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Proyectos “grandes” para Hector:

1. Mover hijos de piñas varias áreass soleadas. Puede ser en las higueras, la loma de doña clotilde o el área de los abuelos.

2. Limpiar área de los abuelos para sembrar mas piñas.

3. Sembrar grama en el camino cuando se vaya el verano.

4. Seguir haciendo aboneras con compost de la “jungla”, hojas secas, grama verde, carbón, estiércol de caballo o gallinas.

5.Sembrar más guineos de su finca en las higueras.

6. Propagar pachuli en bandejas en el vivero. Las Plantas madres estan en donde doña clotilde y las higueras

7. Propagar mani falso en bandejas y sembrarlo en la loma de clotilde

8. Preparar Bancos para Lerenes. Ver Huegle Cultur beds en links!!

Mantenimiento Mensual

1. Regar las matas cuando no llueve en el vivero, las higueras y la loma de doña clotilde

2. Rastrillar hojas alrededor deárboless frutales y café

3. Abonar  evergreeorgánicoco a todo excepto los guineos. (cada

Bi-mensual

1. Abonar con evergreen todo (deje abono en la bodega y si se acaba titi tere lo tiene en plantas)

2. trimear la loma de clotilde, las higueras, y los tucunares

3. Mantener los vertiver o pachuly de los tucunares bajo

I enjoyed the relationships I had during this project.  Hector and his wife Enei basically adopted me in to their home. They have no kids and live a very lonely life in the land and were so happy to have me. I know that as much knowledge they gave me, in exchange, I brought joy and new ideas to them. I bonded with the other workers and had a great time with them. We became friends! I also have a list of new connections made with local plant lovers, nurseries and government agencies.

2013

In november 2013 I was given the options by my managers in Punta Mona to stay at the farm or leave. I decided to leave and go work on the Finca Carite. I proposed the idea to my family in Puerto Rico, especially my uncle Tio Tito and he thought it could work out. He said that had been paying on and off some worker to improve the road of the farm, but that it was hard without his supervision. Essentially he has the willingness to work on the farm but not the time.

So my position for the 2 weeks was as a project manager. He had one specific goal that he wanted me to accomplish with the workers. This was to place in a fence in the east boundary of the farm. I had  my own goals I wanted to accomplish so he approved an extra worker, Don Enriquez, to help me around. My goals were to explore the farm and plant fruit trees in a hill I had identified that was good.

He lend me his truck to travel around 1.5 hours every day from San Juan to the farm. The workers started to place the fence with my supervision and I started to explore the farm with Don Enriquez. What I encountered in the farm was that everything was so overgrown. Talking to the neighbor he said that the majority of the farm has not been untouched in over 60 years. Other areas around 30 years. So we started by chopping off trails to be able to access the lake and around the shore line. We finished a loop up and down.

When it came time to plant the trees I visited Plantas de Caparra, my aunts plants nursery. To my surprise she had a huge variety of tropical trees to choose from. I brought to the farm and made the holes to plant them. Towards the end of the second week I went with my uncle Tio Tito, Tio Jaime and my cousin Dani to plant them and see the work I had done.

Goals Accomplished:

1. 200 feet of fencing

2. Mark a trail

3. Identified an area to build the house

4. Planted 8 fruit trees

5. Planted groundcovers around the trees

The 2 weeks were a success. There was one inconvenient  that happened and it was that I got into a small car accident with my uncles truck. As was driving down after work another car was coming up very fast in a very sharp turn. He slided in to my lane and hit my side of the door. Nothing too serious happened but I was very disappointed about the accident since everything else had went so smoothly and I had to return my uncles good truck with one side scratched. At the end the insurance payed and he had fixed.

Transitioning

After the holidays I returnded to Punta Mona to finish my 1 year commitment with them. By then I was already in a relationship with my girlfriend arielle and thinking of moving to LA with her.  But April was a complicated month for me to move in with her. I told my uncle that I had the possibility of going back to Puerto Rico and could work more on the farm. He liked the idea and I went ahead and moved to Puerto Rico.

2014

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2014

I had proposed to my uncle that I should stay in the land for this second round of work. I told him about how inspired I was from my friend Bradley in Costa Rica that teaches  on how to rig up a livable space that he calls “from zero to something.” That was my plan until I got to the farm. For my surprise the neighbor Hector had lost his job.  He offered me to stay in his hurricane bunker which he said he could hook up electricity and water. To be honest it was not the most pleasant space due to how small, humid and enclosed it was. Plus around 50 free range chickens live around me. At the end I was not able to apply Bradley’s teachings, but in the other hand I coexisted with Hector and his wife Enei. We ended up creating a good relationship and worked really well together through the 2 months I was there.

My uncle Tio Musin had recently bought an old van for $1000 and lend it to me. It came to be a perfect car because I was able to move a lot of materials with it. I also felt more confident driving a car that was less fancy, in case I had an accident. Since I was staying at the farm for the most part I was no spending that much money on gas.

LIke the previous round of work my uncle wanted me to accomplish some goals. I had my goals of my own as well. Every we got together to check on the expenses, the workiers payment and the Goals accomplished for the week. At the end of the 2 months we reviewed the whole work and we were both very pleased of all the work performed. Furthermore the whole family had a gathering where we show everybody all the things I had accomplished. All my uncles gave great feedback.

Goals:

1. Water line

2. Shipping Container for tool shed

3. Round about at the end of the road

4. Plant more food

I accomplished those goals through the two months.

Clash of Building Soil Techniques.

As me and Hector were planning on preparing the soil to plant sweet potatoes we were faced with a situation where we both had different ways of preparing the soil. I was aware of his technique of losing up the soil and the planting. I wanted to make huegel culture beds so that we can have more long term results and since we had a lot of organic materials and rotting logs on site. I tried without to much effort to tell him to do a huegel culture bed but he seemed hesitant. Probably he was thinking how this kid from Guatemala is going to teach me how to grow sweet potatoes, since I have been growing them for several years. I changed my approach and told him “ lets do an experiment, you can prepare this side your way and besides to it I am going to prepare the soil my way” He loved this and was happy to run this experiment. We went ahead and finished the soil preparation and planted the sweet potatoes. Although, I must say it took me significantly longer to prepare my huegel culture bed than his simple loosing the soil.

As the weeks went by you could see that the sweet potatoes grown on the huegel culture bed were more green and growing better. He realized that and acknowledge that the huegel culture bed was working better. I think as time goes on he is going to be even more convinced that the effort put into soil building is worth it