lucy mcknight

Hey everyone, just a quick update... We have made some major strides on infrastructure and have cleaned up and replanted all of our pastures but at the moment our road is in terrible shape and access has become extremely limited. It's a toss up of whether the government here will do their part but as they often don't do a proper job (essentially they flatten and widen the road but don't add any gravel unless it's an extremely steep hill..and don't crown the road at all etc...) anyway we are on hold for a little bit. We should be ready to accommodate more people in about 2 1/2 years, maybe a bit sooner. However we are still working on the farms and welcome people who may be interested in the project to contact and get to know us. We also do have enough space to host visitors but ask that they come in dry season... The waterfalls won't have the same umph but access to and from is way more guaranteed in dry season (late December through early April)

Thanks for the Latin name there...its not the one that I grow now that I've looked it up. Not to say other might not also have an effect but this way I can order seeds or go find it some other way!

I have used this but it did not have any noticeable effect. My particular issue is anxiety. Believe it or not eating eggs for breakfast daily has done more than any herb I have tried yet, the website I got the tip from attributes this to the choline they contain. For sleep, though I'm sure you have heard this many times I use chamomile. I have noticed a huge difference between buying the teabags and using the chamomile I grow myself with the latter being much more effective. It pretty much made me pass out in about 5 minutes. Lavander and Basil are also awesome additions to the tea. Green tea is supposed to be pretty awesome for relieving stress as well, though haven't tried it yet. Trick is you need tons of it according to what I've looked into, to the point where you are pretty much drinking it all day, about 5 cups per day. Also I have never used my own passionflower. I do grow it but don't know if its a special variety that they use for these things. Considering my experience with Chamomile I can only imagine it would be more effective as a fresh picked tea (or whatever preparation method is best). Hope this helps

Hi Andrew,
I think this is probably a longshot but have you guys ever thought of leaving the country to do this? I have 350 acres in Costa Rica...really really raw though. It has 3 basic houses but no electricity and we cook on wood. We should be getting limited power soon.The land is completely paid off and hopefully going to support a little community as it gets put together. If you guys are still looking and interested get in touch

Wow, thanks for all the responses guys! We do have the cow companion birds but they are not always around, it seems they come more seasonally. We do have turkeys but they are separate at the moment...not for long though! Also there is a bar in the closest town to me with a bat problem, we don't have many outside of the vampire bats up there but once we get a nice environment set up for them we will try to relocate some from the bar. Hopefully there isn't a great reason they aren't already up there but we will start with very few and see what happens. Also we do have a pond and have for some time. It was overgrown when I bought the farm and now 2 years later I have finally gotten around to having it dredged by a backhoe. It is nice and big now and can probably handle a nice little ecosystem. Still as it was just adressed I think it will be a good 6 months before the new things we will plant soon to support the new community of Tilapia, ducks, and frogs (which come uninvited in droves, we have so many frogs and toads here). Maybe it will go faster though, who knows. Either way thats great information! Also have never heard of pumpkin oil...about to do some research now but I wouldn't be surprised considering the nutrition facts I already know about pumpkin.
on another note you guys might be glad to hear I don't think I have a botfly after all. I have the vaseline on now but have another weirdness on my knee which, according to locals is something else that gets into the blood and creates these weird lesions or holes in the skin. I might have one of each, one just takes some antibiotics and the other vaseline and some tweezers. Please don't let my experiences with it freak anyone out though, its still perfectly lovely here and the good far outweighs the bad. Yes there are new medical issues but they aren't very serious if you have access to modern care and at worst might be a bit gross. Still its not bad overall and if anyone has the idea to move to central america i would be more than happy to message back and forth with a rundown of what problems to expect, at least those I know of.

Hm, we have had some luck with clove with other insects actually. Also no worries, as one of the two founders in my community and with it being in a new country i feel its quite my responsibility to visit a doctor when I don't know exactly what Im dealing with. We live way out of town so I take any opportunity to ask a doctor questions. Mr. Botfly is just my reason lol

Hey there, thank you guys for the responses. As I see a lot of similarities between communities cropping up around here I would like to make myself a bit clearer on certain issues, sorry I didn't before but it is important, we are a bit unique to this area which is one full of startup communities like ours. We want to see a community full of strong and varied individuals. Many here start on the basis of veganism, vegetarianism, yoga, or spirituality. I would like to make sure that everyone knows that we do none of this. We are also not opposed to the inclusion of individuals who are vegans or vegetarians, yoga enthusiasts or members of a faith, have no problem with energy healers or any of the rest. The main point I want to make though is we hope to never have any of these things be the binder of our community. I would hate for someone looking for an all vegan yoga center to mistake us for one as many are after that when thinking to come down here. If you are into that still let me know, I have plenty of suggestions with some very nice people. We have a bit more of a survivalist streak, are very new at what we do, and live very primitively and have no interest in these other concepts becoming central to our project. Btw I love yoga, think it feels great, eat very little meat, and am no atheist, just that I don't think pushing people to conform in these ways is very condusive. Hopefully I haven't deterred anyone but if I have I'm sure it was right to do so

Now I am not sure this is true but I just read something saying that the female botfly actually transfers her eggs to a female mosquito and then she in turn is the one to deposit them in the skin as she bites the cow...or person as I have now unfortunately gotten one myself. The worst I think is with horses as they rarely get them on the body (at least my area) but if they get into the horses mouth they lay eggs in the throat and often end up getting bad enough to threaten the horse's life, or so I hear, has not happened to us. I have not confirmed the botfly to mosquito transfer from other sources but it would be interesting. I know have one on my upper thigh and thats a weird place to just not notice a botfly landing on you but obviously not enough evidence to confirm. Luckily for me I can contain myself and not lick off the vaseline so should turn out alright. If anyone knows about the mosquito involvement please let me know as this would change the game entirely, perhaps its true but not exclusively carried out that way...answers would be lovely

Thanks so much, have never tried to oils. I was actually wondering about cultivating some carnivorous plants near the barn as well, just don't know which ones would be best for bot flies, if any. We shall see, now with the orange oil is it due to the smell? I wonder if maybe growing citrus near the area would help, apparently people around here swear by citrus as a great supplement and treat for livestock which I found rather surprising but maybe thats why they like it so much. I could also scatter peels around. We have tons of Seville oranges and use them like crazy for salad dressings and drinks and I hear its wise to limit citrus in compost anyway.

They are on grass and because our fencing is generally for cows they can roam through several large pastures easily. The pastures have about 5 different grasses with a little bit in the way of legume options.