Pictures of work and stuff

Yum! Can not wait to eat this big guy. Ituichaeterei! (It´s big as !"·$% in Guarani)


My neighbor´s little field of Lupino (green manure) I convinced him to plant this and then corn inbetween the rows. We waited a couple weeks, hoed, and then planted the corn. It is still small and hard to see, but the corn is growing well next to these green manures.




This is my biggest success! It doesn´t look like much, but after going out and spending many, many long hours hacking away with machetes I convinced one of the farmers to leave the plant residue instead of burning it. Like most farmers, once they kill the weeds they burn them to clear the area. This burning is really, really bad for the soil. It gives it a boost in fertility for one season but after that its all downhill. All the microbial life is lost, all the organic matter burned away and the soil is left in ruin. He took my advice and left it, we will move this inbetween the plants of corn and beans we planted yesterday and do a semi no-till experiment. Im hoping that he will plant green manures as well.
This left over weeds creates a mulch which helps retain moisture in the soil, blocks weed growth, and eventually breaks down into nutrient rich soil. I am so excited that he decided to take my advice.



Another field where I convinced a farmer to plant avena negra, black oats. I planted this in my field and after he saw mine he decided he wanted the same! Check one for the demonstration plot. The oats recently sprouted. By the way, that tree is a mango tree...and it is LOADED with little baby fruits.


My demonstration plot in full swing. The oats are starting to go to seed and the Lupino is flowering. I cut down the Lupino when flowering so that it doesnt use the Nitrogen it fixed to create seeds. I will let the oats go to seed to replant next winter, or possibly use in chicken feed.

My neighbors just had piglets! I woke up from a nice little nap, came outside to see all of them in my front yard napping as well. So cute when young...so tender and juicy! Dinner time!!