Work, work, work

So much for Spring. It is HOT! Already back in the upper 90s, last night was rough....no fan and the mosquitos were out. I woke up early and headed off to Asuncion for a dentist app. I will be here for two days enjoying AC and TV.
Things have been so busy in site. Absolutely wonderful. All this work makes up for those slow, stagnant days of winter.
We have been working in the fields a lot. Everyday there seems to be some farmer who would like help and is interested in new techniques. So far I have:
1. Planted mucuna ceniza, mucuna negra (both related to kudzu), and Crotalaria (A tall, thing green manure) in pineapple fields.
2. Intercropped Mandioca with pineapple.
3. Intercropped more melon with pineapple.
4. Cut down and left a thick mulch of oats with mandioca.
5. Harvested Nabo Forrajero seeds for next season. (See pictures below)

Needless to say my hands are calloused over with blisters on my callouses, my skin is dark, and my hands and legs are all cut up from the spines of pineapples. But I enjoy this work! It is good to be out in the heat again; cold showers never felt so good.

Yesterday I had one of the greatest moments in site thusfar. I was drinking terere with my neighbor and a woman from one of the committees walks towards us. I have had many, many problems with. She didn't seem to like me, and I didn't really like her. Last week she came over and asked me what to do about her tomato plants. We went to her garden and I told her they had a virus and gave her the recipe for a homemade virucide using hot chilies, a little soap and water. She was hesitant and gave me that "Yea right, buddy, hot peppers for a virus...psh" type of look. Anyways, she comes over and sits with my neighbor and I and goes on and on about how it worked! Her plants are growing like wild now and she has already harvested some tomatoes, which she proceeded to give me. Then she goes on and on about how smart I am, how well I speak Guarani, and how she has never had tomatos like these before etc. I'm sitting their feeling a bit awkward and blushing and my neighbor is just giggling because she noticed I was uncomfortable with all of it. The woman left and thanked me and said that this time the community got a volunteer who really knows his stuff. What?!?! This was the same woman who during committee meetings went on and on about the past volunteers and how amazing they were and why doesn't David do what they did etc. So, yea, I am feelin pretty darn good.
Enough of that. On with the pictures!!

Pineapples in mucuna ceniza mulch and today we planted mandioca inbetween the pineapple rows (the dug up areas are where the mandioca is.)


This is a new experiment. We planted a little known green manure called Dolichos lab-lab with pineapple. It is a vine, like mucuna ceniza, but lives longer and is a bit easier to manage. So far so good.

Mucuna ceniza mulch. Mucuna is related to kudzu but dies in the winter. It grows over everything so the weeds cant compete and it fixes nitrogen.

Pineapples in mucuna ceniza mulch.

This is another pineapple field with old mucuna mulch and kumanda yvyra'i - the tree like plant in between. It creates good shade, ample leaf litter, and adds tons of nitrogen to the soil.

This is a pineapple field planted with Nabo forrajero. It has a large root that breaks up the earth and also brings nutrients up that are usually locked deep within the earth. This worked out very, very well. I was happy, Kai Oscar was happy, and the pineapple is happy.

The dead branches are from another green manure called Crotalaria which we planted last summer.

Good coverage!

Nice flowers.

Check out that root!

This is Mandioca with avena negra growing in between. The Avena helps to soften the earth as well as create a nice mulch when cut down. Kai Oscar says that the mandioca from this field was bigger, and easier to harvest than that from other fields without the Avena.

This is our vivero project. 10,000 tree saplings will be sold. 6000 native species, 4000 exotics. Not bad, eh?