Not a Hair out of Place

Take a look at this shot of our Swiss neighbor, Gabriella, showing us girls how to make bread. Now I understand why we used to make such a mess of it! Basically, you have to understand your ingredients! Bread made with yoghurt is not treated the same way as bread made with sodium bicarbonate, or baking powder, or packaged yeast. Gabi helped us understand the feel of when the dough is ready. And then it’s just feeling for it and lots of experience. As with everything else, practice makes perfect.

Why not just get a bread maker? Because we use 100% solar power – anything that warms or cools takes a lot of juice! Yes, I know Gerald loves his toast! But Gabi even helped with that – she gave us a grill-thing that we just put over the gas stove. Our neighbors, Gabi and Paul also live completely off the grid, and we continue to learn from them as we bump our way through the process. We share water and it goes without saying that we use the same Solar Engineer, Carlos Oreamuno.


Here’s a shot of our first attempt at baking bread. The pale loaf is ours– described as heavy as a brick (but edible if toasted). We photographed it alongside the lovely loaf that Barry Hammel brought for us when he came over with his family to hike. As you can see, Barry is a much more accomplished baker, and we devoured his loaf post haste – or post hike as the case was - we didn’t even leave crumbs for the chickens.

It was a great day for hiking. Barry and his family arrived after the other hikers, so I went with the first group, and I asked Armando to guide them when they arrived and rendezvous with us down at the river. However, obviously something got lost in the translation… We went to the river (Jaris) and Armando, Barry et al went to the other river (the waterfalls) - a high adventure hike!

It wasn’t until quite a bit later in the day, that they finally returned up the mountain. I ran into Barry’s daughter, Indira, as she climbed the final ascent up to the house. After dispensing with the usual salutations, Indira asked, “Do you have a glass of water? I am ever so thirsty!”

I couldn’t believe it! I asked her, “Did Armando take you down to the waterfalls?”

“Yes – they’re still down below eating oranges”.

I just couldn’t believe it! This pretty college girl didn’t have a hair out of place– after just getting back from the waterfalls! I would have been soaking wet, filthy and face bright red from exertion!
Barry and Isabel soon arrived with Armando, and we feasted and drank wine. Barry showed me several plants that he had collected and, in order to identify one of them, he pulled out of his backpack this huge taxonomy manual that definitely caught my eye, called, ‘Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica’. I simply had to have a copy of it!
“Who wrote that?” I asked.
“I did, along with a number of co-editors, of course – it’s our work!”
It is a Magnum Opus of plants – a never ending study of discovery here in this wonderland of biodiversity.

I was interested in this work, so Barry later elaborated:

It's the continually changing product of many people, all working on the flora of Costa Rica over the last 20 years. It's a list that can be printed from the specimen database in ATTA at INBio, but we originally produced it by crawling through all the specimens at the Nacional Herbarium. It doesn't have all species known from Costa Rica on it, just those we have collected during the course of the project, Manual de plantas de Costa Rica (coeditors myself, Mike Grayum, Cecilia Herrera and Nelson Zamora). Surely you know about those volumes that the Missouri Botanical Garden is publishing in collaboration with The Museo Nacional and INBio? All of the monocots have been published (two volumes), one of dicots, one is in press and we have two to go. Also, we have published an introductory volume, on history of botany in the country, vegetation, novelties, etcetera. When the series is finished, we will probably have accounted for more than 8500 spp. total, not including the ferns. It's a big project.


If you don't have them and are interested, the published volumes (Manual de plantas de Costa Rica) can purchased at INBio


https://www.securesitecr.com/editorialInbiocarritoLibreria/product_esp.php?pagina=4&cat=38


or directly from the Garden


http://www.mbgpress.info/index.php?task=list_author&

So, did Barry find anything interesting down at the waterfalls? I was very keen to find out!
After reviewing his notes and collected plants from the hike, Barry sent us an e-mail:

Thanks so much for having us over: we had a great time, and we *did* survive! Saturday night I lived up to my nick-name "calambre" as walks like that always give me leg cramps. Isa and I would do it all again in moment, but my daughter, city hick that she is, is still moaning and groaning about the walk!
I wanted to let you know that the big tree that had me perplexed, did turn out to be plain old (but what a beautiful tree) Lafoensia punicifolia. It's quite rare, and I don't believe I had ever seen such a big one, I'd only seen it in flower, never in fruit, blah, blahblah--just making excuses! The Heisteria is H. concinna. That's a really common tree on your property. I'll bet the birds love it.
Some of the other things I collected and have identified are these:
Acanthaceae: Barleria oenotheroides, Blechum costaricensis
Annonaceae: Desmopsis bibracteata
Commelinaceae: Tradescantia poelii
Flacourtiaceae: Casearia commersoniana, C. sylvestris
Malvaceae: Allosidastrum pyrimidatum
Rubiaceae: Arachnothryx (Rondeletia) aspera
Rutaceae: Amyris cf. pinnata
Last, most unprepossessing, and also most exciting was a dumb little Malvaceae that I had at first thought belonged with the Allosidastrum specimens, but then when I looked close, turns out it's something else altogether, and I can't figure out what it is!!!! Well, it's an Abutilon, or Pseudoabutilon, but not one accounted for in our book. That's a family that we just published in the last volume and I spent quite a bit of time on it, so this is really exciting. I do tend to jump to conclusions, so it may yet turn out to be something accounted for that I am just overlooking, so I need to calm down and study it carefully. In any case, I managed to get some seeds from the one rather poor collection, and have planted them, so if it does turn out to be something new, and if I get the seeds to germinate, I should have plenty more specimens. I only saw one small plant in your forest, but there must be more, near where we saw the Lafoensia. I'll keep you posted, as I work to figure out what species it is.

