Obituary Cocktal for Robert Muller

Friends everywhere, please raise your glass today in honor of our dear departed neighbor and friend in Costa Rica, Dr. Robert Muller. Described by Margaret Mead as the most brilliant man in the United Nations, Robert Muller tried to change the world – bringing world peace, by setting an example – and he did it in both large ways and small ways. Nate Perkins wrote an excellent history and tribute to Robert Muller in the Tico Times this week. As one of the co-founders of the University for Peace, Robert Muller set about the task of planting thousands of trees at the University, as well as allowing natural regeneration of forest on pastureland. How can we, as individuals, make the world a better place? Muller described the ways in the thousands. And he shared those thoughts with countless readers around the world over the years. Very best wishes and love to Barbara and the children at this sad time.


Robert Muller’s spirit remains strong in the forest that he helped to regenerate: Zona Protectora El Rodeo, Costa Rica.

Right now, the forest weather is rather cool and misty. Happily though, the flying insects have been damped down by day after day of rain. This is just great pasture weather for the animals. In fact, the horses enjoy the refreshing grazing weather so much, they haven’t returned to the stables for three days! Finally, this morning, Jose fetched them all back to give them some feed, take a good look at them, remind them of the routine, humans,etc. They’re all doing just great.

Also, Lola la Vaca is expecting again, and thriving with her calves out in pasture during this unseasonably cool, misty weather.

It feels like a Scottish highland summer: damp, with frequent drenching downpours, and the sky only clearing to a sort of misty, milky atmosphere that gets everything wet. We’ve had no sun at all for days. It comes out for a few seconds here or there but the clouds quickly swallow it back into the mist.

Solar Power living sure is a lot more fun when the sun is shining! We’ve had no hot water for over a week – I’m getting used to taking cold showers... What’s more, we had a problem with the system, activating the transformer, which only supplies essentials like the water pump and refrigerators. Nothing else works: no television, no lights, no nothing! What an ordeal! Coincidentally, just last week, we gave everybody at the Finca an exercise of thinking about how they would live out in the forest, without any solar power or generator, for an extended period of time. How would we humans survive without power? Everybody got to talking about using wood for fires, collecting spring water – it really gets you thinking about energy consumption when you can’t consume. Luckily, our solar engineer, Carlos Oreamuno from Consenergy comes to the rescue tomorrow. Until then, everybody is prepared for the long haul – even if it means heating the coffee on a wood burning stove.

Also, thankfully, Gerald is in New Orleans. He got out in the nick of time - just before the rest of us had to deal with a landslide, which marooned all the back road farms until the guys managed to dig us out. Then you add in cold showers and no television; yes, Gerry got out just in time...

You will find GRAK quite often at cocktail time at Ryans or Tujagues in the Vieux Carre. Everyday it’s another story.

Home Invasion Alert! We have a pair of wrens trying to invade the house through a small hole up in the sky-roof ventilation. I think they’re the same wrens who nested on the terrace just outside our bedroom a few months ago. Now, with all this rain, not content with bullying the other birds off the terrace, these Rufous-Naped (I think) Wrens want to move inside the house with us! They seem to like the space inside better than outside and don’t care how much we holler at them. They just scold us right back, with their rapid-fire, "chet, chet, chet", flying around leaving bird droppings all over the floor – until we chase them back out again. And even when they're eventually outside, we can still hear them scolding us. We’ve got to get that hole plugged before all chaos breaks loose around here.

Postscript: The sun came out today! Took the horses out. Everybody is smiling and talking about the sun. What an absolute joy!