Community Center Fence, RAIN, and thanks.

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

I write you from a balmy New York city, having sated myself on temperate spring flowering displays in both the Brookyln botanical garden and the NYBG in the Bronx. Both amazing, two great days full of trees and learning. I have spent the last 2 weeks on the east coast seeing family, meeting with Michael Judd our co-director and strategically planning BF's direction for the rest of the year and the coming year. Bona Fide's website has some new faces, with a brand new 'Escuela de Campo' page and updated FAQ pages plus a new FAQ page and NEW intern pages. Please check them out. Our web NINJA master, Mat Homeijer has been busting his butt between a full time job, childcare, life, and helping BF. THANKS MAT!!

Now a big thanks also to The University of Vermont's Service Learning Program or CUPS for the GRANT we received to fund and maintain a native timber coppice system for polewood and firewood production. This is a first step of many of Bona Fide's foray intoo thr grant world and larger co-operation with other organizations. Many thanks to Michael Blazewicz for co-authoring the grant with yours truly. THANKS MIKE!

RAIN. Yes RAIN. It is the driest period of the dry season yet we received signifcant showers last week for durations of one half hour or more. This coming wet season could be very interesting. We shall see.

The Community fence project at our community center is slowly shaping up with Vienel, an assistant mason from Chris' team leading a group of community volunteers in erecting the fence. Vienel has been working for over 6 weeks on forming and curing the nearly 60 (8 foot) concrete posts with various community supporters, now we are putting them in the ground
. We hope to have the fencing in in a few weeks and to begin planting the garden, shade trees for the playground and medicinal plants for the community when the rain becomes steady in about 3 weeks.

Best to all and thanks for your support,

Chris Shanks
Co-Director, Project Bona Fide

Costa COllecting, new OVEN and more!!!

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

I salute you all from the good old US of A, here in the great Garden State of New Jersey. Spring has sprung here and tree are budding out, willows have leaves, and flowers are beginning to abound and are in full bloom in NYC and other heat island affected sites in this zone. I just saw my twin nephews a few days ago, it certainly put me in a daze. Children surely are one of the best reasons to plant trees and cultivate abundance.

Well now for some reporting on BF doings, of which there are many. BF agro-forestry research and trials efforts were bolstered in this past week with my quick trip to Costa Rica to find the elusive pili nut (Canarium ovatum and communis) These species are only found in one botanical garden in all of Nicaragua and Costa Rica to the best of my knowledge and basing my calculations of ripeness and seed availability from the January CR trip I was correct and my travels yielded close to 60 viable seeds. This high fat and protein nut was once tested side by side by USDA with the Macadamia nut for commercial suitability. Guess who won? This nut though is grown and sold on a commercial scale in South East Asia. We have high hopes here for its success on a home/community scale at the very least. Orchard trials should begin in July-August of 2009.

Well wind farms. Cool. Local wind farms, even cooler. Amayo SA wind project, a collaborative project between US and Canadian investors along with Nicaraguan backers, stalled for over 2 years by antiquated MARENA regulations, but persistence pays off, a over 40 mega watt project that will provide thousands of homes with green juice as well as:

• Located in one of the best wind resources in the North American continent.
• Amayo will reduce 120,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.
• Arctas secured $72 million in project finance debt from regional development bank.
• Erection complete and will be fully commissioned by March 2009.
• When commissioned, plant will be nearly twice as large as next largest wind project in Central America or the Caribbean.
• With 2.1MW per unit turbines, Amayo has only MW-class turbines currently installed in region.

Cool. Beautiful. Independence rides the wind. Word. Palabra.

The new BF oven has been fired and it is SUPER!!!. Thanks to Darif, Kim, Dee, Martha, David, Ryan and everyone else for their efforts. Special big thanks to David Ortiz and Martha, our tireless insulating cob layer cobbers!!!

Well a few other references, the rack of greenish red fruit is a full mature rack of pejibaje fruit (Bactris gasipaes) a prominent species fo interest for BF for trials, BF has already fruited this species and is making selections, this is an off season rack that was purchased at a market in CR for a song, halved and had its seed removed, this will provide valuable genetics for future projects.

The killer orange flower is Brownea macrophylla from the legume family, a beautiful flower found on our more serious collecting mission. Enjoy.

Last but not least. I am not sure who this guy is. Definitely a hippie!!!

Well its me, circa 4 years ago, collecting durian in flavour anticipation in Vancouver, Canada.

Durian is being trialed on the farm for the future alongside greywater trials. If you do not know why do some homework on durian you all.

Thanks for everyone's attention.

Best,

Chris Shanks

Co Director, Project Bona Fide

Las Cuchillas clothing and BASEBALL GEAR intercambio!!

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

Chris here reporting from the isla in the midst of the 'Dry' season. It rained last night, now when I say this I do not mean a few drops or a tease, I mean a true 25 minute plus rain with 1" of soil penetration, in my 7 years here this has been the weirdest and most extaño dry season or verano EVER, and seems to me quite strange for the elders i have spoke to as well about this, the lake is finally down enough for fishing and local fisherfolk are out once again plying their trade.

Well, here is to Sam, Ryan, Darif and Sally from BF and the whole West Van crew from West Vancouver Canada that brought baseball equipment and clothing to the isla. The BF crew hauled the lot of that gear up to Las Cuchillas, a small cloud forest community of 300 hardy folks living 300 plus meters up on the volcano w/o electricity. There was a baseball gear and clothing exchange and BF received eggs, coconuts, cut pictures from kids as well as some songs, poems and BIG THANKS. Anf BIG THANKS TO ALL who participated.

As for this weeks shameless fruit shot, we have what I believe to be Annona reticulata or custard apple or anon as it is know here, a tasty relative of the sugar apple and soursop or guanabana as it is known here.

As for the other shots we a a new post sleeve/post base interface shot as a advance in Bona Fide appropriate technology, essentially what we have is a moat that keeps termites from crawling up the post, this allows us to use ast growing termite susceptible soft woods for building instead of slow growing hardwoods, ongoing testing is a must as is a small drip system that will fill each moat all at once. We gotta a new oven, thanks to David Ortiz our master builder plus Tom Watts Nielsen, Darif, and many others who contributed in brick carrying and mud mixing, THANKS!!!!! The new oven should do 4-5 pizzas at once and up to 15 loaves of bread. Bona Fide!!! Well the last shot is a shameless promo of my new house going up, I wanted to share the afternoon light on my porch as we get ready to put tile on the roof, thanks to my builders: David, Norman, Loco, Vienel, and everyone else helping me make my home here.

Best to all,

Chris Shanks
Co-Director, Project Bona Fide
Chris@projectbonafide.com