Thank you so much for the feedback, Barry. We live for this! So Rondeletia, one of my favorite flowering trees, has a new genus name – Arachnothryx – that’s quite a mouthful! And you’ve also nailed some that had us stumped. And that mysterious Malvaceae is fascinating–a family that goes far beyond my very limited knowledge of just the Hibiscus genus. Next time, Indira will have more fun horseback riding with Jose!

Restaurant shock! We stopped to eat at our old stomping ground, Tex Mex, in Santa Ana, and found it utterly and completely transformed - like walking into a place straight out of New York City. Tex Mex no more! Not a shred of Tex Mex left of it, and now it’s a steakhouse called – Doris – and no, Doris is not a girl…

Finca & Forest News.

We lost Grisela, my favorite barnyard cat, to a snake bite. She went hunting up in the charral and got a ‘back-off’ jab, probably from a Fer de Lance. Even the dogs know not to go sniffing around down it the charral! Grisela thought herself invincible - had killed several small terciopelos over the years. That's why we keep barnyard cats - they compete with snakes for prey. No rats or snakes in the stable yard. But on this day, a terciopelo decided to take her out. Poor Grisela. Hugo saw Grisela first, convulsing, and Armando rushed her to the vet. But, unfortunately, it was too late. Poor Grisela was dead on arrival. We feed all our animals very well but some simply continue to hunt on instinct. Grisela had a hunting vice, and so followed Samantha the dog and several other incurable hunters to an early grave.

All the other animals are doing fine. Solo got colic but recovered quickly with treatment. It’s great riding weather – sunny days, and no bugs tormenting the horses. The dogs still get a few torselos now and then but the population has dropped significantly since we adopted a zero tolerance for them. Armando is still the master at squeezing out the larvae but Yaneth has also become quite deft at it. Even GRAK has squeezed out a torselo or two! Lola la Vaca is healthy and will soon have a new calf.

The criollo hens are beginning to breed, now that we have brought home the new rooster. He roosts up in the tree with his four favorite hens. The others sleep in the cow byre with Lola or in the hen house. Some of them prefer to sleep inside – so we close the hen house at 6 p.m. Those remaining outside have adapted well and are thriving. More and more of them prefer to sleep outside. So far, they all return inside in the morning to lay eggs, and sometimes one will want to sit on her eggs, so we let her be. When the chicks hatch, she hides them in various places and will attack any animal getting too close. The dogs and cats have now accepted the arrangement and no longer chase after the cute little chicks. How did we do it? It wasn’t easy, especially, with Eddie the Beagle – a very stubborn dog. He just looks back at me when I call him sometimes with a look as if saying: “I just want to, y punto!”

Watch out for ant-divers during this time of year. For some reason, the hot, dry weather riles up the ants living in the trees. What does that mean? Well, it means that you can’t stop in front of an ant-dwelling tree, where ants and trees live together, symbiotically, like, say the Acacia tree and just yack away with somebody because it annoys the ants. If you don’t move on in a timely manner, a few of the ants might start to dive-bomb you to get you moving. The other day, while looking at the Diospyros digyna fruits down in the forest with Armando, I suddenly felt a sting on the back of my neck – like a wasp! It was an ant. Seconds later, Armando pulls off his cap where an ant had dive-bombed him! We glanced up and saw the nearby Cornizuelo tree - and we got moving…

Wasps and bees also get irritable this time of year, especially in windy weather, and particularly if a bird or other prey is assaulting the hive. Armando describes how monkeys shove a stick in the mouth of the bee-hive, blocking it, then grab and eat the wasps as they crawl out one by one. I’ve never seen this but have seen birds attacking a bee-hive up in a tree. If you see a bird making lunch out of a bee-hive – you can tell because the bees are all swarming furiously about it as the bird calmly pecks at it – then stay clear. And stay calm. Don’t start screaming and throwing your arms all around swatting at the buzzing insects. Ignore the bees and they will ignore you – just keep moving away. If bees start to construct a hive with the structure of your house, remove it immediately before it gets too big. Bees attack because they are defending the hive. So, don’t allow bees to make a hive near the house. Once it gets big, then all it takes is a windy day or a perceived threat and the bees will get ornery. Armando clears hives in progress using soapy water. If you don’t know what you are doing, call in a professional to remove a hive.

Now in flower: Pink Tabebuias (called Roble de Sabana) giving an eye-popping show all along the roadways in Ciudad Colon. Gliricidium sepium (Madero Negro) also in full bloom - the bumblebees just love it, and it’s fun to watch them buzzing languidly about from blossom to blossom! Leave them be and watch the amazing relationship between species. Laurels are just finishing.


Also, take a look at this shot of the lovely Poro Poro flower (Cochlospermum vitifolium).