Merry Christmas to all!

Near, and mostly, far. Mini-B (right) and Akila got into the holiday spirit (albeit begrudingly) and sported their own mistletoe.

The Great Kiskadee

Makes a regular appearance this time of year at breakfast. It has a high-pitched, grating squawk that is pretty hard to miss once you hear it a few times.

This is the

Blue Crowned Mot-Mot. Not as large as the Rufous Mot-Mot, though it has the same type of tail. We see these a bit more often than the Rufous. You can see a bit of the tail off to the right, on the side.

Akila is now

officially a tree house dog. She has a cone after having a small tumor removed from her right, rear leg. The biopsy results won't be known until the middle of January, most likely, but the vets were optimistic.

Now, a 1.5-year-old dog is enough of a handful. Put a satellite dish on her, and it's chaos. Very rough on the shins, when she's tearing around. We have to keep her inside for a while to let the wound heal up, and she's getting antsy, and we're dodging a dervish with extra armor.

No pictures, as she won't hold still long enough.

The Mighty Pirates. . .

Not a Christmas carol, but still a catchy tune for the Whitworth University Pirates, NWC All-Sport champions running:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th95NrSJt9Y

The non-artsy shot. . .

Though the editorial department tried (ham-handedly) to clean it up. This is the Collared Arakari. It is a cousin to the toucan and they travel in bunches, normally. They come down, particularly at this time of year, to load up on the plantains.

This is also

Untouched, but it looks like something that could be artsy-fartsy (again from the editorial department).

We'll post a better picture of this bird coming up, and it is a favorite of all when they come down to feed in the mornings.

OK, more pics. . .

Though while the other pictures, the editorial department fiddled around with the sharpness and brightness, etc., (and it shows) this one is untouched.

The males are the blue Honey Creepers while the green ones are the females. The blue ones really catch the light and are just amazing.

And this is. . .

Fill in the blanks, bird fans: R_d Th_ _ _ _ed A_ _ Ta_ _ _ _ r.

This has to be more fun than Wheel of Fortune.

This bird is eating some of the plantains that we put out daily at breakfast. The plantains are picked clean in about 20 minutes this time of year.

Three different kinds, including the. . .

national bird of Costa Rica. From left, there is the Red-legged Honey Creeper (female); Red-Legged Honey Creeper (male) and the Clay-Colored Robin. Which is the national bird, and what is its Spanish name?

Bonus points for any regular readers that can identify the national bird and its Spanish name.

Your prize?**

**Absolutely nothing. Readers from Wisconsin, Hawaii, Washington, D.C., Washington State, Tokyo are not eligible for the grand prize. That also goes for former residents of Hawaii now residing in or near Oregon and Nevada!

Best marathon in the U.S.

You can see how folks do here:

http://www.honolulumarathon.org/

And for some of the faithful, congratulations and well done!

It's birding time!

This is the best time of year to spot great birds here at the hotel. This is a Rufous Motmot. They have long tails, and there are two feathers at the end that look like tennis rackets. Prime birding season at the hotel starts around the middle of November and goes through February and into early March.

Bejuca III

Here is the gang from just a bit before Bejuca died. There's Mini-Bejuca (Mini-B) to the left and Akila in the background.

Akila is a bit more lost these days as she and Bejuca would play tug-of-war over anything that Akila could get her teeth/paws into. Mini-B, who is about 9 years older than Akila and a whole lot smaller, does not have the patience that the gentle giant Bejuca did.

Bejuca II

For those lucky enough to meet Bejuca, this is a familiar pose. Waiting on her back for someone to scratch her belly and give her some love.

Bejuca

Sadly, there is one less name plate on the doggie tree house here. Bejuca, a fantastic dog, is no longer with us after a bout with bone cancer.

It came on quickly and started in her front leg and unfortunately spread to her lungs and other parts.

Been gone a while. . .

Actually, quite a while. . .

We were all finishing up the annual refurbishing of the tree houses;

Then we high-tailed it to Wisconsin to visit our two most faithful readers;

We returned with major colds;

And we mourned the passing of Bejuca.

We'll post more in the future, honest.

Happy Birthday to the Art Department!

Lucy is another year older today, though we're not going to spill the age here. Guesses, of course, are always welcome!

Excuse 1G

This is the view behind our lot (opposite of the ocean shots). The house behind and to the left is probably close to 5,000 square feet and has a pool or two, sauna and jacuzzi. Our property backs up to the dozens of solar panes installed there.

To the left, up the graded hill, is where the first pictures were taken from, and is part of our lot.

We figure that folks will come in and see our house and figure it's the gardener's shack for the mega-mainsion behind. That's fine, less hassle.

In total, it's about 1.25 acres with plenty of land to roam for the pooches and to build.

Construction will probably start in three years, give or take a couple of years, unless we win the lottery.

