City Born Girl in Panama Country Life

  Panama Farm Life October 30, 2024 This morning...complete silence. I am awake before Codi. The fur babies on the bed stir and seek my hand for a morning scratch and doze off once again. The night before unleashed the most hellacious lightning storm of the season. Gary and I counted the seconds between the flash and the thunder. Close. Too close. Our solar charged batteries did not waver. We have power this morning and the farm came through the night in one piece. This time. Last year around this same time the farm took a direct hit. Our electrical grid, security cams, internet and gate motors ...toast. Lesson learned. Reconstruction includes copper grounding rods and surge suppressors at every building, electrical box and gates. And internet cable replaced with fiber. Cost? Don't ask. Peace of mind? Maybe not priceless but damn close to it! The pig screams. Still dark in this early morning, I grab the hand-held spot light and survey the area below from the terra...

 Panama Farm Life October 19, 2024 I awake to silence...before any taps on the door.  Codi still asleep on the new leather sofa in the main room.  Of course.  I open the front door and he trots out into the damp dawn.  Turning to the coffee maker, I begin the ritual... grind the beans, fill the water tank, insert the unbleached coffee filter, count out the scoops and hit the brew button.  The flock of noisy resident green parrots flap past the terrace in search of their breakfast and white egrets silently swirl overhead. The morning sun turns Baru golden and I watch the rays play on the peak.  All is right... for a moment. Porky grunts in the distance and the grain buckets are banging. The front door now open, the girls scramble outside in pursuit of Codi.  The morning rituals shift into full chorus. Alex mentioned that the hens were no longer producing many eggs.  Old chickens.  And they were roasters not laying hens.  The decision...

  Panama Farm Life October 8, 2024 Tap, tap, tap.  Codi's wakeup comes a bit early this morning.  20 minutes early to be exact.  5:10a. His determination is clear so I swing my legs out of bed avoiding Lila, Lilly and Marta snuggled up  tight  against me.  Outside the lights twinkle in the valley below appearing as if the sky and the ground have reversed positions and the stars now hug the wet ground.  The rain was demonic the day before lashing the farm with fury and sending the horses back into their stalls for protection.  Water puddles persist on the clay pastures as the sun climbs. Codi sprints out the door anxious to start his farm rounds.  I, on the other hand, move slowly toward the kitchen to start the coffee and take inventory of my various aches and pains in this damp morning.  I hear my dad's words in my head, "aging is not for the feint of heart".  Each time he would tell me this, I would roll my eyes.  Now, I...

  Panama Farm Life October 3, 2024 We live in tumultuous and stressful times on our planet.  Nasty politics, war, famine, disease... same ole', same ole' just a different century, and complicated with technology and media blasting out fake news.  But, this is the century I live in. The way I stay grounded, positive and sane is to focus on what is in front of me an a day to day basis.  And that is our farm... The morning is dark with cloud cover.  My eyelids flutter.  My pillow is... wet!  Lilly has struck again!  Lately our 5 month old Jack Russell thinks our bed pillows are the perfect place to take a piss!  Thankful it was the pillow and not my face.  I roll out of bed as Codi marks 5:30a...tap, tap, tap.  He trots out the front door eager to start his farm survey. I prepare the coffee and view whisps of clouds drifting along the valley floor gathering ground moisture as they go. The overnight drizzle was relentless.  And the...