Truly Wilderness

More Snakes!

Our first encounter with the Rainbow Boa!

It was hard to get him in just the right light to show off his colors,

especially for Dylan who's patients were wearing thin waiting!

As a rule, when we come across a non-poisonous snakes we let them go.

If they're big enough to eat Pepe, we remove them from the island.

However, it was too late for this giant boa...

Billy was working on the backhoe and dug him up.

I don't feel too bad though, I think he could have eaten me!

 

I was checking on the Oropendolas the other day & could hear the babies!

Yay!

Again, here's the male doing his dance!

Some things can't get enough water!

The bowl on the right is the dogs water bowl,

which used to look like the bowl on the left!

The poor bees are so thirsty, but so are my dogs!

So, until the rains come back I water the bees also!

(The brown fabric is placed just below the water line so the bees don't drown!)

The last time I checked the nest, all was well.

The next day, Billy saw the babies fly away.

I can't believe I missed it!

Speaking of flying away...

I was sitting on the porch getting ready to take a picture of these birds hanging out in the trees...

Well, like clock work, Pepe saw me lift the camera and off he went!

This is why I lock him up in the house when I set out to take any kind of decent pictures!

Ugh!

I don't know what these things are, but I do know they're dead now.!

(Way to close to my bedroom window!)

My 6:ish a.m. bird walk

PS: The bird(s) in the pics on the bottom right are Amazon Parrots,

just like my new little baby!

Wow!

Look at this beautiful bird in the tree!

Oh, that's Lucy!

Ha!

She likes to go for walks with me too!

(Don't tell daddy, but she really loves the orchids!)

Well, that's about it!

I do so much love living here!

I know it's not for everyone,

but I can't imagine being anywhere more beautiful!

"Wilderness to human kind is a spiritual necessity, an antidote to the high pressure of modern life, a means of regaining serenity and equilibrium."

— Sigurd Olson, conservationist, author and member of The Wilderness Society Council

Trip to the fair!

We went to the fair Saturday...

There was something fun for everyone...

My favorite: Cowboys dancing with their horses!

I've never seen anything like it before!

The boys on the other hand enjoyed the bumper cars...

We gave them a 20 and said have fun,

we'll be waiting over there having a beer.

They never got out of the car except to change drivers...

for like 40 minutes!

(They didn't know I was hiding out taking pictures,

because as you know it wouldn't be cool for mom to know they were having that much fun!

Just look at those smiles!!)

There was agriculture,

horseback riding, food, cotton candy, BEER!

Even Pepe got a prize from the fair!

Momma bought him a new monkey!



Meet Ricky!

That's right!

I brought my baby Amazon parrot home last week!

He's about a week old and already bigger than Lucy!

Look at the feet on this little guy!

(And yes, my hubby thinks I've fallen off the trolley!)



Hang Ten!

Dylan likes to take Pepe for a little surf & dip at our boat ramp...

And I'm sure the 5'+ Croc I saw sunning himself down there the other day is looking forward to it also!

I told Dylan that it's probably not a good idea to swim there anymore,

but he says he can handle a little croc like that, no prob.

(I think those muscles are going to his head!)



New Arrivals:

This is the new family sharing the property with us!

They made their nest in a (metal) post at my entrance gate.

Aaaww!

Only 2 out of the 4 eggs hatched...



He's back!

Here he is, all grown up, and back in Panama!!

Billy picked him and Barb up just outside Panama City, she took this pic at a pit stop they made at McDonald's. Eventually, I'll take some group shots, but since this was the first in year and 9 months, I thought I'd share! Besides the fact that they're armed with food, words cannot express the joy I know they were feeling at that moment! Yay!

Well, Billy finally had time to tile the front porch!

We were in desperate need of porch furniture,

and the only stuff we'd seen that we liked was near Panama City.

So, when Billy picked up Barb and Lil' Billy, 

he also picked this up!

I really love it, it's so very comfortable!

All we need now is some tables. 

(And the fact that I didn't have to make a decision, or the 10 hour ride pleased me very much!)

I'm making slip covers for it now,

something I can take off and throw in the wash as necessary.

The New Arrival:

I've replaced my Nikon Coolpix,

the one that went for a swim.

