More flooring. . .

Here's another shot of the new tree house with Palomino, Pelotta and Penocha working.

We've got flooring. . .

Palomino and the fellas have been working quick, and we now have flooring up on the Yiguirro tree house. The framing is coming along pretty quick as well, though we need to get up and take some pictures.

This tree house is going to be a little larger than the Monkey and Hummingbird tree houses, and it will have an extended porch that goes out deeper into the jungle, so folks can hang out there and sit high up in the canopy.

We're still slated for a middle April opening date, but the tree house may be done sooner than that.

Bird break. . .

Yes, it's been a while. . . We have been busy with all tree houses full and construction going on. . . We interrupt the self-pity party for a contribution from the art department.

This is a blue-crowned mot-mot and the national bird of Costa Rica, the Yiguirro. They're working away at some plantains that we put out every morning at breakfast up at the rancho.

It's really fun to see the different types of birds come down and feed, about 10 feet away from where everyone is hanging out in the morning and eating breakfast. Sometimes we get a lot of birds, sometimes we don't.

Litter-ing. . .

Yesterday, when Lucy swung by the vet's office to pick up some more dog food for Sweetie (a special blend for dogs her age--she's 17) the vet assistant told her about a report of a batch of pups that had been dropped off in a plastic bag a mile or so up the road.

The vet's office was full up with pooches and they didn't have room for them. The assistant told Lucy that if we couldn't take them, Lucy could bring them back to the office and they would euthanize them.

So, we now have four more pooches here at the hotel. They're probably some sort of pit bull/rottweiler mix, though it's hard to tell as they're still young and tiny. We're guessing they're around 3 to 4 weeks old.

On the good news front, one already has a home and the other three are going to a shelter in Fortuna tomorrow, that is run by Street Dogs Costa Rica, a very nice outfit that sells T-shirts and other stuff and uses the proceeds to fund the care of street dogs and strays around the country.

Aw crud. . .

Last night, I headed out to turn off lights around the grounds as Rolando was off for the evening.

I walk down to the Frog tree house, turn off the lights and head back up, picking up the little branches that had fallen on the road along the way. . . II see a larger branch on the other side of the road, and start to walk over to it. ..Then I notice that it's not a branch, but a snake; about 2 feet long, parallel to the road.

I came back to the house, got the flashlight and the camera and went to take a couple of pictures (though they didn't turn out at all, as it was too dark and i couldn't see enough to tell if i was zooming in or not). . . OK, I was probably shaking too much for anything to turn out, either.

Then I decided to head to the bodega to see if Palomino and the lads (who are building the new tree house) could identify the snake, as I didn't know if the snake would move or any guests would be wandering about later on.

Palomino, Penocha and I walked down the road, and it took a few minutes to find the critter, but it was just off the road in the brush. . . they said it was venomous and "muy, muy peligroso" . . .

I would guess it was a fer de lance, as it had the diamond shapes on it. . . Palomino took the machete and went down to the side and into the jungle to cut a branch while Penocha and I kept the snake in our flashlights. . . Palomino came back with a 6-foot chunk of wood and walked in and clubbed the snake on the back of the head.

The snake flew into the air about a foot or so, and Palomino whacked it again. . . that was it. .. the thing was still twitching on the ground, but it was dead (I'll spare you the gory details). . .

Machetes are no good with the snakes, they told me, as you're not very likely to get a clean cut and the head will come after you even if you whack it off. . . better to find a stick like Palomino did and bludgeon it to death. . . Or use the flat edge of the machete to break its spine.

Going vertical. . .

Up goes the perling! Now it's time to weld the cross supports on and then start putting down the floor (which we're still in a holding pattern waiting for the wood). The last time they worked here and built the Monkey and Hummingbird tree house, they just walked across the beams in their socks, with no lines or safety harnesses.

Not exactly a walk for the timid, as it's about 20-plus feet up on top of there.

Construction time. . .

Here's an up-close shot of one of the cement supports after the hole was dug, the wooden boxes were made and the cement was poured. Then they hammer and bolt in a metal plate to fasten the vertical support beams on.

Not much in the way of fancy construction equipment when building down here, most of it's done by hand with just some simple power tools.

Construction time. . .

Here's the work space all lined out for the fellows. You can see the holes have been already dug and the cement poured for the supports.

There is already a rough water line and power back there so they can mix the cement (all done by hand with a shovel, sand and rock and a lot of bags of cement) and the power for the welding of the metal supports.

Construction time. . .

Here is Palomino, the lead builder, starting to break ground on the new tree house. They measured out the dimensions where they need to put the steel supports and then started digging with shovels and some poles that they used to break up the clay-like soil.

It's just Palomino and his two sons, Pelotta and Penocha, here this time. Last time, Numar, helped them out, but he's working another job now.

The soil around here is a little harder than they are used to working with and it takes a bit more time to dig down deep enough for the cement and perling.

More sloth pictures. . .

You didn't think we were going to let good, local art go to waste, did you? Here's another couple of shots of the mother and her baby.

Kind of hard to pick out the baby, but you can see the little critter if you look hard enough.

Sloth encounter. . .

A while back, we put up a sign that asked guests to please drive slow when they roll up our driveway. As an afterthough, we tacked up another sign below it, that says "Sloth Crossing."

The other day, that turned out to be true, as Lucy was coming back from running errands and gave me a shout on the intercom. There was a mother and her baby crossing the driveway. By the time I got the camera and got up there, the pair were already in a tree, but we were still able to get some pictures.

This was the smallest sloth we've seen yet, it would have fit in the palm of our hand. You can see the little critter clinging to its mom's belly here.

Construction time. . .

The road has been cut in and the area is set for the building of the newest tree house, the Yiguirro.

Not one big tree had to come down, so we caught a break with that. Bringing in the rock, was a little more difficult, as the driver kept getting stuck and tearing up the road that we had already put down.

This tree hous is going to be the most secluded of the bunch and have a few more bells and whistles than the others.