I Was sent to get more lemons for lemonade

When I noticed the evil goat had escaped. So we grabbed it by the horns and threw it back over the fence, problem solved.

Back at the house...



Kristin and Pop, made cheese cake, mmmmm...

we got a little bigger


Saar thought it was funny.

Thanksgiving Prep

In the morning we went to farming class...

we learned about legumes, the winged bean actually. Among others.

I got tired and went out for some warm air.

This is a view from the mountain (I will explain more later about the "mountain")


After the seminar, we started to cook for thanksgiving.

I apologize for not getting pictures of the bunny/turkey/chicken slaughter. But I did get a few snapshots of the squash slaughter.

we had to make sure we had plenty of room for thanksgiving, so we regulated our weight for the past week. I sure lost a lot of weight.



Imagine my surprise when I saw all the great organic, home grown food, to give you a little hint of the grandeur before my eyes...

we all looked like this afterwards.

Better Nate than Lever!

I have eaten more starfruit in 2 days to feed the Russian army.

But we are far from Russia!







This is Kate's experiment, Semi-arid climates.

This is her garden



This is a weird fruit I found. Peanut Butter Fruit. Bunchosia Argentea Malpighiaceae.

DANGER!

Upon arriving in Florida, one of the first things I noticed was this.

Panthers! self explainatory

This seemingly innocent looking tree is actually a cross between a venus-fly trap and a banana tree! Just like in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Watchout, she could take off your head and eat it for lunch.


And the most feared of all...
Goats! With there sharp demonic horns and hooves, and sinister gotee. These hells-angels are not worth trifling with [Im sorry, 'with' is a preposition]. Also, according to Kate, there aim is almost professional, walk within 5 feet of one of those goats, and they will surely wet your ankles.



Not to mention Herm eating tomatoes with experimental pesticides on them.

Interesting Plants

Welcome to ECHO
http://www.echonet.org/ (for more info)


I was surprised at the abundance of different species. I gave up my mission of taking pictures of and catogorizing every single one. It would take me all year. these are just a few that I managed learn their Genus and species.

Red Lady Papaya

Pummelo

Edward Mango

Okron Mango

Geffner Atemoya

Sapodilla

Star Fruit


The Star Fruit, afor thought only to be found in Supermario Brothers land, is my favorite fruit. The yellower the better.

Ragga King Returns (and he is cold again)

Here we go again, the Barlows try it again. This time, destination: ECHO, Ft. Meyers FL, USA. Indoor plumbing this time.

Day 1: Cold...

Well, at least we have jackets this time.

and Cookies!

And come on, we can't complain, its not even raining!

and there is plenty of food...



But this is the reason we are in Fort Meyers...

The Epilogue

I learned something I could not have learned anywhere else ( well actually, I think that i could have learned this in any sub/tropical clime): That it is one thing to want to live in a tropical paradise, but it is another once you actually get/live there. Though I barely spent a week, i can't imagine living in a place without great maples, rolling fields and nice old victorian houses.
Destination the next...The City...maybe i will like it there. Tree's and buildings are pretty much the same. They pretty much have the same function. the produce many wonderful things, like shade. Well here are 8 reasons I returned to northeastern Connecticut.

The lovely lakes.

I repeat, the lovely lakes, or ponds rather.
Actually they are partly man made but i don't want to ruin the moment.


my house .

counts for 2 reasons

the well paved roads

ponds where the niced frogs you ever seen live

the not so paved roads, but stil nice in its own sense

and lastly, one of the nicest looking flags in the world. (honestly some other countries flags are pretty boring like poland... and japan, com'n a red dot?. Some are really tacky, have you ever seen the flag of Grenada?

I am just kidding about that. I actually like the Japanese flag, it's simplistic, very much a buddhist attribute, not that i am endorsing Zen, but i do admire it for aescetic reasons.

"this concludes my presentation"
Nathan {Ed} Barlow, signing out with a word from kurt vonnegut:
"To be or not to be" (you known who)
"To be is to do" Socrates
"To do is to be" Jean-Paul Sarte
"do be do be do" Frank Sinatra

Final conclusion

Finally, after a long time of exile from cyberspace (due to computer trouble) I have returned to conclude this blog.


and one more nice picture for good measure!

