January 12th, 2020

I just spent six weeks back home in Costa Rica. The dog and cats were really glad to see us. Its like theyre not even mad that we left for so long. My chickens acted like I never left at all. I really missed them.
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There have been so many changes at Hush Valley in this last year. i knew about all of them because my parents talk about our farm a lot but it was cool to see them all in person.
First- we now have coffee trees. There are over 100 trees on the farm now. Hopefully there will be enough so we can have Hush Valley Coffee for our guests. I think it will be great because my dad is really good at roasting coffee.
​All the lines on the hillside is where our some of the coffee trees are. But there are more up by the Sediment ponds. 

The second cool thing was the mud hut on the hill. You can see it on the hill in the picture above. its to the right of the little spanish cabin. Joe, our friend from Oregon was our farm manager when we were gone. My dad and him both work at the coffee roaster.
joe built this awesome little mud house that has a hammock, and a stove, and a little cupboard literally out of the hill side. it is so cool. I want to build another one up by the tadpole pond. I made a slide show of it below.

The third cool thing was, I am not the captain of my very own sailboat. Even though it was Joe's idea, I have wanted to do this since I came to Costa Rica. 
I had so much fun floating around the main pond.  Ive been wondering what it would be like to put a fishing pole in and see if a fish could bite and tow me around the pond. That called Green energy I think! 

My mom and dad are working on aquaponics for growing vegetables on the ponds now, and ways to produce hydro electric power throughout the property. 
We try really hard to be concerned for our environment while we are there. We compost all of our food, and sort all of our recycling. We make soil for the gardens too. 
We hardly ever drive into town, and when we do its a full day of errands. I like it when we go to Santa Maria or San Marcos, becasue that usually means lunch out, or a treat! 

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We have even started taking the bus, when we have to go into San Jose. My mom doesn't like to drive in the traffic, and the bus takes us right into town. It takes about 3 dollars to ride it, and its about a 2 hour ride. 
This last time, even though we bought our tickets the day before, there was no room on the bus when we got on.  We had to ride on the floor of the bus because it was so crowded. I didn't mind. I felt like Greta Thunberg. I fell asleep. My mom said she didn't but her backside did. 
I was really mad when I read afterward that Greta Thunberg actually rode first class.
We never got a seat, but we got to town safely and environmentally friendly. 

One of my favorite things about my Costa Rica home is that I have friends there. This time, I got to visit with my friends Athena, Quen, Uran, Luna, and Arlo.  They are all cousins and have a big family like mine in the States,  Their family bought a farm just down the road from my school so they are much closer now!  They get home schooled. 
We tried home school this time. I learned math much easier from my dad than from school. It think its because he is so patient .  

I did a lot more things I will update you on in another blog.   Thanks for reading this!