1/08 We are pleased to introduce our "What's up" component of the Finca Las Nubes website. We expect it to be an integral part of communicating with friends of and visitors to the farm. It is a dynamic, interactive tool that we can all use to relate news and stories of our experiences on the farm. You are all welcome to contribute to the blog, either through adding comments or introducing blog entries. Contact us for details on entries. We anticipate providing regular reports of events and occurrences on the farm and we see it as a good venue for relating information relevant to all the people that we are networking with to change the world.

We have had a very good year here on the farm and there is much to report. We are in the process of certifying the farm organic with our friends at Biolatina, the Central American organic certifying agency. They are stoked on our project and have asked to hold there inspector training on our farms.

Byron Corrales of organic coffee fame, who is guiding us on our coffee farm up north, is leading us in our organic endeavors here as well. He has initiated compost, bio-fertilzer, bio-emulsion and bocacci production here on the farm. Bocacci is used to give microbiological life to impoverished soils. The emulsion helps breakdown organics accelerating decomposition.

Byron hopes to be hosting permaculture seminars here on the farm soon.

All of you should sign up!

Byron tasting salad.

Our organic vegetable production is back on line with the return of our Oregonian growers Sam and Denise with their new son Ari. Giovanni is fast becoming an expert in the garden and is pushing up egg and chicken yields. Pablo has adapted to the new systems where the cows are fed a daily salad mix of high protein forage so as to produce the best shit to make our bocacci.

All the fruit trees that we planted three years ago are starting to put out all kinds of bananas, oranges, papayas, guava, mandarin, avocado, lime, etc. It can only get better!

Shaun and Lorena, down from Humboldt are counting up and cataloguing the survivors of the 35,000 hardwood trees we have planted in the last few years. They came up with 11,772. Our carpenters should have some wood to work with in the future.

Shaun, Pablo, Lorena, Giovanni, Chris and Vicente.

Federico's place should be done soon and he and Alden will be moving down to build and staff the Finca Las Nubes community clinic which we are building down on the main road in front of the farm. They hope to sponsor a program for medical students to intern there providing cultural exchange and much needed health services.

I have some Austrians from Step wind energy working up a proposal for a 15 KW turbine that will provide free power to the entire farm. I am still trying to find a reliable vertical axis system in production as I believe that's a better technology.

We have so much going on that I cannot possibly touch on them all so, I guess you will all just have to come down and see for yourselves.