Home on the ranch...

Hello all!
We have been in Mastatal for three weeks, but in many ways it seems like much longer. The transition happened fairly seemlessly. We arrived at the ranch after pulling an all nighter packing and getting last minute details together. The first two weeks of our stay overlapped with the end of the summer intern´s last days. We were so thankful to have have them as a resource to teach us the ins and outs of the ranch and to learn about their experiences.
We jumped right in and filled our days by helping with tasks and projects that were taking place at the ranch. Some of the projects included cleaning out the chicken coops, working with daub ( an earth based building material) walls, lime plastering, restructering the compost area, working in the woodshop ( Alex has spent much of his time here working with two local Tico brothers), breadmaking in a cob oven ( an earthen oven), making vegetarian diners, harvesting fruits and vegetables and so on.
We also have spent our free time hiking to waterfalls and hot springs, playing sports with the locals and doing lots of reading.
The new interns came this past weekend and we are helping with the group transition and orientation. The total group numbers 16 and varies in ages from 18 to 42. The majority of the interns are from North America with excluding one woman from Haiti.
We are so excited by the many opportunities available to explore over the next few months. We continue to dive head first into the endless amounts of sustaible living projects at the ranch.
We will write more as we continue adjust into our new roles over the next few weeks, but until then......we love you all and think of you often!

muchos besos

Mary-Laura and Alex

we will try an post some pictures soon.