Good now that I have that out of my system.

Now here is near where I left off before.

Here we are at paradise.

We even get our own little cottage-like-building.
Though. It is one large tin box, and anything remotely sizable that falls on it makes quite a noise. When a coconut fell on the roof I thought that the bed (with fleas) had collapsed.

The little guy to the left of me is our guide who saved us from the perils of Belize City.
Well to make a long story short, when we arrived on the central American mainland, I was a little happier.

NO MORE OF THIS

I even appreciated the garbage filled streets.

Hey, we have a shower, you cannot snub your nose at that, just ask the “shower frog”!

Well here is one more nice picture of Belize

Ragga King Adventure. Chapter 2: Morale, Okay.

Here we are as we pull the sails down for a lunch break, Ham Sandwiches with even lettice and tomatoes, the first time I have eaten vegetables in Belize. I have a suspicion that most Belizians don't like vegetables. If I were 5 years younger I probably wouldn't have blamed them.

Meet Ken: a social worker from Yokohama. He was an interesting fellow. He only spoke Japanese and Spanish, So I would teach him English through Spanish and he would teach me Japanese through Spanish. We had some very interesting conversations in Spanish.

Meet Jerry, shipmate # 1 under captain Joe. He told us all about his life as a swash-buckling sailor.

This is a random Island in the middle of the caribbean.

Meet the island we slept on, which consisted of 8 palm trees, a few peices of coral, and a flock of Pelicans. We were handed sleeping bags and a few blankets and were thrown overboard. Where we waded to shore and set up camp.

I am sure it would have been much more enjoyable if it wasn't for the wind and the rain all night long.

We slept on this poor crab all night.

Back on the boat, my sister commented on the sorry state of my hair-do. But since I am a secure man, I took little notice.
Here at the next Island, the situation was a little bit brighter, at least there were people on this one.

Ragga King Adventure. Chapter 1: Pirates Ahoy!

The morning

...seemingly beautiful day

Here we are about to embark on the journey of our lives.

And here is the vessel that was to take us on our pleasure/adventure cruise. I was told that it was a 40ft boat, but I belize that they made a mistake. I had to have been only 30ft at best.

here we are making a few last minute adjustments before take-off.

Duct Tape can do wonders.


AND WE'RE OFF!



All right. Now what do we do?


Snorkeling sounds like fun.


Oh wait. It's raining. All well. At least we get to see Captain Joe in his spiffy sailor storm/jump suit.


Though we don't look it, we are all freezing at 60 degrees F.

Finally, A little excitement!


I was hoping that we would see some pirates. But Jerry said that his ancestors were pirates. So I think that I really did get as close as I was going to get to a real live "shiver-me-timbers".

Rondevu Point

Time for Some Tropical Relaxation
After finishing our "Discovery Channel Vacation" we moved on to our "Economy Vacation"


Here are my sisters feeling the wind through their hair and the sun in their faces while riding on the water taxi to Rondevu Point.

The first thing that we noticed about Rondevu Point was that it was a very small island.

I figured that this house was on stilts to protect it from the rushing water of huricanes. But I found out that it is up high so it can catch the wind and cool off its owners on hot days and nights. If a big hurricane comes along, no matter how it is built just about everything will be destroyed. Our guide on later adventures said that he is planning on building himself a shack, but mark each 2x4 and sheet of plywood with his initial and number, so after a hurricane, he can go into his neighbors yard and pick the peices up of his rightful house and put it back together on his property.

Here is a view from the first and last restaurant we ate at: "Rasta Pasta".

Here is a picture of the interior: Sand floors and lawn furniture.

It's a "dog's life" here on Rondevu point.

Here is my sister taking some advice from the local canine population and having a nap in the soft, sea-shell sand.

The Magestic Pelican. There are more Pelicans off the coast of Belize than any other species of water foul as I saw it, I'm not sure if that is actually a fact. They're pretty ugly looking birds if you ask me, but I was sure to never say it loud enough for them to hear me.

Here is a picture from the roof of our friend's rented apartment just before we left on our "cruise".

Notice the fair weather and blueish sky.

Next morning.
We should have taken notice of the threatening clouds forming over our heads. It would turn to be our/my undoing.