Fun at the Farm

We had a really fun and unique weekend at an authentic Nicaraguan farm. Some friends of ours from church have cousins who own and operate a pretty little farm and restaurant in Esteli. He offered to take us there and we said ABSOLUTELY! Saturday we headed out early around 7 since it's about 3 hours away. It was a pretty drive and we got to the farm in time to explore a while before lunch.

First stop the poultry coop. They had a ton of chickens and ducks and even a few turkeys.

Then we checked out the pig pen. It smelled TERRIBLE and the pigs were loud. Redick was't too certain about it at first.

This is the daddy pig, he was absolutely enormous!!

These little guys were only about a month old!

This is the outside of the pig pen.

Across from the pig pen was this little shelter. Inside is a bloated tarp with PVC pipe leading out of the tarp and across the property toward the house. We thought this was the most incredible, though terrifying, thing! They pile up the pig excrement and let it ferment under the tarp. With the pipes they siphon off the methane gas produced by the waste and use it to cook! We were astounded at the resourcefulness! 

Powered by pig dung.

Taking the calves out to pasture

Redick has been asking to go fishing for a while now. Our friend Victor brought along some fishing line and some cow liver for bait and they tried their luck in the stream. No bites but the kids were fascinated.

  

Victor knew of a better place to catch fish out on a nearby lake so we said goodbye to the farm and to Victor's cousins. They were very generous and kind hosts. They insisted that we go out to the zucchini and pipian (similar to zucchini) patch and help ourselves before we left. The front of this field is all beans and the back part is all zucchini and pipian! We absolutely loaded up!

It wouldn't be a true Nicaraguan adventure without some adventure! Victor was hoping it would be easy to find a boat and hire some fishermen to take us out on the to fish. Since it was 4:00pm that proved harder than he thought it would be. We drive around the perimeter of the lake and only ever saw one boat. When we stopped to ask about it the fishermen had already gone home for the day. We were ok just going home but Victor really wanted to get Redick a true fishing trip! We came upon a tiny little town near the lake shore and stopped to ask a few people. About the third person we asked about taking a boat out on the lake was an 18 year old guy on the side of the road. He said his brother has a boat and he hopped in our car to show us the way to his brother's house. Our car was full so he ended up on Victor's lap! His brother had already gone out fishing in the morning and was home for the day but he readily jumped up to take the kids out fishing. It was very sweet.

We followed the 2 brothers to another house where they picked up 2 paddles and another fisherman then we went to the lake. Since it's rainy season now the lake is quite high. The road leading to the lake is now very swampy and muddy but about 4 inches under that puddle is a sturdy road so we drove out a way toward the small fishing boat. I was too nervous to drive out very far so Mitchell ended up carrying the kids through the muddy swamp out to the boat.

Reid and Layne were asleep after our farm adventures and so Victor's wife and I volunteered to stay in the car with the sleeping babies. It was tough having to miss out on mucking through the swamp and sitting in a boring fishing boat but we survived!

You can barely see them pushing off in the boat. The fishing party was gone about an hour. Redick came back absolutely thrilled! With his silly smile he said "Mom! We caught one thing! A stick! Hahaha!" Truth be told I was quite relieved that they didn't catch any fish because we didn't have a cooler and I did not want to drive 3.5 hours home smelling stinky fish!

Check out some of our other adventures from the last couple of weeks:

About a week ago we had planned on going to a butterfly reserve in Granada. When it came time to get in the car to leave Reid threw a huge fit and did not want to go. Normally we would have just stuffed him in the car and gone but that day we decided to allow him a bit more autonomy and he and I stayed home. Reid had been sick earlier in the week and I thought maybe he was just too tired to go. Mitchell, Audrey, Redick and Layne had a great time though!

Mitchell must have handed his phone over to Audrey while they were there because there are about 329 selfies of her!

Aww. My kids holding termite nests. Lol

That leaf is being attacked by some kind of bug! 

Last Wednesday the big kids went with Mitchell to an activity at the church with the young men. They found a kitten wandering around the church and had so much fun! Originally her name was sussia, until Mitchell told her that means 'dirty' in Spanish. **I, personally, find it to be a fitting name for a stray cat!** She was re-named mittens and they had a really fun time with her! Audrey was heartbroken when she wasn't allowed to bring her home and I rubbed her back as she cried herself to sleep that night. After a few days of explaining we finally got her to acknowledge that mittens would probably rather be in a cat family than a human family.

About 2 weeks ago Reid caught a stomach bug and got pretty sick. He slept for 24 hours straight only waking up to puke then falling asleep again. It was pretty sad. At the 24 hour mark he still couldn't keep even water down and he was kind of lethargic. I decided to take him to the emergency room for care. I chose ER because I have not been impressed with the pediatrician we have seen before. Of course he perked right up once we got there and loved the extra attention. The wheel chair ride was super exciting for him!

Lucky boy got 360ml of IV fluids and some benedryl for nausea and omeprozole for stomach acid. They drew blood and did tests for bacteria and certain infections. Everything came up normal so the Dr and I both came to the conclusion that he must have just had a stomach bug and got dehydrated. Thankfully he recovered quickly after replacing the fluids and has done just fine! I learned that I will be using the ED from now on if we (hopefully we don't) need it. The Drs/nurses and other staff were great and it cost me less than 1/3rd of what we have paid for the pediatrician visits in the past!

He was thrilled to have a hedgehog as a companion