Late September UPDATE

Hey BF friends and supporters,

Well I am back in the good ole US of A for one month. I regretfully left the farm the farm 3 days ago for the east coast and beyond.

Tom, Eira, Katherine, and Heather will be manning the 'fort' whilst I am gone and Vienel and Roylin have our backs.

I would like to fare thee well Rachel, our latest and one of our greatest volunteer coordinators. Rachel was with us for over 4 months and she kept up and vamped up our Sunday art program started by Katherine Young in March as well as supported the development of our library and helped out with English classes at the 'Centro.' All that and she led the volunteers in daily work and kep our kitchen running. Kudos to Rachel and good luck in Canada. Stay warm.

In other news both Rachel and Heather used the much appreciated donation given by West Vancouver high school students for needed medications. The ladies went all the way to Managua to commercial pharmacy to get the best prices. HUGE thanks to Aleida, a member of our farm school and a nursing candidate for facilitating the putting together of the medication list and helping locate the lower cost pharmacy.


In other news we were (David, Vienel, Norman, William and I) able to complete the first covered ferrocement water tank with our BF team of masons for a private client that is a BF supporter. This 13,000 gallon water tank is for domestic water and will be 100 percent mosquito larvae proof (no fish in here to larvae!!) Hopefully this tank will serve as amodel for next generation water systems for communities all over the island and further.

With our corn crop harvested and nearly 450 punds of grain to eat and store our cover croppped field is starting to reclaim the corn patch. velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) that was sown previosly is starting to take over as the picture shows (see corn stalk).

Last but not LEAST!! MYCELIUM RUNNING:

Whilst planting some peach and african oil palm species we came upon a lovely patch of mycorrhizae fungi. This clever little patch of ultra beneficial soil borne organisms was cozying up to a mulch pile under the deep shade of a 6 year old mango tree. This is the largest and healthiest patch of such beneficial soil organisms I have ever observed at BF. A sure sign of soil and site regenration. Go soil MICROLIFE!!.

Thanks for reading and be well,

Chris Shanks
Co-director Project Bona Fide
Chris@projectbonafide.com