Return to the Farm

I started this post to have an online place to put my regular, or semi regular journal writings about my and my families life at Protection Farm, where we have been living for a little over two years.  Often I find myself writing beyond the geographical boundaries of Protection Farm, or about wider issues. I will post those pieces here as I see fit.  I also publish and write for a newspaper The Sardinia Standard" and I will occasionally post stories from that publication here as well. For instance, the previous post about strawberries came from the June 2008 Standard.

I have just returned from a week or so in Costa Rica and am beginning to think through how to write about what I saw there.  Its not Sardinia, but it is me. You will see postings in the next few days and weeks about the fantastic, beautiful, unusual, experiences that we had there.

Today, at PF, it is raining. Apparently it has been raining since we left.  The gardens here are green and not dried and parched as I feared they would be when we were in the highland cloud forests of Monteverde.  And we have a second brood of bluebirds. The first thing I did was check the bluebird boxes and the five eggs have turned into five fuzzy little chicks.  They will probably fledge in about a week. Mom and dad bluebird remain, for the moment, calm and friendly. I know from experience that in the 48 or so hours surrounding the actual fledge, they will become frantic, aggressive, and very pointed in their attention to whomever approaches the nest box.  On friday, which is in two more days, we are having a large party here for Alpha, Jonna's sister, whom is having a baby.  Besides having to find a way to mow the lawn which has grown a couple of inches since I left for Costa Rica, I hope that we can find a way not to have any incidents with dive bombing protective bluebirds.