Her replacement is this Pentax,

fully submersible, 12.1 mega-pixel,

HD Video, shockproof camera,

that even comes with a life jacket!

It takes ok pictures,

especially in perfect conditions.

The only reason it makes a better camera than the Nikon is the fact that it can take a swim, which is pretty cool!!

And obviously with my luck, I need something more durable!

Overall rating: 

Decent boat camera.

Lil' Billy's first real day here:

Daddy had him crawl on this hole to help him work on the boat.
Apparently he's claustrophobic, poor thing.
Not only was it like 110 degrees in there,
but he got stuck and couldn't get out without help!

Side note:

Billy didn't pack swimming trunks for the trip,

and in response to the question..."WHY?"

he replied by saying that he didn't come down here to swim,

he came down to work.

(Ok!?)

Anyhow, he just borrowed a pair of his dad's...

Can you believe it!!??

He fit in his dad's trunks!

My photo-phobic son comes to me and says that he'd give me one last chance

to take a picture of him with hair, that he was going to buzz it off.

(I couldn't convince him to remove the hat however.)

He says that he was waiting for his brother to get here to do it.

Now all my boys have the same do.

 

Aaww...my boys!

Ughhh! My boys!

50 pellets, 50 beebe's and a stick of dynamite later...

Poor Bart Simpson!

(Boys will be boys!)

Boat Days:

Well, since I couldn't pick just a few pictures of fish,

I put together a slide show:

(press the play button)

The water visibility was not very good over the several days I took pictures.

Some turned out ok,

and the others not so much.

We went over to the beach for an afternoon stroll.

And score!

The guys that sell lobster were coming in with a fresh catch.

They had 13lbs, we bought 10.

$40.00

;)

SO!

For the second night in a row,

I ate lobster.

We went out to dinner with our friends Jim & Suzy (Kendall)

the night before to a local restaurant by the beach...

and had lobster..

yay.

A couple weeks ago, Dylan and his 13yo friend Joe went "camping."

(They were still on the property.)

Dylan put a bunch of thought into the idea, and quite a bit of time preparing.

The only help he asked for was having dad help him find a spot for the fire.

I figured I'd give him his privacy, so I was just going to sneak over and get some pictures...But I thought better of it after I asked him if dad and I could check out the site and he was happy to oblige. 

The boy can build a fire! But as far as putting up a tent, that was another story. Ok, it wasn't that bad, but I'll just say, he was glad for the assistance.

Well, long story short (I suck at that!) they were home between 10-11pm.

They heard coyotes. Dylan swears they were on the property, that he even saw them.

(I'm not saying they weren't here, I just find it unlikely. Because were surrounded by water, they'd have had to cross the bridge to get here, and I just don't want to believe they would?!)

They had Pepe with them, and said he was going crazy and they were worried he'd lure the coyotes...

So that was the end of that!

A weenie roast, no pun intended:0 was about all it amounted to.

Billy took Barb to the airport this morning.

It was a great 2 weeks!

Now the vacation is over for all of us,

and back to work we go!

We went fishing Sunday on the Pan Blanco out at Isla Secas:

It a gorgeous day!

I caught a Sierra Mackerel, picture below...

(1st fish in the boat, thank you very much!)

Later Dylan's friend and I both landed an Aguja each ...fun!

Billy and Dylan spent a bunch of time in the water spear fishing and got a nice mess of fish as well!

My camera gave out just after the shots of the beach below so I don't actually have proof of exactly how fun the day really was...

But it was the best Super Bowl Sunday I've had!

Update on the Oropendola:

They're actively building nest as of yet,

but as you can see the male bird (upside down) is doing a dance

for one of his many lady friends...

I'm sure soon enough there will be babies chirping!

This Osprey is doing a little fishing of his own!

(as seen from my front porch)

While I was taking pictures of the Oropendola,

this flock of parrots flew overhead.

Beauty and the Beast!

Not everything here is beautiful...

Our employee found this boa today.

He's a real beauty!

Carlos, our employee thinks otherwise!

I just know he was looking at Bill and thinking, crazy gringo!

(PS: Dylan wouldn't touch it either!)

