As always, the adventure continues. Grandma returned to the USA ahead of me, to visit distant children and grandchildren. I was allowed to find my way home to Hastings by sheer luck and cunning when the flight out of Costa Rica was delayed for five hours, turning the 7-hour flight into a 30-hour replay of planes-buses-taxis and cars.

Carmelino replaced Alejandro as my helper. We transplanted so many jungle plants on the slopes in front and behind the house that we may have to chop our way back in when fall returns. Neighbors are grazing three horses in the back end of the property and they have made much of the tangled undergrowth into a park.

My passion has turned into a new business that I have named AbonoChar LLC, which has its own blogspot. We are hoping that other people will become as enthusiastic about the combination of vermicompost and biochar as we are.