon, rosemary, lavender, Siparuna, etc. In my experience, the most effective product you can buy here (sold in agricultural stores and by vets) is called Scavon - a mixture of Linseed, Eucalyptus, Natural Camphor, Acorus calamus and other pleasant, exotic-smelling, Indian herbs. The insects hate it. Oh Joy.