Anyway, in case your wondering...

Dylan released it at the end/beginning of our road, 1km away...

at the gate. (oh, oops!)

Had it been venomous, he'd not have been so lucky!

However, his size indicated to us that it wouldn't be long before he became a threat to dearest little Pepe La Pew!

And then there's the beautiful:



On the left: Golden Heart Hexisea

On the right: San Jose, the orchid of the Chiriqui Provence

(We have 100's of them all over the property and they're getting ready to fill my eye's with their beautiful blooms and my nose with thier delicious scent! Yay!)

Billy and Dylan put the motor on the boat last weekend,

Yay!!

Afterwords, they came home to pick me up...and yes, Pepe too!

Besides the fact that when I hopped on the boat,
and my cell phone fell in the water,

it was a nice trip. 

We took Billy back to the marina so he could drive the truck and trailer home, and Dylan drove me back to the house on the boat.

He's turning out to be an excellent captain!

The boat rides wonderfully, love the 4 stroke!

It was a nice dry ride, that is until I hopped off the boat and dropped Billy's cell and my camera in the water!!

The camera was trashed, evidently salt water is hard on electronics...

I was able to recover the SD card, so luckily I didn't loose any pictures!

Now I just need to replace my "boat" camera!

And the SIM for Billy's phone was fine.

(You can always count on me to drop something, maybe it's some sort of disorder???)

The weekend before the boat motor arrived,

we went out for a family kayak trip.

It was great, we even took a swim!

Here's a before and after of the property from the water:
(1 year later)

You can tell when the local fishermen have a good day!

The Frigate Birds have a wing span of up to 7.5ft!
A bit intimidating to me!!

At the right tide, occasionally they (the fishermen) pass by our house.

Besides all the wildlife out here,

they are the only other signs of life we see.

(What a beautiful thing!)

As excited as I was to see this beautiful bee visiting my orchid,

he was as unsuccessful as we were at pollination.

 

Other Orchids in bloom:

Hungry anyone?

We've got plantain, waba and cashew:

(I love each one, but I'd have to say the waba is my favorite. Very sweet)

A pretty tree in bloom:

(I enjoy the fall of the petals on the ground almost as much as the blooms themselves!)

So, what makes a person trespass?

(Through barb wire, mean trees, and cow droppings???)

Why, this of course:

Ok, so maybe maybe I'm not normal!

But I couldn't resist.

They're bird nests...

Ok, not just any bird...

The Oropendola!

See:

These are my favorite birds in Panama,

besides Lucy of course!

Not only do they have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen a bird have,

they make some of the neatest mating gestures I've ever witnessed!

(I'm currently working on a recording)

Anyhow, as far as the trespassing goes,

the owner of the property is a neighbor and I highly doubt that he minds a gringa in his cow pasture with a camera!

(If so, I'll just give him a couple bucks!!)

Speaking of the coolest bird in Panama...

Here's my baby girl debuting her natural colors!!

(It actually looks like she enjoyed being in front of the camera.)

Left upper and lower: The juvenile black hawk..if you look closely you can see his breakfast.

He followed me around on my morning walk and ate up what I chased out of the brush on my way.

He's great!  I love watching him mature, and seeing him every day is a real bonus!

Middle pic: The " Social Fly-Catcher." This couple has taken over a nest built last year by another couple.

It's so close to my front porch that I'll have a 'birds eye view ' when the babies hatch!

Upper right: The Lineated Woodpecker

Lower right: The Roadside Hawk

These birds are here every day, and are nearly as much a part of our family as the rest of our pets.

ALL MY BABIES!!

;)

So, while I'm having fun taking pics,

the real work is being done by my wonderful hubby!

Stucco man galore!

This week he's stucco'd the inside of the garage, (the smaller of the 2 rooms)

the inside of the planter that borders the front porch,

AND the inside of the retaining wall for the boat ramp.

(Yes, there are reasons for the random tasks, but I'm just the photographer trying really hard to document the info on a computer with a bad attitude...I haven't dropped it, but I AM ready to throw it it at this moment!)

So, that's it for now.

If I don't kill my computer very soon, my next post should be on schedule...

my schedule!

Salud amigos!