Excuse 1F

Here's the shot from the main building lot, and you can see the ocean and the islet in the distance. The sunset views (it's the Pacific Ocean) are supposed to be amazing and we're very much looking forward to seeing those in the future.

Excuse 1E

And this is the main building lot. To the left is the ocean view. Higher up and to the right (not pictured) is where the first pictures were taken from.

Excuse 1D

Here is the main building lot coming up to our property, and the driveway. The earlier pictures were taken from the right of this picture, about 20 feet higher, where there is also a buildable plot.

Excuse 1C. . .

Here's a shot from our land after the clouds have burned off, around 10 a.m. That is the islet of Puntarenas in the background and the Nicoya Peninsula in front of it.

Excuse 1B

In additon to becoming permanent residents, we also closed on a piece of property.

This is one of the access points to the land, up in a cloud forest area. When the weather is right (later in the mornings) you can see the ocean about 30 miles away.

Excuse 1 A

While we were waiting in line for our 10 a.m. appointment (we didn't even get in the door until around 11) a Costa Rican brought some clients up to the front of the line, just behind us, as she explained they were late for their appointment. Not a problem, they were behind us and it wasn't that warm yet.

However, a fellow at the back of the queue wasn't thrilled with that, and tattled to the guard at the front and the folks were asked to move from behind us to their original spot.

When they opened the door for the next wave, everyone made it through, and the line-cutters were called before us.

Excuse 1. . .

There are plenty of pictures on the Web for a Costa Rican cedula card (though why anyone would put them up on the net is beyond me). It's kind of like a social security card/national medical insurance card, etc., all rolled into one.

Last week, after 5-plus years in Costa Rica, we became permanent residents, equivelant to a green card in the U.S. This followed 2.5 years of being a rentista (temporary resident) which required us to exchange a good chunk of dollars into colones monthly and another 18 months before that to become rentista.

When all was said and done, it was around 4 years of waiting for the bureaucracy to wend its way through to approve us.

We had our final appointment last week and spent about 5 hours waiting in line and 10 minutes posing for pictures and signing our new cards; all in San Jose, about 3 hours away.

Long, tedious process but we're done with it now, thankfully, and no more hoops to jump through.

More excuses, though

Not all bad or lame. Nine years ago on October 1, the lovely and wonderful Lucy Aviles opted to become Lucy Eidson.

In addition to our anniversary, we have been busy with some other things, and we'll bring you up to date on those starting next week.

We realized that in the nine years we've been married, we've lived in Costa Rica for 5-plus of those years, longer than we were hitched in the States.

Wide angle

Of the Sloth bathroom. There are screens on two sides of the shower, so it's as close to an outdoor shower as you can get without actually having to go outside to shower. All of the tree houses are set up like that, though some have more screens than others.

Refurbishing. . .

As we promised, we're milking the art. You can see the floor tiles better in this picture, as well as the new vanity. The tree house was still in the throes of refurbishing when this picture was taken.

Happy Birthday (minus the eggs)!

Apologies for the picture, it was sent from the Wisconsin bureau. (And, it's been posted 5 minutes earlier than normal--surprise!).

Today is Herbert Lee Eidson's birthday. Here is is with mom Eidson on one of their many travels around the country.

Happy birthday, we love you!

Happy Birthday!

And welcome to the Tree Houses staff.

Yiandra, who is the newest addition here at the hotel, had a birthday the other day. As is the custom in Costa Rica, her birthday was celebrated with a round of eggs atop the head, as Miguel (back) and Effran (right) are displaying. This was after Patricia and Seidy also egged her.

Yiandra, who was born in Costa Rica, lived in the U.S. for eight years and had never been given the Costa Rican birthday treatment until now.

You can see

The shower head a bit better here, hung up atop a branch that stretches across.

As we're now not fully

booked, we close down each tree house for refurbishing this time of year.

This year, however, we're sprucing up the bathrooms in several of the tree houses.

This is the Sloth tree house, and we have added a river-stone tile to the walls and some non-slip ceramic tile to the floor.

The shower is now hooked up to a branch that reaches across and there will be a new vanity and mirror in there as well.

More pics to come, as we're going to milk the art while we have it!

This fellow. . .

Had just finished his weekly business on the ground (looks like a huge rabbit or medium deer) when it started to head back up the tree. This is on the footpath that goes up to the rancho, where breakfast is served.

It was on the ground, but by the time we got the camera and back out, it was moving up slowly, but surely.

After. . .

Ta-dah! The editorial department had braces way back in the day (in the 1970s) and these are the new and improved version. Sounds like there is some of the same soreness, though they're ceramic, not metal on the teeth.

This is before. . .

And you'll have to return on Monday to see more.

Back. . .

Things have still been busy down here, even though we had our first vacancy of 2014 at the end of August.

