Agriculture Update

We have been busy with our agricultural projects lately.  We've taken a break from construction to focus on this aspect of our place.  For one of these projects we are now preparing a new field for an avocado and lemon orchard.  Just the other day we drove out to a nursery and filled our truck with 150 avocado seedlings.  We hope that this will help provide a good source of income in the years ahead. 

Getting sheep is one of our big goals for the next few weeks.  We've been fencing in part of our mahogany fields for their grazing and building thatched structures for shelter.  This fence has been a BIG project that's taken a lot more time and resources than we foresaw.  We are excited though to go and find the first sheep to purchase.  

In the next  month we are also  hoping to put up a chicken coop and start a flock of chickens for eggs, as well as getting our first beehives.  Dialogue Church was kind enough to donate money for beehives in the spring.  So far though, we have been unable to coordinate a time where we can travel to buy the beehives in a different part of Honduras and be able to get an expert to come teach us what we need to know.  

We've also been working on putting up our new greenhouse.  The goal is for this building to be a training center as well as place to start young plants.  Right now the structure is up and we're ready to attach the shade cloth.  We've already started a training program though, even without the finished facilities.  A couple of our fall volunteers are doing an agricultural training program for a group of graduating 6th graders from our elementary school.  We're trying to plant seeds of change in these young minds, teaching them about erosion prevention, crop diversification, and other important topics.  Unfortunately with the way the soil is deteriorating in our area, the next generation will not be able to support their families by just growing beans and corn.  We hope that by teaching the kids that we can help our area move into a successful future in agriculture.

---