We’ve been treated to the joy of having many visitors from all over the world this past week. It feels great to having our thoughts opened up to various enlightening views from all over…from Ireland to New Zealand, Belgium to Greece, Peru to Canada…its been wonderful! We also hosted a few families recently, adding the beautiful energy of youth into our mix.

The gardens continue to grow, with the addition of a few new fruit trees, and salad greens entering adolescent state. As we continue the sweet-potato-athon, we’ve also been continuing to harvest jalapeño peppers, cayenne, bell peppers and lemons. We’ve had frost several times already, which has killed off much of the summer and fall plants, but has sweetened up our pineapple sage bushes nicely (they taste like candy!).

The culprit of the duck deaths has been identified…an owl was caught near the coop with a dead chicken in its grip. Rest in peace, tiny dancer. The owl was caught and then released early in the morning. A few days later, a possum snuck into the coop, and after outing it, we spent some time rumaging through the forest catching scattered chickens. The only loss of this attack was a lone egg (and a scared werewolf).

We also said goodbye to our dear Peaches, who took off after a solid eight months of work here at the hostel. With Katelyn having left, and Katie on vacation, theres plenty of work to be done!

May The Forest Be With You…