This is the time that we shut down each tree house for a week and sand, strip and re-varnish them. September and October are the only months that we can do so, as those are the only months that we're not completely full.

We actually had to start planning out the closures in April or May of this year, as enough reservations were rolling in for September and October.

We will actually have some pictures coming up -- of the art department, not by the art department.

The gang. . .

Akila (rear) took some time off from her constant running around to hang out with Bejuca and Mini-B.

They say that dogs

Can sense when something is amiss, and it seems to be true in this case.

Mini-B knows what's going on. . .

Mini-B (aka Mini-Bejuca) knows the score and hangs out with Bejuca on their bed. Mini-B was named after Bejuca, as when the little one showed up, she copied everything that Bejuca did, trying to suck up to the leader.

It's not all good news. . .

As the dog house will be light one occupant sooner, or later.

Bejuca, the sweetest Black Lab/Rottweiler mix around, has bone cancer. It has spread to her lungs and there's no real timetable for her.

She can't put much weight on her front left leg, as that is where the tumor is, though she still can get around.

We built the dog house mainly for Akila (our newest and youngest pup), but Bejuca really has taken a shine to it.

She loves to hang out on the bed under the second story (it has a nice, big cushion and blankets on it) and just watch everyone walk by the side of the house on the way to the laundry room.

Down and dirty. . .

For a good cause. An extremely well-fit member of the family is taking on the Tough Mudder Challenge in early September, our cousin Kali Phillips.

It's not an easy outing and promises to be good and dirty. It is all for a good cause as well.

The art and editorial department have ponied up a bit and any little bit helps.

To check out the details and to make a donation, go to this link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/donate/the-coalition-of-collegiates-kali-phillips/798743?sig=AA5leUoVXI6cJuhynaFcPeWXbHLwsSay8A

Of course, you can

never have too many cute sloth pictures when you're in Costa Rica.

The little dude (dudette?) took its sweet, sweet time getting across the driveway. Effran and the editorial department (armed with a camera) and a couple of guests were able to watch it wend its way, slowly, slowly, slowly across the driveway without impediment.

Happy 51!

Years of marriage to Herb and Pat Eidson. They are hanging out somewhere along the Mississippi for their 51st.

Happy Sloth Sighting. . .

As we have nattered on about before, there are sloths all around the grounds at any one time. This little fellow was meandering across the driveway, just inside of our gate. Coincidentally enough, it was about 75 feet from the sign on the driveway that reads: "DRIVE SLOW, SLOTH CROSSING."

Yep, it's true, the sign isn't just up there because it's pretty.

Happy Summer!

To all three of you.

There has been some comments about the lack of posting during this winter (yep, winter here, but the temperature stays the same).

As the faithful know, we completed a new tree house and it's been full since it opened on June 21 and we have been swamped with folks and a full house(s) all the way around.

We even managed to squeeze in a week off, and just hung out in Costa Rica to relax and now we're back.

Can't promise the blog will be updated constantly, but we'll give it a shot.

Just the ladies. . .

Before the fellows showed up for the picture, Lucy took one of the ladies who work here. The fellows were all out working (that's our story and we're sticking to it).

Relaxing down below. . .

And below are some hammocks that folks can relax in. Word of warning: Don't ever, ever run and jump into a hammock.

Here's an updated

Staff picture and Bejuca and Mini-B even got into the picture. Akila is a bit too hyper to sit still for a picture.

The front porch. . .

Where folks can relax. There's a ceiling fan above the two rocking chairs there as well.

Heading up. . .

To the new tree house. No elevators here.

Inside the tree house. . .

The main bedroom, where there are two queen beds.

Here's the other side

Of the bathroom, with the recessed sink. There's still a lot of folks that will make a reservation and then show up and ask if there are bathrooms in the tree houses.

Getting close

To opening up the new tree house. Here is the shower area, and there are screens there, so it's almost like taking a shower outside. Though there aren't any bugs or critters that will crawl in.

Ta-dah!

And Pa Eidson finally had the correct guess.

Happy Father's Day!

To all, and especially to Herb Eidson and Fred Aviles.

Herb, of the Wisconsin contingent, actually blurted out the correct guess for the mystery structure on the phone recently, but since it hasn't been recorded here on the blog, it doesn't count as an official guess.

Maybe he will read this and get the guess up before someone else.

Nearing completion. . .

Just about finished. MaryAnn, the masseuse who gives folks massages on the porch of their tree house, was curious and asked what it was for. We told her it was for her own personal massage area. The guests can lay out on the steps and she just has to walk up and down.

What the heck?

Coming along nicely. By the way, this was a first for Palomino, he said (and also the last).

More monkeys. . .

Here's a bit of a close-up. They get way out on the skinny branches to grab the leaves and the branches will dip down and they still keep going out and the branch keeps drooping. Luckily, no broken branches or falling monkeys.