Christmas Day:

Well, for the first time in what must be a hundred years,

there were no children in my house on Christmas Day.

Dylan was invited to go out with a friend of ours on a charter,

so he stayed the night before with them...and a bunch of kids!

I can't say I liked it,  but if you ask him, he'll tell you it was the "best Christmas ever!"

(He got a little taste of scuba diving!)

He loved everything from everyone:

Ashley: Evidently you can pick out a good knife, and candy!

Mom & Dale: The pic above on the bottom right is him opening the helicopter...

Great one!

And of course it goes without saying, the gift card earned some major points!

Dad: Cash is king!

Danyelle: When you gonna come play these games with him!?

I know I said he had a great Christmas, 

so you're probably wondering why he doesn't look so happy in the next picture...

There's actually a very good explanation for that look!

We told him to "Save the best for last..."

(A PlayStation 3)

So, he opened a game that can only be played on the PS3.

(oops)

I made a joke saying that I thought he could play it on one of his current systems...

He didn't laugh.?

Construction Update:

Here's a little crafty stuff I've been doing:

I made some ornaments out of seeds from the mangroves.

Background: Mangroves

Top Center: The Flower

Bottom Center: The Seeds

I made them while hanging out on the hammock in the ranchito.

(Any excuse is a good one to hang out up there!)

More strange stuff...

 Here's another: Can you guess what it is?

(It's actually 4 different pictures, and it's not another strange mushroom!)

"The Fragrant Swan"

We actually find most all of our orchids in the wild,

but I bought these from a little Indian boy who was selling them roadside.

Panama: $3 each

US: $200

Others in bloom

(and 1 that has been pollinated)

This is a 7 picture panorama that I created of the sunset at the ranchito:

That's it for now.

I can't believe the holiday's are over.

I sure did miss everyone this year.

It would be nice to have everyone here for the holidays someday...

I just try to remember:



Happy Birthday to my beautiful mom!

I love you!

December 18, ****!

 The (other) Ginger I mentioned finally opened up enough to photograph!

Sue sent me some pics of our kayak trip...
(The PFD's are strictly for safety and we wore them all day...hehehe!)



Something has been eating my corn!?

On a daily basis since cobs started appearing on the stalks,

our employee has been bringing us an ear of corn a day.

One that's been chewed on a bit by a raccoon.

No problem I thought, we love to share!







Until:

 Well, the picture above depicts a new story.

Dylan stumbled across this on one of his 'hunting' trips...

Daddy is not happy to share this much!

So I set out yesterday at 6:30 am to hide in the corn and see what's up!

Well, maybe the Black Chested Jay?

They've been around an awful lot lately...

Naw...I don't buy it.

Did you notice how neatly that cob was cleaned?

 Well, the baby Black Hawk is lurking around...

However, I'm still not convinced that it's a bird!

hummm...

Now I'm starting to get bored and not so very comfortable...

(don't ever leave the house in Panama without a book!)

Oh welI, think I'll lay down right here...

Ever wonder what a corn field looks like from a laying down position?

 I figured I should change up my hiding spot so I moved further down the bank...

Not much going on down here...I'll take some 'I'm bored' pictures.

(see above)

HA!

As usual, my men were right...

The monkeys!

Look at that rediculously fat face in the smaller pic...

Again I have to agree with my Hubby,

They're very greedy!

Other than that...

Above: Orchids currently blooming.

Thankfully, we've had better luck with our Orchids!

The bottom right Orchid is a little something Billy found on the way home the other day.

He's done such a great job!

Our property has an average of 1 tree per 10 sq'  lets say...

(I'm asking Billy the property stats as I type and he's not cooperating very well ;)

Nearly 1/3 of them have at least 1 orchid!

(We have about 15 acres, that's a bunch of Orchids! )

Ah...

This is a Ginger flower.

This is from a friend who kindly gave us about 15 plants!

I have another variety that is bloomed at the moment, but I'm not happy with the pic.

PS

Did you know that you can buy Ginger root at Publix and plant it?

Dylan picked up some at the market and planted it recently and it's already growing!

Awesome!

As the pic says, it was

'Another Day in Paradise.'

I am truly blessed!

'

In loving memory...

I've had so many great days recently, but this wasn't one of them.

I moved the babies into an outside cage that was more appropiate for their size,

as they were thriving quite well.

Bingo knocked the cage over, the first night.

The latch broke open and I'm sure you can guess the rest...

We found the male on the front porch and (hopefully) the famale escaped.

Please don't call the wild life police on me.

If you know the story of how they were found,

you will also know that I was only trying to help.

I loved these little critters and was looking forward to their release.

:(

Wrapping up November...

Ok, I'm filing November away!

As far as working on the house, I think the "to do" list is the same as it was a month ago.

Not that I'm complaining, but I sure hope we accomplish more in December!

There's still painting to do...mostly Billy's job, and he hates to paint!

(He lent out all the scaffold he needs to finish the job before he was done???)

There's also the front porch that needs to be tiled...

Oh well,

Life without pressure and dead lines is a beautiful thing.

(I think I've mentioned that in another post, but I guess I keep trying to remind myself!)

In the picture below:

Progress! 

We've hired someone to build a storage shed slash bathroom slash,

well I don't know...a good place for Billy to keep all his junk!

The top pic is before the work was started, the bottom is after 2 days of work.

Despite the rain yesterday they were actually able to pour a slab.

(The delivery of the sand and gravel came in 2 trucks...

and in this rain, they made a bit of a mess out of our road, boo-hoo!

Here's Dylan and his new friend Joe.

(Joe is from Pennsylvania and had never been on a kayak before.)

They set out at 7:20 and were gone for about 3 hours.

It was great to see Dylan get so excited about the trip!

He packed the lunches the night before and had all the gear ready by 7am.

Ah! This is what being a boy is all about!

(His other buddy only likes to play video games!)

 I tried to get some more pics of the boys from the top floor of the ranchito as they passed the front of the property, but was too late.

So I took some pics anyway, it was a beautiful day!

(The ranchito looks nice and all, but I can't wait to burn it down and build the pooI!)

My friend Sue invited me over last week to go kayaking from her property.

I had a great time! It was like vacation for the day!

When we were done, she took me for a walk around her property.

The thatch hut is home to her employees.

If you look closely in one of the pics, not a very good one,

but there's a handful of Howler Monkeys in the tree.

(Ha! I found a way to sneak some monkeys on here again Jim!)



Brett and Carina's baby girl...14 days old!

This is Dylan's friend Jared's little baby sister!

Have you ever seen anything so cute?

I WANT ONE!

That's about it.

I did get some pics of some monkeys the other day,

but as my friend Jim agreed, how many more can I post!?